English Wallflower

Cheiranthus allionii

 This past spring I found this lovely, fragrant flower growing near my raspberry plants. I did have a wild flower mix in that area a year ago. I asked several people if they recognized this flower. It became a mystery. It bloomed until the weather was a bit too hot and it disappeared. I was researching historical/heirloom flowers yesterday and found this flower was grown by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello.

http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/siberian-wallflower
 I  will be starting these flowers with my historical pansy this winter. I found their scent intoxicating! They were a bright spot in my spring garden which is usually yellow, purple and red poppies.

Leaves in Fall Salad Greens

 This week I'm picking all the leaves out of my fall greens. It is time to set up hoops!

Golden Leaves fall in Red Lettuce Bed

Yellow Tomato still producing and  we enjoy them in fall salads.

I'm in the last few weeks of tomato eating, and  soon they will be gone for good!

I will harvest the green ones and let them ripen inside the house.

fall raindrops on nasturtium leaves

Nasturtium still blooming in  late October

I have salad green beds all over Palm Rae Potager and will be able to harvest until I find them frozen or under snow too deep! Last year, we ate salads until Thanksgiving. I'm hoping to harvest into December! Today I set up my hoops which will be ready to cover as soon as our temps are consistently near freezing.

Bok Choy

Fall Bok Choy

I started this bok choy late summer and it is ready for eating late October. Pests did damage leaves, but it seems to be doing pretty well in our fall flower bed. I use it in my vegetable wraps, and I think it makes them exceedingly tasty!

Garden Fall Wraps

We love our Fall wraps with a variety of ingredients. I think Bok Choy works best for our fall garden. My other cabbage take too long to produce and Bok Choy takes up less space. These are ready in about 60 days!

Indian Summer in Palm Rae Potager and I'm satisfied like this statue collecting art materials!

I'm busy this week collecting art materials from my garden. I only have a few weeks to collect this year since we had such a cold spring. I did not get a lot of my flowers + herbs in early enough. Next year I plan on starting more of my flowers and herbs under lights instead of seeding directly in Palm Rae Potager. It limits what I can gather since my plants do not have enough time to produce or time to dry out for art materials and  seed saving.

Calendula

 Calendula

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendula

This past spring I started calendula in my vegetable garden from seed. I will start them earlier next year since I'm finding them a delicate beauty during our Midwest fall weather. They do not have the impact that marigolds have, but they are so pretty scattered throughout the vegetable garden. Their appeal is soft and unpretentious which I adore!

As I was shooting Calendula, I noticed my mums covered with bees, moths, butterflies in masses. I walked by, and the area was filled with droves of pollinators. I found this little beauty resting on one of my front yard mums that are blooming profusely this fall!

Fall Salad After Frost this week October 2011

This is our Bronze Arrow Lettuce we have been eating the past month. This is the 3rd cutting I've made from this lettuce. I did fertilize it with fish emulsion after I cut it down each time. I will be able to collect more lettuce from this raised bed if I use fish emulsion after each cutting.I have some other sites in Palm Rae Potager for salads. Today I'm taking greens to my parents when I visit them. We have been having some cases of listeria in our local grocery chain.

Italiko Rosso Dandelion

I planted this in the spring and is still producing fall salad greens! It is taking off again in our chilly weather, and I  appreciate it in our salad mixes.

  http://rareseeds.com/vegetables-p-z/radicchio/italiko-rosso-dandelion.html

This is left over lettuce seed from this spring. I made a mix in this raised bed. It is my second salad bed. I always have to have a red salad in my mix, I 'm partial to the color red!

Red and green chicory. Something new we tried this year. I thought it was a bit different but now I enjoy adding it to our salad mix.

http://rareseeds.com/vegetablesa-c/chicory.html

Golden snow peas are coming in, and I have blooms all over my vines. My dragon beans are not producing since we have 30 degree nights. Golden pea blooms are filling in, and we should be enjoying these as the weather cools off here in the next few weeks.



