Before and After

My project the past two days.  Cleared out all the winter squash, old beans and dug out the leeks, harvested the basil and made pesto, cut back the asparagus ferns, swept the paths and then turned the soil (by hand) and sowed clover seed, it's watered and ready to go. Glad to have that done.

When I harvested the basil yesterday I discovered all these caterpillars in the leaves, I think they are actually from bean beetles, but no beans left for them to eat so they jumped to the next crop. They were fairly entertaining trying to find their way out of the compost pail.

This one managed to make it over to my coffee cup.  They all went to the compost pile in the end, hopefully they won't come back to haunt us next year.

First Fall Fire

Part of todays haul

My goal today was to clear out one of the veg beds where winter squash, basil, leeks and beans have been growing all summer.  I want to clear it to sow a cover crop of clover for the winter, its been on my list for days.  I did manage to get the winter squash out along with the vines and pulled 2 basil plants with which I made a giant batch of pesto for the freezer.  I didn't finish digging the leeks or planting the clover, tomorrow I hope.  I hadn't picked any veggies in a while but the peppers are starting to ripen up again and the eggplant looked like they were going to start becoming pure seed, it's so late in the season, they weren't really growing so I picked most of them.  I read somewhere about eating butternut squash immature, that they are buttery so I'm going to give it a try, I picked a couple of pounds of young green ones in order to pull the vines out.

We had this salad to start dinner tonight, a base of bibb, pears and toasted almonds dressed with a mustard, balsmic and olive oil dressing.  Topped with beets and figs and garnished with crispy croutons spread with Blue d'Auvergne cheese.  So good.  Eggplant roasted with peppers,tomatoes and garlic, tossed with pasta and some of todays pesto made the main course.

We then sat around an outdoor fire, the first of the season, drinking red wine and toasting marshmallows.  Life is pretty darn sweet ain't it?

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.