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melissaaipapa

What's going on in the garden

At a week into July we are in full summer, and have been for a while. The season has been kind so far: the high temperatures haven't gone over the mid-nineties, and nights are still mild enough that I welcome a light blanket toward morning. We had hardly any rain in June; recently there came a couple of drippy days with a shower or two, but not enough water fell to do anything about the drought-born cracks in the ground. It's humid. Mercifully, chiggers, of which we have some kind of Italian version, and ticks have hardly made themselves noticed so far: some years they're bad.

The spring rose flowering got cut short with a spell of hot weather, back in early June I believe, that crisped the blooms of such varieties as 'William Lobb', in full flower at the time. As usual by this time of year there's not a lot happening rose-wise. The warm climate roses made new growth after their first flowering and now have a scattering of bloom: 'Jaune Desprez', 'Crepuscule', 'Mme. Alfred Carriere', 'Mrs. B.R. Cant', and 'Archduke Joseph'. 'Mme. Antoine Mari' made abundant new growth and is now trying to be a Polyantha, with a load of small, semi-double flowers, quite pink, very different from the opulently large, double, lipstick-edged whipped-cream blooms it's capable of in favorable mild weather in May. MAM may have some kind of disease or infestation. Her canes show a kind of warty spottiness and age more quickly than I expect from a Tea; however, if infestation it is, she stays ahead of it. I cut out old growth and, though the lady's figure, quite awkward, leaves a good deal to be desired, she certainly does grow and flower. R. moschata continues to put out a sprinkling of milk-white flowers. The plant, caged, after eleven or twelve years in the ground is up to eight or ten feet or so, very stout, very handsome. The gray-green leaves and white blooms make a welcome cool effect in the heat, in alliance with catmint (now getting shaded out) at its feet, and blue-flowered agapanthus and cream-yellow variegated persicaria around the corner--I forgot the Confederate jasmine, as it's called in Florida, Trachylospermum jasminoides, trellised up the wall--growing under a rose pergola. None of these plants gets any extra water, or fertilizer for that matter.

The house is three stories of masonry and is perched on a steeply dropping, south-facing hillside (though at least we have woods immediately below the yard), so we get a lot of sun. Shade is important in the summer. There is the wisteria on the pergola in front of the house, which I allow to riot all summer long before cutting it back in winter, and the persimmon which gets a little bigger every year; in the modest yard, once the courtyard of the farm this was, grows a jungle of roses, phlomis, sarcococca, pittosporum, myrtle, Salvia guaranitica, and the cluster of three Trachycarpus fortunei palms now getting up to respectable tree size; just beyond are a pruned bay laurel, more roses on pergolas, and a black locust and elderberry, the latter of which I usually prune back annually, but didn't this year because I thought we'd need the shade. I used to have the clothesline in this part of the yard, but it got so hot I moved the line to the paved terrace of the second house and replaced it with two laburnums and a Viburnum x burkwoodii. They'll take a few years to get big enough to give shade, but seeing them is a comfort even now.

We've also been busy these last few years with the paved terrace of the second (unoccupied) house. It was just too much heat sink, as I felt particularly after the tryingly hot summer of 2017, good for drying clothes but not for much else. So we built a pergola around the perimeter of the terrace and hauled the roses growing at the foot of the terrace wall up onto it. They liked that. I stopped cutting back the flowering ash that had seeded itself into the top of the terrace wall, and it immediately shot up into a two trunked tree and began cracking open the wall. We planted a semi-columnar oak on the inside of the pergola: it did well. Then last year we opened a bed, starting at the columnar oak. in the paved terrace along the inside of the pergola, ending in another wider opening for a second columnar oak. This one, planted last winter, is truly columnar, and doesn't like its spot, which I suspect has far too alkaline a ph for it, so we're dosing it with fertilizer for acidophile plants and crossing our fingers (the tree was expensive). The bed between the two oaks we planted last year with a miscellany of artichokes, pinks and thyme from seed, golden oregano and yellow-variegated lemon thyme, plus all the weeds that invited themselves in, while outside the bed proper I stuck bits of wild thyme in the cracks between the paving stones and scattered seeds from mullein, a plant I love, which sprouted. Once the weather warmed we hauled out as many of the succulents in pots as there was room for along the terrace bed, and now the whole is a lively handsome sight.

I've been doing cleanup in other parts of the property, behind as always, but that's a story for another day.


Comments (3)

  • Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
    2 years ago

    That is lovely, Melissa.

    We are under the heat dome in the northwest here. It is approaching 3 weeks of temps over 100 F. I am amazed the plants are doing as well as they are. The Teas, chinas and noisettes are doing fine. Our second flush is starting on some roses. Deadheading is needed badly. Trying to stay alive.

  • bart bart
    2 years ago

    Sheila is right! but sad to say,I seem to be going through some kind of moral slump; I guess I'm feeling sorry for myself, because I'm tending towards feeling of envy, and usually I'm not envious, lol! But Melissa, you are so lucky to have a house in your garden-especially in summer,and to have help with building stuff like pergolas and terraces.

    Here in Tuscany it's ghastly hot and humid,and the bugs are so bad; it makes me so sad to find the once-pleasant Italian climate reduced to this. However, we did get rain up until the beginning of June, so really I shouldn't complain. Besides, I read about whats going on in Canada,and those poor folks and their gardens are so much worse off; at least plants here are used to heat.

    My DH left this morning to go to see his mom in Sicily; he hasn't seen her in more than a year and a half. So, the day before yesterday, I did a marathon watering job, watered all the new implants, plus some others that need pushing; got home at midnight...but this means that for the week in which my DH is absent, I won't have to go out to my land. I don't want my DS to be left to his own devices ; he's 23-more than old enough to take care of himself, of course-but still, I'd prefer to be around ,and this is a perfect excuse to remain at the house and give myself a much-needed break. Times have changed; I'm older, the weather has gotten to be so ugly...and looking back over the past year I realize that I really have done an awful lot. I remember clearly that only a few years ago I could do work out there even in summer,but this summer even in the shade it's bad; such sticky, humid heat!

    This past fall I put out about 36 new plants; next fall,if all goes according to plan, it will probably be another 30 or so,but after that I hope to cut back drastically. The summers have just become too unbearable; you have to stay indoors as much as possible in this type of weather.

  • Melissa Northern Italy zone 8
    Original Author
    2 years ago

    Sheila, that sounds so rough: I'm sorry for everyone suffering from that terrible heat. We had an awful summer in 2017, and the event is still branded in my memory. I hope your heat wave ends soon, AND MANKIND BEGINS TO DEAL SERIOUSLY WITH CLIMATE CHANGE. Governments, companies, and individuals: everybody needs to lend a hand.

    Bart, it's good to hear from you. I hope you recover soon from your moral slump: they happen to me, too, and probably to everyone. I'm sorry your weather is so bad, but, as you say, at least you can sit comfortably at home now for some days. I hope your house is a good one for the heat.

    I'm impressed with your planting: thirty-six plants is a lot, and so is watering them through the summer. Part of my good luck having DH is that he does most of the watering. I've been doing cleanup, lately down in the shade garden and woods, though languidly on account of the heat.

    My daughter is the same age as your son: I believe they graduated from high school the same year. I find there's a lot to be said for one's offspring continuing to live at home in early adulthood. I love DD's company as does DH. Both of us expect to miss her sadly when she moves out in September, when she'll go to live in Milan now that the university is back to in-class attendance. She began the program there back in March, but long-distance attendance was still allowed, so DD stayed home. It's too far for a commute from here. In any case, she needs to get out and meet more people than she does here on the farm.

    I hope you have a relaxing week.