What's Your Story Morning Glory?

It was a beautiful morning(cool for a change)on Sunday.  I happened to go out on the deck and noticed my morning glories were looking pretty darn good.

Lots of blooms!  As their name suggests they bloom in the morning and close up later in the day.  There are over 1,000 varieties of morning glory and they are related to the sweet potato.  The family is Concolvulaceae.

Can you see the pollen grains on the blooms below?

The flowers of the plant last one day before dying and dropping off.  Yet the vines produce oodles of blossoms for your viewing pleasure from late Spring to the first frost.

A close-up of a bloom with lots of pollen grains to entice bees and hummingbirds.

I tried to get a shot of a bee inside the flower above.  You can barely see their tiny bottom in the center of the flower.

Here is the bee leaving the bloom above.  

I haven't planted morning glories here in years since they just reseed themselves now and come back each Spring season.

I made a brief video below touring the vines.  No narration to ruin it but it was a nice quiet morning and the birds were singing.  Take a look....

Do you plant flowers?  Morning Glories perhaps?  They are really a low maintenance plant in my opinion except the vines will take over all your garden if you let them. ;-)

Sluggy

Around the Backyard

We have been in a rainy weather pattern that just won't go away!
I've been telling Hubs for weeks now that "Gee, we could sure use some rain!  It's been pretty dry here so far since May."
Well this past weekend the rain started and this front just won't leave.
The meteorologist this morning said we are due for another 7 DAYS or longer of this on again/off again rain.
Lots of flash flooding around here, mostly to the West and South of us, and more will happen until this front leaves.  The ground is saturated now and if we get much more I may loose lots of veggies.
Eek!

The rain let up for about a half an hour so let's take a walk around the backyard today at Chez Sluggy 

I actually took these first three shots on Saturday........

The profusion of morning glories

Many vines are on the bird feeder poles and trying to climb higher.
I don't even bother to plant these anymore......they just grow back every year from the seeds that drop from the previous Fall.

You might be able to make out the pollen grains on this flower.
You'll notice that we have again been invaded by Japanese Beetles this Summer.
They LOVE morning glory foliage evidently, as well as my Japanese Eggplant plants.

Here is a shot looking over the garden from the left corner......

And here is a shot from the right hand corner......

Here's one of my basil plants.  I am trying to stay ahead of the blossoms to pinch them off so I keep getting more leaves.

One of three eggplants almost ready to pick from 2 of my plants.  The other 2 plants got swallowed up by tomato and squash plants and can't get any sun.  I figured only a few squash would survive the Spring and actually grow but I was wrong.  Now everything is so crowded together some shorter plants don't have a chance.

 A few of the yellow squash not quite ready to pick.....

A couple tomatoes looking good.  Notice the leaves of a hidden basil plant to it's left.......

I see you there Mr. Zucchini, trying to blend in and hide from me until you are a massive size. lol

Here's one of my barrels with the lettuce in it.  It's Simpson black seeded lettuce.
Usually by late July the lettuce is done because of the heat but not this year!
I can't seem to kill these three lettuce plants!
Two of them have gotten so large they look like vines!  And they need support to keep them from falling on the ground from the barrel.

My entire green beans crop.
Only ONE of my bean plants survived the chipmunk invasion.
I may get six whole green beans this year, all from this one plant.  I'll let them go to seed and maybe start then indoors next Winter/Spring and see if I can have a better outcome next season.

And in the front we have about 12 tomato plants which are doing fantastically well.  Trying to stay ahead of pinching off some blossoms there too.  The plants get the best sun of the entire yard so these plants are almost five feet tall at this point.
With all this rain these plants are toppling over a bit so we'll need to tie them up some more.

Some Amish paste variety(like a Roma)growing out there too.  I can't wait to try those.

And all this rain(and now the tomato plants falling over)isn't thrilling the Coleus and Petunias.
Once the tomato plants die back they'll get more sun and nutrients.....

And here is what got picked this weekend--
On Saturday.......

And then on Tuesday........

I also picked 2 more ounces of lettuce for the nephew to take home but didn't photograph that or add it into our harvest count yet.

So far I've picked 170.9 ounces of veggies, or 10.68 lbs. from our garden.
Go me.

I just wish the rain would stop for awhile so I can enjoy my yard a bit more.  I really do like being out there near the garden.

What's growing in your yard?

Sluggy

Garden & Yard Update......Still Producing!

Even though it's a week into October with our unseasonably warm weather so far this Fall, my garden is still in production mode.
The plants are looking long in the tooth now and things are winding down but I've still got tomatoes growing out there......

You can see some pops of red and there are quite a few green fruits still on the plants.

