Fall is just around the corner

You can definitely tell fall is just around the corner. We had our first severe temperature drop today. As I write this at 3:30 in the afternoon, it is 63 degrees according to my weather widget. I’m sitting out on my porch enjoying this lovely weather and listening to the squirrel chirp above me in the tree. Perhaps he just discovered me down here and doesn’t like what he sees.
My poor tomatoes finally have some berries, but they are small and still very green. I fear they won’t make it before our first frost. ‘Tis the season to begin watching the temperature more closely. Last night dipped to 48 degrees and it is expected to dip to 44 tonight. I will have to think of some clever ways to keep my tomatoes alive a little longer. It may not me ideal weather for my plants, but it is absolutely perfect for me. Open the windows and let the fresh cool air in!

The Monsoon Season

The rainy season is here finally! We’ve been getting a good dousing for about 15-20 minutes every other day or so. The other days, the sky threatens, but nothing comes of all the rumbling and grumbling. It’s really too bad mother nature can’t spread out the rains more evenly. I’d funnel some of the water from Texas if I could. What a waste to have whole towns flooded and the rest of the region bone dry.

First Blooms

The first blooms have popped up in my Dinnerplate Dahlias. Two of my varieties have buds. I think this is the Lilac Time variety because it is beginning to show the purple tips. I will be excited to see what the others come up as. I've lost two varieties because I waited too long, but I managed to save five I think. I have two varieties that are still pretty small since they were planted later so I don't know if I'll get blooms out of them or not this year. I'm actually surprised they are doing as well as they are. I had to plant them in containers since the "real" garden is still full of weeds and clay soil. *sigh* Maybe next year they will have a proper garden to grow in. For now I'll enjoy what bounty I get.

Dinnerplate Dahlias

I've finally gotten all of my Dahlias planted. As predicted, a few of them did not survive. I took way too long to get them planted. The poor things dried up or rotted. I've got 9 plants of 3 varieties each that were planted first and they've come up with huge stocks. I really can't tell you what varieties they are since I didn't keep track.



I finished planting about 4 more a few days ago so I'm waiting to see if they'll survive. Those are the empty pots in the photo. I will be ecstatic if I even get a few decent blooms!

Calibrachoas

Gulley Greenhouse has become my favorite nursery this year. I always get great service and their staff seem very knowledgeable and that's a good thing since I rarely have any idea as to what I am doing. The last couple of times I've gone, I've noticed these beautiful mixture of yellow and purple flowers lining their fence along the road. They seem so bright and cheerful that I decided I wanted some in my garden, though I wasn't quite sure where. I asked the staff and they said it was called Calibrachoa. They're like miniature petunias (about the size of a dime - see photo below) and they deadhead all by themselves so they will continually flower through the Fall! This is my kind of flower!



I had an empty self-watering container after transplanting my Snaps so I decided I would plant three of them there. They are a trellising plant, but we'll give this a try. I purchased two yellow plants and one deep blue (it looks purple to me) plant. Getting one plant to separate from the others around them was a bit of a challenge though. They had grown intertwined with each other and really didn't want to separate. They seem to have survived it ok. After a just a few hours in the container, they are already perking up!

Herbs

My container of herbs (clockwise from upper left): Flat Leaf Parsley, Basil, Sage, Rosemary, Cilantro, Flat Leaf Parsley, Parsley and Chives in the middle. I don't think the Cilantro likes the sun much. :(

Vegetables

Shortly after my last entry, I went to several of the local nurseries and bought some herbs and vegies. I purchased two tomato plants and what I thought was two bell pepper plants. I decided to go easy on the vegies this year since I had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with them last year. I purchased an heirloom Brandywine plant and a Sweet Snack Cherry Tomato plant. These were planted in my raised bed planter from last year. It has been about a month now, but I can't say I've seen significant results. The cherry tomato plant tried to fruit a few weeks after planting so I nipped it in the bud to see if I could get it to grow more before bearing fruit. It has grown an inch or two I guess. The Brandywine hasn't done much of anything so far. I guess I'll just have to keep feeding it and cross my fingers. The photo below shows the two tomato plants in the front.



In the back are the pepper plants. I purchased what I thought were two bell pepper plants. After a week or so of being in the planter, I noticed the larger pepper plant seemed to be splitting. When I looked closer, I saw that they were actually two different plants. One was a bell pepper, but I think the other is some sort of hot pepper. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what it turns out to be. The mysteries of gardening! :)