Sunday Potager Ramblings #40 (Managing Plants In A Rainy Summer)

Well, hi there! How are you all doing? What is keeping you busy lately? Or are you able to sit back and relax, enjoy our lovely summer?

Our grandies were over for a sleepover last night and just left, so I am pounding out the blog posts I have been working on.

Some big bloggers have teams, or auto-sends… I have none of that, hahaha, so I have to wait till the kids leave before I can get things done. There is no waking up before them to work on the blog either as they are super early birds. Instead, I tell them they have to stay in the room and play till Grampy gets up… and gives Nannie an extra 15 minutes ; )

What I am watching… okay, so when my son and dil were here for my birthday celebration, they got me hooked on watching Ryan Trahan on YouTube. He is doing a fundraiser for St Jude’s Hospital by going to all 50 states in just 50 days. An airbnb each day. There is a wheel of doom, fun stops for Joy Ride candy, all kinds of other adventures, too. It is 20 minutes of family friendly fun to watch daily and watch the donation numbers rise. If you have not yet watched it, you need to binge watch the 34 shows they have done thus far (as of today).

Also, another blogger mentioned watching The Life List on Netflix and I think it looks pretty good, so that is on my list of want to watch movies.

I am finding life still so very busy every day. Am really looking forward to it slowing down a bit and just enjoying life, the flowers, the patio season. I love sitting down there on the patio, sipping coffee, tea, or wine (depending on the time of day, and whatever), chatting with hubs or company, while the puppy runs around and burns off her energy. Might not slow down till the imposed by the hip surgery, hahaha, but will see how it goes.

Gardening Bits…

We are getting rain several times a week so the lawn is growing like crazy, (most) everything is thriving and growing quickly. This has me weeding, deadheading, pinching back, and watering.

I am that crazy woman out there watering in the rain, or just after a rain. The soil just drinks up the water after a rain so there is less runoff, it stays put. Did you know that your baskets, pots, and newly planted shrubs/trees/perennials will still need a good deep drink once or twice a week, even if it rains like this? The rain is not penetrating deep enough into the pots to keep your annuals alive. It is also not getting down to the tippy toes of your newly planted shrubs (like in my front yard) and they do not yet have much by way of feeder roots to go after the rainfall.

Established gardens, trees, and shrubs are fine though. They have lots of feeder roots to take advantage of the rainfall.

Why, when, and how to prune your tomatoes… this generally applies to indeterminate (vining) varieties, but keep the foliage off of the soil on your determinate bush tomatoes, too.

That said… I just pruned off the excess foliage from my determinate tomatoes for the 2nd time this summer already. They are growing so well with all this rain followed by sunshine.

A lush tomato garden in a raised wooden bed, with tall green plants supported by cages, and a clear blue sky in the background.

The soil here is clay and so rich in nitrogen that I had to really prune my tomatoes last year, to help get the sun to the tomatoes for them to ripen in time. Take off extra stems, extra greenery, anything touching the soil, anything below the first cluster of tomatoes…

A flourishing tomato plant with multiple ripe tomatoes and vibrant green foliage, surrounded by colorful flowers in a garden setting. — *Black Krim, I think… could be Paul Robeson.*

This kind of green growth does not happen very much in west coast gardens ; ) There we were forever feeding our soil with compost and organic matter to build them up with good nitrogen. They had less foliage (I called my plants wispy), but were loaded with lots of tomatoes. Each area is a bit different, but the answer to fixing the soil up is always… organic matter : )

Heavy clay… add organic matter. Sandy soil… add organic matter. It takes a few years, but building your soil up with organic matter rather than fertilisers will soon give you amazing garden loam.

Plants tended to look wimpier (in my garden), but produced tomatoes by the wheelbarrow load. You still want to take off any foliage that is touching the soil to prevent any diseases from taking hold.

7 must have perennials, 20 years in the making. Love these plant ideas.

What is eating my plants? Identify the pest.

Testing different earwig traps.

Top Ten Garden Myths… busted.

This amazing British cottage garden.

A bride and groom kiss while surrounded by guests holding sparklers during a nighttime wedding celebration. — *Photo by Jonathan Borba*

How to achieve Wimbledon’s lawn? If you are a lawn person, this might be for you. Or, maybe you are having a party or wedding in your yard this summer and need the lawn to look great.

I wish I had known about the soil wetting agent when we had our daughter’s August wedding on the acreage. It was a drought summer (island summers always are) and she wanted to run under an aisle of sparklers (this picture is not from my daughter’s wedding, but that is pretty much how it went down). We had to make sure the lawn was green for less risk of fire, and the sparklers went straight into a bucket of sand afterwards. A long way about telling you that in some cases, this lawn wet stuff might be the answer!

Homey Bits & Diy’s…

A collection of blue glass vases containing small white flowers arranged on a wooden table, with soft evening light in the background. — Seriously… how cute are these mini vases that were used at my birthday, eh? I got to keep some of them and baby girl has the rest. They are just the sweetest…. come in other colours, too, in case blue is not your favourite colour, theme colour.

Not that I think of Martha when I think of frugal tips, but these frugal living tips are actually really good! My sweet neighbour got me one of the last ideas… and I love it. Not that I cook, but I do bake… and garden!

Selling your home? These 5 mistakes owners make...
7 vacuuming tricks.
A disco ball to repel flies on your patio? What a fun idea and worth a try.
Elegant Summer diy’s.

I love this how-to. I have a thing for tote bags!

From Damask Love…. how to make seriously easy tote bag in hardly any time at all!

Recipes & Foodie Bits….

From Martha… Sour Cherry Cobbler.

This is such a great idea for those of us with tons of cherries coming on our Romeos, Juliette’s, or other sour cherry bushes.

I have Crimson Jewel and Carmine Jewel in my yard. While they are still baby shrubs, just planted in the last year, I should get enough cherries to make this yummy looking cobbler : )

Zucchini recipes that look delish… saving these for when I start getting zukes. Not long now.