Pot of Potatoes

One of the many pots I've used this year has potatoes, among other things growing in it.  As you may be able to tell from the picture, it also has mint, beans, and corn.

The potatoes are growing so fast though that the other plants, besides the mint, are not keeping up.

The pot is pretty deep though so I'm hoping that at least I'll have some nice potatoes after the season is over.  

They were started from a potato that I hadn't gotten around to cooking that had started forming eyes.

Patio Anoles

This little guy has been hanging around the patio for a few days now.  I'm hoping the greenery will keep him well fed with little critters.  Pretty sure something has been eating my plants and leaving a bit of leaf litter.  At first I though it might be bunnies but the pattern doesn't seem to match.  Bugs are more likely the culprit.

Rainy Season

 

Every year we can't wait for the rain to stop so we can go outside and enjoy nature.  I mean, who wants to slog through mud on trails or have to carry an umbrella while walking around a park?

The the heat comes and we wonder, for some reason, why we wanted the rain to go away.  Now it's too hot to go walking around the park for more than ten minutes.  Unless of course you go late in the evening.  And even then it might not be comfortable.

So now that the rain is back and temperatures are cooling, we are once again stuck inside until it at least abates for a little while.  Of course with the ground so dry you also have the problem that the ground can't soak up the water.  You know how you pour water on peat pellets and the water just rolls off and beads?  That's what the ground is like in the beginning of the rainy season, it all just runs off.  That's where you get a higher chance of flooding since more water than usual runs off of the ground.  Also what makes irrigating commercial property so important.  It helps prevent worse flooding down the line.

Papaya Leaves

One of the most interesting leaves I've seen on a plant. The water beads on the leaves fairly easily after the rain we just had.  This has to be one of the more easily identified plants out there.  sometimes it can be difficult to tell what the plant is by the leaf if it is more generic but the structure here is pretty specific.

Other specific leaves I can think of are maple, burr oak, onion, fig, and pine.  These are of course probably because of the widespread knowledge of what these plants look like due to either how common they are or, as in the case of the maple, how famous.

In contrast, it can be hard to tell some trees just from a leaf shape. Although the size is different, if you looked at the shape alone of basil, live oak, thyme, and pepper plants, they all look about the same shape. Kind of what makes this leaf so striking and not easily confused with something else