We are starting to see more fall color.  This is our neighbors' beautiful Maple tree.  Isn't it pretty as it changes color from the top down?  I love that. 

 

Usually the third week in October is "leaf-peeper" time, but this year seems a bit slower.  

 

That's ok, one day we will wake up and it will be bright red, yellow, and orange all over.  For now we just have to be patient.

 

 

HAPPY FALL!!!

 

Here are the jalapeños, right next to the cherry peppers (probably how they got crossed last year.)  

 

See the red ones?  They are ripe.  When you roast the ripe ones they are called chipotle.  Yep, that's how we get chipotle peppers:  by roasting red jalapeños.  

 

Not that I'm going to eat either one, but I don't mind peeling them once they are roasted, wearing gloves, of course.  And a tiny bit of chipotle gives an interesting flavor to quesadillas and chili.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

Boy, do we have the hot peppers this year.  This is just one plant!!!   It's about 4 feet tall, and covered with red hot peppers.  See the elongated ones?  I think they are a cross between hot cherries, and jalapeño peppers that we grew last year.  I didn't cross them, the bees did it, and then we saved the seeds.  

 

I didn't know it until they started producing both kinds of peppers on the same bush.  Jon says they are really hot, like cherry peppers and jalapeños combined.  I'm not touching them, but I sure love how pretty they are in the garden.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

I went out to the garden to see if anything suffered the 40 degrees overnight.  Actually, nothing looked the worse for wear, except the kale that the baby deer ate.  But it didn't get all of it, just one plant.

 

The Thai basil looks beautiful.  See all that purple?  It is blooming and making seeds.  This plant grows to about 3 feet tall, and is so pretty in the garden.  It would even be nice in your flower bed.  And when you brush against it:  it smells like cinnamon and cloves.  Gorgeous!!!

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Look how beautiful my Mullein has become.  These are the plants growing in the driveway, where I accidentally dropped some seeds last summer.  Now, don't get me wrong;  I planted plenty of these tiny seeds all over the place, but I don't think I would have put them right here in the driveway.

 

Even still, they are here now, and I love watching them grow.  I love the fuzziness of their leaves, and I can see how somebody might put a few of these leaves in their shoes to keep warm.  I read that fact in several descriptions of mullein.  I also read that the seeds can maintain viability for up to a hundred years.  

 

Mullein grows these great rosettes the first year, and blooms the second year.  So, I guess these will have to stay here until that happens.  We may just have to find another place to park the truck.  I have my priorities, you know.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Here is another good example of Mother Nature making up for lost time, and plants overfruiting this year.  

 

In this picture you can see a few red berries from last year, not that many.  But look at all the new berries for this year.  This is just one small branch.  This tree is really loaded with berries.  I wish the birds would eat them, but I don't think they do.  They seem to last on the tree a really long time, even into the next year.

 

My Seek app told me that this is a native holly, Dahoon Holly, Ilex cassine, a close relative of Yaupon Holly.  I can see that.

 

Anyway, when the berries turn red, this tree should be really spectacular.  I will show it to you again when that happens.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Our neighbor, Keith, hayed his fields a couple days ago, and when we rode by there, we saw all these bales of hay.  This is the most I could get into one picture, but there were about twenty of them throughout the meadow.  

 

Jon had a friend back in Virginia who always commented when he saw rectangular bales of hay, that they looked like loaves of bread to him.  I can never see haybales of any shape in a field that I don't remember the loaves of bread.  

 

I hope I just created an "eye-worm" for you.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Here are my orange zinnias right next to the bright pink ones.  I love that!!!

 

These are about 4 feet tall, and the brightest orange you can imagine.  The butterflies are all over them.  I saw a clouded sulfur, and a long-tailed skipper in the zinnias.  I tried to get pix of them, but they are too fast for me.  Anyway, they are happy in my garden, and I'm happy to provide food for them in the fall.   

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

The same day that I told you I had nothing to talk about, we walked the loop and I saw this beautiful sage growing in our friends' garden.  I knew that it was some type of sage, but I asked Seek to further identify it for me.  It is Mealy Blue Sage.  Gosh, they could have come up with something a little nicer for a plant so pretty.  

 

Anyway, its botanical name is Salvia farinacea.  Here's the sweet thing about Sage:  Salvia comes from a word meaning healthy, and to save.  Whenever I see sage, I think of salvation.  Maybe that's how I remember the Salvia part.  Another cool thing about this sage is that it is perennial, meaning that you only have to plant it once, and it keeps coming back.

 

I'm sure our friends bought this plant in a local garden center.  Maybe you can find some too.  It is really pretty.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

It isn't very pretty after the rain, but we have a second crop of dill coming up.  It's not big enough to harvest berries or seeds, but I pull up the leaves by the roots, and put them in a vase in the kitchen.  They last about three days that way, and we put the dill weed on everything.  It's really good (and pretty) on hard boiled eggs.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!