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!

Veg & Blooms

Insect watering trough.

Hello, lovers of #SixonSaturday!

Yet another week of sun & no rain.  The veg are happy about this, but no one else is. 

A promising crop of berries dried on the vine, though they looked healthy otherwise.  Presumably from the hot, dry air.

With few exceptions (calendula), my flowers have been lack lustre.  The sunflowers & cosmos are very short.  The summer bulbs either didn't grow, stopped growing, or died.


My Twitter feed makes me wish I'd grown dahlias this year, but no, I wanted something different.  Now, I have only my ice cream for solace.

However, with a little effort, I present a few lovelies surviving amongst the veg this week. 

1.  After the tassels comes the silk.

The predicted hand pollination has begun.  As of this morning, there are 3 corn silks.

First silk.

2.  No longer fruitless.

Last week, I wondered when the peppers would ever appear.  I now have etiuda & cayenne.  The latter are so small as yet, my phone camera couldn't get a good shot.  Maybe next week.

A pair of etiuda chilis.

3.  Fire tongues.

The beans love this weather, so keep me busy harvesting.  As with the peas, I find the coloured pods so much easier to find. 

Fire tongue dwarf French beans.

And now for those blossoms.


4.  Spirea

This gal looked a bit rugged after the Beast from the East.  She earned herself a serious haircut this past spring.  Today, she's looking grand.

Spirea going to town.

5.  Unintentionally purple.

In this shady corner, we have a young wisteria, a smoke bush, a very short spider fatsia & a young cedar in a pot.  The poppy & loosestrife/toadflax/wandythang volunteers are serendipitously colour coordinated.

Accidental purple.

6.  Day lily.

This clump isn't actually in my garden, but has escaped from the OAP Fairy Person's garden & lives in the bin alley.  I may have to take custody of it in the autumn when it dies back.

Daylily absconding. 

Do you know my name?

That's my Six for the week.  There's rumours of rain on Tuesday.  In the meantime, does anyone know this plant?

For more garden glimpses, drop by The Propagator who leads this band of merry fools.  You'll find his Six, plus links to all SoS gardens across the globe.

See you here next week, hopefully a little damper.  If not, the unfettered ice cream eating continues.