Winter is coming!

I hope it keeps cool enough to set some peppers in the next few days. These are poblanos, almost chest high. I have about 6 pepper plants that have buds forming, it would be nice to get some peppers.

Fun pics, Marianne! What variety of orange is that? did you keep your peppers alive outside this whole time? Fun to see/hear who is growing what!

Autumn is definitely in the air. My 'Ocean Blue' perennial non-seeding morning glory is starting to bloom again (autumn/winter/spring), a sure sigh that autumn is coming.

Lots of other plants are *just* starting to perk up a bit too. Once the nights cool off a bit more it will be smooth sailing (I hope!) for a nice 8 or 9 months.

Happy gardening all!

Grant

That orange is a Washington navel. I have another that I'm not sure what it is but it's a small tree and the oranges are the sweetest, most delicious things I've ever had. I wish I knew! I don't think its a Cara-Cara, it isn't pink but a vibrant orange.

I managed to keep 17 pepper plants alive all summer (lost 2 from heat, 2 from birds, 2 from wilt through the season). I have a bunch of replacements sprouting. Excited to get some pods! Kept 1 tomato alive and 2 eggplants. The Ichibans' roots cooked in the heat last month but I have 1 left and 1 calliope eggplant that looks surprisingly robust.

Everything is waking up, very nice to see. You've got an impressive plant collection!

My tomatillos ... the danged 3-line potato beetles ate them to sticks and are working on the sticks. Too rainy for DE or any other spray to have effect.

Next year it's going to be row covers and toxic chemicals.

Thanks for the information on your orange, Marrianne. Congrats on keeping your peppers alive through the summer too. Nice work!

Sorry about your tomatillos, Lazy! "Sticks" is not an exaggeration this time. Keep us posted on how you prevent it with your next crop. Cool to see the pic though!

My Matucana madisoniorum cacti just keep on blooming, sometimes several at once like this pic from this week. So fun.

Merremia aurea ("yuca vine") just keeps on blooming too. Fun vines that take a couple of years to take off, but then are very, very vigorous. Nice flowers stay open all day long.

Cuphea ("cigar flower") and lantana in a large talavera pot are loving life these days too.

The not-so-good: several Aeoniums decided to suddenly melt in the heat. They all always struggle in our long hot summers, and some make it through autumn and some (clearly!) don't. Oh well, that leaves me a couple of pots to fill, hah.

Happy gardening all,

Grant

enjoyed your pictures very much.. thank you for posting them.. the pepper plant.. its in a container and looks like a paint bucket has been cut in half and attached to the pepper container.. what is the reason for that? thanks JoAnn

Hi Joann, the container is a galvanized bucket with paint cans attached to it. Sort of a modern riff on a strawberry planter? I saw something like it in a magazine that was very expensive and my husband decided to surprise me with a version of it. The paint can halves are for planting herbs in, but in the summer and being metal it is too hot to plant herbs in them now, in a few weeks I will put some herbs in them so they spill down the sides...It is a bit quirky but I like that.

Here's a few pics from the back yard this morning:

This is my 3 year old arabian jasmine. It's finally starting to actually grow up the trellis. The first year I had it, we had a pretty bad freeze and I thought it was dead.

Here are the bananas growing bigger. This Manzano variety stays pretty small

My 1 year old tangelo tree producing a bunch of fruit. I counted 17 (hopefully this isn't bad for it)

My anise hyssop made it through the summer (in almost full sun). It smells really good (both foliage and flowers), sort of like licorice.

On a side note I planted catnip into the ground this year and it got really huge over the summer. My cats are in paradise. Here's one of the catnip plants in a back corner:

My 2? year old Laurus Nobilis (Bay Leaf) plant started from seed. It grows very slow. But it should make a really cool patio container plant.

This is 1 of my younger Michelia Figo plants that I left out in the hot sun into August a little ways and all the leaves turned crispy brown, not just the ones exposed to the sun. I thought I killed it. As soon as I moved it into shade, it started regrowing new stems/leaves. All the green you see here is new growth from the past month or so since I moved it back into shade (it's even blooming again). A very tenacious plant, but doesn't like too much sun/heat (maybe only when young?). The first plant behind it is the older Michelia Figo that fared much better in the sun.

I have tried to grow a few Hyssops from seed and never had any luck, and I haven't seen any plants, yours looks beautiful. I will have to try again! I have wanted a bay laurel tree and didn't think of trying one from seed. Thanks for the inspiration. I will give it a go.

Looking good all, anything that has any green on it this time of year is good to see. Grant, I love the morning glory, worryzone, I believe your tomatillo needs another one to produce fruit. That's what I've been told anyway.

These, technically, are not actually "in my garden" yet but I sowed the seed indoors on Aug 30 and they have all popped up very nicely. I have about 30 seedlings, there's two of these bins, a variety of tomatoes. Some bred for cool weather growing - Stupice and Blondkopchen (sp?) and Sub-Arctic Plenty for example. I've grown those all before in winter here in Phx and they did well. I'll have more than I need for myself so if anyone is interested, p-mail me.

