The Birds Have Started Eating My Artichoke

I've completely soaked the ground where the spinach and kale transplants will go (We Won't Get Fooled Again.. ), and the sun is going behind the mountains at 7:00 now, so evenings will be a good time to transplant. The heatwave is subsiding but I'll still need to shade them for awhile. The shade tunnel is wide enough for a double row so I'll take it off the Brussels sprouts because they have out grown it..

I had moved it off of the broccoli when they recovered. It's time for the last planting of beets. We had them all through last winter although they got huge and ugly. By the time I pealed and cut them up they looked good, but I think my wife had to cook them a little longer..

I pulled up the last watermelon vines today and weeded the area that they covered. I got an entire heaping wheelbarrow full of weeds, as opposed to 5 or 6 weeds from each of the mulched mounds. I realized that not only does the mulch slowly decompose and add nutrients to the soil, but it retains the nutrients in the soil by not allowing the weeds to use them up. Hauling the weeds off, composting them, and spreading the compost back on the garden are totally unnecessary if you mulch heavily enough, but so far it seems like all the leaves that have fallen are on other people's property. A leaf thief I am not...

....yet ..

The hills are alive with the sound of........choppers. We've had so many lightning strikes that helicopters are criss crossing our valley with water buckets hanging..

The smoke was high up yesterday evening so you couldn't smell it, but made clouds that shaded the garden. I felt guilty enjoying the cool shade, but took advantage of it to get things done that I couldn't do under my shade cloth. The most important thing you can do for your plants, besides water them, is to spread fine compost around them. I usually have enough to cover 8" around them with a 1" thick layer, giving their root zone a moist, cool environment. I got the cauliflower and Brussels sprouts done. Compost has an astronomical amount of surface area for microbes to reproduce compared to straw so it's my choice for short term veggies. The squash, melon, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes are long season crops and I prefer the slow breakdown of straw over the course of the summer. The 1" of compost flushes the root zone with nutrients every time I water, but gets depleted in very short order..

The birds have started eating my artichoke plants. They have also eaten all the leaves off the beets, so it looks like a row of purple eggs laying on the ground. They are eating the Kohlrabi too but that's ok because there are root maggots eating them also. Overwintering plants adds interest to an otherwise dismal time of year. Perennials are most appreciated in the winter garden as structure and points of interest. Perennial herb bushes are a great addition to any vegetable garden. Oregano has an abundance of small round dark green leaves, that are spaced tightly together, and it grows close to the ground..

It looks especially good taking up room under a taller plant.. In the spring it produces so many tiny lavender blossoms that pollinators are constantly present. Rosmary gets four feet tall and has short pine needle like leaves. It's thick woody stems attest to it's hardyness, and cornflower blue blossoms to it's delicacy. The gray eucalyptus like leaves of the sage are stunning in their simplicity, like silver minnows casting shadows..

The most colorful perennial in my winter garden is the Nandina. It's displayed leaves of yellows, oranges, reds, golds, cranberries and purples since before Christmas. It also grows red berries and has colored stems that remind me of bamboo. A picture of it could be framed and appreciated as a work of art. They can get four feet tall so keeping them to the back of a vegetable garden is wise. The Red Hot Poker bush can get that tall also but has become one of my favorite garden plants. Having a shade spot in front of it where I can move my garden chair into has made me appreciate the fact that it's flowers attract humming birds and dragonflies..

I don't have to sit for more than a minute to have them start entertaining me. Even when the flowers have gone the dragonflies continue to land on the stalks for the rest of the summer. Having hollyhocks near my shade spot let's me enjoy the bumble bees. It amuses me the way they climb around in the flower getting all covered in yellow pollen. Kinda reminds me of a kid in a mud puddle..

Kneeling in the warm sunshine, digging little holes for my transplants, I feel a presence next to me. I turn and see a bunch of gray hollyhock stalks. They look like a shadow. Indeed they are the shadow of their summer past, when they were all covered in flowers and pollinators. They are now covered in seed pods, so they really aren't finished yet. Once they disperse their seeds it will be time for the dragonflies to start landing on them. I wonder how long I'll leave them standing this year. Every year I enjoy them more..

I also have the black dried stalks of Shasta Daisy's that are producing new leaves at the base. Renewal of life at the ground and new life awaiting dispersal in the seed pods aloft. Why would l want to interfere with this process? The Asters have not been cut back yet either. They are a big brown blob with dried yellow flowers. Soon new plants will be coming up around the base of them. I guess I'll cut them back when they start to interfere with the next generations growth..