From “Loyal lurker Shar from NE Miami-Dade”:
Top pic, from this Spring: a Phalaenopsis orchid that I perched in the low crotch of a Peltophorum tree so many years ago. I forget it’s there until I happen to pull into the drive at a height low enough to see it in bloom.
Volunteer Staghorn fern pup on Triangle palm trunk
“Lobster Claw” heliconia with first bracts opening
Fully opened Lobster Claw heliconias
This guy has been hanging out at a house a few blocks from mine in the last few years. Then one day I tooled down the alley behind my house on my way to whereever and…
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What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
Jeff
The weeds, brutal heat and lack of rain won. I’m doing the Grey Gardens look this year.
Betty Cracker
I’m fond of peafowl. Many people complain about them because their calls carry quite a bit, but I like them.
@rikyrah: Good morning to you! ?☀️
OzarkHillbilly
My garden is an absolute mess. Just have not had the necessary time to put into it. My oldest son came out yesterday to help me get a few things done. All was successful and I should be able to finish putting the smoker together in time for the arrival of our pig. Also helped me get the mower deck back on the tractor so I can mow grass again. (oh boy) In addition to some money for his time and efforts he got a buttload of peppers, mostly sweet as his gf is not fond of hot stuff (I did throw a few jalapenos in just for him).
My peppers just exploded on me this year, growing taller and fuller than they ever have before and producing prodigiously. The only disappointment was the
Corno di Toro Rosso peppers which are just damned small and very thin walled. Not at all what I was expecting and considering the fact that the Corno di Toro Giallo peppers are large and fleshy makes me wonder if somehow some way the seeds got switched in packing. Gonna take some pictures and send them to Baker Creek as it just makes no sense to me.
Gindy51
Garden is almost dead but O/T Dominionists have taken over trump’s campaign. Read Jonathan Goodman’s article over at HuffPo. It’s one reason why trump is climbing in the polls.
HeartlandLiberal
Hmm. By garden, I assume you mean the nearly cleared 2,000 square foot area in my back yard? Where only a handful of bell pepper plants remain? I noticed looking out from the deck yesterday there are maybe three ripe habaneros remaining, so I get a few rounds of one of my favorites, stewed okra, tomatoes, corn, onion, and garlic, with a crushed habanero, to be eaten with pita chips. The herb garden is pretty much dead, too, except for the three large clumps of lemon grass. I filled our herb cabinet with all the basic, though, thanks to my trusty dehydrator. One remaining project? I have a pint of dried and finely crushed with blender stevia leaves. I never drink the stuff, but I bought a bottle of vodka, and am going to try and soak the leaves and make a classic extract with the stevia to us to sweeten drinks. (This is weird: spell check in the comments system has never heard of habanero or stevia, apparently. I checked my spelling on Google, and it looks right. Huh.)
The saddest outcome of this year were my two rows of purple potatoes. The plants had grown well, and died back. But over past two weeks, when I went to dig them up, 80% had either failed to produce potatoes, or the potatoes had rotted in the ground. We have had regular heavy recurring rains, never going more than five days without rain, all summer here in south central Indiana. What can I say? It beast the usual July August drought when it just quits raining, which had been the recurring pattern.
One of my major projects over next few weeks is a disassembly of the flanges that hold the handle on my large tiller. I will be taking them to a machine shop, asking for plates to be made that extend the upper area, with two additional holes, so I can angle the handle higher. This is what happens when you get to be 70, and your spinal column vertebrae start compressing the nerves. You adjust your activity. If I continue to use the tiller at current max height, I will be stooping so low my back will be thrown out and all activity will cease for weeks.
Sigh.
Anyway, still looking forward to next year. Gardening for me is exercise and existential practice in the fragility of life. I have done it since I was a child, raised on a mini-farm by a father who was raised a farm boy down in Alabama, and never willingly gave up that culture completely.
p.a.
Good morning. Thank FSM for Benadryl for full night sleep. Garden winding down; grape tomato production my end this week, cherry t’s still full, but will they ripen? Hot peppers still producing, I like to let them turn red but it’s not necessary of course, some bell peps left, nice fit-in-hand sized, not like market monsters.
Going to Pats-Fins today. Good weather predicted.
Mustang Bobby
@Betty Cracker: I have the peafowl in my neighborhood, and while they are nice to look at, when they perch on your roof and fall through the screens on your patio enclosure and then leave turds the size of grapefruit, the welcome is worn off.
Hello, lurker Shar from NE Miami-Dade; I’m down in Palmetto Bay near the Deering Estate. Nice to hear from another BJ reader in the county. You’ve done a great job with your orchids. Mine are coming along nicely, too.
JPL
@p.a.: I’m glad that you were able to sleep. Go Pats!
PAM Dirac
The biggest news for me this week isn’t in the garden, it is what came out of the garden, or rather vineyard. I entered 3 wines from the 2015 vintage in the county fair and got 2 firsts and a second. Hardly the most prestigious competition around, but will give me some local cred. The vines were planted in 2011 and are just starting to get into a good productive mode. No instant gratification in grape growing and wine making.
Raven
I’m sitting at the Halsted stop on the L waiting for something! The memorial went well but I shoul have known I wouldn’t be able to sleep. At 4:30 I decided to got to midway and see if I could get an earlier flight. It was too expensive so now I have 5 hrs to kill!
Immanentize
Hello, All!
Great pictures, Shar. It makes me miss Miami a lot. Is that peacock noisy? I had a friend who had one and it sounded like a baby cring. Creepy.
