From ace photographer & commentor Ema:
Pictures taken in October in Brooklyn (the first one), on the Upper East Side (the last one), Midtown East, Hudson Yards, and Greenwich Village.
The penultimate one is a bit odd. Why would the city plant vegetables in a public plaza? Still, the mini peppers are very cute.
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Still keeping an eye out for the first frost, here north of Boston — it was in the 40s Thursday, and the 80s Saturday.
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
HumboldtBlue
I cooked some ham hocks and greens some days ago, froze some, and they are super delicious… right now after I defrosted some and got hungry and served them with rice.
Also, a month ago I decided to buy a new rice cooker and it’s night and day in the quality of the rice it produces.
satby
Beautiful pictures Ema! Those are probably ornamental peppers. They’re safe to eat, but are much hotter than most peppers used to cook with, so they’re planted for display.
Went to bed early, so I’m up early. I pulled in the last of the green tomatoes last night to try to ripen in a paper bag, but expect less than 1/2 will. Our balmy weather ended Friday night, we’re steadily cooling down to a frost possible tonight and potential snow Tuesday. I planted 100 bulbs Thursday, still have 13 to go but putting them in pots as soon as frost kills the cannas so I can lift them for winter storage. 113 bulbs was about 50 more than I planned, I forgot an order I put in last summer 🙄
satby
@HumboldtBlue: Zorushi makes good everything. But I’ve gotten great results from my more budget Aroma cooker too.
HumboldtBlue
@satby:
I had to replace a 20-year-old Aroma, it wasn’t the pan’s fault, it was just old and terrible, and I am floored with the difference, so I can only holler about how good it cooks a pot of rice.
Plus, my greens were delicious, so that’s always good news.
satby
@HumboldtBlue: Yum, greens!
My biggest resale shop score was a 1lb loaf Zorushi breadmaker I got for $7. Never used apparently. 1lb is a small loaf for most folks, but for a single person it’s the perfect size to use up the homemade bread before it goes stale.
eclare
Lovely photos, Ema. I’m amazed how you find so many “street” flowers.
Van Buren
sab
I brought my bouganvillea in to winter under a grow light. It was okay with that last winter. Not so much this year. It’s dropping all its leaves. Same with the meyer lemon.
Got an overhead grow light for the downstairs basement bathroom. Brought in a late planted tomato and some herbs. Put up a baby/cat gate and a curtain. The cats are outraged. What am I doing in there?
OzarkHillbilly
So much color! Thanx Ema.
JPL
The photos are amazing and they help brighten my day! The two grand imps are sleeping! They are to be picked up by ten though. phew! I had boys about two years apart and I don’t remember being this exhausted.. One is two and the other four so it’s to be expected.
It’s going to be 80 today so I’ll do some yard work, and cleaning outside. Next week the cold weather moves in and the temps are going to fall to the fifties during the day and with possible freezing overnight.
OzarkHillbilly
Here in the hills and hollers it’s raining. For the first time in a month, I think. We were supposed to get an inch+ while they were calling for 2″ down in Farmington. I’ll take it, the ground here is like concrete. Sub freezing temps starting tonight, 28, 22, and 19 for Halloween, daytime highs in the 40s. There go the gardens. Clean up time is coming.
Jeffg166
The last of the bulbs went in yesterday. Wherever the chicken wire hasn’t cover the ground squirrels have been active.
The dahlias and cannas in pots will come in if not today tomorrow. They get stored in the basement for the winter.
mrmoshpotato
More like October Booms! Because that first picture (and others) scream, “BOOM! COLOR!”
Wow. Very nice.
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue: Ahem.
Hock it to me!
I’m here all week. Try the
vealham hocks.satby
@Jeffg166: Do you dig the tubers out of the pots or just store them pot and all indoors? I’ve stored the begonias pot and all once the frost kills the foliage, but haven’t done the cannas that way.
HeartlandLiberal
The first picture looks like a painting. It is very good.
Having moved to a senior retirement community six months ago, for the first time ever (barring days in grad school and before that in college), I do not have a plot of land that I can turn into a garden. But two of our deck plants have been moved to the greenhouse maintained by the community, our Ixora and Gardenia. We plan to create a patio in front of the front door, we are awaiting an estimate by the concrete contractor. But we have beautiful old Tulip Poplar tree across the street in front of our house, which I said in an email to a friend in Nashville, Tenn, I have found the Entwife. It looks like and Ent out of the Tolkien movies. This coming spring I plan to grow some herbs on the small deck, and potted flowers, but my gardening days are over.
Narya
I’ve started saving a couple of beans from each Rancho Gordo bag; I planted six so far, and the first four took a week to come up. I realize it’s the wrong time of year and so on, but it heartens me to see new growth/life. They’re growing FAST.
satby
@Narya: Interesting! Which ones did you plant?
Joey Maloney
The jasmine has burst into bloom and the scent is really overpowering. And the Hawaiian Ti plant I put in place of the tree that died isn’t doing all that well. I’m thinking it’s not getting enough sun.
BretH
Garden is slowly going to sleep but roses are blooming again and the pineapple sage is simply busting out. Photos to come soon in a fall color On The Road post. I believe WaterGirl wants more fall color so grab your cameras y’all and get to it.
