Pleasant surprises (and a Wednesday Vignette)

Unless I have a very early appointment, I usually stroll through the garden every morning.  My most common discoveries are uprooted plants and holes dug by raccoons, skunks or squirrels.  But occasionally I have a pleasant surprise.  This was one:

This is a flower on Dermatobotrys saundersii, a plant I picked up at The Huntington Garden's fall sale in late October.  I placed the plant in a large pot in a moderately shady spot in my new bromeliad garden early this month.

This photo, taken November 2nd, shows what the plant looked like shortly after I potted it up

During the last heatwave, I noticed that it'd dropped a large number of its leaves.  I wasn't sure if that was a response to the heat, the sharp drop in humidity, too much shade or too little, or watering errors on my part but the leaves continued to drop and I feared I'd killed the plant.  Then it began to produce flowers and show the first signs of producing new leaves.  Hurrah!

This is what the plant looks like now.  It has relatively few leaves but lots of flower buds.  It turns out that the plant is semi-deciduous.  I learned a lot more about it through on-line references after the flowers appeared, including that it's considered at risk of extinction, that its fruits are considered edible, but also that the USDA classifies it as poisonous.

But those weren't the only flowers that came as a surprise.  There are a few more.

Echeveria 'Serrana' has bloomed.  I was attracted to the succulent's dark maroon foliage but its bright orange flowers are attractive too.  I don't always like succulent flowers but these are definitely an exception.

Some of my Eustoma grandiflorum (Lisianthus) are producing new flower buds too.  In late summer and early fall, the buds of many plants withered in place.  I pulled many of the plants up, tossing quite a few out, including what I thought were all of the pink-flowering varieties, which performed poorly this year.  Apparently, I missed at least one.

To top things off, as I was taking photos this morning, I ran into a visitor.

A Monarch butterfly!  She flitted all around the 2 Arbutus 'Marina' in the back garden but I never captured a good photo with her wings open.  Annoyed by my presence, she moved on to flowers higher up in the trees so I left her in peace.  She's my Wednesday Vignette.

I also left a surprise for my neighbors this morning.

Despite giving away bags and bags of lemons to friends over the last several weeks and dropping off a couple more at my next door neighbor's door, the tree down at the bottom of our back slope remained heavily laden with fruit, straining some of the branches.  I decided to lighten its load by giving some of it away and left 2 buckets of lemons at our driveway entrance early this morning.

Three-quarters of it was gone in less than an hour

For more Wednesday Vignettes, visit our host, Anna of Flutter & Hum.


All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

So what happened to the persimmons this year?

I inherited 2 persimmon trees with the house.  They were planted by the guy we bought the house from, which means they're relatively young trees as he owned the house just over a year.  They didn't produce much in the way of fruit during our first years here but they did have pretty fall foliage.

2013 fall foliage

This year, the foliage looks terrible but the trees produced a lot of fruit.  While many of the immature fruits dropped early on, quite a bit was left to ripen on the trees.

Ripening fruit earlier this month

It disappeared rather rapidly.  The fruits nearest the fence top in the vegetable garden went first but these were quickly followed by the fruits on the tree in the dry garden.  I initially held the raccoons responsible for knocking the fruit to the ground, even when I found a squirrel polishing off a decaying persimmon.

I've heard that persimmons are best when they're over-ripe; however, this guy took that message to the extreme

But the squirrels don't need help from the raccoons.  After all, they have the run of the place during the day.

Squirrel eating a persimmon right from the tree

There are no persimmons left on either tree.  Meanwhile, the squirrels are also running off with the guavas, hiding some and eating others.

Guava crumbs

Really, our backyard offers squirrels a full range of amenities.

A comfortable seat at the birdseed bar

Flowers for the picking when fruit and seeds gets same-old, same-old

Fresh water at the fountain

Scenic locations to hang out

Squirrels, they own the place.

