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The cause was just. There was no hope of peaceful resolution. The invaders must be repelled. Forces were aligned. The battle was long and fierce. The invaders suffered untold causalities. Yet for the first time in memory the old man lost and the weeds won.

There were reasons for my defeat.  Moisture was abundant for the entire growing season and the weeds loved it.  Many shared my fate. Other projects kept me from the gardens for a few too many days. Playing catch up this year was impossible.  Finally in the spring of 2012 I bought a trailer load of mushroom soil.  Most was it was spread with good results immediately. A small pile remained which I weeded regularly. I guess I tired near the end of the 2012 season and a few weeds grew. Part of that pile was spread this year with a resulting carpet of weeds thicker than the hair on a dog.  I’m reinvigorated now.  

As indicated by the last paragraph a major part of next year’s weed problem is the weed seeds we let mature in our garden now. Surveying the size and maturity of many of my weeds now, I am pulling and hauling them out of the garden. New seedlings will taste roundup.  I’ll confess the sprayer and weed eater frequently joined the hoe and my pulling hands this year in the garden.  

Recently I saw the claim that a single pigweed can throw off 100,000 seeds. Since it was the villain in my mushroom soil I would suggest that that number is way too low. I do not have numbers for other weeds but I am sure they are quite high also. Their survival, as they fight us gardeners, depends on high seed production and longevity in the soil to offset our efforts to get rid of them.Weeds like every living thing have special niches to promote survival.

As you know not all weeds germinate at the same time. Pigweed is a spring weed. Another plague in my garden is redroot a summer germinator. Finally my third big problem is chickweed which is about to germinate and flourish over the winter and clog our gardens as spring arrives.

Unfortunately the battle against weeds is almost year round.The report on pigweed suggested that just 25% of the seeds would germinate the following year. The rest hangs around to haunt us in future years.

Can there be a better reason to get out there now and begin the 2014 war?

There is something relaxing about snapping green beans. Especially when you are doing it on your porch on a sunny cool morning, watching a hummingbird visiting black and blue salvia in the flower bed. It gives you time to think.

The kids helped me pick the beans and 4-year-old Ali gave up a lot faster than her 7-yr-old brother. Liam told her more than once “We need to pick the beans or else we’ll starve over the winter”. Should I be happy that he thinks we need to grow a portion of our food, or should I be concerned that he has forgotten about the grocery store?

We have a strange relationship with food in this country. The number of farmers has dwindled as the average acreage has increased. In 1900, 38% of the population was employed in agriculture. Today that number is around 2%. Half of the farms today are either hobby/retirement farms, or require a family member to work off site to make ends meet.

On the other hand, last year 15% of the population received government food assistance. To date, this year’s farm bill is still being wrangled over in congress. Whether you support federal crop insurance and artificially lowered food prices, and the corresponding food stamp programs for America’s needy families or not, this is a conversation that needs to be addressed in this country.

The barriers to entering farming are very high. Land is expensive, machinery and supplies are very expensive and the job is certainly not 9-5. The average age of farmers in this country is still over 60, with five 70-year-old farmers for every one 25-year-old.

The “Eat Local” movement has helped, and there is a push to be more aware of where your food comes from, but the demographics of agriculture are very much different than they were even 20 years ago. Think about how many more houses there are today on your way to town than there were when you were a kid.

As for me, I’m going to try to keep growing what I can, visiting my neighbor’s farm stands, and when I am able, slipping a little extra in the “honesty box”.

This has been a strange summer. I sit here in jeans and a sweatshirt and a news story come on the radio- it is 105F in Shanghai. It was the hottest day since they started recording temperature 140 years ago. The West coast is also experiencing hotter than normal temperatures, and I haven’t had a ripe tomato in a week.

Europe on the other hand is having a cool, wet summer- like us. According to Millersville University weather station-we had on average 2 extra inches of rain per month all summer. Down here in the Southern End, I think we got more than that.  I’ll take it- the soil isn’t too dry to work- the grass is still green, and with the exception of a week or two in July, it is bearable to be outside gardening.

We have been getting lots of calls about annuals not blooming well- especially tropical vines. Blame it on the weather. Many of these tropical annuals need at least 6 hours of sunlight and warm temps. Cloudy, overcast weather makes them pout. On the other hand, hydrangeas did well with the extra moisture and were fantastic this summer. Some plants suffered that one really hot week in July- the annual lobelia cooked and so did some petunias. Keeping a journal helps me remember some of these cause and effects.

How did your vegetable garden do? I had a bumper crop of cucumbers- there are WAY too may pickles in my pantry. But the tomatoes didn’t do so well. The ones that didn’t get blight, grew a ton of suckers in the rain, and now since it is cool and overcast they don’t have enough sunlight to make many ripe ones. Luckily I still have some of last year’s bumper crop in the pantry. But I’m not giving up hope yet. There are still three weeks of August. I get corn from the neighbors, and it all looks great. Zucchini did well- but not overwhelmingly.

