Squashes...

This is from keyhole garden. Zucchini for bred are from spiral garden.

I also got seed yellow squash from someone who has just these, I'll plant the seeds next year.
And zucchini seeds need some renewing. I do not need a lot, one pack if that is plenty. But I like doing my own seeds. I end up with some peculiar squash crosses some times. Patypan and patypan cross with zucchini is not my seeds, but makes large squashes :), and ginormous plants, boy unbelievable how big are they... they are huge.

This one produced a conjoint twin... it had 2 stems and it's joined...

how did they...

Another garden monster is these banana squashes, I did put brick and 2x4 under couple of them so they do not tear the actual vine they are still growing on, I barely can lift these things... and after my tossing that many logs for my log-work in several beds and dry creek that is saying something... I have no idea how to weigh these...

I tried to clear a vine from my sunchokes and move it, it did not work... well it did have a good reason :). This is my BTE over concrete oval bed. Neighbors are asking what kind of trees am I growing there... no trees those are sunchokes, they just turned to be size of the 3y old trees in my orchard... sunchokes are tall and fat. hey will have lots of food there. And they do not need much water by any means. Perfect xeriscape plant for midwest when one has space for it to be.

also time to 'open' pumpkins to encourage ripening,

 I planted some just for giggles... I have some pumpkins , these are from my BTE over concrete experiment oval bed.

Planting the rain, eclipse

All these crazy earth working and mulching projects. Folk ask what the heck do you do?
I plant the rain. However odd that can sound...
I mean I plant the rain literally, I direct it from the house and slow it down.
I couple of the areas Like top bed I mulched I can not do the sponge and run off diversion because of how concrete driveway is laid out, but I can sponge what falls on it so no run off is from it, and that's how my ponderosa are fed, I did 2 dry creeks that are long and 3-rd on the way to redirect water to the orchard. This was weeds and bare dirt. There is no irrigation in here what so ever except the rain
there things are taller than a human now. I can support a tree or several now in this area.

I redirect and sponge water from garage and shed and make it so it does not run into chicken houses and makes mud bath there. I support aspens. They have some irrigation but it's like 1 mini spray that drops 1 gallon a minute and runs for 25 min, 1/2 gallon is not enough to support 4 large aspens and loads of their babies and poplar tree in there that volunteered all the sudden.


Here is same bed end of August

2 aspens turned into small aspen grove, these are fed from run off roofs of house and garage. the wicker bed is fed by dry-creek 2 on right side of garage (concrete driveway runoff and roof run off from the garage), has no other irrigation but the rain

The area next to the road is leveled with wood chips and finished, road wood chips is finished as well

I did not 'cut sidewalk the curb yet (aka landscaping beams) when we did our new flower bed and changed it from rock and weed fabric to (green leaves and wood chips)-compost-(dry tree take out wood chips) lasagna covering to lead lots of water into the garden, garden is laid as sponge of 4 vertical and 3 horizontal rows that are lower, and vertical beds are wetter now. It gets run off from gutters.

With all the mulching I did I can support over 100 of trees. The soil is moist under the wood chips.
And I see more roly-poli eating spiders now.

I slow and redirect water to my orchard and to my future vineyard. I'll cut this dry creek and redirect the water to new apple tree when I observe another year

What I've noticed the ground water is high already, about 2.2 feet under that new tree, when it grows the roots there it will not need the basin per say.
that's why It's wood chipped and it also has no irrigation. It's Antonovka zone 2 apple tree.
I'm cheeking the soil n that area regularly, it seems to be moist already, still this passive irrigation area is under the observation. It's not massive weeds anymore as one can see.
And has couple of wet grass species that did run off and volunteered.
Will see if they are perennials.


The challenge I have is folk who spray pesticides and herbicides and some of it ends in run off or carried by the wind.

