September 30, 2018- September is almost gone

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Today in Iowa it barely got to 50 degrees as a high temperature. That was after it dipped down to 45 last night. I suppose we should be glad it did not get down to the 36 degrees that had been predicted.
This was the second day in a row where it seemed as if you wanted more than just a light jacket. Now, later in the afternoon, it has started to rain. It is not a heavy rain. That was earlier in the week when we had 1.8 inches in less than an hour. I can speak with such precision because I do now have a rain gage.

I was able to get out and do some gardening this morning. It seems like my gardening time this time of the year is more and more limited to just the weekends.

I am still planting a few things that have been in pots all year.
Between that and weeding there certainly is plenty to do.
Today we also went and looked at the sales at one of the garden centers. I wound up getting 3 more very colorful coneflowers. My, they are doing great things these days with different colors. I got 2 very nice yellow ones, still in bloom of course. Then I got one of those red ones as a contrast. I put them all together in an area where I had already planted some coneflowers. I will have a little group of different colored coneflowers next year. This will be a new area for the garden. I can imagine it expanding, in a definite land grab, seeking to take sunny places away from the daylilies.

It is now time to at least begin to think about the fall plant migration. I think there must be close to 200 plants that will begin coming inside. Some are quite large.

The very first plant to come in was the wonderful air plant globe.
It is now in its winter location, which is right above the kitchen sink.

The "plant" really is a collective of many airplants strung together into a globe.
Here it is close-up. It still has the bright red plants that turned that color when they bloomed several weeks ago.

One of the single airplants is still outside, preparing to bloom.
There will be pictures next week I hope.





We will start taking several plants each day to the office. All the window sills there get filled up. (There are 4 offices with south facing windows.) There is also a light stand, where some of the shorter orchids will go.



But in the cool dreary late afternoon it is good to remember what it was like just about a week ago, when there was plenty of sunshine.

This was written on Sunday after noon, September 23.

It is always a good thing to remember that no matter how well you know something, you may be wrong. Maybe I am being hard on myself.
How about no matter how well you know something, you can be surprised.

I have now had my bigger Night Blooming Cereus for maybe ten years. Actually there is a blog post for August 12, 2012 when I first noticed a bud on the plant. I wrote that it had never bloomed before, despite my having had the plant for 5-8 years. It bloomed on August 20, 2012. I have the picture even though I did not put it in a post at the time. (Sometimes I would go dormant for times in the summer.)
So I guess it has been  blooming for me for the last seven years. It always would open about an hour after dark, and be done by morning. It was frustrating because it was not open for people to see. (Other than the neighbors I would sometimes go get to come view it in the dark.)
So it was about to bloom Saturday night I thought. I checked about 9 p.m. and the 9 buds had not started to open.
Well, the next morning, that would have been last Sunday morning, I looked and 4 were not only open, but were fully open as of 8 am. It was no coincidence that it was close to 50 degrees.

So for the first time, ever, I was able to take pictures during the daytime.
Particularly with the perfect weather, it was rather grand.

Here are other pictures

This picture was taken about 7 in the morning. The flower actually had not fully opened.















Even a week later I cannot get over having an opportunity to photograph this lovely flower with a background of a blue sky.

Here you get an idea of this flowering plant hanging from the Walnut tree.


I should add that Monday morning was also cool. It at least started with lots of sun and blue sky.
The remaining flowers opened that morning.

People who had never seen it blooming were finally able to see it.



Last Sunday this monarch appeared with the zinnias. I have found these butterflies do like zinnias. I find the colors on this butterfly are amazing. And the spots. The colors look like the came from some ancient Greek pot. The zinnia is not bad either.

Here are pictures from this weekend.

This is the yellow toad lily in full bloom.
If you are in the neighborhood it is under the walnut tree in the front yard.
It really is striking, standing out with its color even when viewed from the second floor of our house. Yellow is such an unusual color for a toad lily.
Lemon Twist is the name of the variety.



The really and truly last daylily of the season bloomed for the last time. There had been two buds, the first having bloomed about a week ago.
As I would have expected, since the temperature did not get above 55 for the 48 hour period, the flower absolutely bloomed for 2 days. This morning (Sunday) we will see about a third day. I think that will be pushing it.
But remember, they are called daylilies. They are named that because they only bloom for one day.

This fall bloomer is call Turtle head.

Here are the spent flowers from the NBC, 5-6 days after they bloomed.

While you are looking at the Night Blooming Cereus, 5-6 days later, let me show you, for comparison purposes, the two varieties I now have.





The Zinnias continue to provide much beauty.

Julia's Recipe

Ratatouille

We make ratatouille in the late summer and early fall when lots of vegetables are available. I understand that this is a classic French rustic dish, and I am not French although perhaps rustic. So, as usual, I disclaim authenticity. I probably consulted a cookbook at some point early in my ratatouille-making years, but not for a long time. This dish does not require a precise recipe, just a bunch of vegetables, a willingness to chop them up and an oven.

