For those of you in the DFW area that would like to attend a weekday Fall Veggie Gardening class, I'll be teaching one here at North Haven Gardens next Wednesday, August 12th at 10:30 am. Most of our free programs are on the weekends, but we get requests for weekday options. I'm SO glad it's almost time to start salad greens again!

August is usually when I go on a "gardening vacation"...it's just so darn hot here! (Although we have been getting some unexpected and very welcome rain the last few days.) Because I'm just not going to do a whole lot of work out there right now, I plant a few perennials that I know will look great in the heat and drought, even if for just the month of August. My favorite "August only" bloomer is the Philippine Lily (Lilium formosanum). It looks just like an Easter lily and has the most wonderful fragrance. The bright white blooms look fantastic in the evening and at night, so plant in areas where you might sit outside at those times. Once established they don't take a lot of water (in fact they'll rot on you with too much), can be planted in full sun and look great with other late summer bloomers like salvias and Mexican petunias.They'll bloom for about three weeks, which may not seem long but is totally worth it. Plants usually start blooming the very end of July and bloom through mid-August, in the DFW area.

Philippine lilies are a bit obscure, so it can sometimes be difficult to find the tubers. Once you have them, they can be multiplied by division of the tubers or the many seed the plants produce. The typical variety grows large, up to about 5 or 6 feet tall. The one I have in my garden is a rare dwarf variety that gets about 3 to 3 1/2 feet tall only. I procured this through my plant geek network and haven't actually seen the dwarf readily available for sale many places. But I'm going to collect a bunch of seed from it in a few weeks and we'll start propagating it up at North Haven Gardens.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/around-town/food-drink/Dallas-Hen-Sales-Not-Ready-to-Fly-the-Coop.html

Last week I was up in Columbus at the OFA conference (Ohio Short Course). The big floriculture convention. There is always much to do and learn as well as new plants and gadgets to discover. Here are a few of the fun things I found. Be aware that some of these new plant varieties may not be out on the market for a while.  Some will be available starting this fall. There were tons of things to get photos of, but these are just a few highlights.

I also did a quick interview with Ellen Wells from Green Profit/Greenhouse Grower mags. On...you guessed it...CHICKENS. lol She Buzzed about it in their e-newsletter and promises a chicken keeping 101 in the next Green Profit issue, for those of you in the industry. http://www.ballpublishing.com/GreenProfit/ReadCurrentBuzz.aspx

Lots of new succulents on the market these days. Here was a cool little Aloe named 'Christmas Carol'. And a very cool miniature Cyperus.

An absolutely beautiful new Echinacea named 'Tiki Torch' and a super blue new Salvia farinacea hybrid named 'Sallyfun Bluetune'

With the millions of coleus out there, I'm not usually impressed with new ones, but 'Chocolate Splash' is really quite lovely. A very cool new Purslane called 'Maraca'.

A very distinctively different Mahonia...will make for a nice new small shade shrub option. Although it's cultivar name, 'Soft Caress', gives me the giggles. A big new Gomphrena called 'Fireworks' really caught my eye. The bright pink and yellow blooms aren't really my style when it comes to color, but it looks like it will be a beast in the summer garden.

A fancy new trailing Tiarella called 'FM Moonberry'. A fab green wall planted with succulents (sorry ramdom dude in the photo!)

Just a quick chicken shot of the day...my crazy little Einstein. She's grown quite a bit since she first arrived but she's still just as loony. With the addition of new chickens to the flock, Einstein got a promotion. She went from the bottom of the pecking order to thinking she had a couple of newbies to boss around, even though as different breeds they are twice her size. It's hilarious. She stands on top of the food container now and flaps her wings at everyone...defender of the corn...

I Harvested a few cucumbers this afternoon...I realized I have quite the assortment. The large crazy looking ones are Armenian burpless cucumbers. I knew I'd planted a few by seed, but where I thought I'd seeded some extra squash, it was actually these. When you grow lots of different veggies year-round, sometimes you forget what you've planted! Anyhoo, I was glad to find extras of these beauties. The Armenian burpless give you a pretty ruffled edge slice with a sweet flavor. The yellow fruit are Lemon cucumbers. Similar to the flavor you find with a standard slicing cucumber but with a lemony flavor. YUM. This is a lot of cucumber to eat all at once, and there are only so many cucumber sandwiches I can eat in one day. So I'll probably be juicing these in the morning.

FYI, for you gardeners in the DFW area, North Haven Gardens now offers a nursery pot recycling program. AWESOME. Details here: http://www.nhg.com/recyclenhg.htm UPDATE: Just got a response from the Dallas city recycling manager. They say that they now take nursery pots in the blue bins, with the numbers #3-#7. But they grade it as "mixed plastics' and they say they are recycled into things like plastic lumber. I'm not sure if once the plastic is mixed, it can be recycled again. NHG will take #2's, which the city does not, and you can be sure that we will actually be recycing them. With our process, the pots can be recycled over and over again into new nursery pots. 

This is a great service and we're super excited to offer it. We'll take pots/trays from any garden center as long as they bear the proper recycling codes, #2, #5 and #6. Check the details at the link above.

Meant to post this last week before I trotted off to Columbus, but didn't get the chance. Just a couple of photos of one morning's veggie harvest. That's all I had room to pick that day...I'll be harvesting up a bunch of tomatoes over the next couple of days and pulling some of those tomato plants. I'll also post on how to trench plant summer tomatoes. And no, I haven't forgotten I still owe a fruit tree espallier pots as well! The potatoes are a mix of 'Yukon Gold', one of my faves and 'Kennebec'. I was up at the Ohio short course this past week...I'll post some shots of some cool new plant varieties - as long as you guys understand that some may not be available for a while!