July 29, 2018-a quiet time

It is a quiet time in the garden.
We said good bye this week to the daylily Ruby Spider. We said good bye in that the last flower bloomed. What a marvelous plant. There must have been over 150 flowers on well over 30 scapes this year. Here was that last flower.

I think about that last flower. Mot of the daylilies are finished. Is that cause for sadness or worse, garden depression? Perhaps that can happen for a moment. But as sure as July gives way to August, and then fall, what else is true? Something else marvelous blooms.

The same day, Tuesday, that the last Ruby Spider flower bloomed, the first cactus flower showed up.

There should be more cactus flowers in the coming month.

In addition that same day I took a closer look at my orchid cactus plants, hanging various places around in the garden. I noticed that one of them had a three inch bud. Then I noticed a second bud on the same plant. It turns out that three plants in all had buds coming. I think these are all the slightly different type of the night blooming cereus, I acquired last fall. I think in about two weeks there will be a nice show, for those who might wander by at 10p.m.

The blackberry lilies continue. Please keep in mind they are called lilies but they are really iris.
A more precise name is pardancanda. The more formal name, just recently adopted is "iris xnorrisii." They are named after Sam Norris, the person who first made the cross that became this variety. I will write more in the next few weeks.

I indulged myself a little this week by ordering a new variety, that is almost pink. Thursday was a very long work day. I left for a court case in northwest Iowa at 6:30 in the morning. By the end of the day I had drive almost 600 miles. I am not as young as I used to be. That kind of driving can be exhausting, even with a good radio, featuring a come-from-behind Cubs win. I got home about 7:00. The package with the new lily was waiting for me. The new plant was planted within the hour. It came with a few buds. Maybe, just maybe, there will be a bloom I can show you next week.


Here is one of the nicer colors for these special iris.

The zinnias continue to put on a show.

Here you have zinnias, hosta and caladium. That really is a nice combination. The red caladium are really making up for lost time. (They mostly did not even come up until mid June.)












 The zinnias I planted from seed should start to bloom this coming week.

And even if fall gives way to winter, winter will give way to spring, and then there are bluebells again. We must go through all that sequence to enjoy spring again.
Ruby Spider will be back next year, and could have even more flowers.

Pictures

The daylilies that are left are much appreciated. This is Breed Apart.

Here is a late lilium. I think it is called speciosum album.

The phlox are blooming. Sometimes I just pull them up. They do tend to take over an area.

This is Delmar.

More phlox.

Julia's recipe

Eggplant Salad

In high summer, when we start to see eggplant in the farmer's market, we make all the usual eggplant things: moussaka, baba ganoush, eggplant spaghetti sauce, ratatouille. Then Philip asks if there is anything else to be made with eggplant. Last year, he consulted a cookbook called Greene on Greens by Bert Greene, and he found an eggplant salad recipe, which he tinkered with and here it is. This is a variation on an eggplant salad made by Greeks (and probably others in that part of the world).

The major players: an eggplant, a green pepper, an onion and 4 Roma tomatoes.  There is also a salad dressing (not pictured here) using vinegar and olive oil, salt and pepper.

Other unpictured ingredients: a can of sliced black olives, a clove of garlic, more olive oil and some parsley.

First, Philip peeled and cubed the eggplant. It was purchased at the farmer's market that morning, so fresh and firm.

If you are not sure how long a journey your eggplant took to get to you, you can sprinkle the eggplant cubes with about 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, put them in a colander set on a rimmed tray, cover with a plate with a weight on it (like a canister full of flour or some canned goods) and let the eggplant cubes sit for an hour to drain off some liquid. This will wilt the eggplant some and prevent bitterness. Not necessary if your eggplant is fresh.

Next Philip added 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the bowl with the eggplant cubes and tossed them around. Then he poured the cubes onto a rimmed baking sheet with a silpat on it. You could also use parchment. He put the baking sheet in a 425 degree oven and baked the eggplant cubes for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This is the longest stretch of the recipe, but does not require much attention from the cook.

Here are the eggplant cubes after roasting, a bit shrunken and soft and a little crisp around the edges. He had about 2 cups of eggplant cubes.

While the eggplant was baking, Philip cut up the Roma tomatoes: cut off the stem end, then cut in half lengthwise and then across, ending up with about 1 cup of tomato bits. He cut the green pepper into small pieces about 1/4 - 1/2" square, also ending up with about 1 cup of green pepper bits. He put the onion in the food processor and pulsed away to get onion mush, ending up with about 3/4 cup, which he drained. Onion juice is not part of the recipe.

Here are the vegetables in a big bowl, waiting to be dressed and tossed.

Philip used Roma tomatoes because they are less liquid-y than other tomatoes, and he drained off the onion juice for the same reason - regulating the amount of vegetable juices in the salad.

Next Philip opened and drained a 4 oz. can of sliced black olives, smushed 1 clove of garlic and chopped up a handful of parsley. He added those ingredients and stirred it all up.

The salad dressing is a vinaigrette, but adjusted to account for the olive oil used to roast the eggplant. So 3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar (or red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar or cider vinegar) and 3 tablespoons of olive oil and about 1/2 teaspoon of table salt (not kosher, which does not dissolve well) and about 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. The dressing ingredients went into a jar with a lid, were shaken up and then poured over the salad and mixed in.

Here is the salad, in a pretty bowl ready to eat.

If you don't have parsley on hand, not to worry. Grape or cherry tomatoes would work instead of Romas. This is an unusual salad (although not unusual at the east end of the Mediterranean) and very tasty.

Odds and Ends

I must give points this week to downtown Iowa City. There is a mural project that has started.
What fun it is.
This is the formerly blank wall on Washington Street facing the US Bank parking lot.

Here is an article about the project
https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/community/iowa-city-downtown-district-starting-summer-mural-project-20180507

Cactus flowers certainly let you know they are coming. The buds take weeks to develop. In the last few days before they bloom the buds are amazing.
In fact there were two buds on Monday. One was on a plant that was quite small.
When they opened during the night the flower on the small plant was too heavy for the plant. It sort of broke from the plant.

I brought it inside.

I wondered how being inside would effect how long the flower lasted.

Well the flower that stayed outside closed up by 4-5 o'clock and did not open the second day. The one inside, here on the kitchen sink shelf, stayed open even until we went to bed. It was done in the morning.

In case you are wondering, the thing to the right of the cactus blossom is a piece of orchid cactus rooting in a jar of water. It actually has rooted and could be planted now. The curved part at the top is new growth.

Japanese beetles have been around this year. I have not seen that much damage. I did find one on the ghost pepper the other day. What a surprise that must have been for the beetle.


It was cool this weekend. I wore a jacket when I went out into the garden at 6am yesterday (Saturday). I was down to maybe 59 degrees.
Of course windows open mean the pollen comes in. I am going to have to think about something else to take for my allergies.

Enjoy the cool weather.
Philip