Tag: dahlia

Gardening Journal: July Triumphs and Challenges in the Pacific Northwest (PNW)

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The highlight of this month is Bolt’s birthday. The love of all our lives, and my gardening buddy turned 8 on 7/11/2024.

It is uncharacteristically dry in our area during the month of July. The temperature soars and it becomes imperative to water the plants often. We had multiple days of temperature over 90f this month and the first rainfall of the month came on 7/29 – so we went with no rainfall almost all of July. Since my garden is large, I have to hand water areas of my garden which becomes very tiring. This is the month every year that I question my decision of expanding my garden so much and I feel like I want to downsize. I will table this decision until a later time but the fatigue is real.

The garden is also tired, but with annual flowers, dahlias and the veggie garden at its peak, there are still exciting things happening. The dahlia beds are now full, the self seeded larkspur are blooming beautifully, geraniums look lovely and this year I grew cosmos from seeds! I tried direct sowing in the previous years but failed. This year I sowed the seeds indoors and transplanted the seedlings. How beautifully they flowered! Unfortunately, the Lime Green Zinnias and not as profuse. And I also grew dahlias from seeds – the first one that bloomed is such a beautiful color.

There are days in the garden when I am totally blown over the beauty of something I grew! This is exactly what happened when a I dahlia called “Verrone’s Obsidian” first flowered. This is the first time that I grew this dahlia (I got the tuber from a gardening friend) and it is definitely the most black dahlia I have ever seen. Isn’t she a beauty?

In the veggie patch, I harvested a lot of peas this year. The radishes have all bolted and I am waiting to harvest the seed pods which I heard are delicious. I also pulled out a large garlic with huge pods even though I didn’t plant any last year. I think a pod remained in the ground. I am a disappointed that the beefsteak tomatoes have only one fruit with a lot of flowers. I was definitely not expecting these healthy looking plants that I painstakingly grew from seeds to not produce much tomatoes. Thankfully I also planted a variety called Roma “Monica” which I got from a local gardener. That has a couple of tomatoes so far and I am hoping to get some more before the season is over.

A huge surprise in the side yard is a tree which I thought was a Winter Berry. It turned out to be a plum tree and it bore lovely, sweet red plums this year. The Japanese plum in the backyard is also full of fruits waiting to ripen.

I started sowing seeds for fall – coriander, swiss chards and beets. As with every year, I am now ready for the summer to be over and cooler temperature and rain to be back.

The highlights of my garden in July are captured in the short video below:

May Garden in Pacific Northwest (PNW)

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May started with bursts of Columbine blooms all around. Especially the east facing entrance to the backyard is full of columbines. They look a little messy but I love the flowers so much I let them bloom. I usually try to cut off the bloom heads before they set seeds, but often some seeds escapes and I get more and more of the columbines every year.

Among the bulbs (corms) that I planted in March, the first anemone flowers opened on 5/1 while the ranunculus were slower to bloom. By the end of May both varieties of Anemones (Mr.Fokker and Sulphide) and Ranunculus are full of gorgeous flowers. However, the highlight of May is certainly the peonies! And at this point I am obsessed with the Coral Charm peony that bloomed for the firat time in my garden. I planted a small bare root in 2022 and it bloomed for the first time this year. So so pretty. When it opened fully, the pollinators enjoyed it too. The roses also started flowering and I spotted the first dahlia emerge on 5/2. I am so happy that I don’t dig up my dahlias anymore. A lot less work for me and I only lost very few so far. Plus since last year, I am growing dahlias from seeds which is working so well for me.

This month is a busy one for the veggie patch. I planted the tomato (heirloom Beefsteak variety) plants that I grew from seeds in the ground on Mothers day – which is what I do every year. They are big and strong and already has buds. Pea plants are also big and strong but surprisingly no buds yet. I sowed a lot of radish seeds which have all sprouted. Beans and cilantro are planted too. I am very disappointed with the pepper and basil seedlings. They are growing so slow indoors. I guess the lack of warm weather here in PNW is slowing them down. As the weather heats up, I hope they catch up. I got a little impatient and bought a couple of pepper plants which are doing well.

I have been able to restrain myself from buying more perennials because I want the impact that groupings of plants can provide. Writing this blog throughout the month has also taken a back seat while I got busy tending to the garden. The video linked below shows a lot of the highlights of the garden in May. I am not a trained or skilled videographer, but I tried to capture the garden as it progress from the beginning to the end of May. I love to see the garden fill back with color after the spring flowering bulbs petered out. I hope you enjoy a short tour of our garden!