On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
I kept taking photos throughout the fall, intending to send them to Anne Laurie for a Garden Chat. I never got them sent, but maybe we can use some garden cheer this morning.
Imm’s comment about missing the Garden Chat this morning prompted me to throw this together using the On The Road form.
I picked 5 bags of these tomatoes the night before our first frost.
I asked Imm to remind me of his banana-tomato process, thinking I would try that for the oodles of tomatoes I picked before the frost. I didn’t have any bananas, so I moved all the tomatoes outside to the sunny table on my screened-in porch.
If you mix tomatoes that are ripe with the less ripe ones, that seems to help with ripening. This picture shows their progress from what you saw in the first photo, too now.
I had never had a pulmonary before, but I thought I would try something new this year. No flowers this year because I planted it after the flowers were done, but it definitely liked it in the very sunny spot where I planted it. Can’t wait to see the flowers in the spring!
This is my white mandevilla, a few days after the first frost. I was thrilled that it made it through, and I had happy flowers for another month before I had to bring it inside.
My white bleeding heart vine was in one of the Garden Chats this summer, but I thought you might like to see what it does in the fall. Sometime around the end of August the pure white starts to turn the lightest rose, and then it continues to darken until it reaches this color. This was taken at the end of September, and a few weeks later I had to bring it inside for the winter.
This is my pink hair grass, just as it’s coming out in the fall. aka pink muhly grass. One of my favorite things in the garden in the fall!
This one is a little further along than the first one.
This one is further along, still. At some point, the color fades, but they still look amazing in the winter when they are covered with snow.
Here is the pink hair grass hanging out with another plant that shines in the fall – obedient plant.
mrmoshpotato
Hot! Dog! BLT me!
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: BLT?
Steeplejack
Very nice greenery. A nice reminder as we head into winter.
debbie
Thank you! I love all your flowers, especially that bleeding heart because it’s like looking at an entirely new plant after it changes colors. A nearby church has a huge hydrangea which gradually changes from snow white to blush pink.
JR
I have DKO roses still going. Looking at the weather, they’re going to make it into december. We might finally get a killing frost at the end of this week.
WaterGirl
@JR: You should take photos of that and send them in to Anne Laurie. If folks send in their current pics, or even recent pics, maybe the Garden Chat can go for a few more weeks.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Green tomato salsa verde!!
WaterGirl
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I’m not a big fan of salsa verde, but I haven’t tried it again in decades, so maybe I would feel differently now.
Elma
I never had good luck brining my mandevilla inside for the winter, even though I had a conservatory for it to live in. The winter sun in Wisconsin was just not strong enough for it to thrive. I moved into an apartment in April and have missed parts of having a garden. Not the weeding! I have enjoyed the vicarious experience of Garden Chat.
J R in WV
Wonderful flower AND vegtable garden pictures. Pink grass? Who knew?
We have a big climbing hydrangia, which never blooms, I suspect because it’s in heavy shade out in front of the house. South facing location, but in forested hillsides, no idea what it would look like if it did bloom. It’s pretty, and we have to chop it away from the house, lest it take root in the structure…
Note: I am not the same person who posts as JR — I’m J R in WV, a separate and distinct individual from JR, who may be a perfectly delightful person, hopefully not in WV
MagdaInBlack
I finally put my plant stand together and it was every bit the ordeal I expected ( much body shop language involved) but my plants are happily settled in the patio door window now.
Pearl the Squirrel climbed up the screen this morning……I was late with breakfast =-(
Eta: mummified apricots are a big hit.
Benw
What ‘matoes!
Geminid
I spent Thanksgiving afternoon in a friends yard, and we talked gardening while grilling pork chops. He grows year round, and said it’s not too late to start turnips. So yesterday I dug up a 5′ by 6′ area where my late peppers were, and when I get back home this afternoon I’ll rake it out and plant turnip and radish seeds. Kind of a science project, but it was a good start on my winter digging. I have a lot of garden space where I live now, but I need to dig what I want to plant before I get busy in the spring. Local garden guru Andre Viette says signs point to a cold winter in Virginia.
FelonyGovt
Thanks for these! Just beautiful.
My camellias are finally blooming and I have a few other things going on in my (fairly new) Southern California garden. Maybe I’ll send in some photos!
Cowgirl in the Sandi
I love that mandevilla. I’ve been looking for a well-behaved vine to plant against a sunny wall, so maybe that’s the one. It’s really pretty. Thanks for the garden chat – I’ve missed it as well.
Platonicspoof
@J R in WV:
You’re probably right about the deep shade limiting the amount of flowers. They also don’t need fertilizer after getting established if the soil is sufficiently organic, unless a soil test shows a need for phosphorus.
More generally, many shrubs won’t flower if they’re too “happy” – too much nitrogen fertilizer, too much water, etc
Edit to add that they flower on the previous season’s wood, so only prune right after what would be their normal flowering time.
thalarctosMaritimus
@WaterGirl:
Bacon, lettuce, and tomato.