Winter's Arrival

So far winter is having a slow approach. I know it's not winter yet but usually it's gotten colder than it has already. I'm hoping and believe that winter cold will still be some weeks away and that my garden will still have a little time to produce something still.
Even if it doesn't stay back for long, I have started some seeds inside that should prove to occupy my time for a while. I have planted two coffee seeds and two noni seeds. They might not do a lot but the anticipation is all I need to get me through the few cold days we have here.

Texas Fall Colors

The color change in the north central Texas region isn't what you might call colorful or long lasting but it's nice when a little color comes to the yard. There will be a lot of raking in a day or two. Figs tend to loos all of their leaves in a short period of time.
The only other color in the yard is the crape myrtle. It's a little scragly looking at the moment since i've been trying to kill it. I should probably try something this winter while it's dormant. It might be easier to kill then.
The fig has gotten to a good size this year and should produce well in the spring.
Lots of other things to start this winter inside so the gardening should still be busy.

Blue Moon

The blue moon is out right now hanging high in the sky. Of course the next moon will be closer and higher that today but it's still a sight to see.
I go by the older method of tracking blue moons since the newer method really makes no sense whatsoever. The names of the moons don't depend on the month but depend on the seasons.
If you try to go by the months then the famed double blue moon, a second moon in January followed by a second full moon in March, throws the naming all out the window since one of the moons won't even be needed. The purpose of having a blue moon was to keep the names of the moons in order in the seasons in which they appeared.
The next full moon, since I live in Texas, I would term the long night's moon since there is no definite forecast of really cold weather.

Bamboo in the Tropics

Although growing bamboo in your yard at home might not be the best of ideas, you probably won't have them get this out of hand. Here they use them as furniture though and view this kind of growth as a new dining room table more than a problem.

The bamboo I have growing in the back yard isn't nearly this large and is contained in a pot. My wife thinks there might be some kind of city ordinance against bamboo of this size.

Fall is nearly over and the plants can't be happpier. All summer long the radishes lay there crying, barely growing at all. Now that they are growing the make great additions to salad.

Our purple basil has gone to seed and is nearly ready to collect seeds for next year. Not enough leaves to worry about and the ones that are still on the plant are pretty small.

Another prodigious grower is the ever present dandelion. They're a little too bitter at this point but they aren't too bad when they just start sprouting in the spring.

Unfortunately fall also brings around spiders. When coming back from our trip we saw tons of strands waving in the breeze at the airport shimmering in the parking lot lights. I don't mind them hanging around but I don't like running into them in the woods or yard.

Winter's Approach

As the days get cooler I have to decide what to leave out and what to bring in. The tropical plants of course have to come in but there are a lot of plants that used to be inside plants that I am leaving outside this year.
Among those that will have to brave the elements are a relatively small cactus that wintered in the garage last year, the day lilly that I have put in the ground which is the bloom you see in my icon, the basil I am letting go to seed instead of trying to winter it and the lemongrass which will probably need mulch. We had to replace the lemongrass from last time since it died, not from the cold but from trying to produce starters for others.
The elephant ear plants by the back fence came back from last year so I don't have to worry about them. I also don't have to worry about our strawberry plants since they all died this summer.

Mystery Plant 2

It's curious, it seems that no one could help me identify the last plant... Well here's the other one. Same situation. I planted a seed and have no ides what it was I planted. We reused some of the cells of the seed starter and this doesn't match what the charts say. It likes the wet soil and seems to have a very hard stem on it, not a vine.
It's already split into two parts and each has new leaves forming from them so it may be a shrub or vegetable that has to grow fairly tall. This isn't a low grower.

Cantaloupe Fatalities

We've lost one of our troops to some sort of bug it seems. The pit right in the middle went pretty deep into the center of the fruit. It wouldn't be getting any bigger and cutting it up would have been only a bite.



After cutting in down the hole I found that the hole turned after entering. There's almost no room for the orange goodness to develop.



Cutting into the right slice reveals the hole going even deeper into the middle of the melon.



Fortunately for me there are still many melons to go. Unfortunately the weather is getting cooler and there's not much more time for the melons to develop. There are only two good candidates for maturity but they'll sure be sweet.