September 10, 2023- cooler days

It has cooled off. I even had to find my morning sweater, in the back of the closet. Officially in Iowa City we had several mornings this past week that were measured somewhere at 45 degrees.

Still no rain. We stare at the weather app on the phone, watching for what it says about Monday. (tomorrow). The chance of rain has gone from 20% to 50%. Now it is 60%. Maybe, just maybe, it will rain.

Last week I announced we had passed the garden time marker with the blooming of the fall crocus, the colchicum.

This week it was the first toad lily. The picture appears in the selected pictures for the week.  Toad lilies, Japanese anemones, fall crocuses, and annuals. That is a good start for the fall garden. Actually I forget another important part of the fall garden. Pansies. I really would like to get my hands on 4-5 flats of pansies.

Then there are the occasional jewells. This week one of the cactus bloomed.

This was Wednesday morning. Because it stayed cool and overcast all day Wednesday, the flowers lasted well into Thursday.

Coming soon will be more hookeri. That is Epiphyllum hookeri for those looking for the botanical name. Why this plant blooms until frost is something I just do not know. ( I should make a list of all my personal garden mysteries.) 

I counted about 6 hookeri buds on three different plants.

Last Week in the pictures for the week there was a three way tie.

The full vote was

This week- these are the best pictures from the Week of September 3-9, 2023

#1 Castor beans

With sun I would grow more castor beans. Red deserves more space in the garden.

#2 Lantana

The lantana have not disappointed this year. I just did not have enough of them. I did learn this year that cuttings will root, making more plants. That means that in the spring I can buy plants and cut them up. This is important as you can no longer buy them by the flat. They get sold in 4-5 inch pots for $6 each. I also will take cuttings in October, when the freeze comes. I can then let them join the Persian Shields inside for the winter.

They also seem to have been left alone by the deer.

#3 Okra flower

We have grown okra over at the Chadek community garden plot this year. I have about 8 row feet of plants. They have done well, producing more okra than we can eat. The fruit does grow quickly. The flowers look a little like hibiscus flowers. Upon inquiry it turns out they are both in the mallow family. The Rose of Sharon was also a mallow.

#4 Toad lily

These fall gems have started. Some will bloom into October. They do need a spray of deer repellant. 

Spots are good. I will have to think about other plants with spots. There were Asiatic lilies with spots. There are zinnias with spots. 

#5 Sparkling violet

The violets have stayed inside all summer. They are the only flowers with that privilege. Some are getting really big.

#6 Double Anemone

The anemones have been blooming for a while. This double pink one is the latest to bloom.

Other pictures

Pink is good.

The amaryllis continues to bloom, even with the change in temperatures.

The eggplants keep rolling of the production bushes. 

I do love having scattered the colchicum around the yard. I figure I might have another 20-30 bulbs that are mostly hidden in amongst the anemones. Those should all be pulled out of there and sprinkled around the yard. They have popped up around the yard in places I have forgotten. Garden surprises are special. (unless they are related to deer.)

I have a bunch of colchicum already along the shelf by the walnut tree.

This is why blackberry lilies are called blackberry lilies. It will soon be time to collect the seed.

Kale in the greehouse.

I regret not having a current picture of the 30-40 kale plants already in the garden. I will have an update for you next week. Their presense has given me a new attitude to the little white butterflies that seem to be around the kale. They are cabbage moths, and they make cabbage worms, which eat the kale and apparently nothing else in the garden. (We do not grow other brassicas in our garden.) I remember living on the farm 50 years ago and taking the tennis racket out to the garden. 

Julia's recipe

A better simple cucumber salad

I posted a recipe for cucumber salad without sour cream sometime during the pandemic, when I thought people might not be able to get the the grocery store. This is a better simple cucumber salad, one you can make even if you are able to shop for sour cream. The secrets are including some sugar in the dressing and heating the dressing to just boiling before adding it to the cucumbers. It's a little like making pickled beets, only with cucumbers. 

The ingredients:

a couple of good-sized cucumbers - about 3 cups thinly sliced;

about 1/2 cup thinly sliced onion;

about 3/4 cup regular white (or cider) vinegar;

about 1/3 cup white sugar;

1/2 teaspoon salt;

1/4 cup water; and 

herbs - dill would be good. I had parsley.

I washed and then peeled the cucumbers in stripes - peel a strip, leave a strip of green. Then I used the mandoline slicer that Katie gave me to slice the cucumber thinly. Very fast. When I got close to the blade, I used the guard thing. No cuts. 

Here is a picture of me using the mandoline guard. I think I was slicing the onion at that point. I sliced everything right into the serving bowl. 

Next I took out a little saucepan and added the vinegar, sugar, salt and water.

I whisked the ingredients together and put the pan on the stove. I put it on high heat and watched it. When it was just at a simmer, I took it off the heat, and ...

I poured the liquid over the vegetables. I had added the parsley to the bowl before I poured. I stirred it up and that was that. 

Dill is the traditional herb. Fresh green dill only. Not dried. Any fresh herb would be worth a try. The herb adds a faint flavor. 

I fixed this dish at the beginning of preparing dinner and let it sit. It was tasty - sweet and sour and crunchy. We had leftovers, and the salad remained sweet and sour and crunchy and became a bit herbal on the next day. 

I have also made this with fresh green dill available and that was better than parsley. I wonder about basil. 

Enjoy farmers market cucumbers while you can! 

Odds and Ends

Some really thick plastic straws showed up in the mailbox this week. They were even individually wrapped in plastic. They were a mystery present. Someone knows how I like to use colorful plastic straws as markers.

I ordered another 1000 winter aconite bulbs this week. I will share those with those Iowa City gardeners who speak up. Any left will be planted where they are thin at the moment. The front parkway between the sidewalk and the street could use a few hundred.

One really nice hoya, maybe called Red Buttons as it has a red flower, had a long tendril break off this week. So I cut it up into pieces for rooting. I must have about 10 decent cuttings. We will see how long it will take to root.

I am beginning to think about the plant migration inside. Hopefully many of those plants can get sold over the next month.

I sometimes hide from events outside of Iowa City by gardening, and writing about gardening. As I glance out occasionally it is hard to think that what I see as real. Can so many people be so...what is the word....mean? 

Pray for the world. Pray for peace. Pray for kindness. Pray that people will wake the f up.

And I suppose it is appropriate to pray for a little rain, for those places that need it.

Philip