Saturday garden

Well, I accomplished what I set out to do this morning! I made pancakes of various colors and shapes. We have a set of three Star Wars character ones...Yoda, storm trooper, and Darth Vader. I made these in red, white and blue for Donovan...then I use the storm trooper mold to make a Power Ranger of sorts, for Emily, and hers were pink and purple. I made myself a rainbow, since it was rainy outside, of 7 colors, and my DIL got a red, white and blue pancake. I am sad I did not take pictures to share! Maybe we will have a repeat in the morning, and I will get a few pics.

But the bigger thing I did, was to set up my trellises, and get my 2 buckets ready for the Kentucky Blue Pole Beans!!!!! I did not find the Yard long beans, so I settled for some other climbers! This will be my first experience with anything that climbs!





I found these two trellises at Lowes this morning, bought two bags of organic compost, two already started bell pepper plants (one yellow and one orange),

and cleaned out my succulent tires as well as I could without a small shovel, or butter knife to remove the clump of grass you will see growing on the side of my CACTUS tire...and I cannot be stabbed to death to try and remove it with my hands, so I will go at it later today (when it cools down), or tomorrow.







I have my newest okra plants growing up nicely...and with gorgeous leaves (as always)...




And my eggplants, with my morning haul (2 good sized ones).




All is well in my world, and I am grateful for the time to get some things accomplished that stay in the back of my mind driving me nuts!!!

New garden goodies and some of my spring growth!

My husband and I just got home from Lowes!!!!!!!

Look at this super cute birdbath, made of resin, so lightweight, and it is the same height as three tires stacked, which makes it perfect for the area! It is a mushroom birdbath with a little bunny underneath! 34 dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am a sucker for inexpensive, but the mushrooms really sold it (well, OK, maybe the bunny too...)

Then, check out this new item at Lowes. It is a giant seed cake holder and seed cake! It has a bottom grill too, so the little birdies have a place for their little foots!!! :)

Here it is, as nestled in brush in just the perfect location to see out my kitchen window!!! Yeehaw!!!

Mr. Stripey tomatoes here:

They should end up sort of changing from a yellow on bottom, green on top, and red in middle with an orange stripes...very interesting...I am dying to see...should be soon for these first two...
They are about 3 inches in diameter now.
A close up reveals the stripes starting to show:

Some pretty flowers in the tires:



THREE new beefy tomatoes (large for sandwiches), to take up the three buckets that the carrots were in:

The last of the carrots pulled out:

Here are some of my prolific eggplants!!! The one plant you see here with 6 in the pic, actually has TEN currently in different stages!


OK, here are some shots of my overwintered OKRA!!! 7 plants with new growth and okra production! I am so psyched!!! Now I wonder... how many years I can keep them going...???


Here are some blooms on my Mother of Trillions (I made that up)...heeheehee...but seriously, they are on the Kalenchoe in the strawberry planter!

And a close up:

It is a beautiful, clear day here...temp around 82 at 1pm, and I was so excited about all of the beauty in the garden area, I just had to show you guys! It seems I live in a paradise! This whole, big, yet very tiny world exists in a 10 x 8 patch outside my kitchen window, and it has been the best world to have, to view wildlife, especially birds, bees, lizards, and butterflies. I guess you can say I really do have a Succulent Life. Everyone can. Seeds are cheap. It's a love thing. I hope you all have the best weekend ever...full of love, people, and plants!!! xoxo- Julie

OK...I have some inspiration!

First, I just have to record how delicious my egg, cheese and OKRA omelet was this morning...on toast! Sorry no pic...maybe on another day...it was really pretty with the pattern in the cut okra!!! Oh, silly me! I am thinking now, of maybe trying to print some snowflake patterns on paper using the cut okra! It can be very versatile! Hehehe.

Oh my goodness, did you all see this newest issue of Cloth, Scissors, Paper e-mail newsletter? The use of black gesso is so amazing...and her project is inspiring me...I think we will have a big crafting party one night soon when my DIL is off from work! I will take pics! Anyway...check out this black gesso...I never knew there was such a thing!!! LOL.

Have a happy, crafty week, I hope!

My carrots, and newest addition...kale!

I set up a tire of kale starts from Lowes a few days ago....all fresh compost and soil in there...so I think it will be OK as far as any toxins leaching out of the tire. Here are my carrot pots, and a a cute shot of another okra bloom!

Hope everyone is having a good week. We are planning Thanksgiving already. My cousin and aunt will be here, and it will be a lot of fun. I'm hoping I won't have to work.

I never thought I would end up with a color coded garden! LOL! It's just the way it worked out. My green buckets are carrots.

Terracotta pots are eggplant, and orange buckets are okra. Kale is in the black tire! Hehehe.

The colors all make me happy...kinda adds a little extra pazzaz! Wish I could find a few purple buckets!!!

My bug filled backyard patch of a farm!

