October 11, 2020- a small step back in time

October can a beautiful time. The trees are putting on their usual display. There are so many wonderful colorful trees. I think certain maples  are  the really spectacular ones.

We went for a drive in the country yesterday. The freshly shorn farm fields and the trees and the blue sky were about the best.

The hardy hibiscus Starry Starry Night is a lovely bronze at the moment.

October can be a time to worry about frosts. We did that last week, as the temperatures did get down into the middle 30's for several days in a row at the end of the week. I started bring inside the most tender plants. The air plants, hoyas and cattleya orchids were on that list. 

This past week I started taking some of those plants back outside. It was a warm week. That reminds us all of climate change. It is real. The last few days I have even thought about being hot. For now it will not get cold again until the end of this coming week. I will take more plants back outside this morning. Some will go to the office today. I have sunny windows there along with one light stand.

Mostly this was a good week outside because of the sun. It seemed like it was sunny every day. Sun with its blue sky makes for pretty displays. But it is dry. On Wednesday I started watering again, with the sprinkler. We had that one week about a month ago when it rained every day, amounting to 5 inches for the week. Other than that it has hardly rained since the beginning of August. Strange.

This week in pictures

It has been a good garden for October.

The annuals are performing. The impatiens in the front bed are growing and glowing in the late afternoon. The zinnias are starting to bloom.

The late perennials are blooming. That includes the anemones and the the toad lilies.

Then there are these surprises.

Coming home for lunch has allowed us to see the next round of fall crocuses. 

These little purple guys bloom by the walnut tree every year about now. This year it had 6-7 companions. 

This white one was in the backyard. They open after a few hours of sun, close by late afternoon, and only last a day or two when it is warm and dry.

I am excited because the crocuses I planted 3 weeks ago are just starting to come up. I really must give them some water.

Zinnias

I plant my zinnias late, (late June) precisely so they come into their own late in the season.

How is that for red.

Toad lilies

Some individual toad lily flowers have been blooming for 2-3 weeks. Now most of the toad lilies are blooming. You get them all up and down the stems. This variety has almost yellow leaves.

Let me show you some pictures with greater detail.

You can see that toad lilies are hairy. There is also that interesting node at the base of the bud. I had never noticed it before this year. You only notice it on the unopened buds. Once the flower opens you no longer see it.

This lineup could be in the contest at the end of the year.

Here are other flowers from this week.

Julia's recipe

Salmon glaze

This is a simple glaze for a piece of salmon. There are lots of simple glazes for salmon, and I will share another one in a few weeks. I was struck by this one because it featured miso and maple syrup, an interesting combination, and both on hand in my kitchen. And very good too. Philip asks me to remind you that yesterday (10/10/20) was National Angel Food Cake Day, which we learned driving past the electronic sign at the Solon State Bank (in Solon, Iowa) where it was noted in lights. I like angel food cake, but I am not very good at it. I am better at miso-maple syrup glazed salmon. 

The ingredients: a piece of salmon, maybe about 10-12 ounces; 1-1/2 teaspoon of miso (light or dark); 2 teaspoons maple syrup; 1-1/2 teaspoon of rice wine vinegar; 1 teaspoon soy sauce; 1/2 teaspoon smushed garlic; a bit of black pepper (not shown). 

First of all, I turned the oven on to 400 degrees. 

Then I stirred together all of the ingredients (except for the pepper) in a little bowl. I had to work on the miso a bit to get it to mix in. 

If you have a bigger piece of salmon or several salmon fillets or steaks, you can just double the glaze recipe. 

I lubed up a baking dish (I used spray; oil is fine) and put the fish in skin side down. I sprinkled the fish with a bit (maybe 1/4 teaspoon) of black pepper.

For more salmon, use a rimmed baking sheet.

I spooned the glaze all over, and some of it dribbled down onto the bottom of the pan. Not to worry.

I baked the fish for about 15 minutes. I know that people have different ideas about what constitutes "done" salmon. I am of the more cooked school. Make your own determination.

Here is the glazed salmon. It looked pretty, and it tasted good. We served it with roast potatoes (which went into the oven, with a bit of olive oil and salt as the oven was heating up) and cooked green beans. Both the potatoes and the green beans were from the farmers' market and fresh and tasty. Plus a green salad and apple crisp. A nice late-summer-into-fall supper. There were no leftovers. Except for some apple crisp which was gone the next day. 

Odds and Ends

I cleaned out the "farm" last weekend. We had been told to close it down. When I went back over there yesterday it did appear that there might have been a little frost there last weekend. The basil was a little toasted. I bring back a little more of the lettuce that I had planted about a month ago.

A week ago I had decided to see how lettuce would transplant. The answer is that is transplants easily. This was the lettuce I had started about September 13,  right after the rain stopped. 

I went back yesterday and made 3 more pots.

When I closed down the farm I dug up a plant each of the parsley, the sage, the mint, and the basil. They have mostly adapted to their new pot life. 

I understand the sage can be a perennial. Maybe it can go in the ground. But where?

The garden to do list

Aside from moving plants inside, which was put on hold, here are a few things I have been doing.

2 weeks ago I dug up the amaryllis plants.

Yesterday I dug the calla lilies. I had gotten them in 2019. At the time they were rather small bulbs. They survived the winter in storage.  They bloomed this year and now are bigger bulbs. 

Here is one of the clumps yesterday.

Here are the bulbs, out of the ground. I will dry them, which is easy with the daytime temperature getting to 80.

I will then store them in peat moss, in a dark place for 6 months. 

In the course of digging one clump I discovered these:

Bloodroot

I hope I did not disturb them.

New plants and bulbs are arriving.

I got some new epimedium. They are now in the ground. I will order labels, and their locations have been recorded on the computer.

I have all those winter aconite that arrived. Now the task is to plant them. (Notice I did not mention how many.) Let me just say there are a lot. They are now large. I do not have a planting machine. The most you can home for is that there is not a right size up.

There are still a few bulbs to order. I ordered Monsella tulips yesterday. 

Leaf raking. 

The buckeye tree is leafless at the moment. The elm tree has started dropping its leaves. There is something comforting about raking leaves. You rake and they are gone. Of course raking a bed full of blooming annuals is more challenging. I do not like leaf blowers. They are just urban noise pollution as far as I can tell.

That is it for this week.

Better times are coming. I can just feel it. Of course that does not mean that I am not awake at night.

Philip