Showing posts with label blooms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blooms. Show all posts
End of Summer in the Garden
With daylight savings, my time in the garden gets cut back drastically. It's fully dark by the time I get home. Growing slows down. I limit myself to light maintenance and watering.During the summer, it was a different story. This post covers the whole summer's garden activity, until about mid-October.
All in all a fairly high yield of plants bloomed despite the heat mid-summer.
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| black mondo |
The black mondo with its adorable lavender blooms is something I chose for my large, new redwood planter. I hope it spreads sideways.
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| sensitive plant |
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| sensitive plant |
When you touch the leaves, as I'm doing on the 2nd photograph, the leaves close up.
They don't last long so I'm trying to plant it into the ground, hoping it will spread and grow a bit.
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The asparagus fern thrives in sun or shade, little watering or through rain. This new, yellowish leaf sprouted and eventually turned green.
This one may also eventually live in the redwood planter since it can tolerate shade.
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| sea drift and verbena |
This cute sea drift didn't last long but looked cute while it lasted. I'll try this one again next time they return to the nurseries.
I use these marigolds to plant around my tomatoes and eggplants, as they serve as a natural, organic pest and animal repellant.
This hydrangea started growing from a branch cutting. Due to the shade in this spot, it grows slowly but surely.
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| dahlia |
I didn't expect the dahlia to bloom in late summer and fall, but it quickly sprouted up, rested on the adjacent lemon tree and bloomed.
My neighbor gave me cuttings of these succulents, which grow beautifully year round, it seems.
These shallow pots with mismatched, glazed saucers work well for starting off various succulents as well.
I combined several plants that grew in smaller pots. It will be fun to watch how they grow into each other as the plants get larger.
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| ice plant |
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| green, unripe guava |
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| rosa bianca eggplant, growing from seeds |
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| Japanese eggplant |
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| green, unripe tomatoes |
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| mint and shamrock |
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| lemon cucumber |
My curry plant grew a new floor or two! After a long period of shock, it's great to see the plant getting larger and healthier.
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| purslane |
Purslane appeared on its own in the yard and in some of the potted plants. With such graceful leaves, I let them grow wherever they'd like. It's always fun to have edibles to pick as well.
Ivy can never get accused of not being fertile. I've tried to eliminate the ivy from the front planter and side slope from day one, but it grows back in any little spot it can wedge itself into.
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| new trellis - at planting |
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| trellis after 3 months - with Black Eyed Susan vines |
The hefty trellis came up to serve as a makeshift screen against the neighbors' sewage pipes, storage area and den of coyotes!
Once again, in the shade, it's amazing how fast the sweet little Black Eyed Susans are filling in. The trick is to disentangle them from the neighboring bushes because they do tend to overtake everything in their way.
I'm grateful for all this activity as it gets colder, and plan to post another update for the next season or two.
Spring Garden - Roses
The final featured spring plant is the magical rose, my very favorite. These perennials, symbols of love and beauty, have been cultivated for thousands of years and come in hundreds of varieties.
The roses in my garden are strictly old school - large, fragrant and pure. They smell intoxicatingly sweet and last more than a week once cut and put into vases.
They symmetry of this perfect white rose blows my mind. The photo is un-retouched.
Roses are a favorite photography subject for me due to the vibrant colors and daily changes in shape and state of bloom.
This particular compact rosebud grows in a lovely, dusty red color of which the camera does not do justice.
When the rose reaches its full corolla, it looks like a painting.
This multicolored rose also blooms in a gold bud, a color I've never seen. Pink spots fleck the edges of the bud.
When it blooms, it partially turns lavender. One can still see the pistils and stamens at the center of these roses, something you don't see in modern greenhouse hybrid varieties.
As this beauty begins to fade, it turns yet a deeper lavender.
Yellow roses convey a cheerful note and always have been dear to me.
This rose opens up to resemble a tissue paper flower that you have to almost touch to believe it's real. It's very dense with petals.
The Double Delight varieties of white and pink display a rare beauty.
It's been said thousands of times, but in closing nothing but William Shakespeare's immortal words, through Juliet, can summarize a rose's splendor:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose.
By any other name would smell so sweet."
Spring Garden - Edibles
So I've often heard that tomatoes are the gardener's gateway drug. As a child I used to eat tomatoes like apples. And even now just can't get enough of them.
Years of hesitation passed, because I didn't want to deal with the critters and pests that come with growing produce.
However, about 3 years ago I made the transition from just flowers to tomatoes. And with a summer salad of tomatoes like these, why not?
I plant marigolds around them to deter pests, the organic way.
Because of all the rain and overcast days, this year's crop definitely displayed quality over quantity.
This spring I also branched out to the more exotic and started a bitter melon vine, a tropical vine wildly popular in Asia. I grew up eating these veges regularly..
The yard has plenty of buzzing bees, so quite a few flowers got successfully pollinated through no effort of my own.
As well as bearing one of my favorite vegetables, the leaves and plant are quite graceful.
I'm just waiting for these darlings to grow.
This spring I attempted two types of eggplants - Japanese and Rosa Bianca (from seeds).
Eggplants are hands down my favorite vegetable due to their versatility.
It began with a delicate lavender bloom.
Which grew to flower.
Then a tiny eggplant began growing.
It's almost ready for picking.
Most of the time I grow Thai chili peppers to satisfy my cravings for heat. However, this Spring I also planted Serranno chilies, which pack a lot of heat, but not as much as the Thai chilies.
Squash blossoms are a favorite cooking ingredient for me. Both the blossoms and the large zucchinis are as easy to grow as tomatoes and very prolific.
There are other vegetable and fruit plants in progress now, so stay tuned for future updates.
