Wicked Unrest

Knackered.

It's #SixOnSaturday time again.  I, for one, wasn't ready.

The endless harvest, pets needing their jabs, political melodrama back home, CFS giving me stick - no way I'd post this week.

Then El Punko asks if he can take my SoS photos in order to get some practice with his new camera.

No rest for the wicked, it does seem.



1.  Harvest continues.

Last week, you saw all the peppers lined up in the shed after being picked early to protect them from the wind.  I've been bringing them inside as they develop colour.  Between them & the daily gathering of maters, the windowsill is always full.

The red CA sweet pepper has a symbiotic twin.

2.  Cucumelons.

I learned on Twitter from Rob Smith (@RobsAllotment) that cucumelon form tubers that can be lifted & stored over winter.  Mine are still producing at a great rate, although a few leaves have turned colour.  I suspect it'll be next month before I think about digging them up.

Cucumelon on the bed spring trellis.

Continuing the standard set by the California sweet pepper . . .

Cucu-weird-shape.

3.  Autumn berries.

They say lots of holly berries means a heavy winter & our trees have lots of berries, but they're going a little bit funny on us.  Hopefully none of them will make it into tiny, spiky holly saplings.

What's happening, Mizzy HollyTree?

There's also a volunteer snowberry in the garden.  Like the holly, I love their berries, hate their propensity to spread.  There's just the one this year, but give it time.

Snowberry caught in a web.

4.  Changing foliage.

In the field where we walk the dogs, the chestnut trees (buckeyes, to me) have started to change colour.  Along our street, however, the trees are holding their own.  Not so, for the flowers . . .

Columbine on the cat grave starting to fade.

. . . or the shrubs.

Gillenia getting a bit orange around the edges.

5.  Sedum, at long last.

My sedum with the purple stems & leaves (name buried somewhere out of reach at the moment) bloomed in July.  This great precursor of summer's end - Autumn Joy perhaps? - has finally got some colour.

Sedum & the oft-spoken of, crooked cherry tree.

6.  Last Rose.

The only roses in my current garden were grown from seeds I scavenged during a birthday trip to Paris a few years ago.  They've all bloomed, but not vigorously, so this last blossom really pleased me.

Last of the year's blossoms.

To me, winter, spring & summer are all single purpose.  Autumn, on the other hand, is complex, incorporates birth & death.  It's got my vote for best out of the 4.

Now for a snooze.

And that's my Six for the week.

I'm so glad El Punko wanted some photography practice.  Equally glad you stopped by for a gander.

Make sure to run over to Mr P's for links to other blogs.  And if you've got a garden to share, he's got guidelines.

See you again, soon!

Big Wind

Mizzy BunnyButt heads inside before the Big Wind gets here.

Hurray, it's #SixonSaturday time again!

If you like snooping around other folks' gardens or if you've got a garden for us to snoop around, drop over to our SoS guru, Mr P who'll explain everything.





It's been the week of the Big Wind here.  With plenty of things still ripening, it was time to scramble!


1.  Family Heirlooms.

You know the hypothetical - if you only had time to rescue one thing, what's the first thing you'd grab?  Threaten me with high winds & no question, I save my pears.

Precious pears!  And o, some other stuff, too.

2.  Braving the storm.

Thankfully, we had plenty of time to prepare for the Big Wind, but there was no way to safeguard my pepper plants.  There's my neighbour's one tree, my raised beds, then lawn after lawn after lawn for the Big Wind to race across.

Hope to see you on the other side, guys.

3.  Gather the booty.

So I picked any pepper close to full size, & put them in the shed where mater cuttings & pumpkins hang out.  Hopefully, most of this will ripen.

Pepper mania.

4.  Mater huddle.

After picking any tomato with the faintest blush of colour, we moved the caged plants down from the terrace & snuggled them in with the potted trees.  A couple of heavy pots in front, & good to go.

Kinda like a garden sleep over.

