Sovereignty Farms

Aster - Blue Lagoon

I received 8 Aster plants today. Supposed to bloom summer to fall. Reach height of 24-36 inches. Sunny or partial shade. They are supposed to spread, too. I planted them in the newest bed by the basketball hoop.

Summer Corn Soup

So, this is from The Best of Fine Cooking - saw the mag at chan's and loved it so much that I ordered a back copy.  Last weekend I made this soup (even though it was pretty hot). I must say, this soup rocks the house. I know i will make it several times again, even though it is not trivial. so, here it is.

Serves 6 1-cup servings

• 6 large ears of sweet corn, shucked and silks removed
• kosher salt
• 3T olive oil
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1/2 c diced celery
• 1 medium red potato cut into cubes
• 1T loosley packed leaves fresh marjoram (I didn't have this so wasn't added to mine)
• Fresh black pepper
• Pinch cayenne (didn't have thos so used some paprika and chili powder)
• 1/4 c sour cream (for garnish)

Cut kernels off ears of corn; don't try to cut too close to the base of the kernels.  You'll need 3.5 - 4 cups of kernels.  Stand one cob on end in a pie plate or other shallow bowl. Use the back of a knife to scrape the cobs and extract as much 'milk" and solids as you can.  This is the raw corn puree - set aside.

Break the cobs in half and put in 4qt pot.  add 6 cups water and 1t salt and bing to boil over high heat.  reduce to medium low, cover, simmer for 30 minutes.  Discard cobs. Pour the liquid in a bowl and set aside.

Set the pot back over med high heat and add the oil.  When hot, and onion and saute until translucent (about 3 min).  Add the garlic and cook for 1 min.  reduce to medium, add celery, sprinkle with salt and stir.  cover and cook until veggies are soft (5-6 min).  Add potatoes, marjoram, pepper (about 6 turns of grinder), cayenne and stir.  add corn stock.  Bring to boil over med high heat.  Cover and lower heat and simmer 30 minutes.

Add most of the korn kernels (reserve 1 cup) and simmer another 10 min.

Puree soup in batches in blender.  Note: Don't fill blender more than 1/3 full, vent lid and hold a towel over the lid when turned on.

Put puree back in pot. Add more seasoning as needed. Add reserved kernels and corn "milk".  Simmer about 5 more minutes.

Garnish with dollop of sour cream.  (This really made a difference - a good one - in how it tasted.)

Cutting back daylilies

Based on books, magazines and websites for garden maintenance, I spent this morning cutting back the foliage on my daylilies, cleaning up all the dead leaves, and then giving them a good shot of liquid fertilizer.  But why?? I can't remember the reason.  So, I looked up some stuff on the web (didn't feel like dragging out all those books again) and here are some tidbits.

The KSU.edu wesite had the following:

....What she has done [cutting back daylilies to 6" high in August] is neither needed nor necessary when daylilies start looking bad. Still, it can make a landscape look neater...She probably cleared out the dead foliage, too, before cutting back the remaining green. Late summer is a good time to get ahead on that chore...By mid-August most daylilies ..... as close as daylilies get to being dormant during the growing season...The leaves aren't producing much food for the roots, so cutting them somewhat short is just fine. The plants may even send out some new, fresh leaves for you to enjoy before first frost...Some daylily aficionados cut back for another reason, though. They believe lush, but dying foliage can shade and discourage the growth of the baby daylilies that are emerging now. They want more plants...

More Plants

I got more plants today....These are all for the newest bed along the driveway

Pink Whispers (10 plants). Mid season bloomer, 28" tall, blooms 5-6" across.

Rose Veil (10 plants) had the exact same information.

Kerria japonica.  1 gallon plant. Yellow 1" flowers like little mums. Supposed gto bloom March - May but some are still blooming in August. Drought tolerant. Member of Rose family. Looses leaves in winter. 3-6 feet tall. Slow to establish then fast grower.

New Plants

Based on re-reading Passalong Plants I ordered some new plats from eBay.  I got 2 sets today that are both summer/fall bloomers which will be nice.

