Around The House And Gardens

Ida blowing through. It wasn't much of a storm as far as storms around here go. I've seen summer squalls that were much worse.
The front garden is blooming it's heart out! It's full of zooming flying creatures. Remember the before pictures?

Sessie gathering the eggs.

Hi Mom!
A Musquee De Provence blossom with fruit. Those that have been on the vine a while are finally turning orange.

The vines just went crazy!

There should be plenty for sharing, canning, and cooking!

The veggie garden. Byron is beginning my pergola this week.

Broccoli seed I saved from last year. This year I have planted arugula, silverline melon, broccoli, and purple hull peas from seeds I have saved. I'm looking forward to my garden eventually being sustainable in the seed department!

A colorful harvest!

Ishsy Squishy Gushy Worms!

Remember my compost corral....
Warm...living...lucious....wiggling compost!

All of the organic household scraps I have been faithfully saving and toting ...

all of the leaves and clippings I dutifully hauled across the yard...

every shovel full of chicken droppings I tossed into the compost corral have finally settled, decayed and been converted into nutritious compost teeming with earth worms for my garden. Truly gardening requires and teaches patience, but the joys experienced are well worth the wait. Yes, I even love the feel of squishy worms in my hand.

Recent Harvest and Oldham Bamboo

The best time for gardening in my zone is right now! I've been spending as much time as possible outside in the garden. Everything is so beautiful when it's not being stressed by heat. I'll have to ask Byron if I'm more beautiful lately ;-) Here is my recent harvest....
Curly mustard, Asian greens, arugula, pok choy several types of eggplant, several types of peppers, oregano, and green beans....yum yum. Recently I planted lettuce, beets, carrots (yellow, purple and orange), cabbage and Brussels sprouts.

Look how tall my Oldham bamboo is getting! It's supposed to grow to a height of 75 feet and have canes 5 inches in diameter. This cane is probably about 20 feet. Can't wait to see how tall it will get next year.

Here is a close up of the tall cane. As the plant matures it is supposed to take on a golden hue. This is a clumping variety and should make a clump about 15 feet in diameter. If you can grow bamboo it makes great stakes for the garden. I pick bamboo stakes almost every year from a wild clump growing near the levee. I'm hoping that I will eventually be able to harvest large canes from this clump to fashion garden features from it.

Here's a link on this variety of bamboo OLDHAM BAMBOO

Oh yes, My husband is planning to start my pergola soon! Maybe it'll be done by Christmas. Fingers crossed. Its going to have two bench swings and a fire pit that serves as a coffee table in spring. One more reason why I love Byron!

Pumpkin Patch

Ms. Sandy's pumpkin patch has so much to do.

You can pick out a perfect or not pumpkin to decorate no matter how old you are!
Then decorate it right there.
If you happen to get hungry from all the exertion there are barrels of satsumas to taste. Satsumas are sorta like oranges. Except they are sorta flattened, much easier to peel and break off into nice bite size wedges, but the whole thing will fit in your mouth if you have a big enough mouth!

O.K. what kinda decorations are in this little baggie?

Tera's chubby cheeked pumpkin.

Gluing takes lots of concentration.

Are those whiskers straight?

That is one cute little apple gourd devil.

Hmmm....I love those parents that allow their bunchkins to decide how the pumpkin should look!

Talia's pirate with glitter gold teeth.

Is that a pumpkin with legs? Yep!

Now for a hayride through the orchards and to the levee for a romp and a view of the river.

Forget the wagon! I'll race you back! I'm winning!

Whoops!

Oh well, that gives me more time to check out the orchards. Look at this huge grapefruit.

Here comes all the babies and old people in the wagon.

Babies like satsumas too!

Some of these pumpkins greatly resemble their designer!

Around The House And Gardens

A huge blossom from my Musquee De Provence pumpkin vine.
Finally, after languishing for months in the field garden, the pumpkins have taken off and are covered with beautiful squat green pumpkins. If all goes well we'll have more Musquee De Provence pumpkins than we can give away. Fingers Crossed! Musquee De Provence pumpkins are a French Heirloom vegetable.

There are still quite a few fall pears clinging to the tree. Thankfully there were no storms this year!!!

Green beans in the dew.

Another view of the green beans dripping with a heavy dew. The humidity has been so high this past week that just a few moments in the garden leaves me wringing wet and needing a shower. Happily we have had a recent two day reprieve with cooler temps and lower moisture.

The citrus is just about ready to harvest. My neighbor Sandy is picking Satsumas for her stand already!

These are purple hull peas grown from seed saved last year. I'm very pleased with the results.

One of it's beautiful large blossoms.....

.....and some baby peas forming! My husband thinks purple hull peas beat black eye peas hands down in the taste department.

Little winged creatures have been prolific in the garden lately. I love watching them.

This is a Gulf Fritillary Butterfly. Their host plant is Passion Flower vine or May Pops. Every year I have clouds of them emerge from the vines covering the back fence.

Eggplants are loving this weather and I picked 25 to 30 of them recently.

Zinnia buds.

Humming Bird Moth

A glimpse of the wasp nest I disturbed a few weeks ago and had 6 stings and an emergency room bill to show for it. It's dead now.