Today I moved my 5 orange buckets of okra and eggplants over behind the tire gardens, so they would not get more sun and warmth. They like that. This summer, it was too hot for them, so I had moved them into a shadier spot. Now they are gonna be all happy again! It is hard to see all of the plants because they are sitting in front of the jasmine fence. They are still covered with buds just waiting to open. The one okra plant that came up mysteriously in my flower tire has been the most vigorous and has had a continuous production for me. I think it is because it has been in the sun and in the black tire that kept the dirt warmer. The roots were protected by a tall purple salvia plant...and all in all, it was just a better growing condition. Did I tell you my new ambition of being the best backyard okra grower in the world??? Hehehe. I am learning more every day...

The green buckets are all my 50 carrots, which will have to be thinned. They do not transplant well, so I may try to take out only as many as I feel I absolutley need to and let them fight it out. It will be a competition for the survival of the fittest!!!

Here is another okra bloom, and see the okra growing right underneath it? To the right of that you can see a fading flower which has another okra under it. You can see all the buds up top still yet to open. This is my vigorous plant...it opens about 2 flowers a day, which gives me about 2 okras a day. Nice plant....(it takes about 4-5 days to get them to around 6 inches long, once the flower falls off). I determined that that is the length that works out well, before they get too woody.

As I was out there watering and moving things...I saw all these bees (100 at least) all in the jasmine on the fence....but then on closer inspection, they were actually all in this other vine with little light purple bell shaped flowers (don't know what it is). The bees were popping in and out of the flowers so fast it was really hard to get any good shots...but I managed to get a couple. In this one, you see a bee trying to move into the flower, but there is one already in there, starting to back out! They seem to be quite friendly with each other...no major battles going on out there anyway! LOL.


Then, to my amazement, a really slender black dragonfly posed for me. When I saw the pic on the computer screen, I saw that he has sky blue eyes! How pretty. I will try and find out what kind he is on Bug Guide later.

It is sunny, breezy and warmer, but yet still cool in the shade here. A perfectly gorgeous day. Hope you are all having similar conditions where you are! I've been out visiting your blogs, but it has been hard to post with the new job and all. See you again as soon as I can.
xoxo- Julie

Curls, Smiles, Flowers and Clafouti

Hello!!! Tonight I have a variety of pics. The cutest ones are of my grandkids, of course! I was looking at Emily's head as she was turned around in the bathroom last night and saw this (I did not mess with it at all, this is all natural, lucky girl)! :

Then she turned around and I saw this:

Then a few shots of Donovan being his usual fun and handsome self:



I made a wonderful dessert last night! It was a
Pear Clafouti recipe from Organic Gardening.Com. You can see a pic of it at this website. I had to make it once I saw the pic and read the recipe!!! The only problem was that I couldn't afford the fresh pears for it. I figured I would need 8 pears and the least expensive ones were a dollar each! Good lord, I may as well go to the Cheesecake Factory for that price!!! With all of the other ingredients it would have been well over 14 dollars!

So I substituted apples. We looked for MacIntosh, but only found Jonathan apples (all the others were crunchy ones). I also added about a tablespoon of Apple Pie Spice, and when I went to get my flour, I was all out of white, so had to use whole wheat. I did make a little more of the crust too, just because it was kinda scant and I figured "Why not"??? I'm glad I did it...the whole thing was fantastic! A lovely fall dessert. Here is what was left of mine after we all had some...(I am polishing off the last bit tonight)!

A huge okra bloom was opened this morning and I ran out as quickly as I could to snap a few pics! (They close up quickly). I am so in love with these hibiscus relatives!!! A few close ups:





Have a wonderful weekend everybody!!!

Happy Cactus Monday!

This post is for all, but especially for Evelyn over at Sensational Succulents since she particularly likes her pink plants!!!! Three shots of my Euphorbia lactea, with tips turning pink in the fall sun! So sweet! This plant was in the screenroom, but was moved out in full sun in a cactus tire a few months back and this is what is happening.


Then a few more shots of okra buds! Sorry...I know you are probably sick of seeing okra and flowers, but these sideways shots show how pretty they are with the red coloration showing on the outer bud. These could possibly be the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen, closed or open (and minus the aphids)...I AM IN LOVE!


P.S. The aphids are non-stop, and I have had to spray weekly with insecticidal soap, or a mixture of soap and water to attempt to keep them at bay. They are persistant and a real pain in the butt!

Gigantic okra!

Well, I think that my okra had gotten as big as it was going to...don't ask me why I think it...I just did! I measured the outside curve to be 10 inches, and the inside curve 9 inches, so will go with 9.5! I am now hoping to keep these plants going until the South Florida Fair gets here so I can enter a huge okra in the vegetable growing contest! I think this must be Cowhorn okra with the size and the way it curves. It is also called Steer horn okra. I will be saving some seeds. I sure hope this one hasn't gotten so big as to turn woody and inedible...if it has, I will pull the others off at around 7 inches and see how they are. It's all just one big experiment...but from the looks of it, it is a success! Yippeeeee!!!!! Now where did I put all my okra recipes.....