September 8, 2019- New things

Saturday morning, 5 a.m.
It is so dark out. I am already up and it is only five o'clock. It seems I have an internal alarm clock that just goes off about then. It was only yesterday that I could get outside and tackle some project in the garden by 5:30.
Not any more.
Sunrise is at 6:38.

But I do have my garden to do list for the weekend. It is an ambitious one. I have several parts of the garden that I want to redo. One place, for example, has some sad Siberian Iris. They just do not get enough sun there. The plan is to dig up a circle about 5 feet across. Anything there will be saved. The soil will then be supplemented with a little peat moss, some compost, and some composted chicken manure.
Then I get to put something there. I think I have just the nice big  hosta plant to go there.

Here is one area that we reset yesterday. This daylily bed had not really been touched in 10 years. We redid that corner. We pulled out everything, dug down 7 inches, got all the weeds out, and added the supplements. Then I put most of the lilies back.

Saturday 10pm.
This evening we are getting a steady drizzle. I have no idea whether it will amount to anything.





Part of the longer term to do list is the thin the hosta. There is no way around the fact that the plants get bigger. I could get rid of every third plant and greatly improve the look of beds.
With a little more energy I would have a sale.  I did that each spring when I was younger. (One could make that a refrain.)


This week was a short work week. That can be a good thing. It does leave you confused for a while about what day it is.
I am quite busy at work at the moment. When you work for yourself that can be a good thing. But would it not be nice to just take an afternoon off.

Last weekend, which was 3 days long, was certainly pleasant. One day I went window shopping at the local garden center. I found something that I just couldn't resist. But I knew I had no room for it. It wants sun.
So I came home and looked to see what could be moved. I found a place. I went back before someone else would buy the plant.

Here is the flower I could not resist.



This is hardy Hibiscus Starry Starry Night.
















As you can tell from this picture there are those pink flowers and then the foliage is almost black.

While this one from the garden center was prepared to just start to bloom in the stores in September, these hardy hibiscus do bloom late in the summer.

Perfect.
I hope you see why I had to find a place for it.




The other star of the week was the other Night Blooming Cereus. I got this plant and several like it two years ago. It blooms late in the year. This past week there were several different plants that bloomed, all with but a single flower.

I could not determine which picture I liked best. This first picture was taken early in the morning, when the sun had reached the flower but not the houses across the street.
The star effect is rather amazing.




Here is the enlargement of that picture. You can see more detail of the wonderful center of the flower.
This flower opened after 10 pm, which was the last time I looked at it. It stayed open until maybe noon.










Here is that hoya in the front yard. I liked this picture showing the flowers peeking out from behind one of the leaves.













This is the time for fall crocuses. In my efforts to clean up I need to remember where the plants are.
Here is one little clump emerging.











There is always pink.




Still nothing from the cattleya orchid that has seemed about to bloom for two weeks.
The other Night Blooming Cereus has four buds on the big plant. They are all together in one area. I think in about 2 weeks there will be a nice show.




Here is one of the NBC's on a tall branch.

Julia's recipe

Zucchini pie

Here is the link to all Julia's recipes that have appeared on the blog. Really- all of them since she started posting several years ago. (The recipe for barbecue sauce will be next week.)
https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

We have a cookbook from the early 1980s called Greene On Greens, because the chef/author was named Bert Greene and all of the recipes involve vegetables. Some of the recipes don't work for me - eggplant soup for example. Others are regulars in our kitchen like broccoli-potato soup. We tried this recipe this summer when we found ourselves in possession of a lot of zucchini and in search of something new to do with it. This is a nice recipe which could be a brunch main dish or a side dish with some kind of simply prepared protein - grilled or roasted fish or chicken.


Here are the ingredients: 3 tablespoons olive oil; 3/4 cup diced onion (say 1/4" pieces); 1 teaspoon or so smushed garlic (about 2 cloves, depending on how big your cloves are); 1-1/2 or so cups zucchini slices (more on this later - 2 small or 1 medium zucchini); 1/2 cup chopped tomato (I used a Roma which is not very seedy); 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley; 2 teaspoons dried basil (2 tablespoons sliced up fresh basil if you are so fortunate to have some); 1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon (not essential to my mind); 1 tablespoon vinegar; 4 eggs; 1/4 cup milk; 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese; 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper. A lot of ingredients, I'll grant you, but nothing exotic.



I cleaned and diced the onion and cleaned and smushed the garlic. I also washed and sliced the zucchini into thin (1/4") rounds and chopped up the tomato.

I had small zucchini. If you have a medium zucchini, cut it in half lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and then slice it into 1/4" half moons.

I put the oil in a big skillet and when the oil was warmed up, I added the onions and garlic and cooked them over medium heat for a few minutes (say 5 or 6 minutes).

When the onions and garlic were soft, I added the zucchini and cooked the mixture for another 4 or 5 minutes.

At this point (while things were cooking), I lubed up a 10" pie plate and turned the oven on to 350 degrees.



Next, I added the chopped tomato, chopped parsley, dried basil and dried tarragon and the vinegar. At that point, I reduced the heat to low-medium and let the mixture cook for another 4-5 minutes. I sprinkled on about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. You may want a bit more or less salt and pepper.








While the mixture was cooking, I mixed the 4 eggs with the milk in a bowl and grated the Monterey Jack.



Then I put the vegetable mixture in the pie plate and poured the egg mixture over top of it. Lastly I sprinkled the top with both kinds of cheese and put it in the oven for about 20 minutes.














The pie is done when it is golden brown on top and doesn't jiggle. A knife stuck into the pie should come out clean - not goopy. This may take 25 or 30 minutes depending on your oven.

Let the pie sit for 10 minutes, and then it is ready to eat.











Here it is on the plate. We had it with baked chicken and green salad. The leftovers are fine - like leftover quiche without the crust.

Odds and Ends

Last week I mentioned that I was trying to make a hibiscus into a "standard." I wondered where that word came from. For those of you who do not read the "comments" to the blog, (they appear at the end of each week's post) my friend Pat provided the answer.

She wrote 
The use of "standard" in horticulture, meaning something grown on one erect stem, dates from the 1600s and is related to the verb "stand." Much earlier, "standard" was used to mean a flag (something erected conspicuously), and another noun, "stander," meant something upright.

Thank you Pat.
And thank you everyone who uses the "comments" method of communication.

Neighborhood news:
On one of our walks this past week we noticed these wonderful mushrooms. They were in the parkway about a block from our house.




Here is a closeup.




Dale Chihuly could not construct anything that is this amazing.


This next picture was also taken in the neighborhood.  There is a not so busy street nearby that has a hole in it. This is not just a pot hole. It is real serious hole, that would do real damage if you drove over it. Well the City crew is not ready to fix the hole yet. So they set out these cones. Someone came along and decorated the cones. I would like to think it was the City crew, but I suspect not.




By the way Pat- do you know where the name "pot hole" came from?
That was the best I could do with a garden word puzzler for the week. I will try harder.

Sunday morning 6:30.
We finally had a good rain last night.
I will know how much after I check the rain gauge.
There were many things in the garden that needed rain.
It was in the forecast and it did not disappoint.

Philip