Trying their best

  Things have been busy, that is for sure.  So busy, in fact, that I have neglected several things that needed attention.  One of those things has decided to take matters in its own hands or stalks or roots or whatever.  Back when we were clearing hurricane debris, the fallen trees were cut for firewood.  Thinking that we may have a winter this past year, I carefully stacked the wood on the log rack.  Since there was no other place to set up the rack, I opted for the garden along the fence.  The idea was to use up the firewood so the four-o'clock tubers beneath it would be cleared in time for their appearance come spring.  No winter = no fires.  The wood sat and, being old, I forgot about the plants snoozing underground.  

  Spring came and I became busy with gardens, clearing and grinding more debris mulch and home-canning.  By the time I realized that my four-o'clocks were sending up shoots, it was too late to do much but hope for the best.  The plants had already entwined themselves through the wood rack.  Moving the rack was not an option at this point.  The plants were now sandwiched between the stacked firewood, the garden fence and the two foot tall broccoli plants.  They would just have to do the best they could. 

  Plants are resilient, for sure.  Surprisingly, the four-o'clocks are blooming beautifully each night.  Their sweet scent can be enjoyed even though they had to squeeze themselves through an obstacle course of stuff.  I have decided to let them be.  Hopefully, the woodpile will be depleted this next winter (if we get one) and I can make amends to the plants.  Perhaps I should apologize to them for my oversight.

Fried Green Tomatoes, Anyone?

  The gardens were doing so well.  You noticed "were"?  Yeah, well, they were doing so well.  The tomato plants had outgrown their crates and were so heavily laden with green tomatoes that it seemed that we were to have a bumper crop.  The squash plants were three feet tall and had dozens of blooms and tiny squash on them.  We were already enjoying daily meals.  The bell peppers were full of blossoms and tiny green peppers.  The key word in all of the statements is "were"...past tense.  Today, Son and I pulled all of the squash plants, cut back our beautiful four o'clock flowers, picked all of the green tomatoes, snipped every leaf off of the bell peppers and literally mowed the sweet potato vines to the ground.  None of these things were to my liking but were necessary.

  Tiny caterpillars first attacked the four o'clock plants and then quickly spread to the tomatoes and bell peppers. Finally, they made their way to the sweet potatoes.  Every leaf on these plants were riddled with holes.  This happened within a span of three days and during those three, I sprayed with numerous "organic" pesticides.  I refuse to put toxic chemicals on my vegetable gardens so found several things that touted to do the job safely.  None worked.  Sadly, the plants had to go.  Since the sprays contained nothing but herbs that are non toxic to fish, the plants (with caterpillars intact) were tossed to the frogs.  They loved them!  Hopefully, that will get rid of a lot of future moths.  The squash plants met a similar fate due to the squash bugs gnawing the stalks.  Nothing works on them other than to eradicate each larva...one by one by slitting the stalk and removing the critter.  Nope. Gone.

  The tomatoes were not only being attacked by caterpillars, the squirrels have taken a liking to them.  Every day, the thieving critters would steal ten or fifteen green tomatoes.  I could have lived with that but when they started knocking off dozens and dozens to get one tomato for one bite, something had to give.  All remaining tomatoes were picked and are in trays in the entryway.  Now, every table, shelf and even the floor is covered with green tomatoes!  Hopefully, the squirrels will not figure out how to open the door!

  Now the gardens look barren.  It saddens me but, at the same time, I am thankful for what we did harvest.  I told Son that I am going to plant flowers for the remainder of the summer then try again with a winter garden.  I am not adverse to spraying insecticides on non-edible flowers and during the winter, there are no caterpillars!  Oh, well.  Things are what they are and we cannot change that.  On the bright side, fried green tomatoes are always tasty!

Night Scents

  I have always been one who is fascinated by the night.  Darkness hides so many things.  I am much more cautious these days as I am getting older but during my younger years,  a good hike about the place in the middle of the night was invigorating.  In fact, the kids and I would often venture out after midnight to traipse about the place.  A foggy night was even more enticing.  We would hike down the lane then make a sharp right and head down through the woods to the creek bed.  From there, our meandering would bring us back up behind the chicken house and around by the canebrake.  The hikes were never long but were enjoyable.  Things look so much different, sound different and even smell different than they do during the daytime hours.  Hikes with the kids were nigh on thirty years ago but they still talk about our times.  I miss those times.  My hikes now are generally limited to early morning treks around the hillside and the marsh edge and are never at night.  I miss the suspense of what is around the next corner and the intrigue of how much more alert the senses become at night when you cannot fully depend on the eyesight.  

  At daybreak, I headed out into the garden and was immediately engulfed in the sweetest aroma.  The Four O'clock plants were in full bloom!  These bloom late in the evening and then close during the early morning.  While the plants come with a variety of colored blooms, mine have all mixed together over the years to become hot pink.  This is the hazard of saving seeds year after year.  The plants cross pollinate and soon you wind up with only one color.  It is fine by me as long as they still smell so delightful! 

