Observations about October 2013

Still trying to catch up here on the ole blog. Again, I don’t have a whole lot of photos from October, but here is what was going on.

The Kitchen Garden in October

It seems logical to start out with a photo that includes two of my neighbor’s cats. These two cats have been showing up in my pictures pretty often lately. There is a third orange and white cat, but that one is more skittish and runs away from me. Here are the two cats relaxing at the entrance of the kitchen garden. You can see the Panicum Shenandoah grass on the left has changed colors and is more reddish/orange. There is a purple aster on the right that is blooming and lots of basil behind the two potted boxwoods. The standard rose in the center needs pruning.

I had both flat-leafed and curly-leafed parsley in the kitchen garden this year and enjoyed both. The flat-leaf doesn’t seem to do as well and doesn’t get nearly as full as the curly-leafed kind.

The Mariachi Hot Peppers were still going strong in October. This was my first year planting these instead of Jalapeno Peppers and they did SO much better. They were so prolific that I was giving some away. They start out yellow and ripen to red.

 
I finally got decent tomatoes in October. All of the rain in the summer made them later than usual. It was my first time trying Brandy Boy Hybrid and they really did taste delicious...once I got some to try.

I also had a crop of arugula in October that I was enjoying in my salad, however, I seem to have forgotten to take a picture of it! I had planted it in September so I could have a fall crop of it.

 The Flower Garden in October

Yes, this is yet another shot that includes one of the neighbor’s cats. Both of them love to take naps on the garden bench, although never at the same time. The red flowers are Pineapple Sage. I love it because it is a perennial, smells wonderful when you rub the leaves, and brings a pop of color to the garden in the fall. 

Here’s the Pineapple Sage again with a purple Aster – two colors that I don’t use together very often, but I like it. This sage has taught me that I need more reds and oranges in the garden.

This was taken standing in the kitchen garden looking towards the shed. You can see the dried flowers of a hydrangea in the foreground and can also see the Pineapple Sage and Aster again.

Here is the purple Aster close up. I should probably be pruning it early in the season so it doesn’t get so leggy.

The yellow Melampodium is starting to fade here. The pink roses were still blooming off and on. In fact, they kept blooming here and there through late November or early December. The reddish color in the background is a mum that comes back each year.

Here is a close up of the mum that comes back each year. This is the first mum that has ever come back for me. It’s a pretty magenta/reddish color.

A close up of the pink roses.

These are herbs and a succulent container that are right outside the back door. The herbs are (clockwise from left to right) Rosemary, Silver Sage, Thyme, and Oregano. The succulents are now in the greenhouse, of course, however they are in a different container. After having this box for years, I ruined it by setting it directly on the ground and the bottom rotted out. There was a plastic liner inside, which kept the dirt on the inside away from the wood, but stupid me wasn’t thinking when I put this here without anything to protect the bottom! Live and learn.

While we are looking at succulents...here is my colander of succulents that I planted in the spring. If you remember, some of these succulents came from Lowe’s Home Improvement. You can read my previous “Reformed Plant Snob?” post, and also see what the container looked like in the spring in my “Potted Succulents” post. This container is also in my greenhouse now.

When I moved this container into the greenhouse for the winter, I was surprised to see moss on the bottom. It looks really cool, doesn’t it?! Moss and succulents don’t really like the same conditions so I wasn’t expecting to see this. I can’t remember if I lined the very bottom of the colander with plastic or not. If I did, then that might explain the moss forming on the bottom.

That was the gist of October and that is the end of my garden photos from 2013. Just wasn’t anything exciting to take pictures of after that.