Fall broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower like these cool temps and rain- though melons don’t seem as sweet. Honeydew melons which like dry hot weather are hard to find.  We had trouble with those yellow Mexican bean beetles on the green beans- dusting with diatomaceous earth seems to have knocked them back somewhat- and I’m still getting enough to freeze.  I need to let the chickens loose out there...

Onions produced well. Lettuce and spinach are going in as soon as the rototiller gets fixed. Potatoes are good- but something we’ve never seen before- our red skin potatoes are pink inside. We must have gotten a different seed potato than we normally do- but 4-yr old Ali likes the pink mashed potatoes.

Whoever said gardening wasn’t exciting?

Several days ago I took the chainsaw to two very expensive trees that I had planted eight or ten years ago. Then, they seemed to be the perfect answer for a rather difficult spot.

Let me explain.  Approaching the house I recently vacated,  was a cobble walk from the parking area. It shortly hit an eight foot circle from which you had three choices. Straight ahead was the front door. To the right was the deck. To the left was the kitchen door.What that created was two rather tight V shaped areas.

First I tried hardy pampas grass. I liked the height of 10 to 15 feet but in six or eight years it became obvious that it was too big. Lesson one: Plants grow and get bigger, often quickly. Does a landscaping project only have a lifespan of 15 years as many say?  

Next, I tried a pair of white crape myrtles. Since the house faced northeast they got only morning sun. That turned out to be not enough light to get blooms on crape myrtles. Other crape myrtles about five feet further from the house are successful. Lesson two: Micro differences in location can make a world of difference. Shade, wind and moisture would top my concerns.

After two strikes and reduced poverty, the search began for the perfect plants. We needed some height. We needed them to grow slowly. After much research I came up with Lion’s head maples. They are more obscure but are one of the many Japanese maples in the nursery trade.With assurance that they were easily hardy in our climate, I obtained two plants about five feet tall and two or three feet across. They had a unique green leaf and a branch structure that definitely suggested slow growth. We won’t divulge the price, but comparing a fancy BMW verses a compact Ford comes to mind.  The one on the deck side got a bit more wind. Despite being slightly wrapped the first winter it took some twig damage.

Fast forward: By the time the chainsaw arrived, the one in the most wind was about two feet tall and seemed a little happy. Its neighbor was still six feet tall but two of the three main branches were dead.Lesson three: A lot of plants from coastal eastern Asia have found their way into our landscapes. That’s not bad if one reflects on their climate. They, being coastal, have a maritime climate. That means cooler summers, milder winters and a spring that warms gradually. Do we have any of that? No!I am comfortable with Asian trees and shrubs rated Zone 5. There may not be many. Woody plantsrated Zone 6 would be sheltered, at least from the winter wind, in my garden.

That’s batting zero in three tries. Three strikes and I am out of there with a new yard in which to juggle success and failure. So far the voles have only gotten six of the 226 hostas I planted. None in the last three weeks.

It sure seems like we’ve had a lot of rain lately. The weather service assures us that we are still at or slightly below normal levels for this time of year, but I for one, am starting to feel like Mrs. Noah.

The tomatoes and some of my mixed annual containers don’t like it- but the astilbes sure do. They look fantastic. The common name is false spirea. Why, I don’t know, because they look nothing like spirea to me. That must be the false part. But I digress.

Astilbes are perennials with colorful fluffy flower spikes of red, purple, pink or white rising above dark green, cutleaf, mounding foliage. Often found under trees or in the shady perennial border, they will tolerate sun or part shade, but they like it moist. The more sun, the more moisture they require.

Native to Asia, there are four main classes of astilbes. The earliest to bloom are the Japonica group with their
glossy green leaves and tight flower clusters. These are the ones blooming now. Of these, my favorites are the deep purple of ‘Elizabeth Van Veen’ and the soft peach of ‘Peach Blossom’.

The next group to bloom is the Arendsii group, named for famed plant breeder George Arends. Many of his original hybrids dating back to the 30’s are the parents of today’s astilbes. This group is a mixture of several species all intercrossed. The creamy flower spires of ‘White Gloria’, red spikes of ‘Fanal’ even the later blooming ‘August Light’ and the open airy blossoms of ‘Delft Lace’are among my favorites. This group tends to be two to three feet tall.

The latest blooming group and the shortest, are the Chinensis group. They are also the most drought tolerant of all the astilbes. The red stems of the ‘Visions in Red’ hybrids and the fluffy white flowers of ‘Milk and Honey’ are my favorites in this group.

Astilbe ‘Sprite’, a member of the fourth group, the simplicifolia type, was one of the earliest selections for Perennial Plant of the Year award in 1994. This dwarf astilbe has soft pink flowers over very dark green foliage. If you are new to astilbes, this one is a good place to start. In general, the simplicifolias have the most airy flower spikes.

Astilbes are long-lived perennials, as long as they have adequate moisture. They clumps should be divided every several years. Over time the crown has a tendency to slowly lift itself out of the ground. Top dress with compost or topsoil or take this as a sign to divide the clump.

Nothing beats astilbes for summer color in the shady garden.