  Finding the blooms this morning has made me realize just how much I am missing by not doing the nightly hikes.  If ever my kids come back to the Little Bayou House, perhaps I can convince them to take just one midnight hike...just for old time's sake...just for old Mom's sake. Maybe?  Perhaps I should just open the windows tonight and be happy with that.

Garden Glowies!

  So...I had another "Wow" moment tonight.  Just out of curiosity, I took a blacklight out to the garden.  It was amazing!  So many of the blooms glowed in the most curious hues.  Some leaves turned blood red while others were a more purple/red.  White blooms were far more brilliant than at other times.  There were rocks that glowed, some weird spot on the ground that glowed, some mushrooms and fungi glowed and even a critter glowed!   On a pure coincidence, a centipede creepy-crawled across the dirt and through the beam of light.  Yep.  That centipede had glowy legs!  The garden glows!  Who knew?

This whole experiment occurred simply because I had yet another idea for a future Clue Hunt on the Bayou.  I have been collecting odds and ends that glow in the dark (under the blacklight or alone) with the idea of having a glow hunt. These items do not include the normal "toy" type things but unusual items that no one would normally think have glowing abilities.  I have actually started taking a small blacklight with me on trips to the thrift stores in hopes of finding "glowies".  Since this is to be a future hunt, I figure I had plenty of time to hunt and collect things.  Pondering how I was to use the items, I wanted to test the blacklight in the garden to see how much effect it had.  I was worried that things would not be able to glow with the distance.  To my amazement, there were already natural "glowies" out there!  

  The camera did not want to participate well with the photographing of the 4 o'clock blooms that were brilliantly gleaming under the light.  In the photo, the extreme glow cannot be seen nor can the true colors.  I will have to play with things a bit to see how I can photograph things a bit more efficiently but, in the meantime, take a blacklight to your garden or patio.  You might be astounded by this different view of what is there!

Just A Trim

  I am slowly getting back into the "have a dog" mode.  Fostering PJ has brought back a lot of memories of Ms. Ezzy, the Bayou Dog and has changed my lackadaisical attitude back to the mentality of a responsible pet owner.  After Ms. Ezzy died but before Mr. PJ came to live at the Little Bayou House, I had gotten out of the habit of walking through the gardens in the evening.  The last hike of the day usually found me just going to the pier to watch the sunset.  Now that the dog is with me, I take longer hikes and find myself enjoying the gardens more.  PJ seems to like sniffing the blooms as much as I do. 

  This evening, as we came back up the hill from the pier, the old dog and I made our way through the vegetable patch, through the garden gate and out to the fig trees.  There a raised herb garden had suffered greatly because of the copious amounts of rainfall this summer.  While the herbs looked a bit ragged, a sweet scent enveloped us.  The Four-O'clocks were in full bloom.  Yep, by this time of summer, those, too should have looked a little worse for wear but, instead, they were gorgeous.  This made me smile and the old dog and I stopped to smell the blossoms.

  The aforementioned smile was evoked by the fact that just three weeks ago, I had taken the weed-trimmer to the plants.  They had gotten so straggly that the bed looked terrible.  While trimming the edges of the lawn, I turned the weed-eater and cut the flower gardens down to about six inches tall. The Four-O'clocks, Zinnias, Marigolds and Purple Basil all were zipped down and left for goners.  All of the plants decided that they were not giving up so easily!  Once again, the gardens are overflowing and the blooms are spectacular!  In the late evening the Four-O'clock blooms send out their sweet aromas to attract pollinating moths.  Those moths might fully enjoy the blossoms but probably not as much as Mr. PJ and I did this evening.  What a pleasant walk we had!

Helpful Plants

  If you are ever in my garden at dusk, you will most likely be delighted by a sweet aroma that wafts around on the Bay breeze.  This scent will not be found during the daylight hours but let evening arrive and the whole garden becomes sweet scented.  The fragrance comes from the Mirabilis jalapa plants which are more commonly known as four o'clocks.  The common name is due to the blooming time of late afternoon.  It is this plant whose blooms fill the air with one of the sweetest aromas found on the Bayou.  

  While I have always loved four o'clocks and have tried to let them grow with wild abandon, I now find that the plants have more uses than just making the garden smell nice.  The blooms are used as an edible food dye.  The bright flowers have the power to add color to just about any dish.  A decoction made from the leaves can be used to topically treat wounds. (Just stay away from the seeds!  They are said to be toxic!) And the plant is now being studied for bioremediation of soils polluted with heavy metals.  It seems that the plant can purify soil that is heavily polluted.  

  With all of these good things about four o'clocks,  I do believe that I need to plant a few more!  Who knows just what is washed in with hurricane flood waters and is deposited in my yard???  If this plant can help cleanse the soil, it is nothing but a win for us!  And....the plants are already covered with the black seeds!  I shall fill the gardens with these beauties!

Homebound or Flitting About?

