Also known as “Pot Marigold” the petals are edible, and it makes a gorgeous dried flower.

Today’s Bloom of the Day is the Black Viola (Viola cornuta):
 

With a face no larger than a dime, you have to get down on its level to see this bloom properly, but once you’re there it’s totally worth it.

*If you want to participate in Bloom of the Day, ping this post or email me your link.

With the increase in cultivated area this year (.004 of an acre, woo!), I’ve decided I’m going to weigh our harvests as they come in, see how much a backyard “farm” can actually produce.  We’re off to a great start, harvested 3 1/2 lbs of carrots yesterday!
 

Those are Hercules, Purple Dragon (still our favorite), Atomic Red and Yellowstone.  The latter two were deemed tasteless and the entire crop consigned to the compost heap.  That’s the beauty of this…you can experiment with new varieties and if you don’t like them, all you’ve lost is time.  The rejects go into the composter and make lovely soil amendments for next year.

Remember the crystal apple cucumber?  It’s gone all Plan 9 From Outer Space:  
 

I had to remove the strawberry plants from the box as they were getting covered over, and put up a side trellis so the crazed vines would leave the climbing rose alone.  Should be a good year for cucumbers.

The shoepeg corn is going strong:
 

The first round of peppers is blooming like mad:
 

The pumpkins impress even before fruiting.  Those leaves are easily dinner-plate sized:
 

Some of the tomatoes are doing magnificently, fruiting already:
 

(Carbon)
 

(Chocolate cherry)

While out front the flowers are coming along nicely.  Like this seed-grown Cape Daisy:
 

The amazing 8 foot tall hollyhocks:

The grown from seed (last year) alyssum have finally decided to thrive:
 

The Red Hot Poker is busy self-propagating and may actually grace us with blooms this year:
 

The tall strawflowers are so tall we’re having to use the multi-trunk crape myrtle to help support them.  A true embarrassment of riches:
 

The daylilies are awakening.  This is Ming Toy:
 

This is the variety we haven’t any clue about.  There are so very many peach/pinks with green/yellow eyes:
 

Finally, the piece de resistance.  Grown here in zone 9a, and blooming like there’s no tomorrow, it’s a Tall Bearded Iris (Mariposa Skies):
 

Let’s hear it for experimentation!

I spoke complimentarily of Oakes Daylilies last week or so, regarding their policy of slipping a little something extra into orders.  Well, we received our second order from them about a week ago, and when all was said and done, we have over fifty new daylily plants, in 15 different varieties, all for a very reasonable price.  So the front bed around the massive crape myrtle is utterly full of daylilies:
 

I don’t think we’re ever going to be the kind of people who rush to spend $50 for the newest trademarked variety to come out each year (well, not without 100 acres + lottery money), but $10 to $20 per variety (2 to 8 clumps per variety) is a great price.  Plus, daylilies multiply each year, which means lots of passalongs every year!

Other things making a splash out front are these spectacularly-colored strawflowers:
 

This is one of my Addiction plants.  When I find a new color I have to snap it up.  Echinacea is another example…I’m eagerly awaiting arrival today of FOUR new colors (Fragrant Angel, Tiki Torch, Tomato Soup, and Green Envy) from the ever-delightful Plant Delights folks.  That’s in addition to plain old purpurea, Evan Saul and White Swan!

Dominating the show out front are these hollyhocks:
 

Started from seed last spring they survived the hard freezes of January, are now about eight feet tall, and littered with hand-sized fuschia blooms.  Spectacular plants.

Blooms out back include the Don Juan climber that Husband so beautifully shaped a few weeks ago:
 

As rose afficionados know, roses take a pruning as a challenge, and immediately respond (in the right season, of course) with growth/blooms.
 

The mustard is blooming:
 

As are the dill and cilantro:
 

And most amazingly, the tomatoes that were started at the end of January are growing like mad, and – wait for it – blooming:
 

That’s the Carbon tomato, which admittedly has been growing at an amazing rate since being potted up:
 

Yes, I’m measuring my tomato plant’s growth.  There are worse vices hobbies.

 
Yep, we’re all about maximizing our space here, and those shelves will be used year-round for seed starting, whether it’s tomatoes, cukes, or bonsai trees.  We’ve also removed the mondo honeysuckle from the center of the back fence:

Bet you can’t tell where it was…   We’ll be adding five new 2×8 boxes that’ll be home to corn, all manner of climbing beans with melons planted at their feet, and the occasional bonsai that needs a bit of field-growing.  
 

