From commentor GreenNotGreen:
I grow a lot of tropical plants, many of which summer outside on my shady deck or on benches in my shady yard or suspended from a defunct swing set in more sun. Most will overwinter in my greenhouse, some will be dormant and reside dark and dry in a storage room, and a few will come into the house. Having a passion for gesneriads in particular (gesneriads are the plant family that includes African violets, florist gloxinias, lipstick plants, goldfish plants, and many more) led me to join The Gesneriad Society which has been the source of so many friends, good times, and foreign adventures.
Almost all my nearly 1000 plants are watered and fed automatically. That still gives me plenty to do keeping them repotted and pruned and free (relatively) from bugs.
The purple flower [top photo] is Achimenes ‘Cupido’. The magenta one [below] is also an Achimenes but came to me mislabeled, so I’ve never known what it was; it’s possibly a species.
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Here north of Boston, temps dropped below 40 last night… my remaining tomato plants aren’t quite dead, but they’re struggling. This is the time of year when the fact that my ‘garden’ is planters on asphalt actually helps, since the asphalt stays a few precious degrees warmer overnight, and it wouldn’t be surprising if air temperatures recovered enough that the last couple of cherry tomato plants keep producing, even into mid-November.
What’s going on in your gardens this week?
HeartlandLiberal
Garden is done here in south central Indiana.
Yesterday I started the tasks pf pulling up plants and weeds to wheelbarrow to the compost heap and clearing and storing cages, stakes, and plastic netting fences the sugar snaps and some Japanese beans grew on. (Some of them grew two feet long, quite a neat experience.). It will take several days to clear.
I stuck a handful of desultory cabbages and broccolis in the ground a couple weeks ago, but I have no great expectations of a late crop this year. The last tomatoes will be picked over next few days, then the vines will come down. I will say that this year was good for tomatoes. I estimate we picked and cooked down nearly 300 pounds and probably more of tomatoes from the 28 or so plant, over 20 varieties, many heirlooms. Some of the best home spaghetti we have ever made, and several batches frozen for later use. I made one batch with canned beef from the Mennonite community in northern Indiana. I keep several cans in stock for all sorts of uses. I enjoy the labeling on the can: “The original fast food.”
We were giving tomatoes away for the past month because we could not keep up with them.
Yesterday I baked sugar pie pumpkins and then baked three pies, which turned out delicious. Today I am mixing the remaining pumpkin pulp I reserved with a couple of backed sweet potatoes, and will be trying a pumpkin-sweet potato mix pie using the same basic successful recipe. I will make two varieties by pouring out half the mixture into two shells, then adding a few tablespoons of molasses to the remaining mix then filling the other two pie shells with it. I love the molasses. My wife does not.
Speaking of which, I find it a hoot that Brer Rabbit now labels the super dark and rich variety “Full Flavor.” All my life it has been “Blackstrap” molasses. I have to think some marketing genius decided that just no longer appealed to the masses for some reason. Pity. FWIW, I love the rich, deep taste the variety of molasses lends to a pie, and more than that, it is actually good for you.
There will not be a vegetable garden next year. We just paid deposits, and next year we are doing a 15 day cruise east bound across the Atlantic, 18 days in northern Germany and London Then 7 days on the Queen Mary 2 west bound home to New York. Our 50th anniversary celebration.
I plan to plow the garden up in spring and seed 2,000 square feet with wild flowers and sunflowers, then let it go wild for the year.
HeartlandLiberal
And on a totally unrelated note, allow me to report that Indiana beat Missouri, ranked #18, yesterday. A major, major upset. Somebody in Vegas who decided to throw a few bucks on Indiana won big, I would think.
Indiana is consistently ranked, deservedly so, as one of the worst football programs in the nation. One recent article said it was the sixth hardest, worst, football coaching job in Division I. A program where foot ball coaches go to see their careers die. I will say that I was glad to see Cam Cameron, who failed here, go on to real success in the pros with the Ravens a few years ago.
As someone who has continued to buy my season tickets, now for 18 straight year, maybe there will now be another reason for continuing than the fact I get a big number or priority points for my football faithfulness that translate into better seating in Hoosiers basketball home games. Row 18 little right of center not too shabby, considering the competition and levels of donations required to get any further down.