  Whether "homebound" or "flitting about", you have to set roots somewhere eventually.  When it comes to either, seeds are pretty miraculously adept.  How remarkable is it to be able to set up a life wherever you stop long enough to establish those roots.  What I call homebound seeds are those that drop directly under the parent plant and then "worm" their way beneath the soil to set up housekeeping. There, the seeds usually sit dormant until the right conditions come to them.  If the ground is moist and warm enough, the seed will start to split and a tiny root will finger its way out of the hull.  That tiny, wispy root will take in nutrition and soon swell enough that the seed literally bursts open.  The stem shoves its way outward and roots sprout along the sides.  As the stem lengthens it pushes the seed toward the warm sunshine.  Finally, when the stem shoves through the soil, it will shed its seed hat and let the leaves unfurl.  

  The flitting about seeds are those that, one way or another, wind up far from the parent plant.  Some seeds "fly" while others hitch a ride.  Seeds like burrs grab ahold to fur, skin or clothing to be scattered about the countryside.  Other seeds hitch a ride via critters eating them and then...well, pooping out the seed in a different spot.  These seed types depend on outsiders to help them find a new home.  Other Flitting About seeds fly.  The "flying" seed are well equipped with fibers or winglike tabs that allow the wind to lift them.  It is not unusual to see clouds of seeds being carried by the breeze.  

  Today as I was trimming the jasmine vines, several seed pods burst open spilling their little feathery seeds into the wind.  A mad dash was made to capture as many of the escaping, runaway seeds before they were carried off to the woods.  It was my desire to let them sprout in flowerpots not in the underbrush.  While the jasmine is beautiful and smells wonderful, a woods full of it might not be the happiest of places. The vines would choke out other small saplings and create a mess!

  The two types of seeds found today were both planted back into the gardens.  The homebound seeds were from the Four-O'clock that bloom in midsummer throughout fall.  They grace the evening and nighttime with their delightful aroma and neon bright blooms.  The flitting about seeds were, of course, the jasmine.  They bloom early summer to midsummer and, like the Four-O'clocks, make the yard smell incredible.  I am glad I salvaged the seeds!

Sweet Smelling Flowers, Open Windows and Cool Breezes!

  In the evening when the temperatures start to drop a bit, I turn off any air conditioners and open the windows.  I find I sleep better with the sounds of the Bayou instead of the constant, irritating buzz of a machine.  I cannot relax when anything is "going fast".   The ceiling fans on the slowest mode, ACs off and windows open make for a good night's sleep.  Hearing the frogs, crickets, owls, fox, cicadas and even the coyotes can put me in dreamland in nothing flat! 

  This evening, I pulled aside the heavy curtains, raised the blinds and flung open the windows on the east side of the house.  These windows overlook the garden making the air greet me with any number of aromas. Tonight, a sweet, floral scent wafted in on the evening air.  Ahhh, the Four-o'clocks were blooming!  Tonight's sleep will be even more restful!

  Four-o'clock is the common name given to the plant, Mirabilis.  The plant grows up to four feet tall and is covered with hundreds of sweet smelling blooms. It gets the common name from its habit of blooming late in the evening only to close come first light.  The plant can be grown from seed or by tuber and once you get a start, it usually will last a lifetime.  Sometimes, the sheer number of seeds can be a nuisance as the plants will spread about the place.  This is easy to remedy by picking the seeds or merely cutting the plants with the mower.  

  The Four-o'clocks in the garden are "volunteers" that have claimed a spot in one of the herb gardens.  The plants sit among the Oregano, Thai Basil, Dill and Fennel.  None of the herb plants seem to mind their new neighbor so the Four-o'clocks can stay for now.  Later, they will be relocated into a more appropriate spot...preferably near the windows!

Garden Walks

  If one wanders about the garden at night, he/she might just be treated to a sweet aroma.  The flowery scent wafts about on the gentle breezes that come off the Bay.  It is strengthened by the heavy dew that, here lately, settles in just after the sun sets.  This aroma is not noticeable unless one walks through the rose arbor and on towards the greenhouse in the back. 

  I first noticed the sweet scent the other evening as I took Ms. Ez out for a late walk.  She has not been feeling to pert during the heat of the day so a leisurely stroll through the garden seemed to settle her a bit. Once we eased through the arbor and made our way near the fig trees, the scent suddenly was present.  Hmmm, this was nice but I felt the urge to discover just what was the source.  I did not think any plants were blooming.  

  Up in a raised garden box that hangs on the back fence, a few seeds must have been dropped by a bird.  In amongst the oregano, lemon balm and sweet basil, a few Four-O'clock seedlings sprouted.   It was these young plants with their first blooms that filled the garden with the most delightful scent!  Ahh, yes!  Four O'clocks are some of my favorites!  The old Bayou Dog and I stopped for a few minutes just to enjoy the welcome interruption of our hike.  Ms. Ez actually sniffed the air like she was enjoying the flowers as much as I was.  

  These small plants will make fine tubers which will allow me to transplant them into a more convenient spot than the herb bed.  I must remember to collect a few seeds and sow them in amonst the petunias. Then the old dog and I can enjoy many more such delightful walks!