"Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, fertilize."
– Emily Whaley
11/3/16:
"Brrrr!" I've said to myself, when getting up at 7 a.m. this past week or so. I doubt it's below 45ºF even in the middle of the night, though, and I don't expect frost for many weeks. I'm just so spoiled by our temperate climate that needing a sweater, and shoes, to go out into the garden before work seems like a mild hardship. The temperature does rise nicely as the day develops: up to the 70s on non-rainy afternoons.
I've been reading my gardening blog posts from the previous fall. Interesting to note that it got cold earlier in 2015, and that our tomato season was shorter. I'd picked the last fruit and pulled up plants by early November. This time around, I still have healthy-looking plants with green, yellow, orange and red tomatoes in a variety of sizes. However, I did harvest almost all of my peppers already. It was a small yield this year; next spring I'll start at least 8 plants, and earlier, to hopefully get a larger haul of cayennes, and Thai and Arbol chilis.
Clicking on the small images below will bring up a larger version.
Petunias by our outdoor thermometer.
Some flowers still happily blooming.
Planting soon for flowers next year.
The recent rains have spurred prodigious growth for nasturtiums, wild leeks, geraniums, ivy, and our weed-filled little lawn. The shooting star hydrangea and cyclamen are now in full bloom. Snapdragons, bacopa, wallflowers and mums continue to produce a few flowers per plant; and the African daisies are adding bright purple and yellow to the yard. I'm happy to have managed to cultivate these and other hardy varieties that may persist throughout the rest of the year (although I do miss my warm-season flowers). The bulbs I started last fall and enjoyed in their full glory this spring and summer were a wise investment. Star lilies and gladiolus were my favorites, hopefully they'll sprout up again in 2016. I've also purchased new bulbs to plant soon.
As daylight hours grow fewer and I get outside less often, it's pleasant to still see green growing things around me, in my indoor containers. The spider plant is doing particularly well. For the first time, it's producing something other than stripey leaves: a long stem with perhaps a flower bud or "baby" plant developing at the end. The geranium cuttings I moved indoors in January have grown long vines that are starting to take over the north-facing windowbox in the bathroom, which is a spot that stays fairly warm. There haven't been flowers in months, however, so I'm giving this one and the Christmas cactuses some manure tea fertilizer.
