Category: Gardening

Gardening articles and interests of Wade

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The Tomato Race is On

I don’t know how it is with growers in your neck of the woods, but here in the Midwest there’s a race each year for bragging rights. The race is to see who can produce the first vine-ripened tomatoes, and if it can be done by the 4th of July (without the aid of a greenhouse), it is considered quite an accomplishment.

Dad inspects his tomato plants on Father's Day
Dad inspects his tomato plants on Father’s Day

Tomato progress must be checked daily. The first blooms are met with much praising, and when the tiny green fruits first appear, it is practically a cause for celebration. I usually get a phone call from Dad telling me “I’ve got tomatoes.”  Personally, I don’t get all wacky over tiny green tomatoes, but I do love to rub my fingers through the leaves and smell their pungent fragrance. (I may be alone in this).

Does anyone else like the smell of tomato leaves?
Does anyone else like the smell of tomato leaves?

Usually, about a week before the 4th of July, Dad can’t wait for the tomatoes to ripen on their own, so he picks the most likely candidates and tries to hurry them along in the kitchen window.

The tomato begins to ripen
The tomato begins to ripen

Or we may yield to the temptation to slice up a few green ones and fry them.  Sheer delight!

© Wade Kingston

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Hydrangeas in Bloom

It’s Hydrangea time in the Midwest.  Hydrangeas are a lovely perennial with either beautiful blue or pink flowers.  There are also white varieties.  Hydrangea leaves tend to burn in the hot sun, and they are lovers of moisture, so place the young shrubs in a semi-shady location that gets plenty of moisture. Like many perennials, their blooming period is short—just a few weeks—but they are quite showy and little trouble to grow.  Hydrangeas are one of the few plants whose blossoms can be made to change color, depending on the pH level of the soil.  (There are entire web sites devoted to them where you can find more information if you wish to change the color of yours).

Note the sun-damaged blossoms at top
Note the sun-damaged blossoms at top

We’ve had a wet spring this year, and the Hydrangeas around here are simply stunning. Note that the pH in the soil of these two plants must be mixed, for there are blossoms of both blue and pink.

Mature Hydrangeas at an old farm house in Ky.
Mature Hydrangeas at an old farm house in Ky.

© Wade Kingston

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Braving the Blackberry Patch

The blackberry patch in the wild can be treacherous. Left to its own devices, the newer growth rises up to supplant the older dead vines. In this way the young leafy vines rest atop the older, woody vines. In spring the entire patch is crowned with a golden green, then a frosting of white blossoms, each like a tiny single-layer rose. The snow white blossoms open in clusters, a harbinger of the berries to come, each one a minuscule, tightly compressed imitation of a bunch of grapes.

Wild blackberry bush
Wild blackberry bush

Because of their density, blackberry patches are perfect hiding places for bees, wasps and snakes, all of which seek protection in these thorny lairs. Only the most determined berry picker wearing the toughest outer garments will pierce through the thick barrier of the patch to reach the sweet berries rising up high in the center. Wild blackberries produce jellies and cobblers almost too delicious to describe. My own memories of my mom’s thick blackberry cobbler, the hot purple juice bubbling up through flaky crust loaded with butter and sugar, can make me drool even in the depths of winter.

Blackberries begin to ripen
Blackberries begin to ripen

If you venture into the wilds for blackberries, you will need heavy boots for tramping down the vines. Jeans and socks saturated with Deet repellent are also required, and long-sleeved shirts to protect against the thorns (which still get in). Also, consider wearing a large hat if possible to shield you from the July sun. 

After a few minutes in the full sun of a berry patch, where only the largest and sweetest berries grow, one begins to question whether anything is worth the hardship.

Fresh blackberry cobbler
Fresh blackberry cobbler

But hours later, cool and fresh from a bath, few rewards are quite so tantalizing as the smell of a fresh blackberry cobbler beckoning from the kitchen.

© Wade Kingston

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Peony Passing

My favorite perennial, the lovely and fragrant peony, has come and gone again.  In our area it buds and blooms almost exclusively in May each year.

Peony buds
Peony buds

Does anyone else get excited when this long-lived plant pokes its tiny pink stalks out of the ground early in spring?  I cannot describe the feeling I get when I see it emerge each year.  It’s at once a memory of long-ago conversations with my grandmother, and a promise of an explosion of loveliness to come.  I can remember grandma telling me to leave the ants on the buds alone, that the peony wouldn’t bloom without the ants.  I don’t know if that’s true, but I have never sprayed my peonies for insects and they’ve always rewarded me.  I have had many peony plants over the years—and almost as many stories to go with them.  More to come…
Lovely and fragrant peony blossoms

Lovely and fragrant peony blossoms© Wade Kingston

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Amaryllis Gone Wild

Don’t you just love it when you buy a plant and it rewards you by thriving?

Below is a photo of a pot of amaryllis blooming in May and June.  At last count there were 40+ blossoms that came and went.  Considering how large and showy they are, that’s a startling amount of eye appeal when you consider it all started with one lowly $4 bulb.

Lovely pot of Amaryllis plants
Lovely pot of Amaryllis plants

I bought it for my mom at Christmas a few years back.  You know, one of those bulbs you force and sometimes toss after the holidays? But I’ve never been one for tossing.  I repotted the bulb in a large pot and fed and watered it all that next summer.  The following spring the bulb had split and I had not two but THREE lovely stalks of blossoms.  The original bulb  had not only split but was large enough to send up two bloom stalks.

Huge red Amaryllis blossoms
Huge red Amaryllis blossoms

It just kept getting better and better.  As a reward for occasional feeding and watering, the bulbs continued to split each year until now I am forced to remove and re-pot them.

© Wade Kingston