A couple weeks ago, I showed you our glut of jalapeño peppers.  Now they are ripening to red.

Once they turn red and you roast them, they are called chipotle.  Totally different flavor.  I kinda like chipotle (in small amounts) but raw jalapeños:  not so much.

 

I thought you might like to know the difference.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I saw these pitcher plants in the Ingles store, and they just tickle me.  I don't want to keep them alive at my house, but I do love seeing them.  They are carnivorous plants:  they have a liquid enzyme in the bottom of their blooms (the pitchers) that dissolves insects that fall into the cups.  Kinda creepy, but kinda cool, too.  

 

Anyway, I thought you might like to see some pretty flowers today.  Besides, it's my friend's birthday, and I needed to send her flowers.  

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SANDY!!!

 

Here is our 2026 Butternut harvest.  There were 22, not counting the wormy ones.  There were a few that the worms got, but I put them in the compost bin.  They will probably sprout in the next week.  I love seeing that.  I'll show you when it happens again.

 

Next we have to cure them.  So we brush a bit of isopropyl alcohol on the cut ends, and leave them in a well ventilated space for a couple weeks.  We've done it like this for the last few years, and they last well into the summer.  In fact, we cooked one from last year just yesterday and made butternut squash soup.  Delish!!!

 

I think the recipe is in the recipe section.  Let me go check...  Yep.

 

Just so you know, if you don't grow your own, and have to buy butternuts at the farmers market, or in the store:  the best part is the neck.  It is solid squash.  The bulb at the bottom is the seed cavity.  So unless you are saving or cooking the seeds, you get more for your money with a thick necked squash.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Look how pretty!!  That's why I grow them.  Nobody I know can eat them:  they are too HOT!!!  But aren't they pretty?  

Nice thing is:  the bugs don't like them, so there's no fight there.  And they look like Christmas to me.  

That's worth a few feet of space in the garden.  Worth it to me, and it's my garden, after all.  

 

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!!

1st

I looked it up, and found out that this native wildflower is called Blue mistflower, Conoclinium coelestinum.  That's a mouthful!!!

 

Let me go to my books and see what I can find out for us...

 

Interestingly, it was once classified as Eupatorium, the same genus as Joe Pye Weed.  I can see the resemblance.  At first I thought it looked like Ageratum;  and don't you know, that's what the article I read said too.  They are closely related.  Cool!!!

 

Anyway, these were in the same ditch as the cattails and goldenrod next to the cotton field in Suffolk.

Definitely worth the stop on my way home.

 

 

HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL!!!

 

 

Driving through Suffolk, VA on Tuesday I HAD to stop and take pictures of the cotton fields.  They are so pretty.  

 

This field was conveniently located next to a church with a big parking lot, so I pulled off the road and took a bunch of pix.  I got lucky on this one.  Between the church parking lot and the cotton field is a long line of cattails, Typha sp., and Goldenrod, Solidago sp.  I love seeing them too.

 

The cotton, Gossypium sp., grown in Suffolk is some kind of hybrid, identified with a number.  The fields were marked according to the hybrid and the agricultural owner of the seeds.  I don't care about that, I just love seeing acres and acres of cotton.

 

Later in the fall, after the cotton is harvested, the fields are bare except for tufts of fluff everywhere.  That is kinda neat too.  Sorry I will miss it this year. 

 

 

HAPPY FALL!!!

 

Here is another great conifer we saw in Yorktown:  Cryptomeria japonica.  You can also call it Japanese red-cedar if you like that better.  Personally, I think Cryptomeria is a cool name;  it means hidden parts.  

 

These trees are about 30 feet tall, and create a nice sound barrier between the houses and the road.  I have read that they can grow as tall as 200 feet with a 13 foot trunk diameter.  Wow!!!

 

There is a neat article in Wikipedia that talks about fossil records, timber uses, and other interesting facts about the trees.  Let me see if I can attach the link...

 

 

OK.  Go there to learn more.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

Look who we saw growing in the Abelia hedge:  Creeping cucumber, or if you prefer the botanical name:  Melothria pendula.  It is native to our area, the southeast region of the United States, and it is fast-spreading and potentially weedy.  Yep, this one was creeping throughout the Abelia hedge, looking a bit weedy.

 

That's ok, I thought it was kinda cool, looking like little watermelons.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at this gorgeous hedge.  It surrounds the pond and fountain at my favorite place in Yorktown, Virginia.  We have always called these:  Bumblebee bushes, but their real name is:  Glossy Abelia or Abelia chinensis.

 

Abelia is a great shrub, and it grows well here in the mountains.  I've seen it planted at Nelson Tractor in Blairsville, and I have read that as long as it continues to make new growth during the summer, it will continue to flower.  This variety of Abelia is one of the most cold-resistant of the Abelias.  

 

Sounds like a great bush to plant near my garden, attracting bees and butterflies.  Oh, did I tell you that it has a glorious fragrance?  No wonder the bumblers love it.  I do too.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!! 

 

I think this is a Japanese black pine.  Yep, I just looked it up and it certainly is:  Pinus thunbergii.  It is a native to coastal areas of Japan and South Korea.  This one is in Virginia Beach, just outside Bubba's Seafood Restaurant on Shore Drive, near the Lesner Bridge.  (Best crab cakes in town.)

 

Anyway, I just love the short stiff needles, and the compact growth habit of this tree.  I thought you'd like it too.

 

 

HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL!!!