Good Morning, Y’all!
Seasons, they are a changing… I basically have two seasons per year: Tomato/pepper season and Bama Football Season. My tomatoes and peppers are winding down, and I’m smelling Bama Football! Roll Tide.
Seriously, Folks...Labor Day generally marks the point in the year that we transition from summer to fall. School is back in session, so my wife is back to her daily grind…. Also, my barn swallows have flown the coop; consequently, I’m getting a lot more skeeter bites!
I’ve still got tomatoes producing fruit! I grew this Black Sea Man from seed, and it is setting a nice bunch of tomatoes…
Meanwhile, I started 3 plants that I rooted from suckers that are coming along nicely...
The one on the left is a Chef’s Choice Pink. The other 2 are Big Boys. Hopefully, they will produce some tomatoes before the frost arrives….
This one was a “mystery mater”. Not sure exactly what it is...it came up in a flat of pepper seedlings. I picked it today. It’s a pink variety of some sort, but hell if I know what it is…
The Pepper Patch is still cranking along. I’ve got some serious thinking to do about my pepper selections for next year. I think I’ll just stay with cayenne, jalapeno, banana, and poblano, which my wife uses in her salsa. I’ve been infatuated with the “superhots” for a few years, but, really, normal folks can’t eat those things. This one produced a ridiculous number of peppers:
It’s a Fatalli/Scotch Bonnet Cross. Nasty hot. Speaking of Fatallis...
I’ve had these fermenting in a brine for about 2 weeks. In about 6 more weeks, I’m gonna make hot sauce out of them. I tried a small bite of a fresh Fatalli just to say I had; I won’t do that again. Took me a good 30 minutes to recover…. I’ll keep y’all updated on this venture into lunacy….
The transition from Tomato/Pepper Season to Bama Football Season is always challenging. The temperatures will soon begin to moderate, thus spurring me to take on some projects around the yard that I’ve been avoiding. Like this eyesore:
This is the North side of the property. There’s an actual “bed” there...made out of railroad ties. About 90’X10’ along the treeline. Those are sweet gum trees; 8 of em...bout 80 ft. tall. Their roots suck up most of the water and nutrients from the soil for about 40 ft either side of the line. I can’t grow much of anything in that bed, except weeds and privet. I’ll clean it out again this fall. I’m open to suggestions….
Then there’s this mess:
Boxwoods. Their only purpose is to conceal the HVAC unit. Hate em. Think I’m gonna yank em out, put up a lattice structure to hide the A/C unit, and put in some rose beds. We’ll see…. The tall bush on the left is a Gardenia. I have been threatened with grisly bodily harm should I damage it. I think she is serious….
Roses. I rescued these 2 from the “dumpster of death” at Lowe’s a coupla weeks ago:
They just needed watering. Not sure what I’m gonna do with them…. The 2 rose bushes on the South side were looking kinda crappy...
So, I cut them waaay back.
They have put back out nicely….
What else? Ahh, muscadines...
A hot mess, I know, but they are loaded up! (this handful was very tasty!)
Destined to be made into jelly….
I must throw out a big “attaboy” to these 8 jalapeno plants!
So far, I have jarred up 14 qts. of jalapeno slices.
...and 2 pints of pickled green tomatoes.
The backyard Pepper Patch is still producing lots of peppers. That’s Luci in the lower right corner. She showed up about 3 years ago and decided to adopt us.
Luci is short for “Lucifer”. She’s a bitch.
My grape vines have come along nicely since I planted them back in March. They both have been pruned to 2 main stems growing down the 90o on the back corners of the fence. Need to fertilize them one more time before they go dormant.
My mini-grove of Mimosa trees is coming along. Good upward growth since I planted them a year and a half ago…. They should bloom for the 1st time next May/June.
Well, that pretty much covers what’s going on downheah in my little corner of the world…. What about y’all? What’s going on in your gardens and yards? How do you mark the changing of the seasons?
I will be hanging out with my cousins in the wilds of NW Alabama this weekend; lots of food and beer as we celebrate the opening of another season of Alabama Football! If any of you are interested, it’s Alabama vs Louisville in Orlando, FL at 7pm on ABC…. I’ll be back home on Sunday to check in on comments.
Y’all have a great weekend!
Happy Labor Day!
Roll Tide!