Monday, November 16, 2009

Some Unexpected Fall Sights



Except for a few cold weeks early in October, we've had a really mild November, and some of my plants are still trying to bloom their little hearts out. Every one of my roses were in bloom these last two weeks and even my Nikko Blue Hydrangea bloomed a bit (though the above buds were knocked back this week).



Weirdly enough, I've had a ton of these little Jalapeno peppers ripening these past few weeks (I made Turkey chili again this week), even though the other pepper (sweet banana) plant I bought was totally killed by the cold. So thumbs up to jalapenos! These are super hardy plants.



Another surprise and delight has been this sweet pea plant, which I sowed way too late in the spring. I totally forgot about them, and lo and behold I got this one plant growing on my fence. I really like sweet peas, but I'm still scratching my head a bit about where they should go and when exactly I should plant them. I had pretty much thought I was going to forgo planting them next year, but this one pops up and now I'm in love again.

As I was raking up my sidewalk today, I looked around and everything is pretty much brown and going dormant. The air is a bit more still and the sun is hanging lower on the horizon, making 1:00 PM, feel a bit more like sundown. In some ways, its my favorite time of the year because it makes me appreciate all the energy that went into getting to this point, and gives me a chance to rest a bit from the usual gardening chores. At this point, I'm pretty psyched to hang up the weed wacker, stow away my pruners, and actually enjoy having pretty nails again.

On to the seed catalogs!

-Steph


-Steph