One day recently, we had been to the farmers' market and come home with: a large eggplant, 2 medium-large zucchini, a big jalapeno pepper, 2 onions, 2 bell peppers, and a small head of garlic. Late summer and early fall in Iowa means that all of these vegetables were at the farmers' market.

I also used 1 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes, some olive oil, some kosher salt and a bit of leftover wine. These things were not at the farmers' market.

I washed the eggplant, zucchini, jalapeno and bell peppers. I cleaned the peppers (being careful with the jalapeno) and cut the ends off the zucchini and eggplant. I peeled the onions and also peeled the garlic cloves (about 8 small cloves). I did not peel the eggplant, as I had bought it at the market so I knew it would not be bitter. If you are not sure about how long the eggplant had to travel to get to you, you might peel it.

First, I turned the oven on to 475 degrees. It suddenly turned chilly here this week, so it was just fine to heat up the oven and the kitchen.

I cut everything up into chunks or slices: 3/4" (or so) cubes of eggplant, 3/4-1" squares of bell pepper, 1/4-1/2" half moons of onion and 1/4" half moons of jalapeno, 1/4" slices of zucchini. I left the (peeled) garlic cloves whole.  As I went along, I dumped the chopped up vegetables into a bowl, added about 1 tablespoon of olive oil (2 tablespoons to the bowl of eggplant cubes) and about 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and stirred it up. I had two full bowls of vegetable chunks, and used about 4 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 teaspoons of salt, using slightly more olive oil in the bowlful with the eggplant.

After mixing the oil and salt into the vegetable pieces, I dumped the pieces onto large rimmed baking sheets with silicon baking mats. Parchment would work too. I ended up with two pans full. 

Here are the pans in the oven: a pan with mostly eggplant on the bottom and a pan with the zucchini, onion and bell peppers on the top. It took about 40-45 minutes to roast the vegetables. Part way through, I rotated the pans, top to bottom, front to back. Now and then, I looked at the vegetables and stirred around.

As the eggplant shrank down, I added some of the onions and peppers to that sheet pan. Interestingly enough, the eggplant was done first (after maybe 25-30 minutes), and the zucchini last (after about 40-45 minutes).

When the eggplant was done (that is, a bit brown on the bottom and shrunken in size), I poured it into a 12" no-stick skillet, turned off, to await the rest of the veggies. After the first sheet pan was more or less empty, I redistributed the rest of the vegetables and put them back in the oven.

Here is the skillet, with all of the vegetables. I had already added the can of diced tomatoes, which I rinsed out with about 1/2 can of water.

I cooked the mixture on the stove for about 10 minutes on medium high heat. It began to dry out so I added the end of a bottle of dry white wine - only about 1/2 cup was left.

When the vegetables were heated through and combined, it was ready to eat. We served it with little pasta shells and Parmesan cheese. We have served it with rice. Sometimes, we have served it with poached eggs on top, one per serving.

You will have observed that the only seasoning is salt. True. It is nonetheless a very flavorful dish, and it tastes like roasted vegetables.

You will also have observed that I did not provide measurements for the chopped up vegetables. It is not a measure-everything kind of dish. I think all of the vegetables are good participants, but proportions can vary by what you have and what you like. More or less zucchini or more or less bell peppers - just fine. Leave out the jalapeno if you're worried about heat. Use other summer squash if that's what you have.

As one might expect, the leftovers are good. Philip sometimes eats his cold; I prefer mine heated up.

Odds and Ends

This is a little tiny cactus we got a month ago. It came with a little bud. That bud is about to open. I anticipate the flower will be bigger than the plant.









It is still a time of anticipation in the garden.

3 of the other variety of Night Blooming Cereus still have a few buds. Here is one.

Here is a bud on the biggest of the cactus.














As we age I assume we all struggle with forgetting where we put things. That has been true for me in the garden for a while. Where are those red handled clippers? Where did I put the trowel?

Well, I have found that the flip side of losing something, is the joy at finding it. (At least you hope you will find the things you lose.)
I had a little potted cutting from one of my favorite crotons. It had been outside. I wanted to bring it in, but not quite yet. So I got it out of the ground and set it down somewhere. Then of course I could not find it. I looked and looked and looked.
Finding it several days later made my day, at least for a few hours.


I have started my plant sale for Democrats. The sign went up yesterday. At the end of the first day I had sold over $100. This is absolutely a win-win situation. I raise money for Democrats. I also do not have to bring some of those plants inside, and they find good homes.
Come by if you have not already done so. The plants are in the back driveway. 1507 E. College St. Prices are marked. If I am not home you can leave the money in the mailbox, by the front porch. The plants will be out there until they are sold or brought into the house when it is too cold.
I am selling several of the large Jade plants. I will even part with one of the Night Blooming Cereus, with bud, if you come soon.

Have a safe week.
Better times are coming.
Philip