This month, Northumberland Master Gardeners would like to share some pictures of their late summer gardens.
Christa Bisanz is known for her vegetable gardening. Below on the left you can see a picture of Christa’s vegetable garden beds in all their glory. On the right a basket of yellow beans has just been harvested. An avid gardener, Christa loves to share her produce with friends and family.
Joy Cullen shares a great idea! She has Zinnias blooming in her garden right now. They have dutifully taken over for the Daylilies that previously bloomed in front of where they were planted.
Lori Groves is sharing a picture of her squash ladder, made from a dismantled old wooden ladder and some lilac branches kept from when she renovated the shrubs in the winter. There are assorted gourds and mini pumpkins happily climbing this support, including Luffa squash which she has never grown before. Lori started the Luffa indoors in early spring by seed, and kept the seedlings on a sunny windowsill with southern exposure until it was warm enough to plant them out.
Lori also sent along a fascinating photograph of Thynnid wasps, Myzinum spp. congregating on the white cedar in the evening. They are a parasitic wasp, who by day appear in a frenzy to enjoy the Narrow-Leaf Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium), along with a Monarch butterfly for company,(photo on the right), and Spotted Bee Balm (Monarda punctata), (Photo below).
Lori overwintered several of her pepper plants from 2021 on a southern-facing sunny windowsill. The plants are thriving, with very thick, woody stems. These are the biggest sweet peppers she has ever grown. The plants produced peppers during the winter too, but they were quite small.
It was so exciting that a leafcutter bee left Lori these incredible symmetrical eyes on a leaf of the Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera). You can see the evidence!
Lori also sent along a picture of her Daikon radish which she grew for the first time this year. She made them into a delicious refrigerator pickle.
Carol Anderson had a delightful visit from a Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris spp.). She spent several minutes watching it hover and feed from my Lilium “Stargazer”
Carol’s dahlia patch is starting to bloom. It provides weeks of cut flowers for the house and to share with others.
