The End of the Dog Days

Well, can you believe it, the whole of summer is quickly coming to a halt.
The end of the dog days has arrived, August 11th.  School is back in session. The sweet corn has been eaten. The big brandywine tomatoes are done growing and only the little cherry tomatoes are left.
The sunflowers are hanging their heavy seeded heads. The bright Dog Star, Sirius returns to the night sky, leaving behind the hottest days of summer.



oriental lily Rubrum has a lovely perfume




The last of the lilies are blooming. The Fabulous Orientals! They give us their grand finale with their large fragrant heavenly blooms in August.





The many blooms of lily species Rubrum.



Cooler weather is now only weeks away. 

Sweet Corn

The sweet corn planted this year was NK199.
The name sounds like an experimental variety, certainly not the delicious summer vegetable
that we all can't live without with names like: sugar baby, peaches and cream, Kandy Korn or Bodacious.
NK stands for the breeder, Northrup King, and why the name 199 stuck is unknown to me.
NK199 was choosen because I've grown many other hybrids that have not met my standard
for vigor.
NK199 has been around since the 1950's. It's an old time standard corn that was developed for
Green Giant for processing into canned corn.
It grows very tall to over 8 foot, which makes it easier to pick since the ears are higher up on the stalk.
It did good this year during the June drought. It will also out yield other hybrids.
It is bright yellow with lots of big kernels on a large cob. All NK199 needs is butter and salt.



NK199 is as tall as the 9-10 foot sunflowers.










Supper tonight
4 big just picked ears on a plate
Thats a summer delight :)
and all I ate.

Perennial Vegetables

After a long winter, fruits and nuts and herbs come back to grow again,
but the vegetables need to be replanted every Spring.
Wouldn't a garden be a paradise if all veggies were perennial.
No need to sow every year. Just watch'em come up and grow.
We all would have a home garden.
Well, lucky for us there are just a few vegetables, depending on what zone you garden in, that
are perennial.

Here in Kentucky, in my garden, I have a few, that come up year after year.

Rhubarb: one the the hardiest & easiest vegetables to grow
It is also the first veggie to eat in Spring.

Another is asparagus, which I have not planted. Maybe next Spring, I'll get the chance to.

Quite a sight for an awesome vegetable.

For a few winters, the leeks have come back growing without replanting.

I'll consider them a perennial vegetable.

                                               Mine are the thinner leeks, like a big scallion.

So, I've got 3 perennial vegetables.  That leaves me to replant only 22.