While everyone in NYC was at the beach on this glorious Memorial Day Weekend, we were busy planting our crops and getting our garden organized for the summer. Finally, all the veggies - tomatoes, peppers, japanese eggplants, cukes, lettuce, herbs - are in their pots. And with plant withering temperatures this weekend - almost 90 - we offered our sensitive seedlings a little sun protection - literally. Mitch hung an old curtain and a beach towel on a couple of tomato poles to keep the direct sunlight off the tomato plants. We've found that plopping them into full sun after a couple of months of growing indoors can give them quite a shock. The leaves get burned and the stems begin to droop despite plenty of water. The good news is they seem to have survived the weekend and by this time next month they should be full of flowers and even green fruit.
Our Chippewa blueberry bush on the other hand, did get burned. Earlier in the week, on one of the first 90 degree days of the season, the leaves just burnt to a brown crisp! We don't know why, as it was sufficiently watered and its sibling, a Polaris blueberry bush, survived the day just fine. We called Miller Nurseries where we purchased the young plants and they have promised to send us a new one!
While our veggies are coming along nicely, our search for the perfect shrub to add to our flower garden is not going so well. I mentioned in an earlier post that we purchased a Scotch Broom at Paradise Plants in the flower district. The plant was full of bright red and yellow flowers and seemed like a winning choice. This was not the case. The manager insisted that the plant would flower all summer. Instead, this weed went to seed just weeks after we got it home. I would not recommend this plant to anyone and would not recommend shopping at Paradise! Of course, had we done the research before buying, we could have avoided this $35 mistake. On Monday, we chopped the Scotch down and replaced it with a temporary geranium and petunia arrangement. So, we're still on the hunt for a tallish shrub that will flower all summer and winter well. If anyone has any suggestions, PLEASE POST THEM!
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