September 23, 2018 Officially fall

Welcome to Fall

September is suppose to be an between time of the year. It can be hot. It can be cool.
This past week was certainly that. There was everything.
There were storms. There was an all day rain. One day it poured and then the sun came out. Then it poured again and...the sun came out again. My new rain gauge showed 2.5 inches this week.
There was hot. Thursday was oppressive, getting into the 90's. It was hot and humid and buggy.
Then all of a sudden, on Friday, it was jacket time. The wind picked up. As I write this, early on Saturday morning, it is in the upper 40's. The forecast has changed. It looks like it is staying cool. Next weekend it is to get down to 40. My goodness. That is close to the 30's.

With the rain and wind, leaves came down. The streets were covered with leaves, in a way I associate with October. On Friday, several times, I had an chance to listen to the leaves still in the trees. They sort of rattled. It was if they are now old and dry. They do not make that sound  in the spring or summer.

Today (I am writing this on Saturday morning) will be busy. I suppose the first thing on the to do list will be to make the to do list. There are leaves to get up. There are sticks to pick up. I have a new garden bed, fully prepped from last weekend. I could do almost anything with that little open space.

Update after a gorgeous Saturday.
It started out about 49 degrees. On the first garden shift I put on a jacket and even some sweat pants. Those were gone by the time we went to the Farmer's Market, about 9:30.
For a high temperature it got to maybe 70 degrees.
It was one of the more enjoyable and productive days in the garden this year.
Boy did we pick up sticks and leaves. We filled up many containers. Julia filled up one just by herself. The City will then pick them up on Wednesday. They will be made into compost.
I weeded one the daylily beds. After that one daylily bed was done I grouped the crotons, which absolutely glowed in the sun. In a month these plants will grace our living room, as they will settle in for the long time inside.

The temperature and the sunshine gave me "garden energy" most of the afternoon. After about 5 o'clock the bugs came out.
We stayed inside from that point on.


How is the garden?
There are orchids.

This cymbidium continues to bloom.

Here is a closeup of this lovely "Yellow Elf".
It has been blooming for weeks.













The zinnias continue. I have this patch of taller zinnias. It is maybe 3 feet by 3 feet. Mostly it stands up to the rain and wind. This year some of the ones on the edge blew over. I hesitate to stake anything. I think next year I will put something around the edge.

Here is an interesting fact about zinnias. At the Farmer's Market  there was a person selling cut flowers. He had dahlias and big zinnias. They were about the same size.
I asked him which would last longer as a cut flower. I did not know.
He told me it would be the zinnias, by a good margin. Apparently they will last almost a week. Dahlias, only 3 days.

I did have one of those exclamation moments this week. I have this nice hoya plant. It is one of those rope hoyas that have all these coils for leaves. I have had it for at least ten years. It has to come inside. There was a time 2-3 years ago when the winter bugs had the upper hand with this plant. So I babied it, and it came back. It is quite healthy, hanging with the orchid cactus in the front yard. But it would not bloom. So I spent the time to figure out what kind of fertilizer it wanted. Particularly with potted plants, fertilizer is important, and often forgotten in the busy garden. ( I wonder if that might be why my morning glories have not really bloomed much this year?)
So I found the right fertilizer and fed the plant last weekend.


Midweek I started looking in amongst the leaves for any sort of bud. Well... I happened to glance down to that long piece that is almost to the ground. Here is what I saw.

I said something out loud like "Oh my". I then glanced up and a person was walking by. I do not think he had heard me.

I assume you can figure out why I like hoyas.
I actually got a second one this year. It was a cutting from one that has hung over my mother's kitchen counter for ever. It rooted and is doing fine in the back yard. Do I get a third?
How will I stop at that point?

Actually I looked at one where the flower is almost black. The name is Pubicalyx Chimera. Look it up. That will be my reward for some task I will give myself.

I do think I have to get this one in the front yard  to bloom somewhere above shoe level.

It is toad lily time.
I have several varieties.

This one is called Lemon Twist.
It grows under the Walnut tree in the front yard. Some people think plants do not do well under the Walnut tree. I do not know.
This plant grows there, and seems healthy. But it has remained about the same size for a long time.

There will be better pictures of this variety next week. I wanted you to see how much darker it was.

I have also been waiting for the biggest Night Blooming Cereus to bloom. Maybe I will have some pictures. If not, that means it should bloom tonight, Sunday night. There are 9 mature buds.

