Foxglove - A Poisonous, Patient and Persistent Biennial Flower

Gardening, whether it is for vegetables or flowers, takes patience and persistence. Patience because it can take so long for flowers to bloom and vegetables to mature to that perfect stage for harvesting. Persistence because weeds, insects and animals are constantly attacking and trying to stop your best efforts in the garden.

Many years ago we planted some Foxglove in the perennial flower garden. As I did the Fall clean up in the perennial garden, I thought the Foxglove really embody the concepts of patience and persistence in the garden.

The picture above is a great example of what Foxglove look like when flowering. I wish I could say this was from my garden this summer but I can't. This is a Google image I found to show you what Foxglove look like when flowering.

Foxglove is a biennial flower that grow two to five feet tall and love lots of sun. You will often see them in purple, white and pink. Foxglove bloom in early to mid summer.

So, why do I think Foxglove are both patient and persistent? The answer lies in the fact that they are a biennial flower that are toxic to animals and small children. A biennial flower is not an annual or a perennial, but right in between. A biennial is a plant that completes its growing cycle over two years. The first year the plant consists of only green foliage. The second year is the payoff with the plant flowers and setting seed. Waiting two years for flowers on a plant takes patience for most people. The great thing about Foxglove is that if you let the flower go to seed it will naturally distribute the seed all over your garden and the two year cycle starts all over again with no work. The other crazy fact about Foxglove that make them persistent is that all parts of the plant are poisonous. Great care should be taken with young children and pets around Foxglove. If consumed, Foxglove will cause the person or animal's heart to slow down or beat irregularly. No wonder the rabbits and deer left all my Foxglove plants alone this year but happily ate all my other plants.

Here are two pictures of my perennial garden after being cleaned up a couple of weeks ago, along with a close up of a Foxglove plant at the end of the first year. All of the green plants you see are Foxglove in their first year of growth. These plants came from flowers that went to seed last summer. Next summer these will be awesome flowers that will start the process all over again. I promise to post pictures of these plants flowering next summer.


And that is why I think Foxglove are the perfect example of patience and persistence in your garden.

Ice Man Days

I was talking with a friend at lunch today and of course, the topic of this spring's cold weather came up. She is a gardener as well so we began to compare notes. I told her that I had peas, spinach, lettuce, beets, potatoes and Brussels sprouts in but they really weren't growing because of the cold weather. I then expected her to list off the same kind of items for her garden but her response surprised me. She said she didn't have anything planted. I thought, she must be really busy and just hasn't had time to get in the garden. No, that wasn't the situation at all. She told me that she never plants anything until after the Ice Man Days. I started laughing since I had never heard of this before. She went on to explain that it was an old story she had heard from several local vegetable farmers. The story goes that you never plant any seeds or seedlings, no matter how warm it gets in the spring, until a certain time in May has past.

When I sat back down at my desk after lunch I had to Google Ice Man Days in May. Sure enough there it was.

Saint Pancras, Saint Servatius and Saint Mamertus are called the Ice Saints. Their festival days are May 11th, 12th and 13th. People in Medieval Europe believed that there was always a cold snap of weather around these dates. In fact, students of Galileo diligently recorded weather from 1655 to 1670 and actually confirmed cold snaps during or around these dates. Farmers began to use the festival dates as their safe planting dates. As long as they planted their crops after the "Ice Man Days", they knew they would avoid damaging cold weather.

Hopefully we have passed our Ice Man Days this week. Happy planting.

Two pictures of my slow growing garden.

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So Many Flowers, So Little Fruit

The other day I was looking at my garden and noticed there were an incredible amount of flowers on my cucumber plants. I was really excited because I thought I would be getting a cucumber for each of the flowers. Over the past two weeks I noticed that wasn't the case and the ratio of flowers to fruit was all whacked out. I wondered what was going on so I did some research. Here is what I found.

First, cucumbers are fruits and not vegetables. Fruits are the part of the plant that come from the flowers that are set by the plant. Also, fruits contains seeds. Vegetables, on the other hand, are the other edible part of the plant. This includes the root and flower. Examples of fruits are tomatoes, zucchini, squash, peas, beans, peppers, apples and corn. Examples of vegetables are carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, potato, onion, lettuce, swiss chard and spinach.

