Gasteria Ellaphiae
Gasteria Ellaphiae is an interesting succulent that does quite well in light-to-medium shade as long as the soil is kept warm and dry. This plant was a thumb-sized pair of leaves and no roots last spring, but, as you can see from the photo, it now has half a dozen new leaf clusters that can be separated into new plants.
Towering Tithonia
Tithonia diversifolia in autumn The Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia) grew 20 feet tall over the summer, but now that autumn is here, all but the uppermost leaves have died back. Standing below, the effect is kind of Dr Seussian, a forest of towering sticks with a few green feathers sticking out the top.
October Tomatoes
The summer veggie garden is now down to the hot peppers, a few bell peppers, and a bunch of raggedy, but hanging in there, tomato plants. Chief among them is the Costolutos, which took a hard hit about a month ago but rebounded to flower and fruit for a third round in this growing year. A great tomato by any measure, it's interesting that the first bunch back in June were really deeply lobed, but they've gotten progressively smoother since. It's now mid-October and the ones currently ripening only hint at lobes with some coloring. Otherwise, they're nearly as smooth [keep reading...]
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.
Gasteria Ellaphiae
Gasteria Ellaphiae is an interesting succulent that does quite well in light-to-medium shade as long as the soil is kept warm and dry. This plant was a thumb-sized pair of leaves and no roots last spring, but, as you can see from the photo, it now has half a dozen new leaf clusters that can be separated into new plants.
Towering Tithonia
Tithonia diversifolia in autumn The Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia) grew 20 feet tall over the summer, but now that autumn is here, all but the uppermost leaves have died back. Standing below, the effect is kind of Dr Seussian, a forest of towering sticks with a few green feathers sticking out the top.
October Tomatoes
The summer veggie garden is now down to the hot peppers, a few bell peppers, and a bunch of raggedy, but hanging in there, tomato plants. Chief among them is the Costolutos, which took a hard hit about a month ago but rebounded to flower and fruit for a third round in this growing year. A great tomato by any measure, it's interesting that the first bunch back in June were really deeply lobed, but they've gotten progressively smoother since. It's now mid-October and the ones currently ripening only hint at lobes with some coloring. Otherwise, they're nearly as smooth [keep reading...]
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.