Next Saturday Maryland will be here in Bloomington, for our first match up in the new expanded Big Ten (12 13, heck I have lost count at this point). Should be an interesting game. I look forward to smuggling my Gosling Black Seal rum in to put in the giant fruit smoothies sold by one great concession operation at the games. It improves the experience of Indiana football immensely.
raven
Very nice. The garden maven is off to the Grower’s Outlet this morning to stock up on whatever she gets to keep color in the garden year-round.
raven
@HeartlandLiberal: Last time I was there Corso was the coach and Quinn Buckner was a cornerback. We camped in Brown County State Park and went over early in the morning. We knew a bunch of Illini players and saw them before the game. A couple of coaches went nuts that these guys were talking to a couple of low down hippies in public!
Mustang Bobby
My mom and a friend conspired to get me two new orchids for my birthday: a “chile pepper” vanda so named because of the shape and color of the blooms, and a “butterfly,” also because of the bloom.
The best part about having orchids in Florida is that they’re basically maintenance-free: hang ’em up and forget ’em as far as watering; spray them with food every so often and they will grow like crazy.
OzarkHillbilly
OK… I’ll be back with garden news, but right now some words I never expected to be written of a crime in America:
“I went to the bottom of the stairs and saw a couple of ninjas coming down,” the man was quoted as saying. “They were all dark gray or black, and they had black rubber gloves on and masks. All I could see was their eyes.”
…..
The women “violently attacked one of the adult males in the house who came to see who was coming,” Ian Adams of the West Jordan police department told the Guardian.
“Another adult male joined the fray in defense of the first male victim. He was armed with a sword, and using a sword … and with the other male [was] able to subdue the two women until police arrived and took them into custody.”
Mormons are weird, just plain weird.
debbie
I know this isn’t a gardening-related issue, but are there any effective ways to deal with stinkbugs? My apartment was a pit stop yesterday for a migrating horde. I flicked more than 25 off my window screens in about 4 hours.
JPL
It’s time that I dig up my sweet potatoes. I’ve planted fall greens and they are doing well. Last year I had greens until January.
Greennotgreens flowers are amazing. It looks like a botanical garden that you have to pay admission to.
@debbie: This past week has been awful. I wiped down the screens with lysol wipes and that helped for a day or two. I wish I had better information.
Raven
@debbie: To prevent stink bugs from entering your home, block all points of entry. The same principles used to keep boxelder bugs from entering a home apply to stink bugs. Physical barriers provide the most effective long-term solution.
You can also apply an insecticide as a perimeter treatment outside your home. This method can block would-be insect invaders from entering your home for several days to a week.
Try these methods – which have been used successfully by homeowners and entomologists – to keep stink bugs at bay:
Rub screens with dryer sheets – the more pungent the better. Some homeowners have found this can reduce stink bugs entering a home by up to 80 percent.
Hang a damp towel over a lawn chair or deck railing overnight. In the morning, stink bugs will blanket the towel. Dispatch bugs in a bucket of soapy water.
Squish a few stink bugs outdoors. The odor warns other stink bugs to flee.
– See more at: http://www.bayeradvanced.com/articles/how-to-get-rid-of-stink-bugs#sthash.P8Aov4wa.dpuf
debbie
Thanks to you both!
munira
We’ve had two frosts here in southern Quebec so the tomatoes, beans, peppers, eggplants, squash, cucumbers, sweet potatoes and basil are all harvested and so are the potatoes, onions, garlic and celery. I still have the carrots, turnips, beets, cabbage and various greens out there. I’ve been going out in the cold early morning to empty the compost bin when the yellow jackets who’ve taken up residence there are asleep. Hopefully, the bad stinging ones will die off soon and I can remove their nest. I’ve only been stung a few times. So today I’m going to make sauerkraut and pick apples and make one last batch of tomato sauce. The freezer’s almost full, I have lots of dried beans and I just need to finish putting things in the root cellar – in other words, the garden’s almost done for this year.
Ajay
Hi Anne,
Can you please explain how is your automation for feeding/watering is set up? Watering appears to overhead. If yes, I am guessing these tropical are ok with water on the leaves. Any mildew issues with this type of system?