So, what is the deal with so many flowers and so little fruit on my cucumbers? Cucumbers create separate male and female flowers on the plant in about equal numbers. Interestingly, tomato plants create flowers that have male and female parts in ONE flower. Knowing this fact, with cucumbers creating male and female flowers, I should only expect roughly 50% of the flowers to create fruit. Another factor that brings the percentage down even further is that because there are male and female flowers, we need to rely on local bees and humming birds to pollinate the female flowers. Wind won't work for cucumbers because the pollen in the male flower is heavy and sticky and hard to move from male to female flowers. Bees are not always the best and most timely pollinators either. If it is rainy or too hot the bees won't be out to pollinate the female flowers before the flowers fall off the plant. The male and female flowers only stay on the plant for a very short time. Insecticides might be another reason why bees don't show up in your garden. Mother Nature is tough enough without us causing problems by applying insecticides to our garden and lawn. As you can see, relying on local bees to pollinate your cucumber female flowers also lowers the percent of possible cucumbers.

Cucumber fruit with dead female flower on the end. Male flowers in the background ready for the bees.

One trip by a bee is typically not enough to allow for a full fruit to be set. To get a really nice fruit you need to have several bees pollinating one female flower. The lack of multiple trips by a bee to one female flower is a reason why a cucumber might not develop or it might develop into an odd shape. Poorly pollinated female flowers can also lead to bitter tasting cucumbers. Here are some examples of poorly pollinated female flowers.

If you grow cucumbers, you now know how you can tell the difference between male and female flowers, why you may have crazy looking cucumbers, and why some may taste different than others. Most importantly, you know why you have so many flowers and so little fruit.

Is Lightning Good for Your Garden?

Last night we had a great lightning and thunderstorm. It started at about three in the morning and lasted for several hours. When you walked out of your house in the morning, did you notice how green the your grass and plants were? Did your plants look extra fresh and vibrant?

You weren't imagining things. It really is true. Lightning is a natural fertilizer giving your plants a quick boost of energy.

Now get yourself back to your high school chemistry days. I know my high school chemistry teacher, Miss Mitchell, would be happy with this. Here is the deal.

Air is comprised of 78% nitrogen and about 20% oxygen. We know that nitrogen is an important element that plants need for developing strong leaves and encouraging strong stem growth. If you go to the garden center and look at the plant fertilizers you will see how important nitrogen is. While air is mostly nitrogen, it is unfortunately in an usable form for plants. This is were lighting comes in.

The intense heat and electric charges produced by lightning causes the nitrogen molecules in the air to cling to the oxygen molecules. This bond forms nitrogen oxides. The nitrogen oxides will either fall from the sky themselves or be collected by the rain drops. The nitrogen is now in a highly charged form that can be used by the plants making them brighter, healthier and greener.

Now that is a natural fertilizer.

Everyone's Favorite Kohlrabi and Rogue Potatoes

Another strange summer from a weather perspective along the lake. It really hasn't been hot for any length of time. It feels like we have been in the 60's and 70's during the day and 50's at night forever. While this is great weather for growing lettuce, potatoes, spinach, peas and other cooler weather crops, it is terrible weather for the heat loving vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and zucchini.

The one thing with the cool, and not so humid weather, is that my tomato plants look really healthy. They just haven't developed any of the diseases you might find when it gets really humid.

I harvested all of my Kohlrabi. The variety I planted is called Grand Duke. The plants produced really nice 4 inch globes that were crisp and tender. I will be using this variety again next year for sure.

The potatoes that I grew last summer in the bags turned out so well that I decided to grow them the exact same way. As you can see, they are off to an amazing start. I am growing two different varieties. The first variety is called La Ratte. This is a late summer yellow heirloom fingerling variety that originated in France during the late 19th century. It is suppose to be excellent for roasting and in salads. The second variety is called Desiree. This is an early summer rosy red all purpose potato. Both varieties got planted in my grow bags on April 11th. The Desiree variety matures in 80 days which puts harvest time around June 30th. The La Ratte variety matures in 120 days which puts harvest time around August 9th. Desiree has been flowering hard so I am going to let it go longer. In the next week I plan to stick my hand down in the dirt to see if I can feel any potatoes. It is hard to tell that I have three tomato plants in front of the potatoes.

Early to mid May

Early to mid May

End of June

End of June

Speaking of potatoes, I got a bonus planting in my compost bin. When I cleaned out my garden last fall I dumped the contents of the grow bags into the compost bin. There must have been a few potatoes in the bags and they started to grow this spring. Fun, but I can't turn my compost pile without disrupting the rogue potatoes.

