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Photo of the Day: Peppermint Twist Rose
While most of the rest of the garden is hunkering down for winter, a couple of the roses are kicking out one more set of blooms. This one is "Peppermint Twist." I think you can tell how it got its name.
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 4
Added 8 more ounces of hot peppers and 1/2 TSP of salt. No additional water. Will probably have just one more addition because the weather cold nights are knocking off the pepper plants.
Photo of the Day: Painted Plumeria
Most of my Plumerias bloom pink or yellow and stay that way, but not this one. It blooms pink and turns white over the course of a few days. As the color changes from outer edge to the center of the flowers it looks like someone comes and paints them with little colored accents. One day I'll figure out the variety.
Video: “Happy Red” Japanese Tomato
Bought a Japanese tomato with no idea what it would be. I wasn't disappointed.Last spring I picked up a variety of odd-ball tomatoes from a local nursery. One was a complete mystery because the tag was printed in Japanese. An attempt to use Google Translate revealed only that it was "happy red" and "not much disease," which, fortunately, turned out to be true. Here's a quick video from August on the tomato: And here's the plant tag from the tomato. If anyone reads Japanese, I'd love to know what it says. Click the "Comment" link below to add your [keep reading...]
Photo of the Day: Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween everyone! If you're going to a party tonight, don't end up like this guy. Cleanup is rough.
Photo of the day: End of Season Tomato Harvest
Last of the tomatoes for the season. Red Valentine grape tomato and yellow Indigo Kumquat tomato Well, that's it. The last of the tomatoes have been picked. The Valentine grape tomato (front of bowl) was ridiculous. Easily 40lbs of tomatoes. The Indigo Kumquat (yellow, back of bowl) was a pleasant surprise as well. Long production time and beautiful fruit.
My Keyhole Garden Through the Year
The keyhole garden is an amazing vegetable garden that fits in a small space. Here's how mine grew through the year.
Photo of the Day: A bathtub’s worth of luffa sponges
A couple years ago I planted some luffas, which proceeded to sprawl out, climb into the trees and take over a large section of the west garden. Even though I removed every luffa I could find, some were still left stranded high in the trees. Each of the past two years those leftover luffas have dropped seeds into hidden spaces and grown more luffas. Here's a bathtub's worth of luffa gourds from this weekend's cleanup. Free seeds for anyone who asks!
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 3
Forgot to take photos of last week's addition. 6 ounces plus 1 cup water, 1/2tsp salt. Woops. Also, too much water let the peppers float on top and get a white mold. Woops again. Pay attention. Scraped off the fuzzy white mold and added 6 more ounces of fresh peppers. The peppers from week 1 are now dissolving in the mix. Added 1/2 cup water, 1/4 tsp salt. Used a weight and plastic lid to keep the peppers submerged in the brine.
Photo of the Day: Autumn Sage “Lipstick”
The past few days have been hotter than Hades, but the natives are thriving (except for yours truly, I'm not happy). This one is a variety of Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii) showing off how it got the name "lipstick." It's a little over five feet (1.5 meters) high and equally wide and spreads like crazy if you let it. I only planted one about 10 years ago, but it's managed to colonize areas of the south and west-facing slopes. Good thing they look nice or I'd have a real problem.
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