Just Before Summer: 10 Days in Photos

Here's a look at 10 days in the garden in mid- to late May.

Ah, this was before the lettuce bolted and we still had kale.

I saw the rabbit as I walked to my car to go to work. So far, it has stayed away from the veggie boxes. Could it be true that nasturtiums really do repel rabbits? Or does a mix of fragrant herbs confuse the bunny's sense of smell? We have rue, oregano, thyme, basil, dill, sage, parsley, cilantro, catnip, and probably more that I'm forgetting. I feel a superstitious sense that as I write this the bunny is out there munching...

The peony flower's life span is short. The peonies are done, a bedraggled mass of tattered pinkish white petals turning brown. But how beautiful to watch them unfold. 

Birds are peeping everywhere in the yard. For days, every time I walked in the backyard I heard rustlings and flutterings in the bushes as a group of four tiny Carolina wrens moved about. This little one is too young to have tail feathers. Adorable!

This is an unknown but very tall rose bush (more than 8 feet high) with lovely translucent pink flowers.

The cherry tomato plants were the first to begin flowering. 

A view of the side yard. In early spring, we took out a deck that took up much of the yard, including the sunniest spot, where the veggie boxes are now. 

The star jasmine is growing well off the front porch. 

The white-breasted nuthatch is one of the most common birds seen at our feeder. Today I saw a juvenile nuthatch sit on top of the pole with its mouth open and the parent feed it with seeds.

A fading but still beautiful rose. 

I am continuing to take daily photos in the garden. Please visit again in a few days for the next set of 10!

Veggie Gardening in Part Sun

You can grow many edibles in part sun. It took me years to figure this out -as a new gardener, I devoured the articles in gardening magazines and diligently followed whatever the experts said. I would read about heirloom lettuce or how to grow beans, and in my imagination, I was already cutting “claret-splashed, bright green” lettuce leaves and serving tender steamed heirloom green beans. My fantasies burst with the inevitable words: “needs full sun.” The sunniest part of our yard gets direct sun from noon to 3 p.m., well short of the six hours of sunlight called full sun.

The woodland vegetable garden

Cherry tomatoes, planted last week.

Like many people who live in older neighborhoods with established trees, full sun is a dream. You don’t get much sunlight when your house is surrounded on all sides by 50- to 60-foot-tall trees. But my husband wanted a vegetable garden, and two years ago, we stopped listening to the experts. We dug up an oval-shaped patch of weedy “lawn” in a clearing on the south side of the house, added lots of compost to improve the clay, and began experimenting.

Probably the biggest surprise was that cherry tomatoes do quite well in part sun in our North Carolina garden. We’ve grown “Sun Gold” and “Sweet Million,” both of which produced so prolifically that we had extras to give to neighbors. Last year I tried Roma tomatoes, which ripened into several batches of tomato sauce.

Free bamboo makes nice tepees for pole beans.

The general rule seems to be that plants that flower and grow large “fruit,” such as large tomatoes, squash, cucumber, melons, etc. do require full sun. But we’ve had success with smaller vegetables such as peas and bush beans. This year, we’re trying two different varieties of pole beans.

Greens thrive in part sun in our Zone 7B garden. Swiss chard has become my favorite green. It’s beautiful, with its bright red, yellow or orange stems and survives both summer heat and winter cold. If you cut only the largest leaves, it will produce for months. We plant collards and kale in the fall.  Although they stop growing during the shortest days, they survive brief periods of snow cover and are ready for harvest by March. I almost forgot the lettuce - I think it may prefer part shade in the South.

Parsley

Last, but not least, many herbs do well in part shade. I don’t know what we’d do without them – they’re especially valuable as flavor because my husband is on a low-sodium diet. We use them in almost every meal except breakfast. Parsley and oregano thrive with almost no care. Even with almost daily use, our two parsley plants grow faster than we can cut them. Our basil plants grew four feet tall last summer. Rosemary also has grown well in part shade. I just planted thyme and tarragon and look forward to seeing how they do.

One thing I know: I’m having a lot more fun as a gardener (and eating better!) since I started experimenting with the vegetable garden.