September 16, 2018 Sunshine

Let there be sun.
After all that rain, which was with us for maybe three weeks, there has been sun.
All week.
It was welcome.

After all that rain, there are now bugs. Mostly there are mosquitos.
I should not be surprised. Bugs and rain sort of go together.
This does reduce garden enthusiasm after work.

So how is the garden?
It needs work.
Garden cleanup really takes place from August on.

One thing that should take place is some "potting up." Sometimes that means potting plants that are in the ground, that have to come inside once it is cold. I have some smaller jade plants that I just put in the ground to see how they will do. They should come out of the ground.
What it also means is repotting some potted plants, only in bigger pots. I guess that would be called "potting up."
I have crotons, and a few other plants, that I have grown this summer from cuttings. They all need bigger pots.

I should add that the crotons always put on a show this time of year. The leaves that came out green, during the spring and summer, are now going to turn the colors they will keep for months.
Here are some of them, in all their sunny splendor.

Garden cleanup also means dealing with leaves.
Fall and leaves also go together.
We have 5 mature trees in the yard. There is a Walnut, an Elm, a Linden, a Sycamore, and a Buckeye. They drop their leaves for it seems like an eternity. They are sequential. The Buckeye is first, and in fact has lost a good deal of its leaves at this point. The Sycamore is last. It will hold onto its leaves until November.


Even if the bloom of high summer is over, there will be garden gems for the rest of the season.
This little airplant, or tillandsia, is certainly one of those gems at the moment.
It is on a little hook, hanging in the backyard.
I sometimes carry it out to show people, when they are walking by.
I received this plant from friends in Florida. These plants are native there. They can be outside all year in Florida. Imagine that.
Those friends wrote that their tillandsias in Florida are also blooming now. How wonderful.
I wonder how they all know it is time to bloom.

I would like to put in a plug for a greenhouse in Connecticut called Logees. We visited there once. They sell tropical plants, in the cold north.
They currently have one of these tillandsia globes for sale. It really is no more than maybe 8 plants mounted in a little round wire center.
Our globe hangs over our kitchen sink during the winter.
I spray it when I am doing dishes.
Look at those colors of what I guess is the bloom.

The flowers are beyond description.
I should add that in contrast with many garden gems in the garden, this plant has remained in this glorious condition for almost a week.


This is the annual ascelpias. The entire plant is over a year old, having been taken in last winter. I can make cuttings all winter if I wish. There are several of those plants, including the purple Persian shield, that make new plants from cuttings easily.
I suppose that I will cut the plant back to about 10 inches and bring it inside for the winter. I might then have as many as 25 plants by spring.

The Japanese anemones have been blooming for weeks.

Here is the single white flower, a variety of the japanese anemone. I love that green part in the center.

Julia's recipe

Beef Stroganoff

Beef stroganoff is quick to fix, making it a good choice for a weekday dinner. We have been making it for years, based on a recipe from one of my old copies of the Joy of Cooking.

Here are the players: 1 lb. top sirloin (more about this later); 1 lb. mushrooms (white button are fine. Or cremini. Nothing fancier is required.); a bit of onion; 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup of non-sweet white wine (not strictly necessary); 3 tablespoons of butter; salt; pepper; dried basil; and nutmeg.

About top sirloin. It's apparently from the top of the back of the cow, below the fancier steaks. Maybe it's called butt steak in some places. It's less expensive than fancier steaks or fillet, but more tender than things like chuck roast or round steak. I think flank steak or London broil would work if you have access to those cuts.

I started by slicing all the mushrooms. Then I cut the beef into thin strips across the piece of meat (that is, not length-wise). I had some grated onion from Philip's having made eggplant salad the day before. If that had not been available, I would have cut up about 2 tablespoons of onion into tiny bits. Or maybe a scallion.

After everything was cut up, I melted about 1 tablespoon (maybe 1-1/2 tablespoons) of butter in a big skillet.

After the butter melted, I added all of the beef and cooked it over high heat, stirring it around some.

When the meat was brown (about 5 minutes of cooking), I pushed the meat to one side and added the rest of the butter and the mushrooms and the onion.

I cooked all that for about 10 minutes until the mushrooms were cooked through.

At that point, I added 1/2 teaspoon each salt, pepper and dried basil and stirred it up.

I measured 1 cup of sour cream into a little deep bowl and added 1/2 cup of dry white wine. I whisked the wine into the sour cream. This takes some patience. With vigorous whisking, stuff will jump out of the bowl. If you don't have or want to use wine, add 1/2 cup of water or vegetable stock instead.

I poured the sour cream mixture into the beef/mushrooms and stirred gently. I grated a little fresh nutmeg over the pan and stirred that in too.

I cooked the mixture on low heat for a couple of minutes, and it was ready.

We serve stroganoff with green noodles when we can find them, as suggested by the Joy of Cooking. Sometimes it's spinach fettuccine, broken up. I don't know why green noodles. White noodles would be fine or rice of any color if one is a gluten-phobe.

This recipe made enough for 3 people with enough left over for a nice lunch later in the week.

Odds and ends

Watering?
It seems like I was not going to have to water any more this year.
Well, one week of hot weather and sunshine does mean that at least the potted plants need to be watered.

The City leaf pickup schedule arrived in the mail today. It looks like one of those gerrymandered states where that bad party has worked to maintain control.
https://www8.iowa-city.org/weblink/0/edoc/1799189/Leaf%20Map.pdf
Go ahead and take a look. We find this map mystifying each year.
I think we live at about the four corner intersection between zones 3, 4, 5 and 6.
I believe we are in zone 3.


Anticipation grows for the final bloom for the night blooming cereus. I wonder how many more people will know about this plant now it has appeared in that movie, "Crazy Rich Asians". While I did not see the movie I was told by several people that there would be a gathering when the plant bloomed.

I do intend to have a plant sale in the next two weeks. I have many plants that would best be in someone else's garden. They will be on the back driveway, with price tags.
All sales this fall will go to support Democrats in Iowa.
My plants, particularly the jade plants, have supported many a Democratic candidate over the decades.
This year will be no different.
I think I might even be prepared to let go of one or more of the big jade plants.
If you are interested in one of those large plants let me know.

That is it from sunny Iowa City.
It is almost time to order some spring bulbs.
I just dug up a bed that had Asiatic lilies. Now those need to be replanted. I should get some more.
Philip