The Beautiful Edible Garden

I finally got to spend some time cleaning up my garden this weekend. It was a busy weekend, but I took a free hour to pull weeds, remove dead plants, and do some light pruning. I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago, so I couldn't get in the garden until I recovered last week. When I finally checked on it there was a 3-inch-long tomato hornworm that had defoliated about 25% of my tomato plants. Fortunately, the vines were already huge to begin with, and the big, fat green tomatoes were untouched. But learn from me: check for tomato hornworms constantly before they get out of hand! If you keep an eye on your plants, there's no need to use chemicals, just remove the worms as you see them.

I had a hard time getting a good close-up of the giant
tomato hornworm, but you get the idea.

I'm delighted one of my lavender plants (which were kind of an experiment) has finally come into bloom. The red Flower Carpet rose behind it looks spectacular, too, so the front corner of my yard makes me smile every time I come and go.

Lavandula angustifolia 'Munstead' and 'Flower
Carpet Scarlet' roses bloom near the sidewalk.

I just finished reading The Beautiful Edible Garden by Leslie Bennet and Stefani Bittner. I am the sort of person who gardens more for the beauty than for the fruits and vegetables, but I also like the idea of harvesting my own home-grown produce (you can't beat a home-grown tomato). The title of this book intrigued me: the idea that I could have a beautiful garden and free vegetables in the same space. The colorful pictures on the cover were eye-catching, too:

The Beautiful Edible Garden by Leslie Bennet
and Stefani Bittner. Isn't it pretty?

The book was just as inspiring as the cover promised. The two authors outline the basic principles of designing a garden, and then go into detail on how to flesh that out in your various spaces: the front yard, back yard, side yard, and containers. They also cover basic principles of keeping your garden healthy and fruitful: soil preparation, light, water, fertilizer, planting techniques, tools, and more. To polish it off, they sprinkle the book with various indoor arrangements to make with a combination of flowers and edible plants, so you can enjoy the beauty of your garden indoors as well. Overall, the tone is practical, down-to-earth, and filled with specific examples.

I really enjoyed their many plant lists. They offer examples of edible plants that tolerate shade, that have low water requirements, that bloom in different seasons, or that lend themselves to different garden styles. They frequently refer to different kinds of fruits or unique varieties of vegetables or herbs that you would never see in a grocery store. It inspired me to grow my own food simply so I could try Fuyu persimmons, fresh chervil, or yellow wax beans. I loved the many pictures throughout the book; the pictures alone gave me ideas for my own garden.

The book is filled with lovely photos like these. I borrowed
these images from the authors' blog.

The one limitation to the book is that they frequently refer to tropical plants, such as citrus trees, that can't be grown year-round in Georgia (unless you want to bring them inside every winter). Likewise, for my Florida readers, they list plants like pear and apple trees that need cold winters. Before you get too excited about a specific plant, you'll want to double-check in your favorite plant book (or on the internet) to make sure it can grow in your climate.

In summary, if you want to get inspired to grow your own fruit, vegetables, and herbs in a unique setting, I highly recommend this book.

Gardening Checklist for August

Now that the busyness of July is over, I've decided it's time to turn my attention back to doing more than just making sure my plants get enough water. Fortunately, they've been very forgiving of their neglect. I picked a little bouquet today from various things blooming in my garden.

A bouquet from my garden: zinnia (Cut & Come Again mix),
'Knockout' rose, 'Flower Carpet Pink Supreme' rose,
tricolor sage, and chocolate mint.

It's still too hot for most gardening tasks, of course. There's not much planting or fertilizing to do right now. But I know fall will come and go all too fast, so I want to get a head start on what I can do now. That way, I'll be prepared to enjoy the nice weather later. Here's my checklist for August:

1. Update my annuals. Not all annuals make it through the summer. My white petunia, for example, fizzled out on me for no real reason. If you live in the South, you can pull out your dead summer annuals and plant new ones now to get you through September (and probably October). This is also a good time to trim, deadhead, and prune back tired annuals for a new flush of blooms next month. While I'm at it, I also need to get back to fertilizing with bloom booster. That way, everything will look lush when I'm lounging on my patio in the fall.

My foxgloves still have a few blooms on them.
If I prune and fertilize, I could get a flush of
blooms in a few weeks.

2. Give my roses some TLC. That three-month rose fertilizer I used in April has been well used up by now, and my 'Knockout' roses are covered mostly in spent blooms. Fortunately, rose bushes can be cut back by as much as half now. The advantage of heavy pruning is that they'll put out new shoots with plenty of blooms. I won't have flowers for a few weeks after pruning, but I should have quite a show in September/October. I'll fertilize when I prune to get that extra boost of growth. I won't be able to do much pruning or fertilizing later in the fall or I'll risk an early freeze damaging new growth.

3. Plant fall vegetables. In the South, everyone loves to grow tomatoes and squash in the summertime, but they usually give up on growing vegetables the rest of the year. I'd like to try some fall vegetables.  Some summer vegetables may also be planted now for a late harvest. Here are a few things you can plant in August in Middle Georgia: bush beans, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, collards, cucumbers (after Aug. 20), kale, potatoes (before Aug. 15), and turnips. (If you're curious, here's a vegetable planting chart for Georgia with more details.) Since I'm planting in an existing bed, I'll add a handful of compost before I plant my fall veggies to replace the nutrients used up by my summer veggies.

4. Plan future beds. Fall is a great time to plant perennials and shrubs here in the South. In order to take full advantage of that narrow window of planting time, I need to map out my plan of attack now--which plants to move, where to add new beds, and what kinds of plants I want to try. I'll track the sun patterns in my planting areas (paying close attention to what gets the hot afternoon sun) and consider which of my plants have been most successful, so I might repeat them in other areas. If I do all my research now, I should have a good shopping list when I visit the garden centers in September. If I feel up to it, I might even start doing a little soil prep for my new beds.

While I was out assessing my garden, a butterfly landed on me. It's just
one of the little delights of gardening.

What are you most looking forward to in your garden this fall? Happy gardening!