Posted on November 24, 2022November 24, 202211/24/2022 plenty of thanks We thought it was supposed to rain today, so yesterday we picked up all the tomato cages and put all the vegetable debris in the city compost pile. (I don’t know that ours gets hot enough to kill any diseases.). We piled the dead marigolds on the bed where we’ll put peppers next year. We put some sugar pea seeds there to see if the debris will shelter them. We took the plastic off the greens so they could get rain. We put cilantro seeds everywhere and carrot seeds among the greens. For Thanksgiving, Paula started our Corrientes cowpeas soaking. The Turkey is from Paula’s aunt and uncle in Texas where they raise some. All the veggies in the beans are from the farm share except garden poblanos. Wes used some store apples and store ham as flavors. But otherwise the veggies are all our garden or the farm share!
Posted on November 20, 2022November 20, 202211/16/2022 a previous frost Away from the shelter of the oak tree, lots of plants are getting frost, including the wine cups we grew from seed and planted last spring. The rosettes will stay green all winter, I believe. They show off the frost beautifully as it avoids the veins, creating a pattern of frost with greener veins. The frost hasn’t killed the apple leaves yet either. Another apple tree with light frost.
Posted on October 29, 2022October 29, 202210-29-2022 fall things continue We got another package of bare roots from Prairie Moon. One rattlesnake master (since we have one already, maybe they will make seeds), one Camassia angusta- they only had one left), and several Ohio spiderworts. Up front, the pineapple sage is blooming. Two slightly different looking seedlings in the Penstemon cobea pot. I’ll keep an eye on them. Winter greens looking good. The purple Salvia greggii are really blooming right now. The showy milkweed seems to be shutting down for the fall with some yellow colors. I had to use one of the Chef’s big food grade buckets to hold all the fruit from the 17 lb watermelon from a few weeks ago when I cut it open today.
Posted on October 24, 2022October 24, 202210/24/2022 greens survived one night We were worried the front yard earwigs would eat them all up, but the various greens we transplanted from backyard pots survived the night and seem happy with an inch of rain overnight into this morning! the metal raised bed is surrounded by scattered leaves and individual plant species and varieties are marked by small white metal signs. There’s some bluish bok choy in the front, a more yellow green lettuce in the middle, and frilly scotch blue curled kale in the back next to a tall Fordham giant Swiss chard. Smaller plants are scattered nearby but I’ve forgottten which ones.
Posted on October 16, 2022October 16, 202210/16/2022 after 3/4” rain Heath asters from TX have started blooming. I think these may be sand lovegrass seedlings. I put them in a lot of pots with native flower seeds as a potential nurse plant. This is the Muhlenbergia schreberi grass from Abby. It has a fun common name. I wanted to ensure I don’t lose it or mistake it for something like a skinny bermudagrass in the shade. This is the planter of soil from Jeanne that had a big patch of annual Sedum nuttallii. There are a bunch of sedum-looking seedlings but also plenty of other interesting looking babies too!! I seeded these cowpen daisies pretty late and didn’t know if they’d come up until next year. Instead, they seem to have noticed the declining day length and have made the world’s tiniest cowpen daisy blooms. This is normally a medium size plant! At least one Carolina snailseed root from Abby has produced new leaves.
Posted on October 3, 2022October 3, 202210/03/2022 Bean Club dinner and other excitement My colleague gave me these delicious tiny tomatoes from her sister’s garden east of here. She said it’s a hybrid between tommy toe and another variety and has bred true for two ish years! I’m saving some! A yellow iris by the rock garden. Polenta with cranberry beans from Bean Club and fancy sausage from California. Salad includes farm share peppers and the main mean also included summer squash from the farm share. A cooked cranberry bean. They were very creamy in texture! The cranberry bean broth was very savory. The Chef laughed at us taking a picture. Here’s some of the remaining cranberry beans. They have a tan base but occasionally the red speckles and stripes turn the bean almost completely red! You can see they are nice chunky big beans. Larger than the average pinto.
Posted on September 24, 202209/24/2022 seedlings and fall flowers Wild tepary bean has a flower! Mystery seedling. I put a lot out here of many species so it gets to be a surprise unless someone recognizes it. I suspect this is an Illinois bundleflower as I distributed a lot of them. The big leafy seedling looks neat and is accompanied by a spotted euphorbia and maybe a blurry lyre leaf sage? An almost metallic little moth on the goldenrod from Abby (probably S. canadensis). Mom saw a similar one recently at home on frostweed. Possibly a Ceratina bee on the mistflowers.
Posted on September 23, 2022September 23, 202209/23/2022 maybe an ironweed seedling? This seedling is in a pot where I put some iron weed so hope that’s it!
Posted on September 10, 2022September 10, 202209/09/2022 two leaf senna The two leaf senna is getting more and more flowers every day! It has at least 2-3 green seed pods. The second plant hasn’t got any flower buds, but has some new pairs of leaves.
Posted on September 5, 2022September 5, 202209/05/2022 new dayflower! Abby has found the perennial and native dayflower in her yard and kindly shared some. It has very different roots than the non native annual one! Earlier in the day, Shackleton supervised while Paula watered baby cacti. Careful pouring to wet the soil around the babies. “What is this fuss? Who opened my curtain??”