A Feather Bed

Despite having a three-tiered roost and plenty of fresh straw for bedding down, the little crazies found a place they like more.

This won't work when they get much bigger. The nights are only in the sixties, so they must just want to cuddle with their friends. It doesn't appear that we have a rooster, so this must be a hen party that goes on into the night.

Magic Beans

Last year, I went to town and got a packet of Black-Eyed Peas.

In summer, I planted less than a dozen beans (they only call themselves peas to seem more appealing).

There wasn't anything on the packet to indicate they weren't what I was expecting, namely a bush bean. They started to grow, whereupon it became obvious that I'd been uninformed. First, they twined around a cage of green peppers, then cast an eye (they have plenty) toward the big daylily nearby. I hastily erected an opened-out tomato cage for them to climb up.

Before long, actually it was while I was sleeping, they had twined right up that. Next, the weight of the huge vines, leaves and long pods of beans caused that fence to fall over, blocking the path for the remainder of the summer. Since I love black-eyed peas, I let them continue.

The disappointing part, however, was most of the beans were tinged with brown flecks due to our humid summer. Hulling them was a lot of bother when most were spoiled.

They were trying. The kindest thing to do was to let them carry on until frost. Today, I started cutting them free from the fencing and the pepper cage. That's when it became apparent that I had in fact purchased Magic Beans.

Most of the vines were over ten feet long, great strapping monsters that probably would have reached the clouds if they'd had something like a cell phone tower to twine around.

Tossing the remainder of the packet out of the window, I vowed to never grow them again.

Frost Tonight

Frost warning, so that's it for the summer garden. The chicks will be sad because they have been feasting on largish zucchinis for some time now. The baby cantaloupes set an extra round of melons but most won't ripen. Even the possum isn't interested in them when they are under ripe.

The green peppers are always in fine form finally when the frost finishes them off. From an avalanche of vines, these tomatoes were the only ones that may ripen in a dark closet. The potatoes were a lovely surprise. I didn't get them all dug in a timely manner, so they put on new plants and gave birth to babies. I'll enjoy new potatoes and old potatoes, too.

The last blooms of summer were the tall zinnias. They took their sweet time in growing, for some moody reason. Now that the end is near, they burst into bloom and have loads of buds that will be zapped tonight.
Dahlias and Gaillardias were still growing strong, too.

The spinach and mystery Toy Choys are up, so winter isn't here yet. It always seems a short time between the heat of summer and cold nights. Probably because we have basically two seasons, hot and cold. However, there will be some lovely days between now and the first snow.

It's a Start

After some nice rain settled the road dust, I'm back at the Great Hillside Project. The bees were finished with the White Heath Asters. One bee did come around while I was cutting them down. I did a little dance to show her there were lots more in the nearby fields. However, I don't believe we both have the same choreographer.

Before the rain, I ran Tillie over the hand-dug parts. I transplanted four of the Butterfly Weed shrubs, now dormant. I was surprised to find they have big roots, most of which are still in the ground.

I started them from seed one year. They were pretty. The next spring, I guessed they weren't going to show up, so I planted some new daylilies there. Surprise! Not wishing to play favorites, I let them all try and duke it out.

Now they can have enough room. I'll plant some of those daffodils around them, so I'll have some pretty blooms while waiting for them to break dormancy, rather late. They are like me, not early risers. Perhaps they are also into astronomy that keeps them up late.

The scrawny bamboo markers show the curve of the planned bed. Most of the weeds now are English Plantain, a solid carpet of them. The moles have kindly helped with the excavation and will no doubt come back when I have everything planted.

Speaking of planting, today I found the seed packet from the Toy Choy bok choy. Wish I'd seen it before I used the saved seeds to plant lots of them the other day. I thought  they were open pollinated, but they are hybrids. Who knows what I'll get for all my trouble. I did plant some Melody spinach for spring. It always does better with a fall planting, if I'm not running terribly late. The heat just passed a few days ago.

It was 36 degrees this morning, so Jack Frost is probably going to call soon. The sweet potato vines have taken over the tomato planting and lots of the garden. Hopefully, there are a few tubers in there.

These marigolds in the garden make my eyes glad to look at them.

From four plants, I now have many square feet of autumn blooms, really finer than mums, which are so fleeting and lots more expensive. These are Hero Mix, a much better bargain, $1.50 from Pinetree Garden Seeds. They've been in bloom all summer. Rich, beyond my wildest dreams.