I can not do much about it now but in several years when they see what my property has become I can. 2 immediate neighbors do not want to do any of it so. So I can not replace the neighbor, I'm planting wind block so I can isolate sensitive plants from dicamba and other roundup+ trouble

Meanwhile America had eclipse yesterday.
It was interesting to see on the lake and in the forest

 Forest has millions of little eclipses on the ground from leaves

All these huge trees are sponge forest near the lake.
We do have lakes, I'm not near one but I could change how out hood HOA looks at water evaporation and lakes and loosing the water.
We have similar trees near our lakes and we have bare water wasting bare grass beaches. This nature park service lake was also in areas where agriculture is and the corn fields, they have massive fog there the lake takes, so do we, we do have natural inversion in our area. The lake we went to is surrounded by the forest, not very deep one and that forest is it's protection and the sponge.

Here is Ted short video about the same.

Summer maintenance in progress

Summer kitchen garden after sunflowers are gone, last row prepared for autumn planting

Road got next layer of wood chips,
Wicker bed next to the road

this load with pine needles will even lowers spots

 here

 here

 and here

 front side of the road, 2 upper areas that lead water to the new berry beds

dry creek loaded with rock and started logs as usable sizes come I'll add

 and volunteer russian sage

 

here is one next to other dry creek on the other side of that shed/bulding

bridges have ramps now

volunters.  

 one day I'll have good plants here, for now that needs vinegar big time

 Dry creek in summer, pampas grass

 Chickens by dry creek, fertilizing aspen grove

they are molting and hiding

 rooster is ugly :), his tail is half gone and half grown back

 dry creek end

 and completed, so chickens do not dig mulched soak area, this is naturally lower spot

Ditch cleaned up

Before:)

Front beds after maintenance

Roses after the trim-deadheading, re-blooming

Rudebeckia goldstrum

bugs

And some more late summer blooms, coreopsis...  keep forgetting ...

veronica

day lily

winecups

white cone flower (echinacea)

more roses

liatris

mini rose

Roses not deadheaded, that's Julia Child fruiting variety, have 3 of them.

gladiolas, overwinters

violas

mint

hops

 Humming bird.

I may have a pair, see it about every day now.

Special... honey from my flowers

Keyhole garden and over concrete mound are getting bigger...

banana squash in keyhole garden. 

 crocosmia, spiral bed

 keyhole week after the top picture... growing bigger. in 95F heat

 spiral bed, re-blooming salvias

 spiral bed

My new bed is doing fine too.

some re-blooming

 spirea new growth, good. it did overcome powdery mildew just fine

 peculiar side growth on penstemons...

 columbines survived chickens...

 and native wild flower too. chickens dug that up...

My new berry patch took for blackberry only unfortunately.

purple raspberry, yellow and red primacane are doing nothing, sadly.

New variety of rudebeckia.

My brought back to life rose of sharon it turns out. Luci variety.

 

 

Timer valve for my orchard... forgotten to turn it off once... not a big deal, still under water right usage a good bit, but... It will be on timer.

Supplemental water for my 3 new raised beds next to orchard (mound, keyhole and spiral) is on summer only cheap timer, but it works just fine.

My terraces are ready to plant. Row of 5 roses of sharon

 

nitrogen fixers next to lilacs - locust and caragana

  

Colorado blue spruce

 Kentucky coffee tree

 Soul

 sunchokes by the fence

Here is example of pro landscape, managed with iron shots yearly. as soon as shots went away here is ornamental maple that should not be here in ph8 alkaline with free limy soil and alkaline lake water.

 Area next to the lawn got rock and grass grown into it removed, green area is grass and weeds and being scraped and removed. it will be rock and french drain going into our ditch system to the orchard. Getting it done right, not like pro's relying on herbicides for the 'look nice' thing. This bed is being re-done like my new bed, lots of work, but...
Russian hawthorn cultivars are ready to go under these trees, restored area with sorel in garden, 3 years

 

The plants already in that bed and soil restoration second year: bee balm

 borage

 oregano

 fennel

 Julia child roses and pampas grass, linden on the other side of that grass.

 oregano and irises

Summer is not without damages

Someone sprayed weeds.

this is secondary herbicide damage

2-4D most likely. can be pesticides damage too,

We had company come solicit pesticide and herbicide spraying, I send them far far away, but someone I guess did not.

Ozone damage