All material © 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Corn! (And an update on a supporting cast of fruits and vegetables)

As described here, vegetable gardening is a relatively new experience for me.  My former garden was too small and too shaded to allow me to grow much of anything edible.  Now that I have a dedicated area designed for this purpose, I'm trying out all sorts of herbs, vegetables and fruits, although most of my selections are fairly mundane.

What could be more mundane than corn?  Yet, as I've never grown corn and didn't imagine that I could grow it even in this new garden space, corn is exciting!  I put in seedlings from a 6-pack container in early June, half-expecting that they'd immediately die or just lay there not doing much of anything (like my peppers).  Instead, in a month, the corn stalks have grown from some 6 inches tall to 55 inches tall.  (Yes, I got out a tape measure.)  Tassels are emerging.  For the first time, I'm imagining that these stalks could actually produce real corn.  The stalks are even pretty, especially with the light shining through.

This picture was taken a few days ago - the tassels are already much further developed

The green pole beans are also growing like gangbusters.  Put in from seed just days before the corn was planted, the vines have already reached the top of the 6 foot high support structure.  No sign of any beans yet, though.

I thinned the beans a little after this picture was taken but they may still be a little crowded

While the basil plants are finally beginning to fill out, the few peppers my 3 plants have produced are still stunted.  Too little fertilizer?  Not enough heat yet?  The peppers were late to develop last summer too.

These green peppers turned red while I was waiting for them to achieve their predicted size

My Rumex, grown as much for its ornamental appeal as for its use as a salad green, also remains puny in size, while otherwise appearing healthy.  It's supposed to be kept evenly moist so the periodic disruptions in my watering schedule may be accountable.

Rumex 'Raspberry Dressing' (aka sorrel or dock)

Meanwhile, the lemon cucumber is producing more cukes than we can use.  The leaves are badly disfigured but that doesn't seem to affect production.

The squash has been slow to develop but it looks as though it's picking up speed.

Based on this photo, it also appears that some leaf miners I hadn't noticed may be working on a couple of leaves

The plum tomato is beginning to pump out tasty fruit but the larger-fruited variety, planted late, is just getting started.

Just one unripe tomato so far

Despite periodic interventions on my part, the squirrels managed to strip the blueberry plants on the back porch; however, it seems that they've yet to discover the strawberries.

There were more strawberries here than shown - I ate about half of them while picture-taking

Unfortunately, the lone ripe plum was sampled by birds (or squirrels) and left to wither on the ground.

The grapes are ripening and there's no sign of pillage yet.  Maybe the bird scare tape is working.

'Red Flame Seedless' grape

On the citrus front, the lemon tree is still producing its continuous supply of fruit.  There are a few Mandarin oranges left at the top of the tree, where I can't readily get to them.  The naval orange is developing new fruit but it's months from ripening.  The lime tree is also developing fruit.

What new and exciting edibles do you have on the way to your table?

Vegetable Garden: Warm Season

I wasn't able to grow fruits and vegetables at our former house.  I made periodic stabs at it with a few herbs and some strawberries but my postage stamp-sized garden didn't get enough sun to grow these successfully.  One year I put a tomato plant in a tub on a platform with wheels I could move around our driveway following the available sun and, while I did manage to produce some edible tomatoes, it wasn't a practical growing strategy.

When we toured our current house prior to purchase, I was delighted to find not only sunny areas suitable for growing fruits and vegetables but also an area with 3 raised beds constructed just for that purpose.  The first planting I did was in this area.  Although it was January and late for cool season planting, I put in broccoli, carrots, lettuce and some herbs.  All except the carrots did fairly well, even though I didn't do as much soil preparation as I should have.  I discovered that the beds were filled with the same rocky soil as the rest of the garden so I've invested a lot of effort since in improving it.

I'm still learning what vegetables do well here, when to plant them, and how to ensure they get the support they need through the growing season.  I recently pulled the last of my cool season crops, replacing these with plants suitable to the warm season.

The first raised bed, which gets the least sun, is planted entirely with herbs.

