Batch 20 Hot Sauce Progress – Entry 5
Batch 20 of the fermented hot sauce hit 5 gallons of fresh peppers 8 weeks early, so I'm bumping up to 10 gallons by splitting peppers between 2 fermenters. As for what I'm going to do with 10 gallons of finished hot sauce next spring, I have no idea.
Video: A Duckling Redux
Back in August one of our females emerged from the lavender garden with 13 ducklings. They'd hang out by the vegetable garden and after a while developed a taste for tomatoes tossed to them from the garden.
Guava Season
I bought a couple of guava (Psidium cattleyanum) seedlings, one red/strawberry and one yellow/lemon, about 15 years ago and planted them at opposites ends of what is now the tropical garden. Both grew to be big shrubs that flowered once in a while and produced a bunch of pellet-sized bitter fruit that tasted nothing like strawberry or lemon. In the winter they froze easily, loose all their leaves and spend the better part of four months looking like dead brush on the hillside. I was not impressed with guava and if I were more ambitious, would have chopped them down [keep reading...]
Keyhole Garden – October 12, 2020
Gardener's Log : Keyhole Garden date 569. Now that we're several weeks into fall, the temperatures are making their annual wobble between hot and cold. The days are still in the 80's with the occasional tip into the low 90's, but the nights are now dipping into the mid-50's and flirting with the upper 40's a couple days a week. For most of the plants here, those big temperature swings and longer nights are a signal to wrap things up for the year. The cucumbers folded first, followed by the tomatillos and bunching onions just before autumn began. The tomatoes, [keep reading...]
End of a Praying Mantis
I was trying to water a few plants with my watering can, but the spigot was blocked. I flipped to shake whatever loose and a dead praying mantis fell out. Bad day for her.
Batch 20 Hot Sauce – Entry 4
Just put week 4's fresh peppers into the fermenter for Batch 20 of the fermented hot sauce. With the brine, looks like we're about 2/3rds of the way to getting a full 5 gallons before we send it off to spend the winter aging with oak
Gasteria Nigracanus
Gasteria nigracanus,, like all gasterias, is from South Africa and loves the hot, dry weather. When the plant is happy, it sprouts thick, flashy leaves in pink, green and gold.
Little Succulent, Big Flower
This little baby tiger doesn't look like much during the day, but just before sunset, it throws out a very impressive flower. Use the before and after slider to see how it changes
Harvest Moonset
A photo of the harvest moon in the western sky taken 1-1/2 hours before sunrise. It's so bright you can see the spider web on the weather station 30 feet away.
Hanging Garden at Night
Just for giggles I strung a couple of cheap solar-power light strands in the hanging gourd garden and this is the result. Sometimes I surprise even myself.
Batch 20 Hot Sauce Progress – Entry 5
Batch 20 of the fermented hot sauce hit 5 gallons of fresh peppers 8 weeks early, so I'm bumping up to 10 gallons by splitting peppers between 2 fermenters. As for what I'm going to do with 10 gallons of finished hot sauce next spring, I have no idea.
Video: A Duckling Redux
Back in August one of our females emerged from the lavender garden with 13 ducklings. They'd hang out by the vegetable garden and after a while developed a taste for tomatoes tossed to them from the garden.
Guava Season
I bought a couple of guava (Psidium cattleyanum) seedlings, one red/strawberry and one yellow/lemon, about 15 years ago and planted them at opposites ends of what is now the tropical garden. Both grew to be big shrubs that flowered once in a while and produced a bunch of pellet-sized bitter fruit that tasted nothing like strawberry or lemon. In the winter they froze easily, loose all their leaves and spend the better part of four months looking like dead brush on the hillside. I was not impressed with guava and if I were more ambitious, would have chopped them down [keep reading...]
Keyhole Garden – October 12, 2020
Gardener's Log : Keyhole Garden date 569. Now that we're several weeks into fall, the temperatures are making their annual wobble between hot and cold. The days are still in the 80's with the occasional tip into the low 90's, but the nights are now dipping into the mid-50's and flirting with the upper 40's a couple days a week. For most of the plants here, those big temperature swings and longer nights are a signal to wrap things up for the year. The cucumbers folded first, followed by the tomatillos and bunching onions just before autumn began. The tomatoes, [keep reading...]
End of a Praying Mantis
I was trying to water a few plants with my watering can, but the spigot was blocked. I flipped to shake whatever loose and a dead praying mantis fell out. Bad day for her.
Batch 20 Hot Sauce – Entry 4
Just put week 4's fresh peppers into the fermenter for Batch 20 of the fermented hot sauce. With the brine, looks like we're about 2/3rds of the way to getting a full 5 gallons before we send it off to spend the winter aging with oak
Gasteria Nigracanus
Gasteria nigracanus,, like all gasterias, is from South Africa and loves the hot, dry weather. When the plant is happy, it sprouts thick, flashy leaves in pink, green and gold.
Little Succulent, Big Flower
This little baby tiger doesn't look like much during the day, but just before sunset, it throws out a very impressive flower. Use the before and after slider to see how it changes
Harvest Moonset
A photo of the harvest moon in the western sky taken 1-1/2 hours before sunrise. It's so bright you can see the spider web on the weather station 30 feet away.
Hanging Garden at Night
Just for giggles I strung a couple of cheap solar-power light strands in the hanging gourd garden and this is the result. Sometimes I surprise even myself.