Sept 20th SAGBUTT - See You There!

The Seattle Area Garden Bloggers United To Talk is planning a trip to Seattle's Washington Park Arboretum this Sunday, Sept. 20th. We're meeting for the standard 11 am guided walk which starts from the Graham Visitors Center, 2300 Arboretum Drive East, in Seattle. The tour may last 60 to 90 minutes. Then, we'll probably find a spot to chat about all things gardening & blogging.

Here's the link for the the tour information. There is also a tour at 1pm.

Thanks to the Gardeness over at Garden Muse for scoping out the options and organizing this visit! Click on the SAGBUTT label, below, to see more posts about our gatherings.

Pumpkins!

There are 4 or 5 of these large, quite orange pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. I think they are a jack-o-lantern type. The small sugar pumpkins are still green. Yes, powdery mildew has arrived.

Rouge Vif d'Etampes still working on their full color.

Looking forward to pumpkin pie!

Lemon Sunflower

So many of my sunflowers are red or partial red. This one in the pumpkin patch stands out for its yellowness. Several of them are over 6 feet (including this one), but none have large flowers this year. May just be the variety. Many are multi-branched, though. This is one from a sunflower seed mixture I purchased from a local grower.

The flowers in the pumpkin patch are the tallest, probably because they are not crowded. They were planted a little late. This is the first in the pumpkin patch to bloom, whereas the self-seeded ones have been blooming since early July.

Click on the label below, Sunflowers, to see other pics.

Squirrelling Habits

The foggy morning yesterday helped confirm we are working our way into fall. After not seeing any squirrels during those hot/dry days we had, we've been hearing them everyday now. In the garden, things have changed from watching the new growth, to managing the harvest. Like the squirrel, we'll want to have some tasty treats come January.

Tomatoes: In the last week, the tomato harvests have become more than we can eat each day. Cherry tomatoes may not be the usual cooking sort, but we've been enjoying them in pasta dishes. So, I washed these and put them in the freezer. This morning, I moved the frozen tomatoes into airtight (vacuum sealed) bags. I love the colors. Maybe I can see a Christmas card design in the next round of the tomato harvest...!

Potatoes: Two of the potato plants had died back so we dug up our first potatoes. The other plants are still mostly green so I guess we should wait a while longer before harvesting those. We'll have some of this harvest for dinner tonight. My friend gave me the starts so I don't know what type these are.

Beans: The green beans have been the hardest for me to stay up on the harvesting. Actually, the happy grower this year has been the purple climbing beans. After my big pick last weekend, I had many more that were the right size for picking. Yesterday, I picked, blanched and froze several bags full. There should be a few more rounds to go, but there are few blossoms now so there will be a final harvest one day.

Carrots: I also harvested two nice size, tasty carrots last night. While I did thin, I could have done more. Some may be too close to grow to their full potential. I'll be looking at them closely today to see if there are some selective harvesting I can do to reduce some crowding.

Pumpkins: Some of the pumpkins are turning orange already! It is usually a rush to get them there by the end of Oct. The early orange ones are a different variety than I've grown before, and probably more of a jack-o-lantern variety. I also have others that are still yellow and green.

There are signs of powdery mildew in places. This time of year, our weather becomes just right for PM. In the past, I've tried to delay the progression of PM by spraying with a baking soda mixture or cutting leaves. I may let it take its natural course this year and see how it goes with the pumpkins.

Alternative Views

DH & I had a little (geocaching) hike on a recent evening. I gave up trying to photograph the evening sunlight filtering through the trees or the colors in the forest.

But, I liked this rather accidental shot. It was something else that caught my attention. Whatever it was, I'm glad it did.

Bean Adventures

I couldn't put it off any longer. The beans further up the bean structure had to be picked. Can't say I put as much thought into it as I should have. Do you think the benefits of growing vegetables might decrease with each extra foot you have to climb to pick them?

It was a good idea to use a S-hook to hang the basket on the trellis and to free up both hands. Not such a good idea was deciding to take photos while I was up there. (But the camera was just there in the basket, as it usually is when I go to the garden.)

How about standing on the top of the wobbly, old 2-foot stepladder? It was easier to carry than the larger one! Oh, yes, in garden flipflops! This time with socks (sorry) since the feet were still complaining about picking blackberries in flipflops on Saturday.

