October 20, 2024- no frost/ no rain

Welcome

This is one ot the waterlily colchicums that my sister got for me a month ago.  With all the fall crocuses, if you plant them in the early fall, they are suppose to bloom that season.

I do love the background for garden pictures this time of year. 

In Iowa City it turned out that we avoided the freeze. The annuals remain alive. There was frost on Tuesday night, but it was confined to the low lying areas.

The near panic about a freeze diverted our attention from the lack of rain. It is still very dry, as the once green grass turns brown all around the town. Two tenths of an inch this month followed virtually no rain in September. It is hard to be positive, but running the sprinkler helps. One positive is that we had good rain for most of the summer. We are still slightly ahead of average for the year.

Last weekend most of the inside plants came inside.  Some are still huddled in the garage. I totaled over 24,000 steps for the weekend. My legs are about back to normal.

I am now tinkering with plants left outside. Many that had huddled in the garage are back getting lots of sun.  For the moment there is no frost in the ten day forecast. There is no rain either.

One thing that is  exciting about  the inside plants is the many hoyas that are blooming. There must be 5 plants blooming out of perhaps 15 plants. I will have to count plants for my migratiom inventory. To start with there are 5 here in the computer room,  3 in our bedroom, 3 in Katie's old room, 1 in the cold room.

Now that many plants are inside I do have to think about a watering schedule. Most of the plants were brought inside without any recent watering. Some of the orchids feel like they could use moisture now. I do keep spray bottles sprinkled around the house. I spray the orchids whenever I walk by and think about it.

There are outside tasks for this weekend. I dug the amaryllis up last weekend, over at the Chadek garden plot. They need to dry in the air for a week or two before I store them in peat for the winter.

I have a few more jade plants to start from cuttings. I get those by shaping the bigger plants.

Actually I had one of those "oh my" moments yesterday. I looked at the now rooted jade plant cuttings, I had potted maybe 3 weeks ago.

You are correct. That little jade plant is going to bloom. There was another little plant in the group of new ones that also had buds coming.

My jade plants have bloomed about once a decade. I start plants from trimmings. I looked at the plants from which I took the cuttings. I could not find any signs of buds on them. Sometimes there are just garden mysteries.

I need to plant some pots. I still have many little iris in pots that did not sell. The best way to store them over the cold time is to sink the pots into the ground. That does require a place for that. I have a spot behind the back garage which is the nursery bed. Every garden should have them.

Did I mention leaves? They do come down this time of year. Our big mature trees manage to drop their leaves in sequence. The Walnut and Buckeye trees are mostly done at this point. The Sycamore will hold its leaves until the last minute.

Zinnias

Flowers that are finished are often interesting.

More pictures

Julia's recipe

Beet, walnut and orange salad 

Philip found this salad recipe in a cookbook called From Tapas to Meze by Joanne Weir. We like beets and walnuts and oranges, so it was a natural. Later I made a simplified variation which is pictured at the end. Both are good. And seasonal and pretty. Take your pick.  

The ingredients:

2 or 3 cooked and peeled beets;

2 oranges;

1/2 cup walnut halves;

2-3 cups of chopped red leaf lettuce;

2 tablespoons walnut oil;

2 tablespoons olive oil;

1-1/2 tablespoons wine vinegar (red or white):

a pinch of sugar; and 

salt and pepper. 

My variation is described at the end.

For startes, Philip tossed the walnuts with 1 tablespoon of walnut oil, a pinch of sugar, of salt and of pepper and then set the pie plate into a 375 degree oven for about 5 minutes. When you can smell the walnuts, they're done. 

The oven was busy. I was baking a halved acorn squash and bread pudding and chicken thighs, all for a nice Saturday dinner.

While the walnuts were roasting and then cooling, Philip peeled the oranges in a careful and laborious way. He pared the rind off with a knife, taking all of the pith off. 

After the peel and pith was gone, Philip used a thin blade to separate the orange sections from the surrounding skin bits. 

He put the sections aside and squeezed the pulpy skins into a cup, ending up with about 1/2 cup of orange juice.

Here are the orange sections in the larget bowl and the pulpy bits in the smaller bowl. And the room- temperature-but-not-yet-sliced beets to the left. 

Here's the orange juice plus the olive oil plus the remaining tablespoon of walnut oil plus the wine vinegar and a bit of salt and pepper. It was whisked up just before using.

Toasted walnuts.

Assembly.

Philip cut 2 beets into wedges. He tossed the lettuce with some of the dressing and spread the lettuce around a nice serving plate. Then he spread the orange sections and beet wedges and walnuts all around and sprinkled with another tablespoon or two of dressing. 

Pretty and tasty.

A week or so later, I ran across a jar with about 1/2 cup of leftover orange-vinegar-and-oil in the refrigerator. I was not inclined to do the arduous version of preparation of the orange sections. I did not have any beets and I did not have any walnuts. Instead of beets, I used an avocado. Instead of walnuts, I used finely chopped red onion. Other than that, just the same! 

I used 1 orange and 1 avocado and 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion, in addtion to red tip lettuce plus the leftover dressing. Having the dressing on hand made this salad easy to prepare. 

I peeled my orange and cut across the orange to make circles. I peeled the avocado and sliced it into thin wedges. I diced the red onion. Then I sliced the lettuce into ribbons and tossed the lettuce with about 3 tablespoons of the reserved dressing. I then divided the lettuce between two salad plates. I arranged the orange slices and the avocado wedges around the lettuce, scattered the diced onions all around and then sprinkled the rest of the dressing all over.  

And here is the smplified version. Both salads are colorful and tasty.

Odds and ends

In the middle of this scary time, there was some nice news. The salmon have returned to the Kalmath River. The Klamath River is in Oregon. For a hundred years four dams  blocked the historic salmon run to spawn. They have been removing the dams.

Here is one of the stories about the salmon.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-10-19/klamath-salmon-thriving

There is so much to do. This is true both in the garden and at work. 

Maybe it is just as well that I am busy. I have less time to read the news.

The election is coming. Soon. Hope is mixed with real fear. How can it be close?

Pray for peace. 

Pray that voters do the right thing.

Remember those who have bigger worries than whether there is a frost in Iowa.

Pray for the children.

Philip