Bed #1, planted with a mix of herbs

The last owner planted it with mint - lots of mint - because, as he told me, "it did so well."  I spent a good part of a week trying to dig this spearmint out of the bed after we moved in but I suspect that the only way to eliminate it would be to remove the raised planter and bulldoze out a couple of feet of soil below where the planter now stands.  I do my best to keep it at under control but, as shown below, it even grows through the wood sides of the planter.

Mint growing through the wood side of the raised planter

A Westringia is planted in the center of the bed, which also contains parsley, sage, lemon thyme, lime thyme, Stevia, salvia, chives, oregano and a sunflower.  The sunflower, planted about 4 weeks ago, bloomed today.

Salvia officinalis 'Tricolor'

Oregano ('Hot & spicy' I think)

Vigorous lime thyme with newly planted 'African Blue' basil

Helianthus 'Lemon Queen'

The second bed contains a mix - herbs, vegetables, and a new raspberry bush.

Bed #2 with a mix of herbs, vegetables and fruit

The bed is currently dominated by 2 prostrate rosemary plants (shown on either side of the fairy in the photo above).  I underestimated the mature size of these when I planted them and may have to remove at least one to have adequate room for vegetables in the future.  There are also a couple of basils, an ornamental oregano, a lemon verbena, an agastache, and coriander, spouted from seed sown a couple of months ago.

Origanum rotundifolium 'Kent Beauty', slow to establish but worth the effort

Lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora), also slow to establish

Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), grown from seed

In the vegetable category, this year I'm growing a squash (just one as they all appear to over-produce) and a new tomato.

'Sunny Delight' squash, a small-sized variety

Tomato 'Believe It or Not', a new variety for me

My prize addition to this bed is one of the new dwarf thornless raspberry plants.  It's supposed to get only 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide.  In the ground for about 6 weeks now, it has produced a few berries but, according to grower Monrovia, it will be a few years before much can be expected (assuming it survives our hot summers in this location).

'Raspberry Shortcake'

The third bed, which gets the most sun, is full of different varieties of vegetables.

Bed #3 contains mostly vegetables

This bed has another tomato, onions (my last cool season leftovers), a lemon cucumber, 3 varieties of pepper, pole beans, planted from seed, and corn, which I've never tried to grow before.  The lemon cucumber is doing better than it did last year but I also planted it earlier in the season this year.  The peppers, like last year, are off to a very slow start - I'm trying not to be impatient.  The beans, as usual are off to a quick start.  I didn't think I had room for more than one or 2 corn stalks but the nursery I bought the 6-pack from showed them planted fairly close together so I put in all 6 plants - I'll thin some out if they struggle.

"Red Pear' tomato

Leftover onions

Lemon cucumber

Yellow bell pepper, still green and under-sized

'Blue Lake' pole beans

Corn! (a bi-color super sweet variety)

Elsewhere in the vegetable garden, I've got some barrel pots with strawberries.

Wine barrel with strawberries, a leftover lettuce, and an artichoke I couldn't find another place for

The vegetable garden is also home to 3 citrus trees, positioned along the back fence bordering a neighbor's yard, and a persimmon tree and a plum tree, planted by the prior owner in a narrow bed along the side fence separating the vegetable garden from the dry garden.  The plum tree suckers continuously - is there a remedy for that other than regularly cutting the suckers back?

On the left is a mandarin orange tree; a naval orange is in the middle; and a lime tree sits on the far right

The 'Fuyu' persimmon on the left and the 'Santa Rosa' plum on the right are underplanted with ivy geraniums

If you exit the gate from the vegetable garden, there are more fruit trees, a grape vine, and blueberries scattered elsewhere.

Garden gate separating the vegetable garden from the dry garden covered by an arbor built by a prior owner

Most of the trees aren't bearing fruit yet.  However, my blueberries are going full-throttle and the grape is also beginning to fruit.

Blueberry pots on the back patio ('Bountiful Blue' and 'Sunshine Blue' varieties)

'Red Flame' seedless grape

Maybe this year I'll get some grapes before the birds take all of them.