June 2020 Gardening Holly Grove

June Gardening at Holly Grove

 

Thursday 4 June

 

In a dry spell. I have watered all the pots in the patio today. Rain expected this weekend with Tropical Storm Cristobal. We will see how it develops.

 

The Big Leaf Magnolia is in trouble. Did I not water enough? The geraniums I have been praising are stopping to bloom like they did.

 

I have been mowing and have gotten the hay field done. Mowing is best if I do it in the am. The heat is oppressive in the afternoon.

 

I have pulled some weeds in the potager and planted and replanted some, whipporill, stewart zeebest, jicama, luffa.

 

Glads are good, white in the potager, and the one in the hot bed, Joena, too near pink to be right but it is blooming. The canna are the top blooms in the hot bed but the old daylilies are producing a lot. The newer daylilies do not have a big enough clump but they are blooming.

 

Friday 5 June

 

Finished mowing, except the cemetery, this morning. 12 hours total over the last 8 days. Thought it would be a problem this am. Had a flat! Can’t get a mowing done without the help of the John Deere folks. Luckily they were able to repair the flat and had it back on in about an hour or so.

 

Monday 8 June

 

The rain has stopped and the sun out and hot. We waited all week for the Tropical Storm Cristobal. It came yesterday but with a whimper. A good rain but not massive. I am in the potager weeding. Got little done over the weekend. Saturday had to pull a calf but it was dead---part of being a grass farmer. I got the cows to mow the grass. Maybe not as much trouble as the tractor.

 

Blueberries that I have not time to pick and eat. Getting some green beans, a zucchini or two, okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, mostly cherry tomatoes. They seem to produce best. The lettuce is beginning to fade with the heat. 90’s this past week and humid.

 

Friday 9 June

 

A cold front came through a couple days ago and brought more rain and wind than Cristobal. I need to go round a pick up sticks. But these mornings in the 60’s sans humidity are great. I have been weeding in the potager. And this morning I am finishing up the Holly Tone fertilizing of the small and/or new camellias. I suspect this is probably the last time this year. Most camellias have put out their new growth but a few have new leaves. The big leaf magnolia seems to have died???

 

The milk and wine crinum by the well house in bloom this morning. The many elderberry bushes have mostly quit their show. The cannas in the hot bed are good. I have almost daily been picking worms. The Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia, in the potager has bloomed. I have one growing in the hot bed for maybe spreading next year. The indigo is still blooming well. I am cutting white glads for the house.

 

Sunday 14 June

 

Watering all the pots twice getting ready to go to ILM. 90º and sunny and predicted to be all week.

 

Picked a lot of green beans, tomatoes, and okra and blueberries.

 

Noted the wine crinums starting to bloom and the white lirope.

 

Will need to mow when I return. Bahia seed pods are all out.

 

Monday 22 June

 

I told Lanny when he called yesterday I was out working. “It’s too hot to be out working.” “Yes, it is.” Ninety degrees is too warm to be out working but there are things that need doing. One can’t just do all their gardening in the cooler (below 90°) months.

 

No rain last week while I was gone. Lost the thyme in a pot. The pots on the patio take the brunt of the sun and really need water daily.

 

Good harvest of beans on return, plus okra. Start of field peas. Last of onions. Lots of blueberries still. Had a mess of butter beans. This may be my best year for them. First sweet corn. The sunflowers are nice.

 

Started mowing today but the rain is now got me stopped. It is cooler and not dusty but just can’t mow in the rain. There is a lot of armadillo damage along the allée. The state halfway mowed the highway section. I will re-mow at the end of this session rather than at the beginning.

 

Nice showing of red wine crinums in the front of the house. The sago (Cycas revolute) has a nice cone. I can’t remember where that is female or male. The Texas star in the hot bed is having its best year. Cannas are still strong. Some daylilies are good. NC had some nice beds on the interstate. I tried beds along the allée but the deer didn’t permit. Crepe myrtle are blooming elsewhere but not mine except a white one along the farm drive and speaking of the farm drive, my sinkhole is opening again. The indigo (Indigofera kirilowii) is still good. The yellow plumeria are blooming better than normal, perhaps as they are in more sun. The purple dahlia is blooming. They are in pots on the south drive wall. Perhaps enough shade to be cooler than the patio. Pots on the patio need watering. The desert plants thrive there. Hot, drought tolerant but also rain tolerant in the summer.