Although the corn's been harvested, I've left the stalks to discourage critturs from trampling the pumpkin vine.


5.  Another suspect?

The Big Wind came & the peppers survived.  The mater huddle worked well, although the second pot from the left (in the photo up ⇑⇑⇑ there) did topple, which pushed the one next to it off kilter.  Since the Wind continues this week, we've adjusted the front planters, which seems to've worked its magic.

But was it the Big Wind messing w/my maters?  Could this rather pungent evidence suggest another suspect in the case, one fond of jumping up on my pots?

Fox scat.

Some colour to that stuff, eh?


6.  And the seasons have changed.

It was sometime during the Big Wind that I finally had to break out a hoodie for the BigNose walks.  Summer is officially over.

Mlle DoodleFace waiting to go.

And that's my Six for this week.  Until next time, happy gardening!

My never ending harvest.

A Scant Autumn

Mizzy BunnyButt among the cosmos.

Weather, eh?  First the ravaging Beast of the East, followed by relief at a great spring, then the despair of a long drought.

The hot summer did give us a good veg haul, (thanks to my relentless watering).  On the other hand, our summer bulbs staged a go-slow, & in some instances, died.  If not for annuals, our summer flowerbeds would've been a bust.

However, the good news is, there are real gardens out there more wisely planted than my own, with actual flowering flowers in their beds.

You can find these beautifully burgeoning gardens by visiting Mr P for his Six on Saturday & links in his comment section to said wonderlands.





Now, because it's you doing the asking, I've found Six things in my own garden to share.




1.  Begonia

These came free with an order from some nursery or the other.  They started with great promise, poking little hairy leaves through the soil . . . and then stopped.

This week, we've finally got our first bloom.  The plant itself is no bigger'n my outstretched hand.

Small but mighty.

2.  Actaea

The garden was pretty flowerless when we moved in this past spring, although had evidence of long ago beds in the usual places.  One shady bed ran the length of our boundary fence, giving me plenty excuse to buy rakes of shade tolerant plants.

Among others things, I got three actaea.  The only one to bud is the Black Negligee.

Just beginning.

Rather than growing straight up, this one looks like a goose chasing a too-nosy dog.  That dark stem, those burgundy buds, then the white flowers - spectacular combo.


3.  Cyclamen.

There was a single cyclamen in that shady bed when we arrived.  I thought I'd given it enough room when I planted the brunnera.  Apparently not.

Outa my way, brute.

4.  Woody

During my shopping frenzy, it was the fern's description which sold me on woodwardia.  The new growth was meant to come out scarlet, then go through colour changes until the mature fronds turned green.

Mine never started scarlet, but did give a nice burgundy red in the beginning . . .

New unfurled frond on left, 08/09/18.

. . . which mellows to a coppery bronze that's stunning.  Don't look real, do they?

A week later.

The mature green isn't bad, either.  I like my woody.  May have to get a second one in hopes of that scarlet new growth.  Purely for investigative purposes, of course.  Sacrifice is the byword in gardening, you know.


5.  Tomato cuttings.

Yes, I'm really scraping the barrel to get Six here, guys.  I've never taken tomato cuttings before, so perhaps you'll forgive me.  Since my rosella cherry tomatoes did so well this year - both in numbers & taste - time to forswear my foolish non-tomato cutting ways.

Grow roots, my little darlins.

6.  What is this thang?

I posted this a few weeks ago, hoping for an identification.  Most folk suggested rosemary, but if it is, it's not the usual kind.  The foliage is much more delicate & flexible to touch, plus smells a bit citrusy in the lemon/lime spectrum.  There is an underlying herb scent as well.

In bud.

Maybe now that it's in bud, that'll helps with identification.  And if not, you'll be seeing it again when it blooms.

Shattered from harvest duties.

Even though the flowerbeds've been slacking, the veg've kept me busy harvesting, slicing, seeding, saucing, jamming, freezing, collapsing.

Autumn.  My favourite time of year.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope to see y'all again, real soon.