I am with Jeff — my garden was badly hurt by the drought and heat but I am still getting the last of the tomatoes (sun gold and Rutgers). And my poblanos are ready to be picked. Lots of good Anaheim peppers but some new ones I tried got something like flower rot. I also have three very bushy tomatillo plants. They always produce late. I learned a couple weeks ago that I really need to suppress their spreading growth to force earlier fruit. Oh well, there is always next year. It is always a race to frost with them.
Ceci n'est pas mon nym
What’s going on in our garden? Zip. We’re never much for gardening, my wife is the gardener and she had no time or energy for it this year. We had one volunteer tomato that came up from compost in an empty pot, and that was nice. But that was it.
We were in the mood for movies this weekend as it had been a while. Caught two at the art theater, and I highly recommend both. “Don’t Think Twice” about improv comedy, and “Indignation” about, I guess, being a smart Jewish kid at a midwestern Ohio college in the 50s.
“Twice” includes Keenan Michael-Key who I was peripherally aware of but hadn’t seen a lot of his work. He’s the most recognizable face but I don’t want to say he’s the “star” as the entire point is that improv is about the group and they did a good job of conveying that. Especially fun to see if you’ve ever done any improv, as I have (just the classes and workshops the funny people do with amateurs)
“Indignation” is based on a Philip Roth book. I enjoyed it despite what you might say is a theme of “life sucks”. I think there’s actually a lot more to it than that, and we’re still talking about just that. We always enjoy the movies that leave us talking for days or weeks.
Gelfling 545
It’s time to start the fall clean up in my garden but I have a miserable respiratory infection of some type so, in spite of the fact that today would be perfect, it has to be put off. The garden did remarkably well considering the near drought conditions we had most of the summer. We had nearly a full day of rain yesterday so things are looking pretty perky. I’ve got some lilac cuttings and some heirloom peony seeds in starter pots that I have to move to a more sheltered location for the winter and I may get that done today. The cherry tomatoes are finished and I only have a couple left to ripen on the regular tomato plant. The cayenne peppers went wild so I have many to dry for cooking this winter. I generally let them mostly dry on the vine and finsh up with a short time in the oven to kill off any wildlife lurking in the peppers. Made chili sauce last week with tomatoes from the market. We like meatballs covered in chili sauce in the crockpot for sliders with mozzarella cheese and I have a few people I’ve promisied chili sauce to. Considering a batch of spaghetti sauce to can when I feel less miserable.
Schlemazel
One compensation for having to live in Florida is the flowers. I loved the variety and the fact that there were flowers all year long. Very beautiful gardens shar, thanks for sharing with us.
delk
@Raven: Halsted Orange Line?
We were eating breakfast five minutes away from you.
Gelfling 545
@PAM Dirac: Congratulations. Winemaking is a challenge I’ve never felt up to, much as I love the stuff!
rikyrah
@Gindy51:
Got a link?
Aleta
So dry here that fruits and berries dried up on the bushes. Supposed to have at least a little rain this week. It’s so dusty that I can’t dig or plant until the ground gets soaked a couple of times. It’s been warm enough to still be swimming in the river though, which is a luxury, especially when the moon rises before dark, like it did a few nights ago. The river has been cleaner than ever this year; lots of fish and a good fresh feel. A snapping turtle came out and up the hill and laid her eggs near the neighbor’s sidewalk in July.
jeffreyw
Our veggie garden is done, we still have assorted herbs going on the patio. Hummers are slowing down at the feeders. I did see a mantis on their favorite feeder and eased him off of it. He returned to the same feeder yesterday. Usually they are green or brown but this gal had a camo look.
Aleta
Amazing pictures of amazing flowers and bird. Thanks.
WaterGirl
Wow, those photos are amazing! These garden chats every week are a nice reminder that garden beauty comes in all sorts of forms.
Fruit and flowers are two of the most amazing things in this world.
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: Handsome devil!
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Yeah, I have poked around over there and can’t find the story.
PAM Dirac
@Gelfling 545: thanks. It’s relaxing for me to grow things and look longer term and my wife says she always knows where I am. The only problem is she doesn’t like toknow share the good stuff :-)
Larkspur
Huffpo. Is this the one? Going to read it now.
edit: in re the Dominionist article
J R in WV
@Gindy51:
Here’s a link to a list of his stuff [Jonathan Goodman’s stuff, to be clearer] none of which have I read yet, so YMMV.
laura
Our garden was meh this year. Tomatoes were so-so, lots of peppers, too few eggplants, zucchini being it’s abundant self, and vigorous sweet and Thai basil.
But the orange tree is humungous and will likely need serious branch propping up soon.
They’ll be ready for harvesting between thanksgiving and Christmas for gifting. We always throw a breakfast party in mid-January with a “bring your own favorite thing with orange juice” and a groaning board of good things like post-holiday discount ham, brownsugared bacon, cheeses and pastries, tamale tortas, coffee, a lox plate and done by 1:00.
The front yard ends up with a cairn of orange husks until the claw hauls them away.
The weekend after the party, the urban foresters come over with a van full of teens and they pick the rest for the river city food bank.
I’m planning a long afternoon under the tree, in the hammock with a book, a beer and a weiner dog. It will be heavenly.
Elie
Beautiful!
Take care of that peacock. They are easily predated by almost anything including dogs.. They are wonderful to look at…
tybee
@Elie:
and they taste like chicken.
Mustang Bobby
@Elie: Not the peacocks in my neighborhood. I saw a male peafowl chase a beagle down the street, wings flapping, screaming, and the dog took off like his ass was on fire.
satby
@jeffreyw: if a mantis gets big enough, it will prey on the hummingbirds. I didn’t know that until I read it in Birds and Blooms, and it amazed me.