I was always a city kid, but when you grow up in Nebraska and spend lots of summer vacations driving across various Midwestern states with an RV to see the sites and visit family, you pick up an old farmer’s adage or two along the way. One that particularly stuck with me was this old saying, used to advise whether the corn crops were on track to have a good harvest by the fall: the farmer should have corn that was “knee high by the Fourth of July.”
I can’t tell why that one has stayed in my brain, other than that it’s particularly fun to say with an overly-exaggerated country drawl. (Try it if you haven’t already – you’ll thank me for it.) It isn’t even useful advice anymore; from what I’ve read, advances in agricultural science and growing techniques mean that these days, most cornfields would have surpassed knee-height long before now. Still, a glance at my calendar this week brought it to mind, so an Independence Day garden check-in seemed like a darn good idea.
(For the record: I’d initially planned to include more up-to-the-moment snapshots today, but we’ve had crazy winds over the past day or so and many of the plants are tilting and having, shall we say, bad leaf days. I’ll have to share a full gallery once they’re recovered a bit!)
2021 Growing Conditions To Date
Spring here was mostly cool and dry, with long stretches of grey days that didn’t actually bring much precipitation. After a winter with less-than-average snowfall and the absence of any late-season (late March-April) last-gasp snowstorms, it’s been a struggle all season to keep appropriate moisture levels in the soil. The state set several heat records in June as well, so it’s been rather crispy all around so far.
Background: This Season’s Crop
As of this weekend, my plants have been in their containers outdoors for a full 6 weeks. In hindsight, some of the hardier souls probably could have gone into the soil a bit earlier, but mid-May had seen such wild temperature fluctuations, including several dips to the mid-30s Fahrenheit, that I decided to play it safe. Especially since I’d had greater success in starting seedlings indoors this year than I’d ever had before, I didn’t want to risk my plant babies! (More on lessons learned from indoor experiments at a later date.)
Container Setup
As I mentioned in my previous “meet the garden” post, my suburban townhome situation means that my plants are container-dwellers. I’ve gotten more skilled at the nuances of container growing over the seasons, which is good! There is a down side, however. The result of my increased confidence and expanding interests has been that the total volume of planters has also grown considerably, from a measly 11 little pots or so when I started, up to 45 this year.
What’s the problem, you may ask? Well, we’ve always enjoyed using our deck for other things as well, like grilling meals, relaxing to read, and letting the pets out for some basking in the sun. After last year, the amount of room left to the rest of the non-plant family was quite limited, so I resolved to preserve some leisure space this year.
I expanded my growing space this year by doubling the number of railing planters I set up on the deck’s edge. This certainly has freed up some real estate on the deck floor, though I’ve been learning quickly what does and doesn’t work so well in that setup! I’ve also tried more companion planting, such as allowing a couple basil plants to grow between the tomatoes, and so far the experiment is working.
My plants are loosely divided into a few different categories: medicinal herbs, vegetables, herbs primarily used for culinary purposes, and decorative flowers. Let’s briefly check in with each.
Medicinal Herbs
Getting some lovely early returns with the yarrow, calendula, comfrey, and chamomile!
The winner of this category, leaves-down, has to be the borage! It’s my first year growing it, and I’ve been utterly amazed by how easy it was to grow from seed, how well it took off in the garden, how absolutely gorgeous the flowers are, and how much the bumblebees can’t stay away from it! It’s lovely to see little pollinator friends going from borage to calendula to yarrow to catnip and back again. I have it on good authority that these blooms also taste fantastic, but so far I’ve been saving and drying them for later medicinal use. I’ll have to try it soon, though!
Veggies
As part of the attempt to control the amount of space taken up by each type of plant this year, I decided to go “mini” with the vegetable plants. That is, rather than full-grown species, I opted for cherry tomatoes and lunchbox peppers. I’d never come across lunchbox peppers before, but as you might imagine, they promise small, compact peppers that are perfect for a snack or a single-person side. Worth a try in my book!
So far, a few tiny green tomatoes have been spotted, along with a few blossoms on the pepper plants. Stay tuned!
Culinary Herbs
In past years, I’ve struggled a bit with which way to prioritize herbs like sage, thyme, and oregano. Great for herbal healing remedies, of course, but also lovely to have as fresh culinary ingredients! One of the things I’ve learned after a few seasons of growing herbs is that trying to do everything usually leads me absolutely nowhere, and I end the season feeling that I wasted opportunities and frustrated that I didn’t have enough preserved for either medicinal or culinary purposes over the winter.
This year I changed my approach a bit. I decided that I have a number of other herbs I’m growing purely for medicinal reasons, like plantain, calendula, yarrow and borage. This year, I’d try to expand my focus with the kitchen herbs to using them exactly that way: fresh, as needed, in the kitchen. Sounds like a minor adjustment, I know, but giving myself permission to use, enjoy and share them at their freshest has been downright liberating.
They’re doing rather well this year, too, knock on wood. I’d planned to share a picture of the mediterranean planter with you, but they’re looking a bit mushed-down at the moment after a good watering. Soon, though! In the meantime, here’s a tiny glimpse of some lemon thyme…oh, and Llewelyn the Lesser, just for fun. 🙂
Decorative Flowers
Finally, even though I really didn’t intend to grow any purely decorative flowers this year in order to reserve space, I did end up with two after all…and they’re so gorgeous, I’m truly glad I did.
This pretty petunia was an impulse buy at a plant sale this spring, but I couldn’t resist those colors. Unfortunately, it was in a section of unmarked misfits, so I don’t have details on its variety. Looks gorgeous amongst the other greenery, though!
I’m so pleased that this snapdragon bloomed this year. I attempted to grow these seeds last season, but long story short, they didn’t germinate. I tried again this year with the remaining seeds in the packet, and while only two plants were successful, just look at the stunning color of these blooms! (Territorial Seed Company, Potomac Sunset)
Thanks for taking this garden tour with me! Be back soon with more updates and plant bios!
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