Hummingbird Silhouettes

Adios my friends, thanks for the wonderful memories, hope to see you again next year, same time, same place? Have a safe trip to your winter home, the nectar will be waiting for you when you return.  

Last seen:

Buzz 9/20 late evening, very unusual time for him, see 9/21 post.

Zipp 9/20  morning, hovering and chirping inches away from my face, was she saying good-bye?

Junior 9/5 Labor Day weekend, she was the first to take off heading south.

Harvest Monday - September 27, 2010

French Fingerling Potatoes

Petit Gris Melon, Banana Melon, Chinese Cabbage.

The French Fingerlings surprised me, they were the most productive of the 4 varieties of potatoes I grew this year.  I started out with 1 lb of seeds and end up with about 16 lbs of spuds.  There was a sample of Nicola seed in the same pot with the fingerlings, it produced 5 Nicola potatoes weighting in at 1.44 lb.

Some of the spuds look rather big for "fingerling" size, maybe I let them stayed in the pot too long, maybe I should harvest them sooner for "fingerling" size?  Regardless of the sizes, I'm happy with the outcome, and I'll grow them again next year.  Yeah, it's easy to grow potatoes in containers after all.

This week's harvest:

Tomatoes 13.9 lb

Beans 2.19 lb

Potatoes  17.44 lb

Lettuce 0.94

Thai basil 0.38 lb

Banana melon  2.34 lb

Petit Gris melon  3.06 lb

Bitter melon 0.50 lb

Winter melon 2.94 lb

Figs 1.25 lb

Total harvest:  44.94 lb

There are more harvests from other gardeners at Daphne's Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

Beginning Fall Garden 2010

Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, Korean lettuce.
(This bed needs to be thinned soon.)

Italian lettuce -- unknown variety, fast grower, crunchy and sweet.

Chinese celtuce -- started seeds too late, may not get a harvest this fall,
testing for cold hardiness, it would be great if they can take some frost.

German Cauliflower -- Celio F1 Hybrid

Okinawan purple sweet potatoes still growing strong, it is showing
some signs of yellow, I'll wait as long as I can before digging.

Chinese green meat winter radish, sweet and juicy.

French filet beans 2nd flush, will be pulling them soon.

Italian Savoy Cabbage -- Testa Di Ferro

Pea shoots -- this particular variety is specifically bred for tender shoots.

Brussels Sprouts -- Jade Cross seedlings.

Swiss Chard -- Bright Lights seedlings.

Transition from summer garden to fall planting is quite challenging for me, first of all there's no space for new plants, plus the weather is too hot for small seedlings without some kind of shade, and some seeds refuse to sprout. The only way I can get a head start is to plant everything in containers, keep them in filter sunlight, and wait for open space to transplant them.  I'm really tempted to pull the green tomatoes as so many gardeners have done and let the fruits ripen indoor.  Arrrhhh ~~~~~ patience patience patience!

Harvest Moon

This is not trick photography, definitely not Photoshop manipulated,

maybe it's a reflection of the lens, if any reader knows please enlighten me.

Shortly after dark I got this, is it Jupiter?

And then I got this.

Wordless

Ladybug Lavae & Pupa

Hummer Buzz

Please excuse the lousy pictures, Buzz decided to come in for some nectar late last evening, I didn't have a chance to adjust the camera settings, and I was not aware of the obstruction on the lens while shooting, these photos maybe the last images of Buzz before his long journey to the southern border.  

Harvest Monday - September 20, 2010

Cantaloupe, winter melon, bitter melons, beans, peppers, figs.

Double Decker
Top deck -- chayote vines
Lower deck -- winter melon vines

Tiny tiny chayote flower, it's about the size of a grain of cooked rice.

Chayote Flower Bud

This week's harvest:

Tomatoes 5.4 lb

Beans 1.8 lb

Bitter melons (final) 2.6 lb

Garlic chives 1.4 lb

Winter melon 4.3 lb

Peppers (final) 1.8 lb

Cantaloupe (final) 3.2 lb

Banana melons 5.5 lb

Petit Gris melon 3.0 lb

Figs 2.3 lb

Total for the week:  31.30 lb

Visit Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday to see more garden harvests.

Wordless

Bumble Bee -- just napping!

Harvest Monday - September 13, 2010

Tomatoes, chiles, bitter melons, Chinese cabbage, Swiss chard.

Petit Gris melons -- last three.

 

Banana melons -- three left.

Sierra Gold cantaloupe -- last one.

Winter melons -- two weeks ago they begin to acquire a white waxy coating, now they are all covered with wax. I'm going to leave them on the vines longer so the wax thickens some more, the thicker the wax, the longer you can keep the melons in storage. 

Trying to grow ginger in container.

Harvest for the last two weeks:

Banana melons 20.8 lb

Charentais melons 3.3 lb

Bitter melons 4.8 lb

Chile peppers 1.38 lb

Michihili cabbage 0.88 lb

Beans 2.5 lb

Swiss chard 0.81 lb

Cucumber 0.5 lb

Figs 0.81 lb

Tomatoes 18.50

Total harvest:  55.16 lb

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions, head over there to see more harvests by other gardeners.