rosemary – Page 2 – variegatagal

Pre-Thanksgiving look at the garden

It’s that time of the year. Almost every year that I cook for the holidays, I make sure to use ingredients in my garden, even if it is only one sprig of rosemary. But since it’s been 10 days since my last post, I thought it time to do a little inspection.

The Shu ornamental pepper continues to hang on for dear life. Peppers are perennial in zones 9 and beyond, but here in my garden, it’s going to be a challenge to keep them alive in the ground during winter. My potted peppers have been sitting outside since this past weekend when we saw temps reach the high 70s. We’re back down to the high 30s to mid-40s during the evenings, but we will continue to reach the 70s in the daytime for the Thanksgiving holiday.

All the garlic have emerged and are looking tall.

The sage seems to appreciate the cooler weather; I used some sage leaves from this specimen for my turkey brine last night.

Those appear to be larkspur seedlings surrounding one of the irises. Unfortunately, the man sprinkled it heavily on one side not realizing I only had one pack of Shades of Blue Larkspur (Consolida ambigua). I may have to purchase another pack.

Finally, a good macro picture of the Oertel’s Rose yarrow blooms!

I love the white-mottled Snow-n-Summer asiatic jasmine foliage; emerging leaves are a beautiful shade of pastel pink.

The Autumn Monarch azalea is our only fall-blooming azalea this year. It received a fair amount of protection from the neighboring Hot Lips salvia this year, unlike the other azaleas on the opposite end of the bed.

A lone vinca has grown in the lee of an azalea. I had already pulled out its neighbors, but kept this one to see how it would fare. The petunias also appear unstoppable. Even with this crazy weather, they are continuously putting on new growth.

My eggplant doesn’t appear to put on much growth in the last 10 days; though the plant is leaning farther due to its weight. It still feels way to hard to the touch.

Valentine dianthus…what a beauty. All the dianthus in the garden favor this cool climate; most are putting on several buds if not blooming.

A surprise on the camellia: this bud has swelled to 5 times the size as other buds.

Lemon thyme: I plan on cutting several sprigs of this to insert into my turkey. The other herbs of course are looking fabulous. The Thai basil looks amazing with its flowery spires; I just dread how many seedlings I’ll get out of it. The Red Rubin basil also loves this cool weather. I am curious to see if they will endure into next year.

Half a hale o’ bay

There she is, Miss Midnight Blue!

The rose has at least 15 buds on it and promises to give us another show before the onset of winter.

The orange mums in the lily bed have aged into a beautiful golden color. Notice the new tenant (Oertel’s Rose yarrow) is putting on new foliage? It seems to be happy in that spot, but then again, it appears to adapt to any situation I’ve thrown at it so far. The two cuttings I planted in the full shade bed appear to be thriving as well

The sedum basket appears to be doing well despite the danger of frost looming in the distance. It sits in the rosemary bed along with the ornamental kale, who are still homeless. The rosemary topiary has filled out, but there are some dried out/dead patches–mostly located at the base–that have not filled out. I am considering trimming the base to coax it into a topiary shape, maybe a ball on a stick. Geez, my camera still can’t capture that true yellow bloom color of the Moonglow salvia.

The salvias on the opposite wall are bloomin’ crazy. The intense red and multiple whites are stunning. They will most likely continue to bloom with the occasional rain we get in the next few weeks.

The Licker decided to finally sit and poise for me after much coaxing.

I couldn’t resist the $2 sale on these new Cherry Pie Coreopsis at Calloway’s. I read up on these Terra Nova introductions and learned that they had some frost tolerance and therefore suited to fall plantings. So I am eager to give them a test drive in the front flower bed.

Yes, I also did purchase “half a hale o’ bay” while I was at the store. I caught myself repeating it again–then questioned whether I should have skipped breakfast. To my relief, the cashier made the same error too and we were both chuckling at the tongue twister. I installed it on my Halloween porch display along with the obligatory holiday signage (also 50% off, I might add).

Wishlist plant of the day: Coreopsis Cherry Lemonade.

Weed weeder weedest!

All week I’ve been tidying up in the garden. Weeding here (cleaning out the gravel strip), pulling dead or dying plants out elsewhere (dead rosemary, salvia, dianthus, herb garden). I’ve pruned back on a few plants (such as the gaura) and transplanted a few (ginger mint into the cinderblock wall). I’ve observed some unusual sights, like the brown-burnt asters in the blue bed that are still blooming, the flowering Mexican heather in the purple bed, and the Autumn Monarch azalea that put out a few more flowers this week. I am in awe of the salvia/marigold tree ring in the front yard, though I have also noticed a ton of ant condos springing up everywhere lately. Time to get out the ant killer!

‘Tis the time to be fertilizing and weed-killin’. I hope to have some funds to invest in a good pre-emergent and lawn food this weekend. With the summer drawing to a close, and the weather amenable, it’s easy to get out in the yard to do some work. I spent this morning killing some crabgrass in the courtyard. But of course, I saw some more patches in the front yard.

I also turned out the last of the bathroom tenants. The pepper plants are getting some quality sun time on the patio. I hope to transfer them into bigger pots and get a chance at some fruit before the winter frost. And speaking of fruit, what about some eggplant? Should I sink my Chinese eggplant into the herb garden bed, or bring it indoors over the winter? It keeps flowering but not producing any fruit. It seems to prefer more room to spread its roots.

This is also the time to ponder the fall-winter flower display, not to mention purchase the spring flower bulbs. I’m writing up a list!

Perhaps on this list, we’ll be adding a new Japanese maple. My JM unfortunately has been confirmed dead. And I discovered some alien fungus residing in the pot. Scawy!

After the rain

A few scenes from the garden, after surviving 40 straight days of 100+ weather. We had a short rainstorm to celebrate the end, and 5 days later, here are the results:

Day 34: Ouch!

One month of straight 100+ degree weather. The paucity of blog posts here is directly related to how much time I’ve been spending in the garden–which amounts to the least number of hours possible.

The man and I did spend a few hours this past Saturday morning weeding and cleaning out the front flower bed. We took stock of our ailing azaleas and parched lawn, gave them all a good soaking, before going back into hiding. However, it seems that soaking every other day is not helping our plants or our lawn. Though I’m loathed to see our water bill for every day sprinkler watering, that may be our only recourse to keeping things alive. That, and more cedar mulch.

So after weeding, I took stock of our garden and found that the heuchera are all dried up, the Autumn Embers azaleas extremely dehydrated, and my once-thriving rosemary plant with one foot in the grave. Of course the rosemary suffered due to an over-abundance of watering, spawning a fungus killing off its roots. One of my salvia greggiis (Royal Raspberry) wasn’t immune to the poor weather either, having lost most of its top growth.

My poor Salsa Asiatic jasmines have turned brown with leaf burn if they’re not already dead. Because of their young neighbors died off in the heat, they lost some valuable shade in the process. Other potted plants fare well only with daily watering. They would prosper if I increased their watering to twice daily, but my reluctance to stand in the heat has seen me outside only once a day.

Yesterday as I was watering the courtyard, I did find that the Shu ornamental pepper had begun dropping its fruit, one of the golden oreganos in the cinderblock wall had gotten burnt, and the aster in the blue bed has started blooming sporadically. Also, the eggplant has retained its one flower so far, but I’m not sure if I should expect any fruit.

The upside to this extreme weather is that I haven’t gotten bitten once. Mosquitoes must be thrown off by all the ambient heat and lack of human CO2 to find a host to feed on.