Next week won't climb out of the 60's and Monday night we will be flirting with temps in the 30's so I think we'll be taking down the netting and pulling up the plants on Sunday.  I'll either pick all the maters or hang the plants upside down on our front porch until the last of the green ones ripen.

I made my first fried green tomatoes this past week and for some reason they just didn't seem sweet enough.  Maybe it's the variety of tomatoes I grew or something in the soil but they just aren't that awesome to be prepared that way.  

I could always buy more peppers and use the green maters left in a small batch of my pepper relish but I don't think I am up to that ordeal again.  Pickled green tomatoes instead?......maybe.  Or I can just wait them out until they turn red and eat them fresh.
So many decisions........lolz

The progression of tomato color. (And no, that Keurig on the counter does NOT belong to me!)


Anyway, since my last update on September 22nd I've picked 46.40 more ounces(2.9 lbs.)of tomatoes for use in meals here.
This brings my Total Harvest to 682.80 ounces or 42.675 pounds of produce for 2016.

Not bad for a haphazard effort and we've still got tomatoes left to pick and use.

As for my Morning Glories..........

Still blooming as of this morning but the plants are looking a bit rattier.  I'd give them another week and they'll be dying back and by US Thanksgiving I'll be able to harvest a butt ton of seed pods.
Let me know if you want some free morning glory seeds.  8-)

And this is laying in the backyard too since Sunday evening, when some moderate wind passed through the area........

A view from an upstairs window before Hubs moved if off of our fire ring.....

That baby's 20+ feet long and had we been having a fire that night it might have fallen on us!

We need to go out this weekend and inspect all our trees and see if there are any other dead branches that we need to pay someone to have taken down before Winter sets in.
Kaching goes the money out my wallet again........sigh

In other yard news, these flowers/plants I planted in the front flower bed the last Summer before the current one reseeded themselves and we still have colorful stuff going on there.

I don't know what they are called but if you don't disturb/pull out the dead plants in the Fall and don't remulch the following growing season they will reseed.
Yes, we never got around to remulching and making the flower bed pretty this growing season.  Heck I stopped weeding it by the end of July so it's just a hot mess.
Hey, don't judge.......

Another free plant next to the retaining wall.

So what's happening in your yard/garden now?

Sluggy

Sluggy & The Sad State of Her Garden

Well the garden this year has been neglected and most probably will continue to be a half-assed effort.

Right off, when the furry little critters(evil chipmunks)started digging up our seeds, I didn't replant.
Therefore, there will be no squash, beans or cucumbers harvested from my garden this year.

Then I went away for 2+ weeks.
Usually when I am not here, cracking the whip on the other members of the family lovingly encouraging & reminding the rest of the family to water, weed and take care of the garden , nothing gets done......well, except the plants get choked out or die of thirst.

Here is the state of things right before I left, mid July......

Little tiny maters.

Some of the cauliflower plants were doing well......but no heads developing yet.....

My Morning glory vines just starting to climb the bird feed pole.

And other Morning Glories had been "clear cut" by some midsized critters.  Blast!

And the Japanese Beetles had just arrived to eat up the Morning Glories that survived the clear cutting/munching furry critters.

I get back late July and by last Friday, here is what was observed in the garden.....


Some cauliflower plants still hanging in there, a bit beetle eaten.....

 

What you do NOT see in this photo is the cauliflower plant that was photographed above(the 3rd photo down in this post), before I left town.  It was here when I left and now there is no trace of it!  No trace but a small impression in the soil were it was located before some large furry critters pulled the whole thing up, roots and all and carted it off for dinner!

Some maters, still not growing much.....

A tomato plant by the Morning Glory vines, both having been clear-cut Again! by some furry critter(a deer I am betting due to the reach).
Grrrr!
Hubs never put the fencing up around the garden this year.....sigh

The lone red tomato, observed last Friday.   I didn't pick it then and by Sunday it was gone.....your welcomed furry critters.....I hope you choked on it!

The only item the critters haven't touched(yet!)are my onions and they are going like gangbusters.....

My solace in the debacle that my garden is quickly turning into has been my Morning Glories......

See the grains of pollen on the petals in this shot?.....

Oh lookie!
More maters.......

I just hope I can keep the furry critters away from these.  They are up on the deck so I have a fighting chance at least.

How is your garden growing?

Sluggy

MIA The Last 5 Days.....What's Up?

Not to worry....I've been here but busy and not really chatty. 
Working on the End of August financials and trying to get everyone back into a school year routine.

So then the high school gave the kids a 4 day Weekend.  Oh, thanks for thwarting my evil plan school district!  I really appreciate that......