Jeffg166
@satby: I leave both the cannas and dahlias in the soil in the pots.
I throw a cup on water onto the dahlias once a month during the winter to keep the soil barely moist. It’s mostly dry. This has worked best for me to get the dahlia tubers through the winter.
The cannas I have taken out of the pots and washed the soil off or left them in the soil. They get no water at all if left in the pots. They do just fine.
Both go into a small cool room in the basement that is passively heated by the heating pipes in the basement. It’s chilly in the room but never gets to freezing.
PAM Dirac
Harvest from my vineyard was finished a month ago and now the wines are getting tucked away for bulk aging. So far the wines are turning out as good as the harvest, which was exceptional. Normally at this point I’d just admire the view of the vineyard as the leaves are changing color along with all the trees on the mountain. Unfortunately this year it seems the dreaded spotted lanternfly has finally made it’s way to Frederick. It has really hit Eastern Pa hard so it was just a matter of time before it got here. I didn’t see any of the little bastards all summer. During harvest I saw a few, maybe 5-10 in the entire vineyard. I went out yesterday to enjoy the color and found maybe a 100 times more. I was going to just wait til all the leaves fell and search and destroy any egg masses, but with that many, I decided to spray. The good news is that they are fairly easy to kill. The bad news is that it’s never a good thing to have to use insecticides and also that there is usually plenty more where the current infestation came from. I hope I can delay the real damage for a few years and by then I might be old enough to want to hang it up anyway.
satby
@Jeffg166: ok, what you do with your dahlias I do with my begonias. I always just dug up the cannas because the year I left them in pots I lost most of them, but that was in my garage, which is colder than my basement. Thanks for the tip!
narya
@satby: Ayocote Morado, Buckeye, and maybe Mayocoba? The fourth one I’ve made recently is Alubia Blanca, but I don’t think that was one of them. I had one on the porch this summer, but it got intertwined with the nasturtium and neither was very happy about that.
satby
@BretH: AL has done quite a number of fall color posts here on Sunday morning.
satby
@narya: 😆 to the bean-nasturtium tussle. Thanks.
narya
@satby: :-) I feel like the new ones are going to have a hard time, even though they’re in a south-facing window that gets a lot of light, because for the next four months “a lot of light” is a relative thing.
And now it’s off for a walk, which will eventually take me through the last farmers’ market of the year. I need to stock up on cheese. And, after that, time to roast sweet potatoes and broccoli . . . and maybe make some oatmeal cranberry cookies.
OzarkHillbilly
@PAM Dirac: Shit.
OzarkHillbilly
@BretH: With the hard freezes the next 3 nights, Fall color is gone for us.
Anne Laurie
You are more than welcome to share them here, for a Sunday Morning Garden Chat… unless WaterGirl is desperate for more pics!
ema
Thank you, all!
@eclare:
I use a fine-tuned flower detector! No, I’m lucky that both the city and private groups are very good at beautifying the city.
satby
@Anne Laurie: if John doesn’t watch out WG will take his place at his wedding.
Anne Laurie
@satby: You know my rule — you are free to attack *me* on my threads, but don’t get too nasty to other commentors…
satby
@Anne Laurie: I can’t take full credit, someone else said a variation first on another site. But that’s all I was going to say anyway, and I think “commenter” is no longer the correct description.
kalakal
What lovely flowers, the first picture is glorious. Not a lot flowering here. The Spider Lilies (Criniums) are doing their thing as is the Allamanda but the rest is not doing much . The big exception is a Musical Notes plant Clerodendrum Incisum
which is really enjoying itself
Glidwrith
@HeartlandLiberal: Have you ever had honey made from a tulip popular? It’s divine.
MomSense
Beautiful photos. I’m putting my garden to bed for the winter. Only have one more to finish today.
It’s a little bittersweet. Hopefully my place will sell quickly once I list it and then someone else will get to deal with the sandy soil and the burrowing critters.
None of the houses I’m looking at have any kind of perennial beds around the house. The grass goes to the foundation. I’m always surprised that people don’t want to be surrounded by flowers especially since lawns are such a time and money sink.
jnfr
I love seeing these flowers. Thank you so much!
All I have is six inches of snow on the ground and some nice birds hanging around the feeder.
StringOnAStick
We’re on Maui right now but a friend sent a screenshot of this morning’s low of 17 back home. I picked everything before we left, I wondered if the plants noticed I wasn’t putting up the usual frost protection sheets and knew the season was over. Best veggie garden I’ve had as an adult, and in a place with a 90 day growing season, so a successful veggie summer. Season extension techniques in the early spring really worked!
sab
@satby: Wow. I didn’t know that was a thing. So I can save my begonias?
satby
@sab: Sorry, was off making coffee for the UUs (we had a black Baptist guest minister today, and the UUs didn’t know what hit them 😂)
Yes, I just bring in my begonias pot and all after the first frost kills the vegetation and hang them in my basement. It stays about 58-60 down there, cool enough to keep them from sprouting again. Occasionally I might water the pots a little bit, but very occasionally. Towards spring, when I’m starting seeds, I water a bit more regularly; they sprout and start to grow and by the time it’s past the last frost date they can go outside.
sab
@satby: Thank you. I think this advice is arriving at the exact right time (first frost due this week.)