May 15, 2022- Summer is here- what?

It was not a particularly enjoyable week in the garden. The heat arrived on Tuesday and is sort of still here. Saturday morning, when I write most of this entry, at least it cooled off to the lower 60's. That is ten degrees lower than the last 3-4 nights. 

I have a window open and there is cool outside. I am up and writing at 4:30 understanding that there will be a lot to do today. I would like to get outside by 6. Inside by the computer,  the little fan sits next to the space heater. It seemed like only yesterday when we needed that extra warmth. They say that in Iowa if you do not like the weather, wait 48 hours. Well this week it was more like 5 days. 

Update - Saturday afternoon. It has gotten up to about 90 degrees again. I watered in the backyard this morning. That helped. The front yard is difficult to even walk through. Everything is parched. The dandelions are going to seed. The ground is baked. There will be a little rain perhaps in the morning. (It amounted to .01 of an inch.) If not I will have to break out the front yard hose. 

There were three garden mile posts yesterday as spring advances. 

(1)We finally got our Chadek garden plot tilled. That is the little 200 square foot plot in the community garden about a half mile from the house. This is our third year there. They give you the same plot if you want to re-up your $20 contract. This is the place where we learned that there can be too many cherry tomato plants. 

It is a little late to plant lettuce. I do have some basil plants ready to plant, even though they will look lonely until other plants can join them. In somewhat typical fashion we bought a 6 pack of basil last week at the farmer's market. Each cell had three little starts in it. So they quickly became 18. I sold a few in the 24/7 back yard sale, and will still have a dozen to take over and plant. Enthusiasm for rushing things into the ground is tempered by the fact it is now dry. No rain for 10 days. At the garden plot there is a water source, but it is 40 yards away with watering cans being the medium. There is always something.

(2) The second mile post was Colin coming over and moving two of the biggest orchid cactus outside. There has been no danger of frost for a little white. But there is still a problem of shade. Indoor plants need shade when they first go outside. Otherwise they will sunburn.  I think that has happened already to some of the clivia I took outside two weeks ago. Shade arrives in stages, as the various trees get their leaves at different time. I can show pictures. The sycamore tree in the backyard and the walnut tree in the front are some of the last trees to provide cover. So the plant outward migration is slow.

Here is a little video showing the trees yesterday at 5:45. No real shade yet from the walnut and sycamore trees. 

The migration of plants moving outside is every bit as orchestrated as when they come inside. Yesterday I got most of the hoyas outside. 

(3) I guess there was a third mile post when I got out the hose and started the sprinkler in the backyard. I will have to get the front yard hose today.

If you think of the garden season as having mile posts, there is also the list of what blooms when. This week:

The white tree peonies opened on Thursday, in all that heat. All four had their first bloom within 24 hours of each other. I always find that something special. It was just their time.

Closeups are good.

The cypripedium Gisela opened about the same time. The big clump has been in the garden since 2008. It stayed at 2 shoots for 7-8 years. It is now about 11 flowers.

I got a second Gisela in 2019. It had 2 nice flowers this spring.

You should understand I was not spending that much time in the garden midweek. I was out there for about an hour Friday evening, which was enjoyable. Part of the enjoyment is talking with people who come by. We daily find $10-50 in the mailbox from the back yard sale. We are approaching the $2000 mark for this season. 

One of the gems in the garden this time of year is the pink rhododendron. We got it 5-6 years ago and it just gets bigger and better every year. 

The stars of the week were the dwarf bearded iris.

Several particularly stood out.

This next one is Blissful.

This last one is called Bennett's Star. For such a remarkable flower, it only cost $7. 

Other pictures

We do have one perennialized Monsella. Mostly, as they are hybrids,  they do not come back. This one bulb seems to be special. You can understand why Julia likes it so much.

This is species tulip Little Beauty. It is a late one, that deserves to get on the "more" list.

The pink dogwood must be 25 years old. The top is now outside our bedroom window.

This is a little bearded iris call Mr. Roberts. It is one of the many little bearded iris on the sales table.

Note- it is 5:24 am, Sunday, as I finish this post. The birds just started to sing.

Julia's recipe

Easy chocolate sauce

I posted a chocolate sauce recipe from the Mast Brothers (chocolatiers extraordinaire with Iowa roots) that calls for heavy cream. Sometimes one does not have heavy cream, but still has a hankering for ice cream with chocolate sauce, and that's where everyday chocolate sauce comes in. I have the required ingredients on hand all of the time. I realize that some of you may not always have unsweetened baking chocolate in your pantries, but you should, if for no other reason than to be ready to make brownies when the urge strikes. I was feeling peaked and also in need of ice cream with chocolate sauce, and so Philip made me some and also took his own pictures. A Renaissance man. I immediately felt much better. This recipe was found printed on the inside of a the box of Baker's unsweetened chocolate some years ago.   

The ingredients:

2 squares unsweetened chocolate;

1/3 cup plain water;

1/2 cup white sugar;

3 tablespoons salted butter; and

1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

If you don't use salted butter, add a pinch (like 1/8 teaspoon) of salt when you add the butter.

Commercial baking chocolate comes in bars conveniently marked in 1 ounce squares. Some (Hershey's, I think, and I use them both interchangeably) come in individually wrapped 1 ounce squares: even easier. 

Philip cut 2 squares off the big piece; then put the chocolate pieces plus the water in a saucepan. He heated it over low heat until the chocolate melted, stirring more or less constantly. 

A saucepan of melted chocolate and water. Then he added the sugar and brought the mixture to a boil, as shown. He cooked it (at a boil) for a few minutes (like maybe 3 minutes). 

After 3 minutes of boiling, he took the pan off the heat and stirred in the butter, which he had cut into approximately 1 tablespoon bits to facilitate melting. 

After the butter had melted, he stirred in the vanilla and we were good to go. 

Everyday chocolate sundaes. 

If you have a microwave, go ahead and use it. The melting is done on High for maybe 90 seconds (or until the chocolate in completely melted). Then take the bowl (using a microwaveable bowl, of course, but you know that) out and stir in the sugar. Back into the microwave, presumably still on High, for 1 minute. Out for a stir then in again for 2 more minutes. Then out for good to stir in the butter and vanilla.

This recipe makes about 1 cup, which is enough for 3 or 4 people, depending. It reheats over gentle heat. Probably even easier to reheat in a microwave. It's already hot here, just as if it were high summer, so it's a good time to start with serious chocolate sundae consumption.  

Odds and Ends

Here is that weather data sheet for May. The lows this last week were about what the highs had been earlier. It cooled off yesterday, a little.  This being Iowa it will change. It will be cooler but I am not so sure about the rain.

I am fascinated by plants where the flowers change color. The large trillium, grandiflorum, starts white and fades to pink.

Here was the white stage.

It has reached the pink stage.

The rope hoya has just gone outside. It had begun to bloom while it was still inside. This is ever the clue that it is time to go out.

I went over to the garden plot last night, as it is light until almost 9. The tilling was good. But now the tilled dirt is dry all the way down.

I plants some basil and some broccoli starts someone had brought to the backyard sale. (I paid $3 each for them.) I also planted the eggplant plant I had dug up last October when we had to shut the garden down. It overwintered in the basement under lights. It did not produce fruit over the winter. But it is alive and almost 18 inches tall. I will get pictures for next week.

Now we just pray for rain.

We should also pray for peace. War continues in the Ukraine even if it is no longer on the top of the front page in this country.

Philip