Keep the Gardens Going

Don't miss out on the third season of gardening in Oklahoma or other areas in zone 7 and above.

Even though the August heat is still with us, we can plant cool season vegetables, perennials and spring flowering bulbs.

If you don't know your plant zone click on the appropriate link -
United States zones or worldwide plant zones or the AHS heat zone map.

Hazzard's Greenhouse and Seeds lists thousands of varieties of flowers, vegetables, herbs, grasses, and walk-on-plant seeds in their online catalog. You can click on the Search feature and enter a common or Latin name to find what you need.

Joyce Hazzard created a free shipping coupon for anyone reading this. Enter MSFS in the place for coupons at checkout or use the code for phone orders at 989.872.5057.

Start seeds in containers so you can control moisture and temperature. This is especially true for heat sensitive greens. Refrigerate lettuce seeds for a few days and then soak them in water the day before planting.

Flower seeds that like to be hot for a few weeks followed by cold include pansy, alyssum, calendula, corydalis, bachelor buttons, love-in-a-mist, Joe Pye, Datura and many others. Most perennials and many biennials are planted in the fall.

Nasturtiums and Zinnias grow from seed to flowers in 35 days. Also plant seeds of these flowers with 45 days to bloom: Bachelor buttons, Cosmos, Marigold and Hyacinth Bean Vine.

Flowers with 50 to 60 days to bloom include: Verbena, Impatiens, Alyssum, Morning Glory and African daisy. The old Thompson and Morgan seed germination database is available at
Tom Clothier's site where you can look for germination temperatures, weeks, etc.

Plains Coreopsis and Dahlia need 60 days. Flowering cabbage and flowering kale take 11 weeks.

If you want to speed up the process, you can pre-germinate the seeds in moist paper towel or vermiculite. Keep them warm until they sprout and form roots, then plant them in pots until they are ready to plant in the ground.

Garlic and shallots should be ordered now to plant in September. Farmer’s markets have locally grown varieties that are sure to work well.

Look up the number of days from seed to harvest for your favorite vegetables and select those with 70 days or less to maturity.

For example, bush beans mature in 50 days, so seeds started now will have table ready beans by the middle of September. Burpee’s Tenderpod bush bean was the 1941 All America Selection and is still one of the highest rated (http://bit.ly/lbiDU).

Another AAS selection, Buttercrunch lettuce is ready in 65 days and can take the cold (http://bit.ly/zS6eY). Green onion, chive and arugula seeds can still be sprinkled into the garden and harvested before winter. Arugula is good for pesto, late fall salads and on sandwiches.

And put in cool season Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbages. At the Tulsa Master Gardener's site (http://bit.ly/4wgJu9), Sue Gray advises, "But keep the B.t. handy. Bacillus thuringiensis dust or liquid is the smart way to keep cabbage looper and diamondback moth caterpillars off your plants." Bt is sold as Biobit, Dipel, MVP, Steward, and Thuricide.

In August and September these seeds are planted: Kale, chard, mizuna, mache, Asian greens and asparagus. Gray says to watch for flea beetles and cucumber beetles in the fall. As soon as the plants come up, cover them with a floating row cover fabric to keep the bugs off the leaves and prevent them from laying eggs in the soil. Check under the fabric daily.

OSU Fact Sheet HLA 6009 has several ideas for fall vegetable growing at http://bit.ly/oqSdx.

Between August 10 and 20, plant bush beans, lima beans, cucumbers, beets, Chinese cabbage, head cabbage, collards, and green peas. After you harvest the peas, dig under the leaves and vines before the first freeze.

Oklahoma’s best varieties are listed in OSU Fact Sheet HLA 6032 at http://bit.ly/sgCnR.

Late August Garden: Fritallary Butterflies, Canteloupe and more

After an extensive search of whatsthatbug, I concluded that we have a swarm of Fritillary Butterflies in the yard. They are as calm as two-year-olds after cake and ice cream but freely lay their individual eggs in front of us on the Passion Vine at the front gate.