Update- It did not bloom Saturday. I really do think tonight is the night. You are welcome to come by about 9.

You can tell if the bud will bloom soon after it bends up. For the first 3 weeks it had hung down.

Julia's recipe

Apple-Walnut Cake

Philip's mother gave me this recipe many years ago. Philip's parents hosted brunch on Sunday for many years, and this cake appeared as dessert from to time, always greeted with enthusiasm. Harriet baked the cake in a tube or angel food cake pan, which made for a nice presentation. I decided to bake it in a 9" x 13" pan, which shortened the baking time and made for easier-to-eat-out-of-hand cake slices.

Here are the players: 3 cups of peeled, cored and cut up apples (I used 1 large and 2 medium apples of several kinds - more on apples later); water; salt; 3/4 cup regular oil (not olive); 1-1/2 cups white sugar; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 3 eggs; 2-1/4 cups white flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts; 1 teaspoon cinnamon and some cinnamon sugar and no-stick cooking spray.

A word about apples: use more than one kind if you have apples in the fridge. Don't use Red Delicious apples which are flavorless or Winesap which I think have a funny taste. Don't use Granny Smith which are fine in terms of flavor but so hard that you will need to bake the cake longer to cook the apple bits. McIntosh and Golden Delicious (nothing like the red ones) would work or Jonathan or Honeycrisp or Gala or any variety your fruit-monger says is good in a pie.

I started by peeling and coring apples one at a time, because I wasn't sure how many apples I would need to get to 3 cups. I cut the apples into chunks about twice the size of the pieces for a  pie or crisp. I cut the smaller apples into 1/8s then across in 1/3s. That's the size of chunks one is striving for. I put the chunks in a quart cup (a bowl would be fine), and covered them barely with cold water into which I mixed 1 teaspoon of salt. Then I set the apples aside.

Next I chopped 1 cup of walnuts. If walnuts are not your thing, I think pecans would work or maybe macadamias. Not almonds - they're too hard. I am not sure about cashews. I am never sure about cashews.

The original recipe called for 3/4 cup of walnuts and 3/4 cup of raisins, and you could certainly go that route. I avoid raisins in baked goods, as they have an unpleasant habit of working their way to the surface of the baked good and then burning. Not good eats.

Once the additions had been prepared, I turned my attention to the cake itself. I started with the oil (3/4 cup) and sugar (1-1/2 cups) in a big bowl. I whisked them together, then added the 3 eggs and1 teaspoon of vanilla and whisked some more. Next I added 1 cup of the flour, whisking gently to avoid a flour explosion; then the baking soda (1 teaspoon), cinnamon (1 teaspoon) and salt (either kind - 1/2 teaspoon). I whisked them in and then switched to a wooden spoon to stir in the rest of the flour (another 1-1/4 cups, for a total of 2-1/4 cups).

Next I drained the apples and stirred them in, followed by the walnuts.

I forgot to say - I had turned on the oven to 350 degrees at some earlier point in the assembly process.

I sprayed (other lubing options include butter or oil or shortening) a 9" x 13" baking pan and plopped the batter in, smoothing it out a bit so it was of even thickness.

Then I sprinkled cinnamon-sugar over the whole cake.

Here it is ready for the oven. The cake baked in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. It could take a little longer depending on your oven or your batter or the alignment of the stars.

You should test for doneness with a toothpick or bamboo skewer, but be aware that if you stick your toothpick into an apple, you may think the cake is not done. You should poke an apple to make sure they're done (that is, soft and yielding when poked), which should not be a problem after 45 minutes unless you use big pieces of Granny Smith apples. Also poke around a couple of places in the middle to make sure you are hitting cake and not apple. The cake is done when the toothpick or skewer comes out clean or with tiny crumbs. Not gloppy batter.

Here it is, already cut into. It was the birthday of one of our office folks, so I took the cake to the office, where it was a big hit. Baked in a 9" x 13" pan it yielded manageable eat-at-one's-desk slices. We brought the cake to the office on Monday. It was gone by noon on Tuesday. It's that good.

Odds and ends

Here is the hoya plant. I tried to draw a circle around the flowers. Maybe you can understand how at first I missed them.




















I am putting my sale plants out on the back driveway. Maybe Sunday I will put some price tags with the plants.
All proceeds go to support Iowa Democrats.

Thursday was hot and uncomfortable. Friday was cool, breezy, and uncomfortable.
Saturday was just right.

I wish you some of those just right days.
Better times are coming.
Philip