A Day Off

After busting my butt for several days straight I decided it was time for a true day off.  What does that mean, what does that look like?  I hardly ever stop completely but today I slept late, enjoyed a second cup of coffee with an english muffin filled with bacon and a farm fresh fried egg.  I puttered around the yard taking pictures, wrote for awhile, sat in the hammock and pondered life and the garden.  I went to the pool and swam for almost an hour, and then I went for a massage.  Yeah Baby.  I just finished a tasty supper with my man and I'm soon heading for the bed.  Don't be fooled, there were some chores snuck in there like laundry, cleaning the bathroom, filling the bird feeders, but nothing too strenuous.  Tomorrow I hope to get some bigger things accomplished, we'll see.  

Blissed Out

Autumn Sentinel

Today I'm featuring another Camellia sasanqua called Autumn Sentinel, formerly Bob Green, I don't know why the name was changed but I think the pale pink of the flower is truly exquisite.  This is an extremely upright, columnar plant with the deep blue green leaves common to most of the sasanquas. It's also a very early bloomer so I've been enjoying it for a couple of weeks already.

I've been pulling extra shifts at the Forest lately as the owner is off to Taiwan to scout for new species.  I've got Camellias on the brain and I'm bone tired from schlepping plants around in the mud and rain all day long!  So- a short post and I'm off to my bed to dream about all those gorgeous plants and flowers that fill my days.

Fennel

I've been growing fennel for a couple of years without a lot of success.  My farmer friends say you need to start it in February in a greenhouse and then set it out in spring.  Since I don't have a greenhouse I've tried direct sowing it in March and it has done alright but never gets very big.  I think it's really for cooler climates so by mid summer we've managed to harvest a few small bulbs and then it usually starts to bolt.

Accept this one here, which I harvested yesterday, a huge bulb, 7 months growing!  Very tender and crisp with that wonderful anise flavor.  We've enjoyed it sliced thinly into salads with our first fall beets the past two nights, very tasty.

A nice way to use the feathery tops and stalks-which tend to be tough and fibrous-is to lay them in a pile on a hot grill and then put a fillet of marinated fish on top of the fennel to grill it.  The flavor of the fennel drifts up into and permeates the fish and makes a very delicious dish.

Moonflowers

I love moonflowers.  They're easy, you have to score the plump white seeds before you plant them but because they are related to morning glories, they grow rapidly.  I put a couple of plants in this pot on the deck and they took right off, covering the rail and setting buds.  They open in the evening and bloom at night,

I took these photos first thing in the morning.

Gorgeous pink, black and white moths with 4 inch long proboscis visit the flowers in the evening, I've not seen them this season, but they are truly fantastic.

We've had an exciting flurry of migrating birds come through the yard this weekend, rose breasted grosbeak, swainsons thrush, black-throated blue, Canada and Tennessee warblers were feeding in the vegetables and dogwoods this very morning.  What a treat.

Hearts A Bustin'

This is a native flower that grows in NC called  "hearts a-bustin'"  It is a Euonymus americanus  and gets about 6 feet tall.  The color of the flower is spectacularly vibrant in autumn.  The deer browse it very heavily and so I'm glad we have several robust clusters of it inside our deer fence, I hardly ever see it blooming in the woods anymore.

We've got some growing next to this beauty berry and the combo of colors is brilliant.

Gardening at the dimming of the day

Camellia sasanqua Autumn Sunrise. 

I can't get over the glossyness of the deep green leaves. 

The flower- all I can say is - wow.

When I realized I had until the end of the month for the time to change, I vowed to spend as many evenings outside as I can, enjoying the late day light and the opportunity to putter around putting the garden to bed.  If I can fill a wheelbarrow with weeds and dead plants to put on the heap I feel like I've made progress. 

I spent this evening deadheading the coneflowers and verbena bonariensis -the goldfinches seem to be finished eating all the seeds.   It looks much tidier now. 

We are still harvesting some late season figs, they ripen slowly in the cooler air but we pick a small handful each day.  They are less watery and taste richer this time of year.  A treat for my morning cereal.

October Begins!

I love October, and its starting out glorious. Cool crisp days and nights just right for a fire, snuggling under blankets at bedtime, the clarity of the light bringing the autumn garden into perfect focus.  I'm making a vow to try and blog every day this month and to bring something special from the garden to you with each post, because even though I'm putting some things to bed for the winter, other things are just coming into their prime.

This is Ceratostigma plumbaganoides  "Miss Wilmot"  which I got years ago from my father, its actually been blooming since mid summer but it caught my eye yesterday looking so blue in the afternoon light.  A nice small shrub, quite hardy, it dies back in winter but bloooms all summer long.

Now- its way too fine a day to fritter away sitting inside at the computer, I'm off to play outdoors!