Marvin's Gardens

Marvin invites me to his garden to gather vegetables, welcoming me to dig potatoes, pick squash and beans and cut a cabbage the size of a bowling ball.

 Cabbages, potatoes and tomatoes.

Beans, squash and more beans.

Okra at left,  happy that the weather is now hot.

 



When I thanked him for the veggies, he thanked me for coming to pick them. He says that I'm the only one who will come and work; everybody else will accept vegetables that he picks and hauls to them. I'm honored to be invited to someone's garden.

I took him two of my Heirloom Tomato plants, which he said brings his total to 40. This morning I dropped off a CD with 24 photos of the garden.

I tried to get pictures of the bluebirds but they were suspicious of my movements and flew away at every try. A Finch was trying to build a nest in one of the boxes where woodpeckers had enlarged the holes. It's a busy place, Marvin's Gardens.

Today In and Out of the Greenhouse

There at bottom right, see that tray of fine foliage? Sweet Williams.

Twenty-three Sweet Williams planted out after I brought in a wheel-

barrow load of compost. Oh! I forgot to make a picture of the compost in

the old galvanized cattle trough, a real oddity.

 

One the plants were in and watered, I hauled pine straw to cover the bed.

The little Wms. are tucked under pine straw since I made the pic.

We're expecting some freezing weather Tuesday night.

 

Back inside, some random views:

 

The final layout with the shelving on the left at right angles to

the north wall shelf.

Every picture has at least one bromeliad.

This one tops the sphere of Schlumbergera.

Up close.

A big Noregelia. I started out with one.

Now there are six and the mother plant is dead.

Tomatoes? In January?

More Noregelias and some Brugmansia cuttings.

Christmas cactus babies up close. I need to take more cuttings.

Spinach and Lettuce

Carrots and more Spinach

Growing.

Need to thin.

Benfica's second bloom. The old bloom stalk is just visible.

 

Next year I plan to have 3 Amaryllis plants, all alike.

Haven't decided on the cultivar yet. Will be a single.

Will not be scarlet nor persimmon color.

 

Maybe Appleblossom, an old but favorite Hippeastrum.

Maybe white and white hyacinths. Or Benfica again.

 

I'm thinking of Christmas when we've not reached Spring yet.

I should be planting seeds.

 

 

 

 

 

Bloom Day in the Greenhouse

It isn't the time of the year for greenhouse blooms; there are only a few.

Firecracker Fern and a few Lantana blooms.

White Lantana -- cuttings for a white garden in the spring.

 

Pentas cuttings brought in some moth caterpillars, so they are

a little chewed. They will recover.

 

Waiting in shade to go inside: pink Wax Begonia.

White begonia cuttings are inside, just starting.

I rescued a red begonia seedling that just came up at the

edge of the pavers. It was blooming in two months.

 

Potted Violas are  in a bit of shade, waiting to go up front outside the doors when it gets cooler.

 

Eggplants, peppers and tomatoes are

 waiting in sun until time to go inside.

 

New Amaryllis bulbs are here and await potting a little nearer Christmas. Hyacinth bulbs are in a refrigerator where no apples or other fruit will be stored, chilling for later potting. Last year's Amaryllis: one started to grow after I put it in the dark to rest so it is out again; another is still resting. Some Amaryllis seedlings are in the greenhouse to grow on. 

 

Camellia sasanquas are starting to bloom.

Come with me to Seedscatterer blog to see

what is still blooming outside here.

 

Let's go to May Dreams Gardens where Roses and Clematis and Sedums are still blooming and see what blossoms other gardeners have on this Bloom Day. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Purple Vines just tend to Take Over. Haircut in the Greenhouse.

I took a hard look at the greenhouse.

Purple alternanthera that survived all last summer and all last winter bloomed and shed seeds all over. The original plant must have roots to China. I cut it to the ground and pulled up a bunch of seedlings.
Some the limbs were almost six feet long, reching for the roof.

There's room now for more vegetables under the fogger.

I don't think the Purple stuff made that much shade that it will be hotter.

The amaryllis and daylily seedlings on the shelf may have to go back to the floor.

I found things that had disappeared, like the little pineapple lamp on top the breaker box safely out of the damp. It was too hot to do a lot more work.

There were even alternanthera seedlings in my broken pot succulent planter. The moist environment has made sedum acre leggy. I'm not sure why there's a red coffee can sitting here.

Pepper leaves are curling from the extra water.

Will relocate them back behind where they get less water.

The rose in the center bloomed. I've already deadheaded it.

The striped canna needs to go out in the garden.

Tomatoes seem to be happy.

Eggplant leaves and another tomato. Over behind are some Christmas

cacti cuttings.  I'm rethinking the greenhouse this next season because

this is the first year I'm bringing vegetables inside. Some ornamentals

that I tried out in prior years may have to be let go.

Next month I'll start seedlings of things like violas.

If August is unbearably hot, they may have to go out to

the Secret Garden where some tropicals are summering.

I brought my Heliconia outside today because it had some

yellowed leaves. Then I noticed it has new growth as well. 

It might just go back inside and remain a houseplant.

These eggplants have borne fruit; I'm hoping

for more from these blossoms.

greenhouses