Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 7
Another addition of 4 ounces or so of fresh peppers and a pinch of salt. Heavy rain last week knocked most of the remaining peppers off the plants, so we're coming to the end of fresh pepper additions for this year (yeah, I know, I write that every week -- but this time it's probably true). I'm going to let this ferment one more week then add oak and send the batch to age until March.
Landscape Design Tip for Monstera
Here's a pro tip when you're doing landscape design with large tropicals like Monstera. To add drama to the scene, contrast the monstera with something small and compact, like a potted dachshund. This is a photo of Hank the Weenie demonstrating. (Also, bad dog, Hank. You're not supposed to be sitting in the flower pots.)
Keyhole Garden – November 24 2019
Second week of the winter plantings in the keyhole garden. Needed to water once, but otherwise everything is doing well.
Photo of the Day: Thai Basil
Unlike its Mediterranean cousins, my Thai basil (Ocimum basillicum) seems to be getting along just fine in the cold and wet of November. I don't recall what the original source for this seed was, but the plants grow 12" - 18" tall and produce purple flowers with a sweet spice aroma that reminds me of clove or cinnamon. I grow two batches of this each year, the first I start in late winter / early spring, and the second I start in late summer using the seed collected from the spring batch. This is the 6th year (12th batch) and [keep reading...]
Brazilian Edelweiss in Bloom
Not knowing much about how Brazilian Edelweiss (Sinningia leucotricha) grows, I kind of thought I had killed the poor thing because it dropped all its leaves a few weeks ago. Turns out that wasn't the case at all. Several days ago it started growing new leaves and to my surprise this morning I was greeted with two little salmon colored flowers! (They're supposed to be fragrant, but I don't smell anything.) Can't wait to see it all leafed out again. I hope it blooms a bunch.
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 6
It's week seven of my hot sauce fermentation. I added another 4 ounces or so of fresh peppers, salt and more water and gave it a good stir. The fermentation is now giving off a tangy smell that's both spicy and funky. I figure I'll only have room for one more addition of fresh peppers before I add small amount of toasted oak and set it aside to age through the winter. The liquid is getting a little murky from the garlic and fermenting peppers, but that's not an issue since I'll blend it all right before I bottle. Here's [keep reading...]
Photo of the Day: Bowl Gourds
Gourds are cool. Not only do the vines look nifty while they're growing, but they leave behind future bowls, birdhouses, planters and other craft projects. This year a bowl gourd plant showed up and decided to make its home on the north fence of the vegetable garden... and the orange trees... and the bottle brush trees. Now that the vines have died back there's about a dozen well-shaped gourds in various states of dryness handing on the fence, and one literally in it. There's probably a dozen more in the trees, but they're too high up to get, so there [keep reading...]
The Ducks Get a New Water Dish
The term "like a duck to water" takes on new meaning when your ducks get a new water dish. When I put the empty dish down there wasn't a duck in sight. The moment water came out of the hose, boom, 19 ducks appeared, so I took a quick video of them. I think this is the duck equivalent of hanging around the water cooler.
Island of Misfit Succulents
Even half-serious plant collectors have an "Island of Misfits" -- plants that you don't really want or need, but for some reason you keep anyway. It starts with one stuck in some out of the way place, but after a while you keep adding other plants to it until you realize that the "island" is starting to get crowded. I don't have an island of misfits. It's more like an island chain that dots the acre. This particular ragtag bunch are succulents that I found growing places they shouldn't be (we get lots of "volunteers" here), so I stuck them [keep reading...]
Keyhole Garden Planted with Winter Vegetables
Getting ready for fresh vegetables all winter A couple of weeks ago I cleared my keyhole garden of the spent summer crops, topped off the bed with fresh compost and let it sit for a few days to rest and settle in. Yesterday I pulled the seedlings from the greenhouse and transplanted them in garden. Here's a list of what we're growing this winter: Keyhole garden re-planted for winter of 2019/2020 Clockwise from the lower left: Large Leaf Basil Romaine Lettuce - Green Forest Chinese Cabbage - Optiko Broccoli - Imperial Dill - Fernleaf/Mammoth cross (behind compost [keep reading...]