Hubs took the day off too so we took a ride to the Farm Stand on Friday and loaded up on ingredients for making Pepper Relish.

A bushel of peppers, 25lbs. of onions, 1 watermelon, 1 cantaloupe, 6 cucumbers and 2 zucchinis later I am $31.50 more broke-r.
But look at all those beauties.....


Friday was all about the opening football game of the year.  "Our" team hosted the #1 team in the conference so the Band had a bigtime food concession going which Hubs worked.  It wore him out so Saturday was spent icing muscles.lol  #2 Son worked hard at staying in formation during the marching band performance.  The Band was great, the football team?....not so much.....not that I care about football..... ;-)
Daughter helped me grocery shop on Friday.....let me rephrase that.....Daughter helped me overspend my grocery budget for August on Friday.  There, that's more accurate. lol

Saturday while Hubs was recuperating from his concession ordeal I had a Canning Day!  I was making Pepper Relish year.
This is such a labor intensive process that I like to make enough to last 2 years so I only have to do this every other year.  It would be great if someone around here would help out with this.
They are all great consumers of this product but as soon as I drag out the equipment and produce, you can't find a one of the family to take part in the creation of this heavenly foodstuff.
Why is that?

First I had to chop all my ingredients into tiny bits..............

I about filled a 5 gallon bucket with bits!  Next time stirring it with a boat oar rather than a puny little wooden spoon might be smarter on my part.

I must say that now that I have a food processor this part of the process only takes a quarter of a day instead of the full 12 hour day it use to take me when I had to do it all. by. hand.  That used $8 processor I won at the Church auction 2 years ago is paying for itself bigtime now!lol

Then it's time to salt the veggies and let the moisture leech out for an hour while I get the syrup ready and the jars and lids sterilized.
Cook down the liquid, plop the relish into the jars and boil in a water bath canning pot and you get this......

I ended up with 11 quarts, 1 pint worth.....

That's a 2 year supply with enough leftover for my sister in-law's Christmas gift.
The quart sized jars in back are for her, though 3 jars won't last her much past Feb. since she likes this stuff so much she eats it straight outta the jar with a spoon!
Ick.

That and a nap was basically my Saturday.
What a production!

Sunday I was up extremely early and took some photos out on the deck while my morning glories were open.

I haven't bought morning glory seeds in years now.  I just let the volunteer plants wither and drop seeds from their pods each Fall and every Spring I get beautiful new flowers.

 You can see the fuzzy ass of a bumblebee in that center bloom.  He was not amused at having his posterior photographed and let me know it when he came outta there! lol

 I'll miss these beauties in a few weeks when they start dying off.....sigh

I accompanied Hubs to an indoor flea market later Sunday morning so he could check out a New Age store there.  He decided to take the bypass as a "short cut" to get there.  Of course, he didn't know where to get off the bypass so the "short cut" ended up taking us on the scenic route through about 3 little towns, as we went waaaay past where the flea market was held on our "short cut".  I just turned my head to the window and rolled my eyes silently at the passing scenery.  Men.....

We went early before the heat got bad.  I got some exercise walking around and a new bumper sticker for my car.
We also picked up some COC at the FM and had it with our burgers, dogs and potato salad at our Sunday evening cook-out.

Monday was spent on more garden chores--Hubs had picked a huge amount of green beans on our vine plants the last few days.  He surprised me by blanching and bagging them all while I was napping Monday afternoon.  He filled 5 freezer bags.....thanks honey!

 I cut up, bagged and froze the rest of the red bell peppers, I didn't use in the relish, for use later this winter.
1 bag of diced peppers and 4 bags of slices.

We also got a few swims in, in the pool and some tomatoes picked.  Lunch on Monday was BLTs using fresh tomatoes from the garden. 
Horror upon horrors though when I saw that we were down to our last three packs of bacon in the freezer....EEK!
I haven't loaded up on bacon in ages.

Now I'm on a quest for a bacon deal.
Ya know.....it's always something, isn't it?

Tuesday's dinner was suppose to be Alfredo Primavera but I substituted Stuffed Green Peppers and Stuffed Zucchini for dinner.  I had a leftover Zuke after making 5 loaves of Zucchini Bread and I had 2 green bell peppers put aside from my bushel of peppers I bought to make stuffed peppers for Hubs.
I just forgot to put the peppers meal on the menu.  We'll bump something else on there off later in the week.

I still need to make pickles and cut up the watermelon we got at the farm stand.  That will be on today's agenda.  I'll also be making Lemon Crisp Cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I don't know what's gotten into me......I'm all Betty Freakin' Crockerish suddenly!

Sluggy