So many things are happening in the garden that I must post about it. For starters, the denizen population appears to have exploded: tadpoles in the wee ponds, anoles skittering up and down the posts, frogs jumping out of the strawberry pot, plus bees--all kinds!--and butterflies galore. We've even had flocks of geese, ducks, and ibis wandering through. I wish I could say the place has become a wildlife habitat on par with how it used to be when across the street was marshland and the lake had alligators. Be that as it may, I am seeing the results of thought put into pollinators and natural pest control.
Here is one botanical triumph, and it was easy as pie to create. These are Toucan purslane. They emerge yellow, turn orange, and finish off in hot pink, and the plants thrive on neglect.
To propagate them, I just pinch off a few stems and poke them in another pot. It's that easy.
My sweet potato vines suffered from Hurricane Ian, so I had to cut them back. Now, you'd never guess they went through a storm and hard pruning. A zinnia is poking her head out from the plant support I tacked together, and in the back to the right is a purple stem basil. They've grown profusely along the walkway and will release that lovely anise-like scent if just slightly brushed by. I'm going to dig up my sweet potatoes toward Thanksgiving in the hopes of making a pie, perhaps, or some other dish with them.
Speaking of cooking, the red ripper crowder peas came in so abundantly that I haven't begun to harvest them all. I cooked up one batch and by golly, they tasted really good! So I'm looking forward to having them all picked and shelled and ready for the pot.
Now for the most flamboyant triumph of this year...
I almost completely gave up on trying to grow cosmos, as the seeds I've sown in the past never amounted to much. Turns out, it's a whole lot better to just mix the seeds with sand and soil and throw that in the garden in the fall. My mistake was sowing them in the greenhouse in spring. That was labor intensive and they didn't appreciate all that fussing, anyway. Now they're popping up and open like fireworks, and they were just sown maybe a week or two ago!
We're coming up on our average first frost date, but whatever. I've enjoyed my cosmos immensely, and so have the bees.
The spiky thing behind the cosmos is a green onion from the grocery store. I heard you could grow one just by sticking the bottom remnant in dirt. It's nice to just go down to the garden and slice a stalk off and chop it into the dinner fixings. Super-convenient and super-fresh!
Lately, I've been working on making houses for my amphibian friends. It's getting cold, so they'll need places to hunker down in. Plus, I don't cotton much to having a frog jump out at me from the strawberry pot. So I'll post some pictures about that endeavor. We'll see how (if) they turn out.
With that, I'll leave you with a pink and a cosmos being visited by a big bumblebee. Peace.
