Harvest

Freddie has a pea, or two, in his window garden.  Since we've planted the garden he has been very aware of the seeds in his fruit and watching the plants around town produce flowers and then seed pods. I am very happy that he got to check the blossoms each day and watch them turn to peas.  He's been asking lots of questions about where his food comes from and what fruit and vegetable plants look like.  He'll be keeping his eyes open for cornfields once we get to Minnesota. 

Best part of growing veggies:  He want to taste them!  I wasn't exactly sure what to do with these peas.  The pod is tough, and we only have a couple, so he just got to bite right into them.  A little ranch dressing for dipping and he was quite tickled to be munching on veggies from his garden.

State of the garden, post freeze

Wisteria blooms about to burst

Dead:

• Angel trumpet
• Butterfly weed
• Cigar plant
• Snail flower vine
• Bougainvillea
• Ficus
• Macho fern
• Coleus
• Mexican heather (most, not all)
• Pentas
• Night blooming jasmine
• Lantana (traditional "wild" type)
• Night blooming cereus
• Staghorn fern
• Arabian jasmine

Althea

Survived:

• Rosemary
• Louisiana irises
• Walking irises
  
• Lantana, recumbent
• Blue salvia
• Nasturtiums, coming back from self seeding
• Passion vine
• Fig tree
• Lemon tree
• Wisteria
• Flowering maple (3 out of 4)
• Ginger
• Banana trees
• Sweet olive
• Sky vine
• Plumbago
• Shrimp plant
• Bird of paradise
• Giant bird of paradise
• Oleander
• Christmas cactus
• Carolina jasmine
• Confederate jasmine
• Althea
• Gardenia
• Bridal wreath
• Hydrangea
• Yesterday, today, tomorrow
• Black eyed susans
• Cone flower
• Passion vine
  

Wondering about:

• Orchids
  
• Caladium bulbs
• Hibiscus

Today I planted:

• Coleus
• Dusty miller
• Impatiens
• Pentas
• Butterfly plant (Pink Gaura)
  
• Basil seeds
• Zinnia seeds
• Cosmos seeds
• Nasturtium seeds

Harvest

Today will be my very first lemon harvesting from my tired, sickly little tree that we've had for about 3 years.

I wish I could blame my recent absence from gardening, treating with pesticides, and time in the yard on its sorry state, but the truth is the thing looked like this the day I got it and despite many attempts to rid it of mold and black fly, it continues to look pitiful.

It's finally produced 13 mature Meyer lemons.


I suppose I haven't really researched enough about lemons because I really wasn't expecting a fall harvest. I'm not sure why not because I know we look to buy Louisiana citrus after the first cold snap and my great grandmother would tell me every year that she and her sisters would get citrus fruits and cotton Santa dolls in their stockings each Christmas.

Now I'm stumped on what to do with the 13 lemons. Lemonade or lemon ice box pie in November just don't sound right, even though it's still 80 degrees out. Squeezing them into a cocktail sounds mighty fine no matter the season, but that's off limits for a while.

But a lemon recipe will appear here soon. Not telling what it'll be.

For the butterflies

I've got tiny grasshoppers chomping on the basil and mint. I squish them when I see them, but for the most part don't mind using the leaves with holes in them. I have two large parsley bushes I am letting go to seed as they phase out due to the heat.

This morning while turning leaves over looking for grasshoppers I noticed someone had been dining on the parsley. Upon closer inspection I found swallowtail caterpillars going to town.


I didn't know they were so fond of parsley. They are making short work of the parsley I have left, and between 37 caterpillars on two bushes, I am not sure if I am going to get any parsley seeds this season.

But, I love having the butterflies...

The coleus is for him

He likes foliage. I like flowers.

First harvest

That would be one grape tomato. The grape tomatoes are being eaten and I am yet to conceded to pesticides. The creoles, however, are loaded. I have three bushes and each has 4 or so good size 'maters and lots of small fruits and blooms.

Then and Now

Last May things looked a bit like this....