I grow Bananas, Cannas (in ground) and Colocasias, Alocasias, Begonias (all in pot). But its now getting painful to take care of these every year to dig them up or bring the pots inside. I am now kind of reverting to mostly Japanese Maples as these are hardy for my zone (6b).
Thanks
Elmo
We tried a new heirloom tomato variety this year: the “Mortgage Lifter.” No idea why it’s called that, but omfg. It was a late producer, but in mid August we started getting the most amazing large pale red sandwich tomatoes you ever tasted. And it’s still going strong. Rich, sharp, faintly sweet, lovely acidity, yum. It’s late September and I have tomatoes all over my kitchen. From one bush!
Schlemazel
@Elmo:
Its called ‘mortgage lifter’ because it is so prolific farmers could pay of the mortgage with the results.
We still have 16 day lilies that have to be moved this fall but its not happening today. Still fighting plumbing disasters from yesterday. Old iron water pipe has a habit of leaking at joints when put under any stress and trying to replace a leaking joint causes stress. Also going to have to pull the kitchen sink to finish replacing the faucet set as the old set refuses to be persuaded by a faucet wrench. Naturally the spiffy 1/4 turn connector on the garbage disposal is frozen. Older home sure are cute to look at.
Ajay
@Elmo:
> the “Mortgage Lifter.” No idea why it’s called that,
Radiator Charlie Mortgage Lifter
greennotGreen
@Mustang Bobby: I grow some orchids as we’ll and partly for the same reason you as the best part. Since I already have a greenhouse, the orchids are almost maintenance-free -just the occasional repotting or treating for scale. Also, they grow with gesneriads, begonias, aroids, and ferns in the wild, so they’re part of my attempt to recreate an Andean cloud forest in my yard/greenhouse.
greennotGreen
@Raven: Do you think the dryer sheet solution will work for ladybugs?
greennotGreen
@greennotGreen: we’ll=well. DYAC
tesslibrarian
@Elmo: I’d seen these in the past but hadn’t heard of anyone who had grown and tasted them. Thank you for the review! I may see about those next year. We have limited gardening space right now (I am a limited gardener; it’s not a gene I inherited), so anything that does so well and is good for sandwiches sounds divine.
I didn’t even plant this year. Finally had my soil tested, knew what to do, but then conference season hit and I had to take a website live, and ugh. Just no motivation. In July, I noticed something was growing tall–volunteer Matt’s Wild Cherry tomatoes. We’ve harvested a couple of soup bowls full–there are probably 6 hearty plants out there. They aren’t as sweet as they would be if they’d been in properly amended soil and given any attention or care, but it did make me realize we need to make the effort next year.
WaterGirl
1,000 plants, wow. The top and bottom flowers are amazing, but I really love the two photos in the middle!
I have a tree question for all you gardeners and nature people out there.
I am thinking of putting in a sassafras tree to replace the silver maple the city will likely be taking down in front of my house because it doesn’t look all that healthy. I’ve done a bunch of googling and they seem like really interesting trees. Does anyone have any experience with a sassafras tree?
I also need to replace the huge silver maple that crashed on my house 15 months ago, but I’m not looking for a tree that is that big. Anyone have a favorite to suggest? (This tree would be in my back yard.)
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the crepe myrtles I saw on my trip to NC, but that is the wrong zone. I am zone 5. Or I was before climate change set in, I believe we are now 5.5 and headed for 6.
satby
@WaterGirl: Try a hardy crepe myrtle! I planted one two springs ago, the first year I thought it had died, but it resurrected itself the next spring. Flowered the next summer. After last winter I thought it was a goner again, but it just developed late, like a lot of my plants and finally flowered at the beginning of September.
satby
@greennotGreen: really gorgeous, greennotgreen, but 1000?! Wow.
greennotGreen
@satby: Automation makes it possible.
Marvel
In mid-July I planted some peas (“Wando”) that were developed to withstand the Summer’s heat. Watered ’em, put shade cloth over them when it got unreasonably hot and hoped for the best. Tonight we’re having fresh sweet peas in our risotto!!!!!!!
http://imgur.com/c4OpORg