 

 

I did bring beach sand back again from Wrightsville to put in my drive potholes.

 

Thursday 25 June

 

Had a lot of rain the last couple days but back to mowing after a visit to NOLA. Had a little wheel come off the mower carriage. Maybe I have fixed it.

 

Bought a mirleton in New Orleans: Ervin Crawford. It has been grown by Paul D’Anna in Metarrie and he gave us a tour and a lecture. Luke was with me and was impressed with his curcuzza. 2@$5. I reread some of Lance Hill’s writing: Sechium edule, chayote to the Spanish world. Note shallow roots 12 feet in diameter. Needs regular water but will rot if overwatered. Needs mulch. Blooms come with the fall equinox. I planted mine today with some cottonseed meal as fertilizer and a handful of ashes. Instructed not to plant out until fall.

 

Read gardenista about Clivia today. Named in 1828 by Kew botanist John Lindly after Lady Charlotte Florentine Clive, Cuchess of Northumberland, the first to cultivate the plant  in England. It is a South African native. It is drought tolerant due to thick fleshy roots. Active growth from spring to fall then rest with minimal water to bloom in February. Bright indirect light. Likes crowded roots. Can repot after 5 years. So I am going to water with fertilizer this summer and then give it a rest when moving it back inside before frost.

 

I love peonies but this is not the place. I have recently read that tree peonies and the cross (Itoh Peonies) between them and the regular herbaceous peonies do better in the South. Felder Rushing suggests festiva maxima as best for the South. Morning sun. White Flower Farm says it is excellent for Southern gardens but they still note Z 3-7S. They allow the Itoh, Z 8S but they are expensive.

 

Tuesday 30 June

 

The last day of June. I finished mowing this am, all but the highway and the cemetery. The highway was done by the state a couple weeks ago but it is in need again and I will start it after the Wednesday trash pickup.

 

Planting daylily seeds. My amaryllis seeds are up. Hopefully will get some good plants in a year or two.

 

I brought 2 banana plants from New Orleans last week and have put them out near the rear gallery. One may not have enough roots. They were hard to separate from the parent plants. My nice banana there survived the November freeze and was putting out leaves in January. This stopped as weather got colder but no more freezes. Then it died! Why? A big one in the potager also fell over dead. Every year is different.

 

While mowing I got to see some blooms: pink zephyranthes, one in the front yard, 3-4 scattered in the rear and a big clump where I cleaned up the border in the SW this past spring. Ogden has a whole chapter on these bulbs, p. 13-43. The rain lily most often met in Southern gardens is Zephyranthes candida but next come the pink Z. grandiflora. This native of tropical America blooms above grassy foliage following summer downpours.

 

The red crinums are blooming. I have noticed this year that the milk and wine come first then the red. This I suppose is Ellen Bosanquet, first listed  in the Reasoner Brothers’ catalog of 1930 as Mrs. Bosanquet, bred by a British plantsman, Louis Percival Bosanquet, residing in Fruitland Park, Florida, naming it for his wife. It is pronounced in British fashion as beau-zan-KWET. Ogden says they bloom in June. “Ellen Bosanquet must be considered one of the South’s great horticultural treasures.”

 

A good year of bloom for the Texas star native red hibiscus, Hibiscus coccineus. The potted Skky-Flower, Duranta repens is blooming well. Will it berry well? The yellow tropical hibiscus is flowering a lot.

 

The old pink crepe myrtle on the north fence has begun to bloom. Others seem late. Crepe myrtles at other locations are in full bloom.

 

The rain has made the weeds in the potager grow and I am working there and also picking up sticks and cutting back privet, etc. Burn piles are huge.

 

Harvesting sweet corn, field peas, okra, tomatoes, mainly Sun Gold, green beans, some cucumbers. The blueberries are about gone.