Edibles Update

If you missed the first San Antonio planting time for cool weather crops, now is your second chance to plant broccoli, carrots and radishes (and beets and turnips if you like those). Here's a quick update on the edibles we've been growing this season.

Headless broccoli. All that green but nothing to eat.

Our schedules got so hectic this winter that we neglected our broccoli. We didn't fertilize them but once. As a result, we picked only one medium head. The rest of the plants either bolted or grew huge but never produced any fruit.


Thankfully most of our other winter edibles are low maintenance. This is dill. The rock was a Christmas gift from my friend Grace. (Thank you!) I like how the glass matches the feathery foliage.


Cilantro, I think. It could be parsley. I don't remember exactly which seeds I scattered where and I haven't tasted these young sprouts.


Butter head lettuce. Beautiful. As you can tell we haven't harvested many leaves from them. We've been enjoying spinach instead.


Cabbage. The head was small, once again due to a lack of fertilizer.


Cauliflower with a bit of discoloration. I have have no idea why it has the dark spots. They developed after a rainy freeze. The taste and texture were fine.

 
Radishes, also victims of neglect. I was excited when I planted the seeds in October, but the plants matured so quickly and I got so busy, I didn't keep up with harvesting duties. Radishes this big bite back.


Swiss chard. I don't really like chard, but I like the way it looks. The little plant in front is spinach. Its first leaves look nothing like its baby leaves, which mature into giant wrinkly leaves that look similar to the chard's.

Onions. We've been using the tops in recipes that call for scallions and thinning the rows in the process so that the remaining plants can grow big bulbs.


Sugar snap peas. These are my favorite! They are so sweet and crunchy. At the time that I needed to plant them, I didn't have any available garden space so I put them in a half whiskey barrel on the porch. Once the vines take off next month they will easily grow to the top of the tomato cage and the extension piece that I haven't added yet. Pea flowers are pretty and fragrant. I mixed the traditional white fruiting variety with some ornamental pastel ones. I'm looking forward seeing the edible topiary they create.


A few of my plants are riding out the winter, waiting for their fruiting seasons. Fig.


Strawberries


Garlic. Not the greatest picture. I was trying to capture the interesting twist in the foliage. I've seen that type of random twisting in the scapes the plant sends up in the summer, but I've never noticed it on the foliage before.


I also have some ever-present herbs. Rosemary.


Marjoram. It's very convenient to have a little of this available for cooking. Greek Oregano has a better flavor, but mine dried up in a pot this summer. The marjoram survived so I transplanted it into the yard.


Two types of mint: chocolate (in the center) and spearmint (against the wall).

My mint colony is extremely vigorous (aka invasive), but for the winter, its only bastion of foliage is in the corner close to the air conditioner drip. Don't be deceived however; runners are all over its bed. Even with with Oklahoma chopped rock and decayed granite surrounding the bed, I still have to be vigilant during the growing season to catch any runners trying to sneak out of the corral. I thin my mint heavily twice year and I've managed to keep it where I want it. If I ever let up though, I know I will regret it. It's one garden chore, I can't neglect.

Bloom Day - October

They say that the real gardening season in San Antonio is the fall. My bloom day flowers are proof of that.


In honor of the cooler weather, here's Autumn Joy sedum. This is the first bloom cycle since I bought this plant.  I was expecting pale pink flowers, but I'm excited to see the red. I wonder if the flowers will turn pink when they open fully. Either way, I'm looking forward to running my hands across their fuzzy broccoli-looking tops.

 
In the same bed as the sedum, the asters are going strong while the moonbeam coreopsis are waning.


This coneflower is a late bloomer. I have three of these plants. Two bloomed on schedule in the summer, but this one is on its own schedule. It has two bright blooms while the other plants have brown, crispy stalks.


The last blooming plant in my new bed is black and blue salvia. Since it started blooming in June, it hasn't stopped. Sometimes it takes a short rest only to come back a week or so later.


Two of my edibles are in bloom. These peas already have full sized pods as well as little flowers that remind me of bonnets.


The blooms on the garlic chives have gotten so heavy, they've flopped to the ground.


In the front yard, the pigeon berry flowers have turned to fruit. If you're familiar with how nandina goes from flowers to berries, this plant does something similar.


Before the pigeon berries make their fruit, the flowers look like white cousins of the liripoe flowers - tiny blooms held close on thin stalks.


On my computer, the yellow centers of these purple shamrock flowers stand out. I hope that comes across on your screen too.


We do have fall leaf color in San Antonio, but don't look up; look at the groundcover. By the way, I saw at least 50 of these dwarf plumbagos in one-gallon pots at Wal-mart for $3 (half off). I resisted buying any, but maybe I'll go back for just three.


This prostrate rosemary makes me think of Christmas wreaths. I like the gray-blue-purple color of the flower. I need to paint a room. Maybe I'll match the paint to this flower.


Speaking of Christmas, the turk's cap has a holiday flavor too, like ornaments on a Texas Christmas tree.


I'm calling this a Lazarus mum. It was a table decoration at my 2009 National Night Out party. I put it in the compost, and it sprouted up in this bed. I guess it came up from seed.

The esperanza is another late bloomer. Everyone else's flowered all summer. These are its first blooms.


Finally, salvia greggii, a sure sign it's fall.

Happy bloom day. Head over to May Dreams to see what's blooming in other gardens.