Helianthus angustifolius 'First Light' which is a dwarf swamp sunflower, blooms Sept - Oct with 2" bight yellow flowers.  The dwarf is 44" tall - not so dwarf.

Sweet Autumn Clematis is a pretty vine.  I read it can get to 20 feet in one season. It is also fragrant.  i have put this along the fence so I can see it from the kitchen window.  I may move a few cuttings over to the dining room side, too, but I want to get some irrigation over there first.  Blooms on current season's wood. Prune in late Spring by cutting slast years's stems to 6-12" above ground. Needs sun with heavily mulched roots.

Hibiscus

I continually get confused between the names of some plants, and thus how to take care of them.  I thought I would get this straight, once and for all, and share it with you  in the mena time.

Hibiscus - tropical - annual here in Georgia. This is one people try to bring indoors for the winter.  Not me - I just buy a new one each year.

Hibiscus - perennial in GA - also called Rose Mallow or Hardy Hibiscus - Hibiscus moscheutos - Cut back stems in early spring.  Propagate by soft-wood cuttings in the spring or by hard-wood cuttings in the fall. Plants can also be divided in fall or spring. Use Dipel or a Thuracide spray to control leaf eating caterpillars. Be careful to not over water until plants show signs of growth! Dead-head spent blooms.

OK, so now, Rose Mallow is not the same as Rose of Sharon. That is Hibiscus syriacus. This is also a  a deciduous shrub in GA.  It can be pruned into a tree.

OK - now, maybe we can keep it straight!! (yeah, right).

Just call me Sneezy

My allergies have been worse than normal over the past month.  So, I am going to the allergist Wednesday.  In the mean time, I have to be off any allergy meds for 7 days.  Holy cow. Do they realize it is August and I am a gardener??  This has just been miserable.

This weekend, instead of pulling the vegetables out of the veggie bed and planting for Fall, I cleaned out the shed.  Now, I am not sure that this was really better for my allergies necessarily.  I think it was more psychological. 

During the clean up I found a number of things that I think are interesting.  First, what is it with my inability to throw out those cheap, flimsy black plastic pots that plants come in from the store?? I tell myself I need them for all the cuttings I make and seeding I do. But I invested in some more sturdy small pots for that. About 50. And invariably, the pots I keep are 1 gallon.  Why would I keep a 1 gallon Hydrangea in a pot like that? As soon as they are 5” high they are tucked away in some spot in the garden. So, I threw them all out.  OK – that is a lie. But I did throw out a whole bunch of them.

Second, what is my fascination with keeping manure in bags for multiple years? I found some Black Kow that I am sure is over 3 years old. All the nutrients have long since left that opened bag of gold. I need to add an October chore that says “Empty all manure and soil into the garden and throw out the bag. Do not, repeat, do not put it back in the shed.” Maybe that would work.

I also found a stack of plant labels that I had kept after planting them. What a great idea, I thought. I should begin doing that again.

Scratch that idea.

As I reviewed the labels I noticed they falled into 2 categories.  A) Plants that are now dead.  Yeah. Like I really needed that reminder. B) Orphaned Hydrangea labels. I am pretty sure these Hydrangeas are still alive. But, with all the moving around and shuffling to find the oh-so-perfect lighting for those babies, I have not done a good job of keeping the labels with the plants. And if you know me at all, you know I have OCD, and, well, this is the sort of thing that keeps me awake at night. So now, having just been reminded that any labels I have out there are best guesses only – well, I probably will not get any sleep at all tonight.

That reminds me of one piece of information I gleaned this weekend. I read it in a book – not sure which one. This book said that Penny McHenry clipped her blooms and sold them to the local floral shop every year. And it is this clipping of blooms that guaranteed new blooms the next year. I guess I had always been under the impression that pruning was only necessary for shaping the plant. But, since I had 3 of my 100+ plants bloom this year – and she probably had 3 of her 200+ plants NOT bloom – I think I might give that a try next year. Maybe, even if there is not a bloom, I will cut them back a bit as if I were pruning the bloom. As long as I do it at the right time, it should not hurt anything. Maybe if I stopped loving this damn plant so much and pleading it to bloom each year – well, maybe then it would show a little color.