Look at that tiny passion vine along the fence!

And now....


I wish I had a fisheye lens to help get it all in, but you get the idea.

Most of this is a result of tossing open seed packets in late February and lots of water. I'll be cutting flowers for inside until we have a freeze.

I love having a garden.

Butterfly Bush this morning

This weekend I got two new plants: this butterfly bush and a Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow bush. And somehow I managed to find them each a place in the garden. Slowly but surely the entire yard is becoming garden. The butterflies couldn't be happier.

Nasturtiums this morning

This is one my my favorites. I wish it would last all summer. Once we hit 90 degrees, they'll start to fade.

Care for a pepper?

We produce lots of peppers around here....habanero, jalapeno, and even some biker Billy peppers. But I haven't a clue what to do with all of them. I can toss a few in with the avocado salad or with enchiladas, but really, we produce far more than we can use.

Orange Cosmos this morning

I love these. So does Muppet, so I am not sure how long they'll last in the garden. They're coming up from seeds, and foolishly I placed them too close to the front. Evidently they'll be about 30 inches high, so are better for mid garden placement.

Metamorphosis

This little guy (fat guy really) had been hanging around the liriope grass for a few days now. I thought he was lost, trying to find more milkweed, since his gang has left only the stalks. But when I saw him this afternoon I should have known something was up, and taken a seat and watched.

At noon...

and at 5pm...

Inside the chrysalis he's turning to mush, literally. You'd think a woman of my age would have known this before this year, but I recently learned that the caterpillar actually digests itself and completely reassembles as a butterfly. I had never given much thought as to what happens in there, but nevertheless was awed by that notion.

So the garden tour will include checking the pupae each day. I think it will change colors, and we'll have a butterfly in about two weeks. Updates to come!

Columbine this morning

Another of his favorites.


It happens to be Colorado's state flower.


They're thriving for now in the window boxes on the man space, but once the 90+ temperatures set in, we won't see many more blooms.

Peppermint

It's my only one that's not red, I think. No more buds to watch open this year. I am now in the market for amaryllis bulbs so we can have more surprises next year.

Garden expansion

I am officially out of room in the garden. I'm considering giving up on trying to grow grass so I can turn the entire yard into a series of paths and gardens.

But for now I needed a place to grow my tomatoes!


So we've got two pots, one with creoles and one with grape tomatoes, for this summer's crop. I'm hoping they get enough sun back by the manspace and produce some fruit. I've also never done tomatoes in pots, so no telling how this is going to go.

The fist zinna

Just arrived...zinnias! This is the perfect cutting flower. It won't be long before I am filling a vase each day.

Other than yellow

Arriving home by plane took me over the coastal swamps, and what a view I had of the Louisiana irises in bloom. Large patches of purple and then yellow. I was reminded that the best garden displays are often those of the same plant in mass. For some reason I can't bring myself to do that.

Our home has minimal "stuff". I'm not really a knick knack kind of girl. And when I dress, the accessories are usually some hoops or studs in the ears. But for some reason, that minimalist doesn't come out in the garden.


I have to have one of everything I see. I want to see how it does in different parts of the yard and when it blooms.


So I've got this hodge podge, ill planned flowering mess, and I love looking at it, especially in the evenings when I take Charlie on a "tour" to see what everything's doing..what's budding, what's sprouting, what won't make it.

Right now we're checking on the irises each day. Charlie's favorite is the deep purple...like velvet I tell ya. Sure, having the whole clump of iris blooms being deep purple would certainly be a dramatic look, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

Amaryllis this morning

I force amaryllis and paperwhite blooms at Christmastime, but this is the first year I've had blooms in the garden. I've been planting them in the same area after winter each year and this is the first time I've gotten them in a spot with the right amount of sun to produce spring blooms!

Walking Iris

I think this is absolutely my favorite flower in the garden.

If only it bloomed longer and more often.

Passion Vine

Look at all those blooms! I took this photo in the morning and by 3pm there were even more flowers...love it!