Six on Saturday: July 11, 2020

The first ripe tomatoes of 2020!

This “Six on Saturday” is simple…six things that made me smile this morning!

1. Tomato “Sun Sugar” is one of my favorites, and often the first to ripen. Red tomatoes give me a rash, but I can eat these luscious orange ones! The first of many, many to come, and the raccoons didn’t get them first this time!

Daylily “Fooled Me”

2) I could have picked six lovely daylilies, but I’ll stick to one, this almost orange-gold beauty with deep maroon eye and edgings that lives in the potager’s interior border. The photo doesn’t do it justice!

EarliDew Melon

3) This was my absolute favorite last year, and was the most productive melon of all I grew. Full-sized honeydew type, it is thick-fleshed, sweet and absolutely delicious. And, easy to tell when it’s ripe because it starts to separate at the stem. There are already 3 big ones (6″ across) and dozens of baseball-sized on two vines.

“Hannah’s Choice”

4) Staying in the melon aisle, a few trellises down are the “Hannah’s Choice” melons. Again a full-sized melon, so it won’t be the first to ripen, but they will start coming soon after the Minnesota Midgets. A cantaloupe with good flavor, a bit firmer than some, but never watery, and the vines are loaded.

“Snaptini Orange” dwarf snapdragons

5) Despite our heat and lack of rain (Indiana is in drought conditions officially now) these little darling snapdragons continue to bloom like crazy. A bit more red than I’d prefer, but they sure stop traffic! And a bonus! Those plants behind them are volunteer lemon basils! I’m not sure I’ve ever had lemon basil seed winter over here! And, since I was short on space and potting soil due to “stay at home” I didn’t even bother to seed any! Happy Day!

6) These two plants of “Starburst Aura” sunflowers are a huge bouquet at the end of the potager’s main path. More and more blooms keep opening. Last year I grew mostly single stalk/flower types and while they were lovely, they were one and done. Not especially good in sunflowers or the NCAA, so this year I chose a branching type, and I’m certainly glad I did.

So that’s my “SOS” for this week. If you’d like to see other gardeners’ selections from across the globe, visit The Propagator, who hosts this meme. Or, I’m sure you can find six things in your garden to make you smile, too, so you can join along! Happy gardening!