Weekend of July 6, 1996
This column is about your garden.
The writer—professional gardening editor/writer Dorinda Beaumont—
lives smack in the middle of our region—Rosendale.
So it’s about your zone, your soil, your plants.
Once a week Dorinda will chastise you, commiserate with you,
tell you what you absolutely can’t leave for another week,
all the while drawing inspiration from the daily journals she’s been
keeping for several years about her gardening experiences here in the Hudson Valley.
After the excesses of June, the flower garden looks rather subdued on a drizzly Fourth of July. June is rich in glamour flowersÑirises, peonies, delphiniums, and especially roses. But there's something disturbing about the way my garden looks today and the real problem is not a lack of flowers. It's the season. This is the very cusp of change, from the Apollonian order that rules the spring garden to the Dionysian disorder that characterizes high summer. In a few days , the last remnants of logic and bare soil will be hidden by rampant growth, and the few plants that aren't doing well this year will be invisible, engulfed by neighbors that are doing all too well. Annuals that have made steady progress for a month will become pushy space gobblers with just a few days of hot sunshine. I love the unruly tumble of the July garden, but the changeover is awkward, and it seems to be prolonged by the cool, wet weather we're having.
VEGETABLES AND SMALL FRUITS
Almost everyone who expands beyond a few tomato plants, soon arrives at zucchini. It's just so darn productive; one plant will keep a family of four in squash for three months. Our family of two, of course, has four plants. Don't ask me why. However, there are better solutions to the zucchini glut than sneaking around leaving them on neighbors' doorsteps.
The first best solution is to pick them small. I may let the first few squash reach six inches because there are so few of them, but when they come thick and fast, I'll cut them when they're only three inches long. At that size, they cook to buttery tenderness in a bit of olive oil in less than five minutes and taste exquisite. You can eat a lot of them.
Squash blossoms are another good idea. You can stuff them, fry them, sautŽ them, and more. Consult Italian and Mexican cookbooks and those written by fancy California chefs. If you're short on zucchini (!) just pick the male blossoms, the ones with no baby squash at the base.
It's not too late to plant zucchini seeds, by the way. If you start them today, you'll be eating tiny homegrown squash in early August.
TREES, SHRUBS AND VINES
Hydrangeas are at peak now. I don't have much to say about the pink and blue jobbies, that are forced into early bloom and offered at Easter time. They're not to my taste, and are only borderline hardy in our area. The one I like best is the native white Hydrangea arborescens. All the top growth dies over winter, although the pale stalks topped by silvery tan dried flower heads stand through all but the the heaviest snows. In spring they shoot up quickly from the roots, reaching five or six feet by the time they bloom. They're green in bud, turn pure white, slowly age to green, and turn golden tan in fall. The flowers dry standing, but to use them for wreaths, pick them at the white or green stage and dry slowly in a vase with an inch of water in the bottom. They'll shed less. Last but not least, they do all this in heavy shade with absolutely no care, provided the soil is fairly moist but not boggy.
FLOWERS AND HERBS
My hollyhocks have got old, rusty, and spindly. This is the time to get organized to grow new ones from seed. A good way to acquire the seed is to stop and ask someone whose flowers you admire. Most people will gladly pluck a pod or two. The first seed pods are probably not quite brown and ripe yet, but they soon will be. Make a little hollyhock nursery somewhere sunny. By fall they'll need a square foot of space. Then you can transplant them into the flower garden for bloom this time next year. They're supposed to want good rich soil and plenty of water, but those that do best for me are in thin dry soil next to the foundation of the house where I forget to water them. I'm obviously missing something important about growing hollyhocks and I suggest you collect all the good advice you can while you're cadging the seeds.
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