Pretty soon there will be little left to mow back there.  (Yay! – Husband)

We did a good bit of frost-protection during these last few hard freezes, but unfortunately most of the tropicals are brown, papery things right now.  I anticipate full recovery, but I have been known to be a raging optimist. 

My Batik iris, while a cold-loving plant, does not so much appreciate the chilly temps when trying to field blooms.  This one never fully opened, and is now in full decline. 
 

Still, it can be done!

Other highlights include the Zebrina hollyhocks:
 

The alyssum/gazania combo:
 

And the wonderfully fractal romanseco:
 

And now Husband just reminded me of the visitor we found snoozing under the honeysuckle:
 

This is a corn snake, and is very likely the same visitor we had over the summer in our pool drain.
 

Corn snakes are amazing climbers, as you can see above, and feast primarily on rodentia and anole lizards.   And they’re utterly gorgeous to boot.
 

After his glamour shots we helped him over the fence and on his way.

The echinacea, who do not dig the wet/hot/Florida summer scene, have recovered nicely.  Here’s purpurea:
 

And Evan Saul:
 

The birds-of-paradise are still blooming:
 

Starry-eyes nierembergia:
 

Verbena with ipomoea:
 

Heliotrope entangled with the dianthus:
 

My beloved, seed-raised Zebrina hollyhocks:
 

My second-favorite flower ever, this so-tough-it’s-growing-under-a-palm gallardia (Goblin):
 

And my very favorite flower, ever, of all time, no matter what else you might show me, the strawflower.   First, artsy:
 

Then white with orange center:
 

Then pink-tipped white:
 

Then fuschia with spots:
 

And my favorite of the favorites, this sunset yellow/orange:
 

One of the perils of growing so many annuals and perennials is they’re, of course, more vulnerable to frost…and since these things make up the majority of our landscaping, we’re going to have to do some hustling during the few days when we have temps in the 30s.  Like, oh, say, LATER THIS WEEK.  Dangit.

Well, it looks like this garden doesn’t give a rat’s arse about winter…
 

That’s snow peas in the back, Belgian White and Dragon Purple carrots on the left, and Kailan (Chinese Broccoli) on the right.  Oh, and in the foreground, a pot of Napoli carrots that we’ve been harvesting a few at a time these past few weeks.
 

It could just be because they’re homegrown, but those are the sweetest carrots you’ve ever tasted.  And when the kids fight over who gets first pickings from the garden…WIN!

These pepper plants are seriously confused about their milieu…someone should tell them they’re hot weather plants!  On the left, the Marconi just keeps on fruiting AND flowering.
 

The Romanesco cauliflower just keeps getting bigger:
 

The tennis ball lettuce is going nuts, and we just can’t wait for it to head, we’re going to have to scissor harvest NOW and just let it grow up again:
 

You can’t tell the citrus trees that it’s time to stop growing…that’s 21 blooms on one stem on the Meyer lemon there:
 

The Mr. Stripey tomato is fruiting like crazy.  Granted the fruits are ripening at about 1/3 the size they should be but let me tell you that does NOT adversely affect the taste!
 

And finally, one of the strawflowers I brought up from seed this summer has finally decided to bloom, and what a bloom it is!
 

So yeah, our December is going GREAT, how about yours?

All that before my first cup of coffee.

Foamy Kitten (Hermes) is fine, probably just tasted one of my new homemade soaps.  Kitten Who Thinks the Litter Box Needs Changing is likewise fine, seeing as how I haven’t killed him.  Yet.  The dog bed may never recover, though I’m sure he won’t care if it turns out all lumpy.

It’s 8:46AM and I now need a nap.

We got the one half of one side of the landscaping done yesterday.  Et voila:
 

It takes so much longer than you think it would, well, because we’re doing it right (ie. making an actual trench/sand footing for the stones) and because of the sun…the awful, blazing, blistering sun.  It’s the humidity as well, but the sun…  So we won’t be finishing this up today until *after* 3PM when we start to get some shade over there.  