Hey Mary, I believe you are right. I looked it up and that is what they say. Very sad as I had two and one died. I guess I can try to start a friend for my tomatillo, don't know how it will go being fall but it is worth a try...dammit, it has a ton of flowers that will amount to nothing.

You might lucky and a neighbor has a tomatillo or other similar plant too. Enough people around here grow them for that to be possible. Plant it a buddy and don't give up.

So much torrential rain that I have mushrooms in my raised bed! Also, finally cool enough to set peppers. I've got padrons and poblanos set. Yippie!!!

GREAT PICS and posts all. Thanks for making your first post after reading for a long time, Shannon! You did great with the post, comments and your plants! :)

All of the other pics have been great too. So fun to see.

My hybrid Huernia continues to bloom virtually non stop these days. Here's a bud just starting to open, and one fully open, this morning. Afternoon shade and water only when dry keep it happy.

A quick pic of one of my outdoor thermometers showing a lovely morning temperature. So nice!

Quick pic of a Drimiopsis plant after I repotted it into a larger pot after the wind blew it over and broke its previous pot, grumble grumble. VERY bright shade and water when fairly dry keep it happy and lush all spring/summer/autumn. They go mostly dormant/semi-tired, hah, in winter. Wilson the tennis ball included to show size.

Happy gardening!

Grant

worryzone, aka Shannon:

Tell me about the galvanized roofing material as walls for your planter/garden bed, looks like an interesting idea! Have you noticed any advantages (more reflected light perhaps?). I have some old pieces lying around that could be put to some use...

Until Shannon shows up, here's some interesting ways to use old roofing material:

Galvanized roofing material in the garden

Yahoooo!!! My dragon fruit is Developing a flower.

boo hoooooo !!!! I missed it!!!!

I have a few things with galvanized metal in the yard

This
is actually steel roofing, we used for an overhand on the back door, so
it all started here, this is ungalvanized and rusted the first day
which I thought was fantastic. It is very heavy steel and rusting does
it no harm, just on the surface.

This is a gazebo we built. The roof and all the siding were from a lot
that sold and they tore down what was there and were throwing it all
away. I asked if I could take the metal and the old fence and this is
what we did with it.
I
found an old real estate sign up on Black Mountain just rotting away on
a vacant lot, we looked it up and this was the biggest real estate
company in AZ in the 70s and 80s, and I think it became part of Coldwell
Banker after that. My husband made them into planters for me. This one
is planted with Kale and the other one on the right is planted with
zucchini that I am trying to train upright on the bamboo pole. I saw it
somewhere and thought it was worth a try.

here is an example on pinterest

So
here is the garden that you mentioned. It is an experiment with square
foot gardening. I needed something that was high enough to keep the
javelina out as they had gotten into one of my other gardens with lower
walls by getting under the chicken wire. We have since fenced the
javelinas out of the yard but we figured there was no way the pigs could
get into this.We
used the metal for the sides around a wood frame and then lined the
whole thing with rubber matting. I read the article that Mary put up and
I liked the idea of painting it with a rubberized coating. I haven't
tried that but it should work. The inside of the bed is wood coated in
chalkboard paint so I can write what I planted and when as I tend to
forget what is where and when it should come up. I have been using the
chalk markers which last through the waterings but maybe too well. It is
hard to get the old chalk off and mark with new plants. It takes water
and a magic eraser and still not altogether "off". I took these this
morning and the sun comes around to the bed in about an hour and then
gets shaded by late afternoon.

I got the idea for this on pinterest so it is not an original one.see here

And this is the last of my galvanized in the yard. More recycled fencing
and metal from the lot. This is my garden shed that I store soil and
fertilizer and such in. Had I know how much garden I would have now, I
would have made it bigger...
There is the rusty patina I like. It amused me to make it like an old outhouse, what can I say.
Hopefully, that answers all the questions (and then some) about what can
be done with galvanized metal, nmfruit. I look forward to seeing what
you do with yours.

Sorry, I forgot to answer about the reflected light issue. I
didn't do it for that, as I said it was more for strength of material
and height to keep out javelina. We built it in April and so this is
the second crop that has been planted. Things have grown very well in
it but I am not sure about the reflected light if it is a factor. I
will try to pay more attention and see.

Shannon

Congrats on that flower, Calb! Keep us posted. Awesome awesome pics, Shannon! I LOVE your garden! Thanks for the wonderful updates! Happy gardening all!

Here's a quick/casual pic of an easy plant this morning, a purple heart-leaf ornamental sweet potato with a nice coordinating flower, LOL.

Today my Dorstenia foetida (below) and Cleistocactus strausii ("golden rat tail cactus" even further below) are blooming and looking happy. I really DO love this time of year--warm days and pleasant nights. Happy gardening all, keep your updates coming!