growLively

'Four Seasons' Viola...My new fave...

These are the cutest violas! The 'Four Seasons' Viola series is a mounding/spreading type of viola that has a bit better heat tolerance on average. They don't trail quite to the degree that 'Purple Rain' does, but they really fill out a container or basket nicely. They produces masses of small blooms. This is definitely my favorite new series of viola to come along in a while...and now just happens to be the perfect time to plant them.

Viola 'Four Seasons White & Pink Wing'- stunning. A lovely combination of white and lavender/pink. Tons of blooms.

Viola 'Four Seasons Purple & Bronze' - a very unique color combination, love it. The plants look really full.

Viola 'Four Seasons Blue & Yellow' - a more traditional color combo, but it looks like it's going to bloom gangbusters.

More fall tomatoes ripening...

I wish I could identify this tomato variety for you...but I can't...it's top secret. LOL. If I told you, well then, you know what I'd have to do to you. It's one of my Organic Gardening Magazine test varieties. And, it's awesome. It's not often you can plant a spring crop of tomato and have it continue to produce and ripen through the entire summer and fall here in Texas. With a fantastic flavor to boot! Normally, once spring plants have produced their early summer crop, the heat of summer pretty much does them in. Then, we plant a second fall crop in mid-July. These babies have just kept on truckin' since spring. The plants are indeterminate and have gotten big and a bit rangy over the growing season, but the fruit are fantastic. It's a saladette type fruit. These are planted in my front yard and I usually just end up eating the ripe fruit right off the vine. So tasty...

 

I'll fill you in on this tomato next spring once OG publishes test results...

Go ahead....feed that orchid addiction...

I used to have a kitty cat named Pierre.  He was super sweet...and super pretty. A blue Russian type mutt, Pierre never met a stranger. He loved his mommy and would have been happiest if I just carried him around in a papoose all day. But, seeing as he weighed about 22lbs..that was just not going to happen! Anyhoo...I had to put him to sleep last summer. Very sad. Pierre had a special talent...a talent for sniffing out the very moment an orchid flower was about to open...so he could eat it. Yes, eat it. I used keep a bevy of orchids in my house, but due to Pierre's tastes that collection dwindled. I have a penchant for Paphiopedilums (slipper orchids), but those were some of Pierre's favorites. I even resorted growing them in glass cookie jars so I could keep a lid on them until they bloomed, but it never failed that Pierre would chomp the flower off just as I removed the lid to let the bloom emerge. Well, now that Pierre has moved on into the Light, I've started "acquiring" again. Here are a few new lovelies...

Paphiopedulum hybrid (Supersuk 'Eureka' AM/AOS x Raisin Pie 'Hsinying') x Sib 

Paphiopedulum hybrid (Supersuk 'Eureka' AM/AOS x Raisin Pie 'Hsinying') x Sib

Now...both of the above are labeled as the same hybrid, so I'm going to have to do some research on those...

  Paphiopedulum hybrid (Ninja 'Conquest' HCC/AOS x Oriental Enchantment 'Clarity')

Chicken Pox...my poor babies...

Ok, so chicken pox (that we get) and avian pox (that chickens get) aren't the same things...but my chickens got it...the avian pox that is. Mosquitoes were so bad in September with all the rainfall, that they must have transmitted it to my birds.

I started having a drop in egg production about a month ago. One of my Polish stopped laying completely but I thought it was because she was molting. Then I got 3 eggs with no shell...which I also figured were coming from Einstein because of her molting. Then I started to see scabs showing up on her back where she'd lost feathers. Thought the other gals were just picking at her. But, 3 days ago, the telltale scab spots started showing up on everyone's combs or waddles...What a bummer! Everyone is eating as normal and none of them seem to be having any respiratory problems, so I'm hoping it just manifests itself in the cutaneous form and won't get too bad. I'm still getting about 1-2 eggs a day, I'm assuming from the two biggest girls. I got some xenodine I'm going to apply to the one that's molting and try to get a bit on the rest's combs...but they don't really like being handled too much, so we'll just have to see how that goes!

You can read more about Pox here: 

Backyard Chickens.com

So for those of you in the area with chickens, keep an eye out for it. There is no treatment other than vaccination, so you just have to ride it out and make sure they are eating and drinking normally.

What to plant right now...

This is what I planted this weekend....

Still time to get broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and other cole crops planted. Don't forget cool season herbs like dill, fennel and cilantro. Chard, sorrel, lettuce and spinach can go in the ground as well. In this bed, I ripped up a few 'Golden Mama' Tomato plants on their last leg. They were still covered with fruit, but I'm going to make green tomato pickles with what I harvested from them.

