October 30, 2022- warmer weather but still dry

Let me start this week by showing you one of the better sunsets of the year. This was Tuesday evening. We were making dinner. We have a west facing window so we saw this coming. 

6:10

6:15

6:20

6:28

We have now been back from Maine for two weeks. The familiar fall patters have started. The indoor plants are settling in.  I begin the search for the ideal watering schedules. The dreaded leaf drop has occurred with some of the crotons. My sleep schedule has returned to normal. I am up at five. Inside dawn occurs about thirty minutes later. That is when the various timers kick in, providing light to various parts of the house.

Many weeks have a standout moment. This week it was curtesy of the Queen of the Night, the epiphyllum oxypetalum. I showed you last week that a bud had survived the move inside.

Well, this was Thursday night. It opened about 9:00 pm. That is just about when it would have opened outside.

Here is the bigger picture.

I have sometimes talked about how the garden is a curious mix of the past, the present, and the future.

That is even more so at the end of the garden season.

The past

The past is ever present (an intentionally mixed phrase). The garden is full of  not so pretty images of plants that a few weeks ago had structural integrity. The old zinnia stalks have to be removed, along with the spent hosta foliage. 

In addition, at the end of the season there can and should be reflections on the finishing year. What worked and what didn't? I think about the plant sale to feed people, ending its third season. We raised $5700 this year. The crocus sale was a nice finish to that sale. Judy Terry, a garden writer for the Iowa City Press Citizen, had this nice article about the plant sale yesterday. I hope it is not behind a pay wall.

https://www.press-citizen.com/story/life/home-garden/2022/10/28/two-iowa-city-gardens-use-donations-produce-to-support-food-banks/69596651007/

It was a year with a mild drought, and a somewhat early freeze. 

Of course this blog and the picture contest will spend the winter reflecting on the past.

The present

First of all, you mostly do work in the present. The present is the time to clean up the old foliage and to rake up the continually falling leaves. It is time to arrange the indoor plants for their winter home. It is time to get the last of them out of the garage. (Julia wants to be able to park the car inside.)

The present is also time to plant things for the future. Of course there is the near future and the further away future. I need to plant some spring bulbs that just arrived. Where was I going to put 2 dozen more daffodils? Will the bulb drill work at this point? What beds must I first clean up before I can plant bulbs? As later mentioned I did plant 20 monsella tulips yesterday. The bulb drill worked, once I found the correct setting.

You can also plant things for the present. Last Sunday I found more kale at the garden center. They were not big, but they were still nice. I was planting them when a passing walker asked if I was planting things for next spring. I said no. I was planting things for the next two month.

The there is the future. 

Fall is time to plan. It is time to dream. It is time to plant bulbs for the spring. It is time to think about the sales at some garden stores. 

At the moment the present dominates. Once we get to January it will be time to seriously deal with the future. There will be seeds to order. Will I do something with wholesale caladium or kale?

It is all a mixture of past, present and the future. 

Pictures from real time

Several cattleyas start to bloom not long after coming inside. This one was the first.

This anemone avoided the freeze. Now it shines, with not much competition. It even has a bud next to it. With no freeze in the 10 day forecast the bud should bloom in November.

This is hosta Neptune, one of the new stars in the garden. Somehow it had these two leaves that survived the freeze. Remarkable.

In the group with  fall blooming flowers that can take a freeze,  there is monkshood. I have several struggling plants. I am waiting for the plants to establish themselves,

This is tradescantia nanouk. The main plant is now a year old. I read that the way to keep it bushy is to trim it back. Well, I know what to do with trimmings. They go in the little jars on the kitchen windowsill.

There is more on my curret obsession with ornamental kale.

First, I have a name for this one I showed you last week. It is 'Glamour Red." I will certainly look for seed for that variety. The picture is from where I planted it in Maine.

I did find ten more smallish plants last Sunday.

Here is their introductory video. The smallish plants had name tags.

Another kale picture, with pansy. Pansies are something else that survives  freeze.

Julia's recipe

Gnocchi in Maine

While we were in Maine visiting Katie and Elisabeth and Christopher and Maisie, we did a lot of cooking and eating. Family time tends to revolve around meals, in addition to reading stories and going to playgrounds. This is one of the sheet pan dishes, where everything is cooked on a rimmed sheet pan, in this case, in two stages. I made a fancy-ish sauce (as suggested by the recipe, from the NYT) in Maine. Since we've been home, I made the dish again with a simpler topping. Both good.

