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.

When It's too wet to garden...go shopping.

Like most Central Floridians, I've gotten my share (and more), of rain the past two weeks.  By Wednesday, so says our weather service, we should start drying out.  Hooray!  Enough, already!  Why?  Because... I need to mow, my roses are a soggy mess, potted plants are drowning, and aphids are devouring several plants.  Yes, I need to go outside and attend to those things, and that list doesn't even include weeding, which I am sorely behind on.  Out of boredom, while it rained all morning long, I went shopping, and found this 'Christia Swallowtail' plant.  I've only seen photos of it , in other folk's gardens, always wanted one.

  

It's such a happy looking plant, I had to grab two.  My plan is to leave them in pots, bring them in this winter. 

I got three 'Clerodendrum Pagoda' plants, Starshine.

Lastly, a ground orchid.  I already have these in yellow and lavender.

This is what my 'wet world' looks like today, I'm sure if you're anywhere near me, yours looks the same.

Shade gardens.

Full sun gardens, but not today...

The okra has been over my head, for some weeks, still producing great.  

I'm just hoping that the sweet potatoes  are not staying too wet, I've never grown them before...don't want them to rot.

More new plants, these are the hydrangea cuttings that I took some weeks ago.

I potted them up between rains, a few days ago.  I'll leave them here until late September, then I'll plant them in their new bed.

This little guy was in the roots of the hydrangeas.  He's just starting to get his hind legs, so I left him in the bucket to finish growing.  I kept the wire over him, because egrets and herons explore anything that looks like a bait bucket around here.  They dined on our bait minnows, more than once, when we first moved here. 

Other 'wet pets'...caladiums.

Rose of Sharon

I wish you rain or shine, whichever you need, for your lovely gardens.

This, that and the other.

The veggies are looking good, considering we've been in the 90s so many days, with so little rain.

 

Okra's doing well.

Beauregard sweet potatoes are vining.



Started a little late, but they'll catch up.

Beans are blooming.

Tomatoes are yielding real well...



Today I also found a few new blooms and buds around the garden. That's the good part of gardening, the reward.

First Crinum Lily bud...anticipation.

Gladioli

Toad Lily

I also found some off-color Gloriosas today, probably just some different pH levels in areas of the garden.


A vine of red and white.

Yellow and orange.



Typical red and yellow.

I've shared the this and that, this must be the other.



Pot of Purple Queen and Calibrachoa hiding one of the dogwood stumps that were removed this winter.