This is also the perfect time to plant pansies, violas and other cool season color like Iceland Poppies, foxglove, snapdragons and the like. They will perform much better next spring if you get them in the ground before the first frost (Avg. here is Nov. 17th). I usually do a combo of purples, blues and whites. But every once in a while I shake things up with some orange! I know...livin' on the edge, eh? LOL. So this year's cool season combo is blue and orange, with some purples here and there. (Didn't have the heart to pull out the pretty little gomphrena in the photo...maybe next week). I also planted up some hanging baskets with 'Purple Rain' trailing pansy...fabulous!

Chasing Butterflies...

There are worse things to do early on a Sunday morning than chasing butterflies...I spent a good portion of the morning doing just that after I discovered I was surrounded by a bevy of beautiful flutterbys of all shapes and colors. These gals/guys were not easy to get pictures of so I'll apologize for the poor photo quality. I also have not yet taken the time to properly ID the species...so feel free to vote!

This giant beauty has the most beautiful splash of blue that flashes bright in the sunshine. Her she is perched on some Salvia leucantha 'Santa Barbara'. Below, perched on Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'.

Some beautiful Monarchs and another orange species...the Monarch was huge..couldn't get a good photo of that one...plus another little yellow skipper...

T'was such a lovely day...

Strawberry Pots...protect for winter

Here is a question I received from Carrie.."I'm new to the whole strawberry pot thing - and pretty much gardening in general.  I have one terracotta pot with about 12 plants, from which I got 0 (!) strawberries this year.  The plants themselves look great.  I think I have a lack of sun issue.  My question is this: What do I do with it over the winter?  Does it need to come inside?  Do I just cover it if a frost threatens?  Will the plants die back & then grow again in the spring?  I am pretty sure they are an ever bearing variety. Thanks, Carrie"

Hi Carrie!
Yes, strawberries need a full sun location, at least 6 hours of direct sunlight to produce well. But often the very first year they won't produce much. They are perennials so you'll get more fruit in following years once the plants are better established. Because they are in a container, they will be more susceptible to freezing temps. I usually just grab my strawberry pots and put them in the garden shed and pull them out when it's nice outside. Or yes, you can cover and wrap them with frost cloth during freezes. Make sure to water the container before a freeze. They will lose about half of their leaves and go semi-dormant during the winter (depending on where you live) so they won't need nearly as much water, but you'll still need to water them now and then. Sometimes terracotta can crack in the winter, if water is trapped in clay, then freezes and melts. So wrapping the pot is a good idea anyway if you leave it outside. Now for those of you in much colder Northern climates, the pots will definitely need to go indoors for the winter.

Ode to Rhino Beetle...

So, I love bugs...all sorts of bugs. I draw and paint lots of pretty flowers, but bugs are one of my favorite subjects to render. Especially with high quality colored pencils. I can sit for hours and hours obsessing on all the tiny detail. This here is a drawing I've done of a rhino beetle in all it's glory. Aren't they amazing and beautiful?

Did you know...Rhino Beetles are the strongest creatures on Earth? The rhinoceros beetle can carry 850 times its own weight. That's proportionally more than an African Elephant can carry! That's the definition of a badass if there ever was one. Badass beetle!

Fall Tomatoes...

My fall tomatoes are going gangbusters. But for just a tiny bit of late blight on a few of the plants, most are just about as healthy as they can be. The 'Green Zebra' plants are about 7-feet tall right now! Due to cool temps however, fruit is ripening very slowly. Chances are I'll still be picking a lot of green fruit right before our first frost. But that's ok...just means I get to make fried green tomatoes!

'Green Zebra' in the back are dwarfing everyone else...

'Celebrity' plants have a lot of nice fruit on them and some are finally starting to turn a bit yellow..

 

As usual, 'Golden Mama' plants are absolutely loaded with fruit. They have gotten just a tad bit of late blight, but nothing that's keeping them from producing nicely. I have some Roma's fruiting well also. There is one of my Organic Gardening Test varieties, a saladette type, that is still producing and ripening from the plants I planted in spring. VERY unusual. It's definitely a winner and will be my main pick for the review they publish next year. Can't tell you what it is yet, but it's awesome!

Don't forget...Botany of Desire on PBS tonight!

For any of you that have read Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, you'll be thrilled to know that a TV version will be playing on PBS October 28 at 8pm, or you can buy it online. It looks just beautiful. Can't wait.