The Last Bouquets of the Year...?

Tonight, right after work, I headed straight down to the big garden. The weather forecasters are calling for the possibility of our first frost of Fall tonight. Yesterday I had picked two bouquets of flowers but I still had a lot of blooms yet to pick. I went through the dahlias and picked a bucket full of red/orange/yellow blooms and then I picked a bouquet of all my Pom dahlias. After I got home and arranged everything I took all of the bouquets outside for a group picture. After all, this could be the last hurrah of Summer!

Here is a close up of my Pom bouquet. I really love this dahlia form. The small, round blooms look sweet, all bunched up together in a mass display. They also remind me of my late Grandmother who also admired this form.

Here's my bouquet of "Persian Carpet" zinnias.

A close up of my pink/white/purple dahlia bouquet.

And my fiery orange/red/yellow bouquet.

This "Jac's Julia" bloom got its own vase. This is a new variety for me this year and this is the first bloom to open. I love it! Here's hoping that it has made some good tubers. I would love to grow more than one plant of it next year.

You can tell that there has been a huge change in the temperature today. It is another lovely sunny day, but there has been a constant, strong, cold wind. As I staged these bouquets tonight my two garden helpers remained curled up in their beds!

A Birthday Harvest

My birthday weekend coincided with the first frost advisory getting issued by the National Weather Service. At this point, there looks to be a chance of our first freeze arriving Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. With this news in mind, I devoted much of my birthday to harvesting the garden - so much for a lazy, restful day! I started down in the big garden. There are lots and lots of flowers left on the dahlias and zinnias. They have all really come on strong this month and I can't stand the thought of all of those last blooms getting wasted by a cold night. So, I started by cutting a bucket of dahlias in the white/pink/purple color group. Then I cut a bouquet of "Persian Carpet" zinnias. I thought both "arrangements" looked pretty stunning against my purple garden bench.

It was also time to harvest my "Speckled Hound" Winter Squash. My poor four plants did the best that they could. They were planted in half day sun and really struggled. Amazingly, each plant did set one fruit. The fruit on the far left, above, best represents their potential. "Speckled Hound" is a boxy shaped winter squash with a concentrated sweet, nutty flavor. The squash are a light orange color with a randomly patterned blue/green overlay. And the skin is amazingly smooth. It almost has the feeling of being waxed. They grow to a size if 3-6 pounds. My four however came in a little below that. They were 2 lbs. 2.5 oz, 1 lbs. 9.4 oz., 1 lbs. 12.8 oz., and 2 lbs. 5.1 oz. for a total of 7 lbs. 13.8 oz.

My final big project of the day was harvesting my "Hutterite Soup" bush beans. I am truly a bit amazed that I was able to get a harvest out of these bean plants. They were planted from seed on July 2nd and I wasn't sure that there would be enough good weather to see them to complete maturity. As you can see, underneath the bean leaves, the beans are starting to turn yellow and dry. We have had a nice stretch of 10+ days without rain and that has really been a blessing.

I pulled up each plant one by one and clipped of the bean pods. It took me over an hour but I ended up with a full garden trug for my efforts. Now I can lay them out in trays at home in a warm room to further dry for a few days.

Late October at the Market

Today was a picture-perfect day at the Farmer's Market. The early morning fog had burned off completely by 9:00 AM and the sky was a lovely clear blue. Even thought we didn't need anything in particular at the Market, it was just too perfect a Fall day to stay at home! Once again, there were large, stunning displays of Winter Squash.

This clever flower vendor used an assortment of squash and pumpkins as vases. A perfect seasonal centerpiece.

Another special Fall treat - Apple Cider. This vendor was handing out free samples - it was delicious!

I loved this display of cauliflower. All three colors stacked together.

Many of the stalls were selling long stalks of of brussel sprouts.

And there were many, many different apple varieties to try. Liberty & Jonagold seemed to be the two most popular.

There were at least three stalls selling mushrooms. These were labeled as Golden Chanterelles.

And more Winter Squash. You can tell what I love the most! I was also impressed with the size of the pumpkins, pictured below. The vendor assured us if we purchased one, he would hold it at his stand so we wouldn't have to walk around with it. I should hope so!

A burst of Color in the Dahlia Patch

Every year, as the daily average temperature drops and our nights become cool and damp, my dahlias get a second burst of life.  Although the blooms are smaller at this time of year, they re-gain perfect form and attain dazzling, saturated color. Above, is a lovely bloom of "Sean C" a purple and white collarette. I didn't have a good bloom all of September to take to a show. But now my plants are blooming heavily and the blooms are perfect!

I got my "Sorbet" tuber planted very late this Summer. This is my first open bloom this year. It's worth the wait!

Here is a lovely bloom of "Jo". I am so pleased to see this bloom. I lost all of my tubers but one this year and wasn't sure that it was going to sprout and grow. It is also no longer sold in any catalogues, so if I lost it, it was gone for good. Happily, it took off in late July and I can now enjoy its first bloom of the year.

A fiery bloom of "Canoz Anne" a Waterlily form in a dark blend of red & yellow.

A cheery bloom of "Lulu Island Dad" a miniature ball form in yellow.

And my first open bloom of "Chimicum Davi" a miniature ball form in pink.

As you can see below, the dahlia plants are starting to look a little ragged but they are still producing a lot of blooms and color to enjoy.

The Sights of Mid-October

Today was the first day in October that we didn't get any measurable rainfall. Finally, a sunny warm October day to enjoy. After work I took a quick walk around the property. The berries on the Wild Honeysuckle just glow like jewels right now.

