In the photo below you will noticed that my basil started going to seed in September. I had planted lots of Nufar Basil in 2015 because that seemed to be the only variety that wasn’t dying on me. Nufar Basil is similar to Genovese Basil in the sense that it is a type of Sweet Basil, but Nufar is resistant to Fasarium Disease. Fasarium Disease is actually a fungus that spreads via contaminated seeds and can last in the soil for years. In 2014, all of my basil succumbed to this disease. All other varieties of basil that I saw in nurseries in the area seemed to have it, except for Nufar. So this will be my go-to basil until I can find another variety that is resistant.
Another observation from the photo below is the one boxwood that is dying in the circular bed. It is pretty much completely dead now, but the other three in this same bed look fine. I am a bit concerned that this could be boxwood blight, and if that’s the case, that could be very bad for the many other boxwoods that I have. Boxwood blight is a fungus that causes severe die-back and spreads by spores that are carried by wind, rain, animal, or human. Maybe I’ll get lucky and that isn’t the issue.
In the same u-shaped beds are Garlic Chives, which come back every year. You can kind of see them in the photo below.
I love the flavor of the Garlic Chives, however you have to dead-head them after they bloom or they will set seed everywhere. The flower-heads are clusters of tiny flowers and every single one of them has seeds. That’s s lot of seeds.
The sweet potato vines that I planted in late summer were looking good in September, and those Gift Zinnias from Hudson Valley Seed Library were still going strong. Man, I loved those. The approximately 3 foot tall stems were self-supporting and the red flowers lasted until the first hard frost.
The Gift Zinnias, as well as the Garlic Chive flowers, were often part of my centerpiece on the table on the screened-in back porch.
I have two of these grasses along the border of the kitchen garden and I just love them in the late summer and early fall. The green leaves get tints of orange and red and the plumes are cottony soft and sway in the wind. For a long time I thought this was Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah,’ but the plumes don’t look right at all to be that. It looks more like Miscanthus Purpurascens.
Texas Sage ‘Lady in Red’ was a favorite of mine, and the hummingbirds, in 2015. It is an annual. I planted it in the flower garden, as well as in one of the big blue pots in the kitchen garden. The hummingbirds had left by September, but the flowers were still blooming profusely.
Speaking of the big blue pots, the Solanum quitoense (Naranjilla) that I overwintered in my greenhouse last year produced an abundant amount of fruit in 2015. Check out my post from 2014 to read more about this fascinating plant.
That appears to be the only photos that I took of the kitchen garden in September. So until next time...
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