July 16, 2023- looking ahead

Last weekend was the big event for the garden. We hung our new pennants. We tried to pull up the biggest weeds. We had maybe 200 people come walk through the garden on the 2 days of the Project Green garden walk. We raised over $400 in the two days for the food pantries.  

Now that is in the rearview window. There is the question of what to do now. 

For one thing it rained. Officially we had 1.5 inches on Wendesday. Our gauge and others in the neighborhood had it in excess of 2 inches. It came down in 3-4 hours and then the sun came up. And dried up all the rain.

Pulling weeds was a dream. The ground was so workable even into the weekend.

It did knock over 2 of the 3 plant stands I had set up in the backyard. We reset them yesterday, placing the shepard's crooks deeper into the ground and anchoring several with big rocks. I moved the heavier hanging plants to places with better support.

Last week you liked these two pictures

The full vote was

Here are 6 pictures from this past week's garden- there turned out to be some real stunners

#1 Orienpet Pizzazz

I have a lot of Pizzazz. It is scattered around the garden.It blooms a little later, extending the season for the lilium. It is rather tall, getting to almost 5 feet. 

An orienpet is a cross between an Oriental lily and a trumpet lily. I should write more or again about these classifications. 

One thing you should know is that these lilium are not related to daylilies. 

#2 Red Coneflower

The coneflowers continue to put on a show. Some of the new colors are great, particularly in combination with the purple.

#3 Hoya flower cluster

It really is hoya season. I have 3 in bud and another 4-5 in bud. It really is time to take inventory and think about labels.

#4 Orienpet Elise

There is something attractive about this pale orange lily. It does have to be staked. I particularly like any lilium that can be sturdy enough to avoid staking.

 #5 Orienpet Anastasia

Pink in any flower is good.

# 6 Orienpet Exotic Sun

I just noticed this double a few days ago. It is making me rethink my attidtude towards double lilium. I get many of these bulbs from The Lily Garden. https://www.thelilygarden.com/

Let me know what you think. 

Other pictures from this last week

In this next picture you see the hoya cluster in bud. Even in bud there are stars within stars.

Here are 5 things to do in the garden this time of year.

Think about what will be blooming in August and beyond. The do something to get them friends.

Buds are coming on many plants that will bloom in the next few weeks. These include the hardy hibiscus, one of the bigger cactus, maybe some orchid cactus, and even some early Japanese anemonies.

Annuals are a big part of this time of year. I still have some Persian Shields to put in the ground unless they are sold in the next week or two,

I planted some late zinnia seed, yesterday. I know that is late, but at this point  I cannot go back and plant them 2 weeks ago.

I also just planted some ornamental kale seed. It is the first time in a while I have tried this. It is probably too late, but it will be a lesson learned. Kale is one of those plants that will bloom until at least Thanksgiving.

Repot some of the bigger house plants.

Yesterday we divided the cylendrical sansevieria. That big plant had actually bloomed in December 2021. This past winter it spent the time making side shoots. I suppose that is an alternative form of reproduction. After several months outside there were 8 sideshoots. They are all on the sale table, which is really a driveway.

I opened the bag of orchid bark. I use some of that for the hoyas. I mix it with the regular dirt I use. You want to have a light potting mix for so many plants.

I do have some large cattleyas that should be repotted. But then there we be even more of them.

Extend garden paths

Garden path work is never done. The problem areas in the garden are those beds which are too deep to get into to work on them. One thing to do is put a small path through those deep beds.

Actually the problem with some beds is that there is just too many plants. 

Divide and pot up perennials.

I need to just find hosta that can be safely divided without disturbing the main plant. 

Julia's recipe

Corn Soup (vegan)

It is high summer, and sweet corn has appeared in the farmer's market. We always buy a dozen ears of corn on Saturday. We eat a couple of ears, put the rest in the refrigerator overnight and then I cut the kernels off and put them into quart or pint containers. Sometimes I freeze the extra, sometimes not. Early season corn is smaller (and more tender) than later season corn. So last week, the dozen ears of corn yielded a couple of ears for us on Saturday, then about 5-1/2 cups off the cob: 4 cups for the soup below (taken from the NYT in this vegan version) and the rest for corn salad later in the week. Let's hear it for corn season!

The ingredients:

4 cups of corn kernels;

1/2 cup chopped onion;

1 tablespoon smushed garlic; 

1-1/2 teaspoon grated ginger;

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes;

about 1/2 cup diced potatoes (I used yukon gold, red would be fine);

2 tablespoons olive oil;

1-1/2 teaspoons vegetable better than bouillon plus 3 cups of water (or 3 cups of veggie stock);

1 can regular (not light) coconut milk; and

some salt (not shown)

I started by dicing the onion and the potatoes and smushing the garlic and grating the ginger. I already had the corn. 

Some people might cut kernels off uncooked ears of corn. Some people might use high quality frozen corn (beware of starchy frozen corn).

Then I put the olive oil in a big dutch oven over medium heat. First I added the onion, garlic, ginger and pepper flakes. I cooked them for maybe 4 minutes. 

Then I added the corn, and I cooked the whole mixture for another 4 or 5 minutes. 

Next I added the potatoes and stirred them around. I added the better than bouillon next and stirred it in. It is easier to add the paste to the stuff in the pot than to try to dissolve it in the water. 

After stirring the paste in, I added the water. 

Next - the coconut milk. 

I heated the soup gently so that the coconut milk solids would melt. I tasted the soup, and it needed salt so I added some. 

I used the immersion blender to break the soup down some. Be mindful that an immersion blender will not pulverize potato skins. Okay by me. And the soup was not completely smooth. Fine. 

If completely smooth is the goal, you will probably need to use a blender and blend the soup in batches. 

On the table. We garnished with chopped scallion greens and some chili crisp, which is a hot concoction of red pepper flakes and sesame seeds and toasted sesame oil. The recipe for chili crisp is somewhere on the blog.

The chili crisp added some heat and the scallion greens added some color. The soup was very good. We also had BLT sandwiches, with local tomatoes and local lettuce and local bacon. Plus some berries and yogurt. 

Nothing like high summer produce. 

Odds and Ends

News from the farm

Rain and hot weather has got everything growing. What do you think? 10 feet?

The amaryllis are liking the moisture and warm terperatures. Here is a little video.

The eggplant at the farm has had both the usual flea beatles, but also potato bugs. 

The pennants really are great. 

I try to avoid thoughts beyond Iowa City.

Pray for peace, and reconciliation. 

Pray for our planet.

Pray that something will wake people up to the world we are currently leaving to our grandchildren.

Find something that you can do to help, if even a little bit.

Philip