And stretching for that last bean, several times? Maybe not a good idea. It's still there, below...

Fortunately, there are no injuries to report. And the dinner in process that includes the purple pepper, a pattypan squash, garlic, tomatoes & the beans might bump that quality decision making ability back up there!

Blackberry Days

The blackberries are on full force now. I should try jam or something else, but I like to make blackberry sauce to serve with ice cream or angel food cake, etc. I've sometimes made blackberry cobblers, too. I did see a blackberry barbecue sauce recipe I'd like to try.

As shown in the photos from this 2007 post, I love using an old ricer/fruit press to separate the seeds from the fruit (after blending in my old blender). The seeds stick nicely to the wooden roller.

I'm not a huge blackberry fan. This year the flavor seems better than some years. The thorns are awful! But, I love fresh food and being able to do something with the fruit growing locally (in this case, in my yard). Takes the edge off of the work to keep the blackberries from taking over the whole property, too.

What do you do with blackberries?

What is it??

Now updated with the answer, below.
This striking plant is growing in our fence line. Can anyone explain it to me? At first, I thought it might be a rogue tomato, but now I'm wondering if it more like a pepper. It is near a neighbor's former garden. Do you think this is something native, or something escaped from the garden? You can see the leaf just above the wire on the right side of the photo.

See the upside down T? That is the stem of this plant. Any ideas ? !

UPDATE: Thanks to Greenmantle (all the way from the UK), I have an answer - Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara). It isn't as poisonous as some of the nightshade family, but still poisonous. It isn't on the local noxious weed list (just a weed of concern). See this link for the scoop from King County, Washington.

I think I'll leave it on my "to monitor" list, at least for another season. While many varieties are welcome in the fence row (a mini hedgerow), rampant, bully vines are not welcome! We will see...

SAGBUTT on Tiger Mountain

Yesterday, the Seattle area garden bloggers were invited to Molly's garden on Tiger Mountain to taste tomatoes. And, as it goes with SAGBUTT meetings, to talk and eat!

This is just a portion of the vegetable garden. You'll have to check out the Weed Wackin' Wenches post to see more of the pumpkins. Molly already has greens planted for fall under the white fleece. Note: The fleece is being held in place with Japanese clothes pins made to use with bamboo poles (& perfect for hoop cloches). Molly has an extra cool garden and has several strategies for helping keep the plants a little protected.

In person, we met the parent to the black pussy willow cuttings Molly brought to our first SAGBUTT meeting! It's the left half of the photo, above. I think there is a lilac neighbor on the right.

Some of the tasty & colorful tomatoes being sampled. There were many varieties, but even just these three were quite different from one another. The Italian Ice was an intriguing sight. It had a mild flavor, and a sturdy wall structure that reminded several of us of peppers.

Just a little view of the fine Northwest landscape for those of you in other parts of the world.

Thanks, Molly, for hosting the group and the fine tour, food and beverage! You have created such a nice spot there! It was so much fun hearing about your gardening & other adventures. I could have stayed on this porch for a week (although the wild life stories might have changed that - see also the Weed Wackin' photo essay).

Bloom Day August

It's the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day gathering over at May Dreams Gardens. I'm bringing some flowers (& a few friends) I haven't posted yet this summer. Above, fragrant nicotiana with calandula and blue borage in the background. Nicotiana came home with me from the July SAGBUTT gathering!

Above, this fee found the blooming basil in the greenhouse. The door is always open right now, but he had the place to himself. I've been deadheading the basil like crazy until the August heat hit and I let it go. The aroma in the greenhouse is fantastic after pinching back the basil.

Above, I've never seen bees with pollen baskets as full as they are once the broccoli starts blooming. See that yellow bump on the bee's leg? That's the pollen basket. I leave a few broccoli plants in the garden to bloom because the bees seem to like it so much.

This is blooming oregano, above. It is covered with this type of bee/critter. Do you know what it is?

I have my first feverfew plant this year. It is a very happy plant. I just read, though, that bees hate the smell of it! And they will stay away from other plants near it. I'll have to go check the surrounds plants to see how far that ban goes.