Not a milkweedNot a milkweed?Maybe a milkweed Known milkweed (probably viridiflora)The skinny adult leaves of known milkweed. New book The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants by Diboll and Cox mentions many milkweeds first adult leaves are skinny even if the eventual adult leaves are broad. Either that or I got the species wrong. One of two Blackfoot daisy survived earwigs and is now growing flower buds and a few new leaves!Perennial coreopsis begins!Briar was pretty miffed it rained HARD most of the day. So before our walk she curled up in disgust right on my big Liatris mucronata from home. Thanks. The Mexican Sage from Judy is up!A sedge?Partridge peaOldplainsmanMysteryCaliche planter babiesThe tomatoes have gotten a bit sunburnt from past rain with sunlight after, so this time I flicked water off and put them in a less intensely sunny spot. Trying to get them hardened off for planting. Like Briar, Shacks was disappointed by rain and not being out. Paula brought him some favorite juicy grass and he loved it.
Roman chamomile and Peruvian ground cherry soak up sun and water.Left dwarf tomato is Audrey’s Love that has right. Right dwarf tomato is Bendigo Dawn which has flowers but no fruit. Paula suggested we add bone meal so we did.We also added a bigger cage for climbing for the Bendigo Dawn tomato.Lettuce, peppers, bok choy, and jagallo nero kale.
We did more fall garden clean up on Saturday. Look at the size of the roots on this Peruvian ground cherry!!Neat clouds.The Lima bean vines were dead but still had some green pods, so we asked The Chef to attempt butter beans. He also added a few slices of jalapeño.Some drier limas that still need drying but weren’t green enough for the butter beans.Yum! Thanksgiving leftovers with butter beans.
Another Peruvian ground cherry finally ripened!! They seem to be a late year fruit. I hope it’s just the plants are big enough and not a day length sensitivity.A standard ground cherry. Paula pointed out the lovely net effect on the husk. We found several like it.True bugs!!!! There were dozens, grumpy we disturbed them. We put the leaves back after we got the ground cherries we were there for. Left some for them and next year’s seeding too.The Chef was busy too.
Buckwheat is blooming.Peruvian ground cherries are having a few potential fruits!Paula and I repotted all the winter babies.More babies.The Missouri Yellow Watermelon weighs almost 12 lbs!It’s so ripe that when I started to slice, it cracked open more on its own.It was very tasty and sweet and crisp.In the evening, I sliced some peppers for freezing. Green ones are jalapeños from our garden and red ones are serranos from a friend.I made a small batch of salsa verde. Too little to can, so I froze it.
The buffalograss in spots with more dirt and grass trimmings over it is sprouting!I pulled up a single sprout from here and it had the seed hull attached, so definitely the right plant.Peruvian ground cherries!!White currant tomatoes on nachos last night.Salsa verde enchiladas intrigue Gram.“ew, loud smell” he didn’t like them but we did!!
Bisbee cowpeas flowering moreI liked the contrast on this one.“Stubby” variety of okra.An okra flower with a little sweat bee flying by!This is the first okra flower I’ve seen in person here since they seem to keep banker’s hours.A little green-striped cushaw squash!Leaf of the squash is looking a bit rough.Found another Madhu Ras melon! This one is bigger.Salvia greggii “Diane” purple cultivar has bloomed! Now only waiting on the orange part of rainbow garden to bloom.Whoa. I did not realize this cushaw squash was here!A male Sachem on a Peruvian ground cherry. There is a flower in the background so I hope it’ll start producing soon.Two immature fruits on Amish Paste tomato.I think this is one of my stratification butterfly milkweed that I planted directly! Very excited!A doodlebug (also known as an ant lion) trap waiting for some little critter to walk by! I feel very good about the predators in the garden right now, keeping plant-eaters in check, as I also saw a little brown snake slither away. We had a Dekay’s Brown Snake last year so it was probably that. May it be fat and happy on earwigs!One of the rosemary bushes is blooming!
You can see where I plan to put Peruvian ground cherries (the tomato cages) and honeyberries (white flags) on the last raised bed in the side yard. Those four plants were dug up when the geothermal HVAC was put in.Ready to be planted! The buckwheat seeds I planted around them. I’ll take another pic in a day or two as it got too dark by the time I got done planting and watering them.Earlier in the day I noticed the bisbee gray cowpeas are producing nicely in backyard.One lone seedling of a Texas mallow is coming up!A native cucurbit with a very tiny gourd. Not edible or at least not good according to various sources. But it’s an adorable vine and quite pretty when a bunch grows in one spot.