The ingredients:

1 package shelf-stable or frozen gnocchi (my package was 16 oz.);

1 lb. mushrooms any kind (we had some cremini and some button);

4 scallions;

a biggish shallot (or onion) totaling about 1/2 cup;

1 5 oz. package of greens (we had baby arugula);

6 tablespoons or so of olive oil; and

salt and pepper. 

For the sauce:

1 tablespoons dijon mustard;

1 tablespoons prepared horseradish;

1 teaspoon honey; and

1 tablespoon butter. 

OR 

olive oil, parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of kosher salt. 

 

I started by prepping the scallions (wash, trim off any wilted parts, cut into 1" pieces); the mushrooms (wash, trim off any questionable or dirty bits, cut in half or quarter depending on size); and the shallot (peel, cut in half lengthwise and then across into thin half-moons). 

And I preheated the oven to 425 degrees.

I put all of the veggies in a bowl and added the gnocchi straight out of the package. 

 

 I mixed the ingredients around and then added 5 tablespoons of the olive oil, plus some salt (maybe 1 teaspoon) and pepper (maybe 1/2 teaspoon and mixed some more. 

Next I poured everything onto a rimmed baking sheet and spread the ingredients around so they were in more or less 1 layer. 

Then into the oven for about 20 minutes. I was looking for some golden color on the gnocchi and some wilting and browning on the vegetables.

While the food was baking, I washed the greens and put them in the bowl where the other ingredients had been, then added the last tablespoon of olive oil and mixed the greens around.

After 20 minutes of baking, I pulled the baking sheet out and poured the greens on top. They covered everything. 

After about 6 or 7 minutes, the greens were wilted. You need to keep an eye on the dish once the greens have been added, as greens can go from wilted to crispy chips in a surprisingly short time. 

I made the sauce - mixing the mustard, horseradish and honey in the small bowl. The recipe called for more sauce, but I think the amount I made was fine. 

I poured the sauce onto the ingredents still on the baking sheet and added the pat of butter, then stirred everything around (carefully).

Gnocchi with mushrooms and arugula. We had salmon and salad and some kind of dessert, maybe apple crisp. We'd visited an apple orchard and had a lot of apples. 

I think this dish is a good side for salmon, which can also roast in a 425 degree oven, in less than the time it takes to make the gnocchi.

When I made this at home, I did serve it with salmon. I decided to see whether a simpler topping would work - another tablespoon or so of olive oil and about 1/3 cup of grated parmesan. It did.  

Odds and Ends

The great leaf pickup is happening in Iowa City. It will go on for perhaps a month. Each fall the city comes around and a crew will suck up all leaves (and other plant debris) that you have piled up next to the curb. Sometimes the piles get quite large. I have so many leaves. The buckeye, the walnut and the elm trees in our yard have all dropped their leaves. I have started spending 15 minutes each evening raking a couple of barrells of leaves to add to the piles. (I suppose doing that after work will all end today as the time fairy moves time around.)

It does make you think about a leaf blower. I do not have one. Noise pollution is a real thing. Sometimes neighbors will blow leaves for hours. I suppose the only excuse for such a machine would be in a bed with smaller plants that are still viable. Pansies come to mind. 

When we moved into our house 40 years ago you could burn your leaves. The fall smell was burning leaves.

I would also make large piles of leaves inside some wire fencing. The piles would get to be 4-5 feet high. I would let them settle over the winter and plant on top of them. The raised bed by the back driveway was originally one of those piles.

Drought?

It rained Monday which was good. We got maybe 3/4 of an inch. That was the first rain of more than a half an inch for maybe 6 weeks. As the tempertures rose again (it was into the 60's yesterday) I realized it is quite dry. I may need to turn on the sprinkler once I get more of the leaves raked.

There is always the question of whether to rake the leaves or leave them as cover. A friend used to leave his leaves and his spring bulbs were always great. With hosta, you do want to get old foliage gone, to better protect from bugs.

Of course the best time to rake the leaves is when you can get to it. No matter how many leaves you rake there will always be plenty to rake in March and April. (One reason for that in my garden is because the Sycamore tree holds its leaves until the very end. They will not be able to be raked until December.)

That's it for this week. It is certainly a scary time out there, and I am not talking about children in Halloween costumes or the inflatable decorations at various house.

There is Brazil today, and Iran all the time. I almost forgot about the Ukraine. Certain candidates for office in this country would turn our back on the Ukraine, just as they face a cold winter. A certain former president would even support the other side. How is that not disqualifying?

We, of course, face some major challenges in nine days. I cannot believe people can support certain candidates. 

So pray for peace, and reconcillation.

And forgotten people.

And go vote. It really matters. 

Philip