Part of a poem by Emily Dickinson, a hero of the garden and the page, and my favorite poet.
This litle poem is big enough to cover the expanse of the meaning of the sky.
Ann
From The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson | Written c. 1879
Category Archives: Summer
Summer’s Sky
A Summer’s Day
Take a close up view of these easy flowering plants for a sunny, summer garden. Our Entry Garden is full of drought tolerant plants that fulfill the goal of being part of the non picky plant’s brigade. Hooray for the plants that do it all for you and request so little water in return!
Woolly Stemodia– a dependable, ground hugging stalwart.
Butterfly Weed– a nectar source for butterflies.
Desert Willow-seductive, trumpet-shaped blooms for hummingbirds.
Periwinkles-the Cora variety is disease resistant, loves the heat and has a more uniform habit than other periwinkles. It looks great all season and into fall. Many colors to try!
Abeilia-foliage with a punch, this is the Frances Mason variety. The leaves turn from several colors of yellow to a coppery color in the fall.
Ann
A Summer Day in The Garden
Salvia, Maximillian Sunflower, Black Eyed Susan,a branch of Yaupon Holly, Mexican Feather Grass
Get To Know Us
We are the Dallas County Master Gardeners at the Earth Kind® WaterWise Demonstration Garden on Joe Field Road. We hope you will get to know us and plan a visit to our gardens.
We love compost and work hard at it. Cindy, Sue, and Roger are adding green material to our compost bins. Believe me, our compost smells good. Roger is wearing the mask to reduce exposure to allergens. Come take a whiff-we promise!
Adding green material to the compost bins at the Demonstration Garden
Planting those onions mentioned in the “Farm to Table” menu.
Onion Planting in January 2012
Jim adding drip irrigation to one of our raised beds. If he can’t do it, nobody can!
“Cares melt when you kneel in your garden!”
Tomato Tips
TOMATO TIPS
We plant tomatoes in the vegetable area of the Earth-Kind® Demonstration Garden.
Here are some tomato musts:
- Be sure that your site has full sun, at least 6-8 hours a day.
- Plant a variety that grows well in the Dallas area, like Celebrity, Roma, or Sweet 100. Heirlooms are also delicious, but trickier to grow.
- Use a rich soil full of aged compost. At the Demonstration Garden we use the Earth Kind® Bed Preparation. Mulch to keep down weeds and retain moisture.
- Spray weekly with fish emulsion to repel spider mites and fertilize your plants.
- Plant your spring tomatoes in early March, being prepared to cover young plants if a freeze threatens. Fall tomatoes can be planted in early July.
- Provide a structure to hold the tomato plant, such as a large cage or wire. Tomato stems are brittle and will break without support.
- Give regular water with drip irrigation or a soaker hose.
We don’t fertilize at the Demonstration Garden; if you want to feed your plants, use a slow release organic fertilizer.
If you have more tomatoes than you can give away, core them and freeze them whole in freezer storage bags for later use in sauces. Freezing preserves tomato flavor better than canning.
Elizabeth
Tomato Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes
Stir 4 minced garlic cloves and 3 tablespoons of olive oil together in a cold large skillet. Cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes until the garlic is sizzling and fragrant. Stir in 2 pounds of cored and peeled tomatoes, cut in ¾-inch chunks and ½ teaspoon of salt. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thick and chunky, about 15-20 minutes. Reduce heat if sauce starts to stick to bottom of pan. Remove from heat. Stir in ¼ cup chopped fresh basil with salt and pepper to taste.
Tomato Talk
TOMATO TALK
Thirty tomatoes ripen on the kitchen counter. Little red bottoms in the air, stem side down, they were picked when blushing, but not ready to slice. Now they deepen into that lovely rosy red of June gardens. A strainer full of cherry tomatoes drains in the sink.
A part of me wishes the tomato plants in my garden were as lovely as their offspring. Now, with our high temperatures, their yellowing leaves are hosts to masses of spider mites, a miniscule pest. Yes, we did spray the plants with fish emulsion—which is just what it sounds like—that is supposed to repel the insects. But we lost that battle.
And there’s the space issue. Or lack thereof. The unruly Sweet 100 Cherry tomato bush is about 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide and completely covers the well-behaved Celebrity tomato.
In the seed stage, tomatoes line up to be Determinate or Indeterminate. Determinate tomatoes agree to only grow to a certain height, have lots of large offspring, and bring them to graduation ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
Indeterminate tomatoes are the embarrassing relatives of the straight and narrow determinates. They have their own time table and in mid- June look like they haven’t had a shave or decent haircut in months.
Indeterminates grow as tall and as wide as water and fertilizer will take them, have zillions of cherry tomatoes, and ripen WHENEVER THEY WANT TO.
If that’s confusing—a little botany goes a long way—look at it this way:
A determinate Celebrity tomato would vote for Mitt.
An indeterminate Sweet 100 Cherry tomato would support Barack.
Elizabeth
DALLAS GARDEN BUZZ 