Discovered the secret to getting the birds of paradise to bloom…FEED ‘EM!
 

The gallardia has become one of my very favorite plants, and – thanks to it being a Florida native – it thinks the crappy soil under this robellini palm is just fine:
 

To the front of that bed, the fuschia colored flowers, is the most amazingly-performing dianthus I’ve ever had.  Ever.  I mean I used to kill those things like they were mosquitos, but these have been just outstanding.

I cut the cannas down a bit last weekend (they’re severely skipper-chewed), and now you can see the knockout roses in front of the windows:
 

Between the cannas and the roses are some hollyhocks, that I hope will actually get the hell larger than 2 feet tall next year.  Speaking of next year, there’s totally going to be moving some stuff around in spring.  I cannot tolerate that purple angelonia next to the red penstemon.  Bleh.

The alpinia ginger is happy to be mulched, and makes a nice backdrop for the dahlia and the cosmos.  

I expect all this to be ginormous next year, including the tigridia in front of the cosmos there…the better to choke out the remaining bits of bermuda grass, dammit!

Yay, the verbena is blooming!
 

My beloved ipomoea and coreopsis make a nice fronting for the emerging bearded irises and the gorgeous zebrina hollyhock:
 

I think the candy cane ginger there on the right is expressing its displeasure at the continual drip from the hose bib there.  Must sort that out.

Nice progress in this bed, though everything is waaaay too linear for me right now:
 

I had to get things in the ground and had to do it all slapdash over here, but that’s easily fixed come spring.  The transplanted trident maple back there near the fence made a full recovery and is leafing out quite nicely.

In the veg garden out back, the parisier market carrots are just about done:
 

Husband plucked one out and ate it last weekend, it was smallish but very tasty he said.

The last gasp I think from this Thai pepper plant, and man, what a gasp!
 

The two Orchard Baby corn plants from the first try are doing great…you can tell which one gets the most sun though:
 

Also in that box are saltwort and fresca strawberries.  The odd stick arrangement is to keep the dog…an otherwise intelligent beast…from walking in the box.

The tennis ball lettuce is doing great:
 

I think I’m going to have to *shudder* thin it.  Waaahhh!!

A tree full of key limes:
 

A tree full of figs:
 

And some new herbs for the Medicinal box:
 

I do love this climate.

It does make for some extensive planting seasons, though, and in light of that, we’re already buying seeds to start in the spring (read: March). A made a huge purchase from growitalian.com and sent me some of the bounty, and I just made a purchase from rareseeds.com and will reciprocate. Here’s what’s on the garden agenda for this year:

• Red Onions (Tropea Rossa) – Very sweet. Gods, I love onions.
• Cucumbers (Picollo di Parigi) – A pickling cucumber, about 4 inches long. Mmm, pickles.
• Tomatoes (San Marzano Redorta) – I’m skeered of the whole canning thing, so we’ll just have to rough chop these, sprinkle with kosher salt, and eat as-is. Darn the luck.
• Tomatoes (San Marzano 2) – Apparently the premiere sauce tomato of Italy. Can. Not. Wait. To get my hands on these.
• Red Bell Peppers (Quadrato d’Asti Rosso) – Rough chopped and thrown into a batch of eggs/cheese/hot sauce/onions… *pant, pant*
• Carrots (Pariser Market) – These are ideal for containers since they make nifty ball shapes instead of long thin shapes.
• Broccoli (Romanesco) – A “nutty” flavor it claims. We are so there.
• Red Onions (Rossa Savonese) – Did I mention I LOVE onions?
• Peppermint – Despite it’s fearsome growth habits, it is a staple in our garden (and teapots).
• Rosemary – Chicken just isn’t chicken without it.
• Oregano – For use in the San Marzano sauces, of course.
• Broccoli – The non-nutty variety, I think.
• Melon Ananas – There are more varieties of melon, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. This one smells of pineapple.
• Tomatoes (Gioia della Mensa) – I know, how many varieties of tomato does one garden need? All of them, kthx.
• Cucumbers (Beth Alpha) – A slicing cucumber. Did you know cucumbers don’t like to be transplanted?
• Paprika Supreme – These are the peppers from which you make paprika. You knew paprika came from peppers, right?
• Peas – I’ll get these kids to eat peas if it kills me. And eensy = cute.
• Red Rocket Peppers – This is the pepper you harvest, dry, and turn into ristras. Hello enchilada sauce!
• Tomatoes (Sun Gold) – A lovely little cherry tomato. I plan on eating these things like grapes.
• Leeks (Carentan) – Already planning some wonderful things for these lovelies…
• Peppers (Topepo Rosso) – A pimento-type pepper, very sweet. Mmm, pickles…
• Tomatoes (Cream Sausage) – As far as I know, they don’t actually *taste* like sausage, that just refers to the shape. But how freaking cool would that be if they did?? *drool*
• Tomatillos (Purple) – As A commented, “coolest salsa ever.”
• Tamarillos – A fruit that tastes like a tomato. Bonus!
• Metki Painted Serpent Melons – A cucumber-shaped Armenian melon.
• Tigger Melons – Come on, it looks fake! It looks like one of the Green Goblin’s pumpkin bombs. How could you NOT want to grow these things??