Garden Renovation

I built my first garden back in 1997 and other than minor repairs it really held up well. The original garden was a 10 x 20 raised bed garden. It had a picket fence with one entry gate. The fence was low enough that I could step over it and get into the garden if I didn't want to use the gate. I never really liked that because it meant I was stepping on the dirt in the garden. Every time you step on the dirt in your garden it gets packed down. The more you walk on the dirt, the harder it gets. Vegetables just don't like growing in those conditions. Many times you will see gardeners lay boards down to walk on or step on. The board helps spread your weight out and lessen the impact on the dirt. Other gardeners will have designated walkways that run along the garden beds. It's all a matter of preference and how much space you have for your garden.

When my winter lettuce was just about done I decided to deconstruct my old garden. It came apart easily and I stacked the boards and picket fence by the side of the garage. I just couldn't put it into a dumpster yet. I wasn't sure what I was waiting for but I had worked so hard on making the picket fence that I just couldn't throw it out yet. My patience (and the neighbors' patience) paid off because several weeks after I had torn the garden down, a good friend came over to visit. She talked about how much she wanted to start a garden. Here was the perfect way to help someone start a garden and not have to throw all the boards and pickets into the garbage. We offered her the boards and picket fences for her to start her own garden. She jumped at the opportunity. She knew her son would love to reconstruct the raised beds and picket fence. I was super happy they wanted it. A couple of days later it was gone. I am happy that the pieces of my old garden have found a new home.

I decided to make my garden bigger and change the layout. I wanted to be able to access my garden beds as easily as possible. I created two 10 x 10 beds and one 5 x 22 bed. I then laid them out with a walkway between them to look like a T. At the end of each part of the T, I created an entry area and space for a gate. I decided to use pickets again and added chicken wire inside the pickets to stop the local rabbit family from squeezing through. I always think of the book "Watership Down", by Richard Adams, when I imagine the rabbits working their way into the garden. Another cool feature is that the gates have hinges on them that I found in a salvage shop in San Diego when I was visiting my sister. There were so many cool hinges to choose from.

Once I had the beds in place I ordered some compost for filling the raised beds. I got the compost from Farmer Dave's Compost. It is a family owned business located in Racine. They have a great mix of pure compost and dirt. This works out well since pure compost will settle too much. If you get a mixture of compost and dirt, it is more dense and the level of dirt in your garden bed won't settle significantly. Here is a link to their website http://farmscompost.com/

I really think the garden turned out well and I hope it lasts me another 18 years.

Here are some pictures of the construction process.

The load of dirt

Almost full

Pickets being added

One of the gates with recycled hinges and sliding latch

All planted

San Diego Flowers

It is is always fun for me to look at flowers and garden ideas when you go to other cities. It is especially true when you go to a city like San Diego whose climate is so drastically different than the one you are used to being in. I'm pretty sure San Diego is heaven for a flower and vegetable gardener. Just think, you could have a vegetable garden year round. The average coastal high temperture is about 70 degrees and the average coastal low temperature is about 55 degrees. Instead of compressing a growing season into about four to five months like in Wisconsin, the growing season in San Diego can stretch for a full twelve months.

Having said that, the drastic change of seasons we have in Wisconsin is a strong pull for me. The knowledge that the growing season comes to an end for a period of time, and that you and your garden can rest, is a feeling I like.  For me, "putting the garden to bed" in the fall provides me a sense of inner peace.

San Diego garden that has something growing year round

I have been in San Diego for the past two days with my sister, Betsy, and her family. We had an awesome time and visited many different parts of the city. California is experiencing one of the worst droughts in history. Individuals and businesses have been asked to reduce their water consumption by 25 to 30%. This requirement to reduce water consumption has changed what kind of flowers and plants Betsy and her family can plant around their house. Instead of an in ground sprinkler system, they have changed their irrigation system to a drip system. Also, instead of traditional annuals like zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers, etc., they have shifted to succulents that require less water. Here are some pictures of the succulents and drip irrigation system.

                                    

                                    

                                    

  

Drip line into the potted plants

                                  

Here are all sorts of pictures of the flowers and gardens I saw over the past two days.  

Apple Tree

Geraniums

Geraniums completely covering the fence

Plumeria

Bird of Paradise