Last fall I bought some drumstick allium. I'm an inattentive bulb planter and plant my bulbs as an afterthought after the designated time. I saw a bunch of sprouts in the spring so I created a network of drip emitters to ensure that the drumstick allium bloomed. I probably should have planted them earlier to ensure they bloomed! Today, my first drumstick allium started to bloom. Unfortunately, it's not one of the plants I've been faithfully watering all spring. Oops!
As it turns out, the plants that I've been babying look like Maximilian sunflowers. I've been mentally cursing the nursery where I bought them last year because not one of the three that I planted came back. As it turned out, I have 21 plants so they came back seven-fold.
Maximilian sunflower anyone?
As I've mentioned in other posts, I researched square foot gardening prior to planting my vegetable garden. In all of my research, I neglected to learn that zucchini doesn't lend itself to square foot gardens. Oops, it's starting to take over four squares of the veggie bed.
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| Maximilian sunflowers and a handful of the drumstick allium |
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| not drumstick allium |
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| zucchini in the upper right corner |
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| invasion of the zucchini plant |
No niestety jako ogrodnicy ponosimy też i małe porażki.Pozdrawiam.
ReplyDeleteWell, unfortunately, as gardeners and also assume a small defeat. Yours.
Thanks for putting it into perspective. Gardening does have some small defeats, but the pleasures outweigh them.
DeleteWell, live and learn, or grow and learn so to speak! LOL That's gardening!... enjoyment, but also gaining insight from mistakes. Your square foot garden has really grown from your last photos! Lookin' good. : ]
ReplyDeleteThe vegetables in the square foot garden seem to grow as I watch them. I think it must be the drip irrigation. I don't have to remember to water it separately from my flower bed. So true about the insight, I'm already planning what to do next year with the zucchini. Not sure about what to do about the sunflowers.
DeleteDoesn't that just irritate you? We count on something and it's not there. I put a couple seed in a container for cucumbers and thought one came up. Well now it's big enough for me to realize it's not. Oh well. Your veggie garden looks great.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
Thanks Cher! I can't believe how much the garden has taken off. I feel more foolish than anything else about the sunflowers.
DeleteProof yet again of how right my father was when he said: "You learn more from gardening mistakes than you can from any gardening magazine."
ReplyDeleteLee, your father's words of wisdom ring true and I have a couple of lesson learned for this month. :)
DeleteI like Lee's comment . So true! I have similar and yet different oops to your Maximilian sunflower. My dogs discovered that tomatoes tasted good and started eating some of my cherry tomatoes last summer. They also dropped some of them throughout my veggie garden. Now this summer I have tomatoes popping up in the oddest spots. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jennifer; you have a great weekend, too! It's funny how seeds travel. I can picture your dogs munching on those tomatoes. My dog, Aster loves them, too. So far, so good, she hasn't discovered the veggie bed yet.
DeleteMy drumstick alliums are just opening and these are by far my favorites...My Max sunflowers are growing tall but it will be a couple of months before they bloom. Now as far a zukes, I don't have room either or maybe I am unwilling to give up space for a zuke, so I found a container variety and am hoping it puts out some squash!
ReplyDeleteI have had the worst of luck with drumstick allium, but at least yours turned into sunflowers! As for zucchini, I have heard horror stories of it swamping the landscape and people leaving baskets of zucchini at neighbors' doorsteps to get rid of it. I do like zucchini bread, but I leave the growing of it to others. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you are going to have some rocking sunflowers this year. :) Sorry about the zucchini. One of my coworkers is doing square foot gardening and is having similar problems. She is going to try and trellis up some of her vineing plants this weekend..
ReplyDeletewow! I just saw my dad's zukes yesterday and they're are probabably 5x5!
ReplyDelete