dahlias in Portland

Garden Update, August 2024

Dear Liza,

We are getting near the end of summer, but our weather is still warm and I’m not ready to give up my free salads yet, so we picked up 12 new starts at the Portland Nursery and put them in a week ago.

You can see them here, the short new ones among the tall, spindly older ones.

For now, I am only harvesting from the old ones, and pulling them out when they have done all they can do. In a week or so, the new ones will be ready.

In the meantime, I have another zucchini (this makes five, I think) almost ready to come home and get pan fried with lots of garlic and topped with parmesean.

The tomatoes have started bearing, turning red, and generally running amok. I keep having to re-tie their supports and say encouraging things. The neighbors are enjoying second hand fruit!

And, of course, Laverne and Shirley, our dahlias, and getting their second wind. We now have about a dozen blooms and buds.

School is starting next week, but summer isn’t over yet!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Garden Update, June 2024

Dear Liza,

Wouldn’t you know it, just as I am coming to visit you for a few weeks, my garden is getting into high gear! Fortunately, Auntie Bridgett will be staying in town, so she can water and harvest.

The 24 lettuce starts I out in have all done well, giving us enough lettuce to have big salads every day. I only pick a few leaves from each plant every few days, so they just keep making more!

The Black Beauty zucchini plants are coming up, and may be bearing baby Zukes by the time I get back.

Our three cherry tomato plants, (Chocolate Cherry, Sweet Millions and Isis Candy) have doubled in size, and the Chocolate Cherry has three blossoms!

Laverne and Shirley, our dahlias, are two feet high and very fat and bunchy. They are going to give us some big blooms later in the summer.

And, of course, the lavender is big and blooming, smelling fabulous, and trying to take over the joint.

I hope Auntie Bridgett will enjoy watching the garden grow as much as I do, and share our harvest with our lovely neighbors!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Garden Update, May 2024

Dear Liza,

It seems like this time, our warm weather is here to stay. Summer has begun, and I’m here for it!

I added twelve more lettuces to my plot, since we have already started harvesting leaves off the first ones I put in last month. My lettuce plot is near a big camellia bush and in shade until noon, so it is protected from too much sun as well as any heavy summer showers that come by.

Our dahlias, Laverne and Shirley, are growing strong and chubby.

I put the tomato cages around them because they grow REALLY tall and won’t be able to support themselves. Here is a picture from LAST September.

I have some extra space for flowers this year, since I’m growing fewer tomatoes. Black Eyed Susans are a favorite of local bees. I sprinkled some seeds in with the irises and lavender.

Once I was home and got the mud off my hands, I decorated some pages in this years’ garden journal. I will tell you about them when they are done.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Garden Update, April 2024

Dear Liza,

Once spring gets going here, it ramps up fast!

We headed over to Portland Nursery the other day and fetched six lettuce starts and a packets of zucchini seeds. The seed will wait for this weekend, but the lettuces are in and very happy. Look at that color! It is a variety called “Merlot”.

They will start giving us lettuce in a few weeks.

And in Tiny Green Gals news, our dahlias are coming up! Laverne and Shirley, as Bridgett has named them, are growing from rhizomes I planted last spring. They are just a few inches tall, but I have already put tomato cages around them. Last year they got too tall to stand on their own.

The bearded irises I picked up in a FREE bucket haven’t done much yet, but I’ll be patient. Near them, the lavender we planted years ago is getting lovely and green.

Stay tuned for more garden fun.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Not Done With the Rain Yet

Dear Liza,

We have had a record-setting wet spring, and it’s not done yet!

After a few days of sun last week, when we went for walks and saw lots of flowers, we had a weekend of rain, wind, and even thunderstorms.

The Rose Festival -opening-Starlight Parade went on as scheduled after three years of being canceled for Covid, but it went on without us. We just couldn’t muster the energy to bundle up and take a bus downtown to stand in the rain for a few hours. The Parade was televised so we didn’t miss it, but it would have been more fun to be THERE. Darn old rain, anyway.

My garden seems to be enjoying the rain. The Dahlias are up and blooming, and the radishes are getting tall and peppery. No squash or carrots yet, but they aren’t as quick as radishes.

We are promised sun this week, and even really warm temperatures. Keep your fingers crossed, but keep your boots handy.

Love,

Grandma Judy