Perfect Gardening Weather!

What a beautiful week in Central Florida!  It's been one of those 'open all the windows and air out the house' kind of weeks.  Lovely, cool mornings, just perfect weather to be outdoors.  This is what's blooming down back, around the gazebo this week...

Gloriosa lilies.

Knockout rose, with a cute little guy resting in the shade of a petal.

This clematis has been cut down several times this season, probably it's last bloom of the year.

Still in the back yard, but in the shade gardens.  The cooler weather has amped (is that even a word) up the color in everything back here.  Have you noticed this in your gardens?

Curcuma gingers are still blooming in the background.

Most of my Caladiums are still vibrant, although some have faded away completely.

Jasmine

Clerodendrum Vine

Walking through the front yard the other day, I noticed my desert rose 'Adenium', was chock-full of seed pods.  I normally keep them picked off, because I don't need anymore of  anything that has to come inside in winter.  Still, I  rooted a couple cuttings this summer (one rotted).  After rooting those, I learned that the sap from them is very toxic.  I also read that a cutting will never get the 'fat trunk' (caudex), which is what makes a desert rose so cool.  On the other hand, if you propagate from seed, you won't get the true nature of a hybrid desert rose because the seeds revert.  Too complicated, good thing I don't  need another one!

The cutting that survived...don't know if she'll be pink or red, time will tell.

Remember the hydrangea cuttings I took this summer?  I meant to have them planted by the end of September.  I'm a little behind, but they'll go in the ground in a few days...this is them now.

My irrigation system does not cover the area well enough where I am planting these, so here's what's going on about that...

Let me just say, I have the best husband.  He does all the 'heavy lifting' in our gardening endeavors, and leaves the fun parts (designing and planting), to me.  I couldn't garden without him.  Just a few of the roots coming from our viburnum privacy hedge that he had to dig out...

Hopefully, the hydrangeas will look like their parents in a few years...

I just want to show you a quick peek at the veggies...squash, with onions at the other end.

Tomatoes, right outside the garden.

Mustard and turnip greens.

I have collards, a variety of lettuce, cabbage and broccoli in another bed.

Nothing makes a better salad than fresh arugula, delicious peppery flavor revs up plain lettuce.

Our lettuce harvest today...could be that I over planted.

Thank you for visiting,  I hope you get outside and...

At last...sweet potatoes!

Today was the moment of truth...did I have sweet potatoes, or just a big mess of vines?  I've never grown them before, so I waited out the months just hoping something was happening under the tangle of foliage.  I planted 9 vines in half of a 3' x 12' bed, okra got the other half.

First peek under the vines...so exciting!  

I think it's a decent yield for a small space.

First bucket.

I've taken over my Honey's work table in his shop.  They'll cure here for a while.

This is what else is going on in my vegetable patch, which was planted Monday.  First, an array of greens...

Collards

Five different kinds of lettuce...

I also have cabbage, tomatoes, and squash planted.  I hope to get onions put in this week.

Now for some color!  I was doing a  little clean up in the shade gardens this morning, after digging the potatoes.  The coleus are so beautiful this time of year, I want to share some of my favorites.

OK, I'll stop.  I have to show you just one more...remember this little guy that seeded in a rock...I posted him in spring.

I don't know how he keeps growing, he's rooted in the moss on the rock, but here he is.

Just a few pictures of the shade gardens that are thriving in our wetter, slightly cooler, weather.

Good bye for now~happy gardening.