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 7
Another addition of 4 ounces or so of fresh peppers and a pinch of salt. Heavy rain last week knocked most of the remaining peppers off the plants, so we're coming to the end of fresh pepper additions for this year (yeah, I know, I write that every week -- but this time it's probably true). I'm going to let this ferment one more week then add oak and send the batch to age until March.
Landscape Design Tip for Monstera
Here's a pro tip when you're doing landscape design with large tropicals like Monstera. To add drama to the scene, contrast the monstera with something small and compact, like a potted dachshund. This is a photo of Hank the Weenie demonstrating. (Also, bad dog, Hank. You're not supposed to be sitting in the flower pots.)
Keyhole Garden – November 24 2019
Second week of the winter plantings in the keyhole garden. Needed to water once, but otherwise everything is doing well.
Photo of the Day: Thai Basil
Unlike its Mediterranean cousins, my Thai basil (Ocimum basillicum) seems to be getting along just fine in the cold and wet of November. I don't recall what the original source for this seed was, but the plants grow 12" - 18" tall and produce purple flowers with a sweet spice aroma that reminds me of clove or cinnamon. I grow two batches of this each year, the first I start in late winter / early spring, and the second I start in late summer using the seed collected from the spring batch. This is the 6th year (12th batch) and [keep reading...]
Brazilian Edelweiss in Bloom
Not knowing much about how Brazilian Edelweiss (Sinningia leucotricha) grows, I kind of thought I had killed the poor thing because it dropped all its leaves a few weeks ago. Turns out that wasn't the case at all. Several days ago it started growing new leaves and to my surprise this morning I was greeted with two little salmon colored flowers! (They're supposed to be fragrant, but I don't smell anything.) Can't wait to see it all leafed out again. I hope it blooms a bunch.
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 6
It's week seven of my hot sauce fermentation. I added another 4 ounces or so of fresh peppers, salt and more water and gave it a good stir. The fermentation is now giving off a tangy smell that's both spicy and funky. I figure I'll only have room for one more addition of fresh peppers before I add small amount of toasted oak and set it aside to age through the winter. The liquid is getting a little murky from the garlic and fermenting peppers, but that's not an issue since I'll blend it all right before I bottle. Here's [keep reading...]
Photo of the Day: Bowl Gourds
Gourds are cool. Not only do the vines look nifty while they're growing, but they leave behind future bowls, birdhouses, planters and other craft projects. This year a bowl gourd plant showed up and decided to make its home on the north fence of the vegetable garden... and the orange trees... and the bottle brush trees. Now that the vines have died back there's about a dozen well-shaped gourds in various states of dryness handing on the fence, and one literally in it. There's probably a dozen more in the trees, but they're too high up to get, so there [keep reading...]
The Ducks Get a New Water Dish
The term "like a duck to water" takes on new meaning when your ducks get a new water dish. When I put the empty dish down there wasn't a duck in sight. The moment water came out of the hose, boom, 19 ducks appeared, so I took a quick video of them. I think this is the duck equivalent of hanging around the water cooler.
Island of Misfit Succulents
Even half-serious plant collectors have an "Island of Misfits" -- plants that you don't really want or need, but for some reason you keep anyway. It starts with one stuck in some out of the way place, but after a while you keep adding other plants to it until you realize that the "island" is starting to get crowded. I don't have an island of misfits. It's more like an island chain that dots the acre. This particular ragtag bunch are succulents that I found growing places they shouldn't be (we get lots of "volunteers" here), so I stuck them [keep reading...]
Keyhole Garden Planted with Winter Vegetables
Getting ready for fresh vegetables all winter A couple of weeks ago I cleared my keyhole garden of the spent summer crops, topped off the bed with fresh compost and let it sit for a few days to rest and settle in. Yesterday I pulled the seedlings from the greenhouse and transplanted them in garden. Here's a list of what we're growing this winter: Keyhole garden re-planted for winter of 2019/2020 Clockwise from the lower left: Large Leaf Basil Romaine Lettuce - Green Forest Chinese Cabbage - Optiko Broccoli - Imperial Dill - Fernleaf/Mammoth cross (behind compost [keep reading...]