Existing plantings in that area include Maranta arundinacea variegata, Pancratium zeylanicum, Curcuma sparganifolia, Curcuma rhabdota, snow-on-the-mountain, Hawaiian Ti, a Gloriosa superba lily, and a transplanted trident maple tree that’s being trained for bonsai (back there by the fence).  Adding to that will be (at the very least) Bearded Irises Gypsy Romance, Night Ruler, Play With Fire, Batik and Mariposa Skies.  *happy sigh*

Changed a few other things around yesterday, as well.  The marigolds, to a man, got their butts kicked in the past few weeks by mildew I think, so I salvaged the seed pods and consigned them to the composter.  Replacing them are Firewitch dianthus:

And galliarda:
 

This is Mahogany Midget coreopsis, brought up from seed:
 

And transplanted-so-as-not-to-be-strangled-by-the-Angelonia variegated liriope:
 

You might recall our travails with the small crepe myrtle that anchors the front bed…it took three forevers to leaf out fully, but when it did it did so with a vengeance.  The resulting shade has killed the bachelor button, polar bear zinnia, regular old zinnias, the black-eyed cuphea, and a dahlia.  So I bowed to the inevitable and planted some part-shade things over there:

That’s two colors of coleus, one Pseuderanthemum laxiflorum, and two crossandras.  

Out back we’re doing some rearranging, putting the lime tree in the hole the trident maple came out of, composting some “finished” plantings, continuing to harvest red rice beans, peppers and key limes.  

The three different carrot crops are coming along nicely:

The Fresca strawberries were rescued from the strawberry pot (a useless invention if there ever was one) and planted between the yellow pear tomato and the struggling cucumbers.

We’re mainly coasting at this point in the veg garden, until the weather cools off a bit and the lettuce, celery and other greens can be planted.  I do have some onions and leeks going, the latter of which are just not digging the heat, I think.  I’d also like to get a fall corn crop in, which means those red rice beans are going to have to go at some point.  But how does one sacrifice such huge, healthy, consistently-producing plants?

Guess it depends on how much I want fresh corn, eh?

The Don Juan climbing rose, being all coy and mysterious:

The Wild Blue Yonder rose, letting it all hang out:

My indispensable hose guides, protecting the roses in back and the cannas out front:

The miniature rose is blooming, this bud is about the size of the tip of your finger, but check out how many petals it has!

Bachelor Button surprise:

One of the giant zinnias out front:

The multi-trunk crepe myrtle, making up for lost time:

With blossom round number forty-two waiting in the wings:

This…thing, whose name escapes me, which is why I keep a garden journal (Lisianthus “Mermaid Pink”), and who I thought was deader’n Julius Caesar, but is making a comeback now that the above crepe myrtle is giving it a bit of respite from the afternoon sun:

The Royal Carpet Alyssum is finally getting off its plant arse and turning an appropriate shade of grape-le.

My beloved Queen Sophia marigolds:

The salvia greggii which just Does Not Quit:

And lots & lots of the ever-fascinating echinacea, both pupurea and White Swan:

We hope you’ve enjoyed ECII*. There will be further sequels if A) the audience clamors for one, and/or B) the producers need hooker/blow money.

*Joke for the Husband.

Today we take an extreme close-up tour of the homestead…actually, we’ll be doing this tomorrow, too, because when you get right up close, there’s so many wonderful things to see. (That’s shorthand for “I took a whole lotta pictures.”)

First up is kitteh cuteness, Mister Hermes, who feels it necessary to miaow incessantly at me whenever he’s awake. Fortunately because he’s a bebe, he’s quite often asleep:

Marigold-y goodness:

Dahlberg daisy, the blooms of which are about the size of a dime, just to give you some perspective:

Bouganvillea blossoms:

A visiting dragonfly:

A Red Rocket pepper bloom, which always look like little lanterns to me:

One of the gajillion sprouts on the Key Lime tree, which has vastly appreciated me NOT watering it:

The Red Cheese pepper, who I canna wait to get my fork into, after sauteeing with onion and spicy sausage, of course:

One of the multitude of Red Rice beans:

The (purely ornamental) Hyacinth Bean going up its trellis:

The amazingly firecrackery Tropical Milkweed:

The amazingly flying-the-hell-everywhere Tropical Milkweed seeds:

Orange Butterfly Weed:

A sneaky skipper pretending to be part of the Butterfly Bush:

And this spectacular “weed” growing behind the composter. It reminds me of a sweet pea bloom, and might actually be one, but the color is like the Holy Grail in lip color for me, have alternately had it and been looking for it my entire life. A beautiful delicate bloom, on a viny plant, this “weed” is more than welcome in our yard:

Tune in tomorrow for the exciting sequel: “Extreme Closeup, The Revenge!”