The caterpillar stage involves the eating of Passion Vine leaves, of course, and there are dozens of the caterpillars munching away.

Or, is this an Oleander Moth caterpillar? No they have long fuzzy hair where these caterpillars have black spines.

Then, I found Bob Moul's photography site with nearly 4,000 nature photos including a time lapsed slide show of a caterpillar morphing into a Swallowtail Butterfly. Tak time to watch the show - it's fascinating.

Photos: The adult butterflies that are swarming and eating and laying eggs in several flower beds.

A tall trellis that was constructed to hold tomato vines was taken over by a cantaloupe vine when the 105-degree days forced the tomatoes to shrivel.Last night's 2.5 inches of rain and cooler temperatures relieved us of watering for a while.

It also helped the garden considerably: The tomatoes have come back to life and the eggplant grew by inches in the past two days. I only put in Renee's Asian Trio and it stays blessedly small.

At the risk of harping, the Zinnias have put themselves on the map, taking center stage in the late summer beds where everything else has put a wet washcloth on its forehead and sighed. Even the Joe Pye Weed gave up the ghost after blooming and feeding butterflies for two months.

Add peppers to the list of vegetables that are thriving.

Three batches of pepper jelly are in the pantry already. I have made 50 batches over the years - many of them more syrup consistency than firm. If you have any interest in making some, the most successful recipe uses liquid pectin. It is: 12-ounces cleaned, chopped sweet peppers, 6-cups sugar and 2-cups of cider vinegar plus a dash of salt.

Pepper jelly is traditionally poured over a block of cream cheese to eat with crackers or cucumber chunks. Most of our is eaten as an accompaniment to chicken and other roasted meat. In old novels and garden books it is served at breakfast with biscuits.

Most recipes suggest Jalapeno peppers but we use sweet peppers and then add heat to taste by putting in pinches of hot pepper flakes until it is the right heat-sweet-sour flavor. What's the right amount of heat? Whatever you prefer.

The recipes say to run the peppers through a food processor but we prefer the aesthetics of using a chunky chopped size. That way, after the required cooking and boiling water bath, there are still specs of color in the final product.

Today the seeds of fall greens were planted in plastic strawberry baskets.

Susie Lawrence of Sand Creek Flower Farm in Braggs told me about this method working well for her. Sterilize the basket in 10-percent bleach water, fill it three-fourths full of sterile planting or seed starting mix, put in seeds and close the top. Check its moisture level daily.

Lawrence takes the seedlings out of the baskets and transplants them into larger containers or right into the garden. I cheat a little and put potting soil on the bottom half and seed starting mix on the top. That way when they put down roots they have some fertility into which to grow.

Enjoy this fall-like weather - it can't last.

Fall Vegetable Gardening, Wordsworth in the Daffodils

FALL VEGETABLE GARDENING
Hey! It is time to get ready to plant fall greens - lettuce, spinach, beets, chard, broccoli raab and all those wonderful, nutritious goodies. HLA 6032 is the fact sheet number for vegetable varieties for Oklahoma at Oklahoma State University. Follow this link to find out which ones work best.

Photo: Eggplant flowering in our garden

Mississippi State University has a page of advice about fall veggie gardening that reminds readers to fertilize and water before planting seeds or transplants.

Bishop's Hat at the Dallas Arboretum

WORDSWORTH IN THE DAFFODILS
Two hundred years ago, Wordsworth wrote "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud". Wordsworth for the Youtube Generation is yours if you click here.


From the website: "It is a poem about the mind's growing awareness over time of the deepening value of an experience, in this case observing the dancing daffodils. Two hundred years after it was published, the poem is still reaching new audiences and inspiring people. Part of our work here at Grasmere is demonstrating how Wordsworth's poetry is relevant today and encouraging young people to enrich their lives by exploring his poetry in their own ways.”