Yeah, that’s a lot, isn’t it. How many acres do I have, you ask? Er, somewhat less than half of one… Yeah, we’ve got LOTS of pots.

On the home cooking front, we got up at a stupid hour (for a holiday) this morning to start a 4lb pork butt in the smoker. In a little while it’ll go into a low-heat oven to braise for another 4 hours or so. Carolina-style bbq coming up! Here’s a good vinegar sauce recipe for the true North Carolina pulled pork sandwich (with cole slaw on top):

Carolina Vinegar BBQ Sauce:

• 6 parts apple cider vinegar
• 1 part Tobasco sauce (yes, it has to be Tobasco)
• finely ground black or white pepper (to taste)
• white sugar (amount to use = “some…” again, to taste)

And that’s it. I plan on microwaving it a touch before we’re ready to serve the pork, just to heat it up, otherwise it’s use as-is.

Merry New Year to you all.

Updated to add…

Convo just had via AIM with the Husband:

tedbronson2007 (10:35:03 AM): baby, what bird down here is the size of a condor?

Sekimori (10:35:14 AM): no bird

Sekimori (10:35:41 AM): or, the magnificent frigate bird might get close, but they do not come this far north

tedbronson2007 (10:35:40 AM): dragon then

Sekimori (10:35:48 AM): definitely dragon

Ingredients Needed:
(if you’re feeding four)

For the meat:
8 small sirloin tip steaks
sesame oil
kosher salt
fresh cracked pepper
garlic powder
sesame seeds

For the veggies:
2 medium zucchinis
1 large onion
4 large portobello caps
butter
soy sauce

For the shrimp sauce:
3 cups mayonnaise
1 cup ketchup
1 cup water
soy sauce
mirin (sweet cooking sake)
seasoned rice wine vinegar
white pepper
garlic powder

A quantity of short-grain rice.

Instructions:

The food is simple, as is the prep, but doing things in the right order is key.

First off, acquire some short-grain rice (the kind used for sushi), and cook it up your favorite way. (I’m fond of my rice cooker, personally…yes, AB, it’s a unitasker, but one we use every three days, so there.) I do not rinse the rice before cooking (to remove the excess starch) because we like it sticky, and able to be picked up with chopsticks.

While the rice is cooking, make up the shrimp sauce then stash it in the fridge until everything is done:

Combine all the ingredients in a tupperware container. Please note, I do not put specific amounts on anything other than the mayo, ketchup or water. You can absolutely vary this sauce to your personal taste without throwing off some magical formula. I usually go heavier on the mirin and vinegar, lighter on the soy sauce. The ultimate goal is to have a tangy sauce with a little sweet hit (from the mirin). Even the water amount can be varied. I like it thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, but just add more water, mirin, vinegar and spices if you want it thinner. And if you accidentally make it too thin? Just shovel in some more mayo and ketchup then adjust spices from there. Cover and refrigerate.

Chop up the onions, zucchini and mushrooms in rough chunks and set aside.

Start a heavy skillet on high heat. Dash some sesame oil around in the pan, enough to prevent sticking. Sprinkle in pepper, salt, garlic powder and sesame seeds. Leave this untouched in the pan until the garlic powder and sesame seeds start to turn toasty brown and smell wonderful. Then plop four of the steaklets down on top of this. (You don’t want to cook more than four at once as overloading the pan drastically reduces the heat, delaying cooking time and turning your lovely meat into unfashionable gray shoe leather.) Sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic powder and sesame seeds on top in preparation for flipping. Allow to cook for several minutes, you want the nice brown yummy bits on the steak, then flip. Add a bit more sesame oil if things start to char in the bottom of the pan. I typically let them go through several three or four minute rotations. The object is to take them up when rare, as carryover cooking will take them on up to medium rare on the plate.

Repeat with however many steaklets you have left.

In the pan you just used to cook the steaks (yes, with all that leftover oil, sesame seeds, and beautiful brown bits), add a couple of tablespoons of butter, and all the veggies. Throw a few dashes of soy sauce in there as you stir things around. Stir fry until the onions are semi-translucent (you still want them to have a little bite). Add more butter during the stir fry process if things start to dry out. DO NOT SALT. Between the salt in the soy sauce and what’s left over in the pan, you won’t need it.

Serve everything immediately with shrimp sauce on the side. Or if you’re like the Husband and Scion #1, pour shrimp sauce over top of everything and go to town.

There’s no reason you can’t do up some shrimp to go with your steaklets…I’d cook them in the same pan ala the veggies for some wonderful flavor, just remember those little bastards cook fast.

I would have taken a picture of this for you after peparing it tonight, but after having to smell it all during cooking time, I was far more interested in snarfing it, kthxbye. I’ll take a picture tomorrow of the leftovers when I have them for lunch, promise!