The split-leaf "wild" blackberries are attaining some great Fall color

The Wild roses hips are also lovely right now.

And here are the leaves on the "wild" Himalayan Blackberries.

We have found one "wild" apple tree on our property. It is growing in the shade and is very tall and scrawny as it attempts to find some sunlight. It is loaded with apples this year and the sheer weight of them has bent it over. I haven't ever eaten one the the apples but might have to give it a try this year since they are within reach. I imagine that they aren't a very good eating quality but they certainly are pretty with a beautiful red blush over their yellow/green skin.

Garlic Planting

Part of the fun of gardening for me is trying to grow something new each year. This year I wanted to give garlic a try. I LOVE garlic but recently spent $10 for 8 heads at our Farmer's Market. Yikes! So this Saturday I visited Down-to-Earth to have a look at their garlic selection. Jackpot! I have said it before and I will say it again - we are so lucky to have this store in our town.

They had 17 -yes 17 -organic varieties to choose from. They also had one free pamphlet explaining how to plant garlic and another free pamphlet describing each variety in-depth. After much consideration, I narrowed down the field to 3 finalists: "Chesnok Red", "Nootka Rose", and "Silver Rose". Here is the description of each from the pamphlet:

"Chesnok Red" Hardneck : Large bulbs with purple stripes, hard tight heads, and easy to peal cloves. An excellent garlic for baking with a nice creamy texture. Pleasant medium pungency, long lasting flavor. Late Season.

"Nootka Rose" Softneck: Nootka Rose is a well colored variety with the potential for high productivity. The cloves are streaked red on mahogany. Nootka Rose makes an attractive braiding garlic and has a robust flavor for a softneck. Late Season.

"Silver Rose: Softneck: Silver Rose boasts large bulbs with purple stripes. It is an easy to peal garlic with hard, tight heads. A great baking garlic, Silver Rose has a creamy texture and long lasting flavor. Mid Season.

 "Pictured from left to right; "Chesnok Red", "Nootka Rose" and "Silver Rose".

Here is an individual clove of "Chesnok Red' waiting to be planted. Both the bulb and the individual cloves were tinted with such a lovely red/purple color.

I built a raised row to plant the garlic in and then laid out all of the cloves. Per the instructions, I added 1 Tbs. of Bone Meal to each planting hole and then in they went, pointed end up! Then I watered them in well. That should be it for a while. I think that I will see some green shoots appear before our weather turns cold. If so, I will have to cover the row with remay to give the young plants some protection from the birds. Now it's time to sit back, watch, and learn.

Garden Clean-up and another Harvest

Yesterday afternoon I took advantage of the mild weather and started some "garden clean-up" in the kitchen garden. This job always takes me longer then I think that it will. I started by taking out all of the winter squash vines. That turned out to be a bit of a tricky job since many of the vines had climbed up the inside of the deer fence. It took me quite a while to unravel and cut all of the tendrils off to release the vines. The fence is much happier now and is no longer sagging under the weight of those vines and fruit.

Once I got the squash area cleaned up I turned my attention to the Sweet Potatoes. I decided it was time to empty the grow bags and see if anything was actually growing in there! This is the "before" picture of my "Georgia Jet" Sweet Potato. Considering what a cold and wet Summer it was for the most part, I am truly amazed by how much growth the plant produced. This single slip grew to cover most of the grow bag surface with healthy green/purple leaves.

And here is the "before" picture of the "Beauregard" Sweet Potato. It didn't grow quite as large as the "Georgia Jet" plant did. The holes in the leaves were not caused by disease or insects but by finches. Yes, Gold Finches! For some reason they liked nibbling on the green foliage and this grow bag was located very close to a bird feeder.

The big reveal.............there was something growing inside those bags! On the left is pictured the red/orange tubers of the "Beauregard" and on the right the hot pink colored "Georgie Jet" tubers. Not surprisingly, the larger "Georgia Jet" plant produced a bigger crop of tubers.

Fortunately, we aren't depending on this harvest to survive the Winter! My "Georgia Jet" plant harvest was 1 lbs. 6.2 oz.

The "Beauregard" harvest was only 11.0 oz.

And here is the total harvest after getting washed and trimmed.  As you can see the "Georgia Jet" actually produced on fairly big, fat tuber. All the rest were fairly long but skinny. However, I think we can get at least one meal of diced and baked Sweet Potatoes out of this.

Besides Sweet Potatoes, I also harvested my Pepper "crop". Crop is probably too strong a word here! Each of my 2 pepper plants produced exactly 1 pepper! The poor plants had to contend with cold weather and getting completely smothered by the Winter Squash vines. Pictured above, my one "Lilac" pepper. It weighted 1.4 oz.

I also had one lovely "Gypsy" pepper too. It weighted 3.0 oz.

I did have to add this picture. I must have worked outside for close to two hours. And during that entire time Tom-Cat slept nearby in his cat bed. He didn't even open an eye. Not exactly the best garden helper today!

I also had to show the picture, below. I know that it isn't of very good quality. But the exciting part is the bird on the right side of the tray. I know, you can only see the back half of the bird. But it's an Evening Grosbeak! We thought that all of our Evening Grosbeaks had left for the Winter weeks ago. But suddenly, I looked up today and there was this handsome guy. I am guessing he is just stopping by on his way South but it was great to get one more sighting this year. Happy travels sir. We will see you next Spring.