Mid September Garden Report, with Lespedeza

In a normal year, the floral hero for early September is the brugmansia – or more properly the brugmansias, since there are 2 of them. By now they are usually 8 feet tall, very nearly as wide, and covered with giant white flowers that perfume the whole yard at evening. That’s usually. But usually, it rains once in a while.

Because it hasn’t, the brugmansias are less than stellar. It’s the lespedeza that makes you go Wow. Clover is admittedly tough, but it’s still a surprise to see the thing remaining green in every leaf and covering itself with blossoms. As the self is approximately 6 feet – in every direction – and the blossoms are like tiny magenta-pink sweet peas, the effect evokes every cloud clichaé you’ve ever heard or read. Bought it years ago from Plant Delights.

Vinnie the cat is trying his best, but we still see vole damage in the Swiss chard. There is huitlachoche ( aka corn smut) in the corn; blight has taken most of the heirloom tomatoes. Still orders of magnitude too much to eat, and too much to keep up with. Bill has been harvesting squash every day but I just turned over a leaf and found a zucchini as big as the Ritz.