Gathering Art Materials for Winter Work from Potager

Busy gathering petals, leaves, parts of flowers to study etc.

quick sketches to capture details camera may not get/I forget to focus on-:-)marigold , cosmos, cardinal all leaves have interesting details for pattern study

I just noticed today the underside of a cosmos flower has such pretty designs!

morning glory leaves have interesting patterns

Look at natural movement in this Giant Orange Amaranth

Hiking the past few weeks collecting art materials in our local parks and along the beautiful Mississippi River.

Shadows playing on river cliffs in our local parks. This is from Black Hawk State Park.  I find there are wonderful patterns, native flowers and interesting natural art in our local woods!

I love this murky backwater!

I find the murky backwaters of the  Mississippi River beautiful. I love the calmness this confusion

projects.

Imperfection is beautiful.

Butterflies + Moths Basking on Sunday Afternoon

Today my husband called me to the front yard to show me all the action on our fall mums. There were a lot of bees, moths and butterflies basking on our sunny mums.

You can see how dusty this little guy is in this picture

I've noticed a variety of pollinators this fall. They are all visting the mums, zinnias, marigolds

and asters.

On my block, I'm the only house with flowers to support these hard working pollinators. We need to create habitats for native pollinators in our city lots. I have bats, also in my back yard at night. You can see them better in my neighbors yard since he has a deck you can view them as they dive through the adjacent ravine.

Here is another interesting article about the decline of pollinators.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801712.html

I hope we can all get the word out-plant more food for our native pollinators!

Fall Peppers and Orange Cherry tomato

 Sweet Banana Pepper Growing in October Zone 5 Fall Garden

I started these  sweet banana peppers from seed this past spring, and it is still producing many peppers. We use them in our morning eggs. They do turn an orange color, but I eat them also in the green stage. They are not as sweet as Jimmy Nardello peppers, but I do enjoy having a variety of peppers in our stir fry.

Mini Peppers

These mini peppers are still producing and great in fall salads. I have to remember to save some seed.

Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes

I Started these cherry tomato plants this spring, and they are the best tasting cherry tomato I have ever eaten. Sun Gold cherry tomatoes have a beautiful orange color and contrast nicely with marigolds and calendula flowers in our fall garden.

Garden 2011 Jimmy Nardello + Banana Pepper seed saving
*** update---all peppers will cross so you have to isolate. I have a city lot so I only grow one sweet red pepper in 2012( Jimmy Nardello). I selected seed only from the ones that were ripe early in the summer. I will be growing them out this summer 2013....

I'm saving my favorite pepper seeds this year from Palm Rae Potager. I 've heard if you

save your seed from your yard it will acclimate to your zone + growing area!

I did get the Banana Pepper from Everwilde Seeds which are in Wisconsin and a Midwest climate.

Flowers and Garlic in Fall Potager

Last few weeks here in October are extremely warm. My tomato plants and a few peppers are still producing. I have lettuce, Bok choy and purple cauliflower for fall eating. The best part of putting flowers and vegetables together is the fall parade of marigolds, calendula, and nasturtium starting blooming and adding brilliant fall color!

and some more....

Also, my beach area is edged in marigolds! A lot of my other plants are drying up.

Garlic planting time in zone 5...

 Music Hardneck Garlic.

  They are known for tasty and beautiful scapes.

Near the planter, you can see the trellis squash vine trailing away from the other garden. I'm still waiting for some of my squash to finish. The weather will be getting cooler this week.

Golden Sweet Snow Peas growing in Ocotober zone 5

GOLDEN SWEET SNOW PEAS

I have tried the past few years to grow snow peas in our zone 5 fall garden which are sometimes intensely humid! I started snow peas indoors under lights to help them germinate. I placed them out in the garden towards the end of July. I had a terrible infestation of cucumber beetle this year. I placed these where I had to pull out some of my cucumber vines. They were about 5inches tall and did not even touch the bottom of my trellis. Well, they are blooming this week and producing pods! My experiment worked. I think starting them indoors and placing outside, for succession planting did work. I'm leaving them on for a few more days to see if they turn a bit more yellow. They are a delightful lemon yellow color and easy to see. Their purple blooms are extremely pretty.

These seeds are from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

We tried a few and they were very tender and tasty! I can't wait to have a stir fry/add them

to our fall salad.They are very strong vines, too and were not bothered by any bugs in
our fall garden.