Ricky's Plant Swap

Ricky from GardenWeb had another plant swap at his house. He has an amazing garden, full of beautiful plants. It was only 10 minutes away from our house so it was perfect for me. I had a great time. It was so much fun seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I brought few plants, only the ones I was going to give away and I got some things, mainly from Lisa since she always has such interesting edibles. She gave me 2 chaya cuttings, Ethiopian kale, amaranth, eggplants, tomatoes and a yellow passion fruit. I also got various coleus from Kat and another one from Katkin. Lady gave me another red costus and a thornless cactus/succulent (I don't remember the name). Arabesque gave a jatropha multifida. I also got 2 seedlings of yellow and red royal poinciana trees from Ricky. He also gave a rooted croton and cutting of another one with long leaves. WRF gave a red canna too. It was a great day!

I got home and was able to pot everything.

Vegetables

I finally planted on the ground some of the veggie seedlings I had started. The weather was nice. It was sunny but not as hot as usual. I made a new bed and put some sweet peas, Swiss chard and lettuce. I also finished the bed with the green beans and a couple of edamame plants. Another bed has malabar spinach and a couple of Swiss chard plants. The other one has the okra. The green one is still producing a lot. The burgundy one is producing but not as much as the other one and the plants are smaller. I also put some Burbank tomatoes on pots.

I also harvested some green beans and more okra and I made lunch with them. This is a picture of the stuff I harvested a couple of days ago.

What's blooming now?

The Cassia alata is blooming now and it looks great. Even the one that we cut a couple of months ago is full of flowers. One of the roses is blooming, the Mexican petunia, the red pentas, the blackberry lily, the milkweed, the black eye susan, the purple and red potterweed, the firespike, the yellow ground orchid, the Mexican salvia.

October

We are in October and I am getting ready to grow some vegetables! I have lots of seedlings but I haven't been able to finish the beds. I think I am going to grow the tomatoes in containers. I won't have time to make deep beds on the ground for them. I am harvesting a lot of okra now. I am freezing some and eating some. Last week I made fried okra as an appetizer and it was great. I tried to bake it instead but it was not as good. I think I like the green okra plant better. The burgundy one is very pretty but the pods are smaller. Maybe it will produce bigger pods when the plants get taller but I am not sure.

I have been eating malabar spinach and the plants have enough for another meal. It is kind of slimy so I don't know if Don will like it. I am also freezing the jade green beans.

I have tomato, eggplant, tomatillo, lettuce, malabar spinach, swiss chard and sweet pea seedlings. I also planted some new seeds. I need to make sure I have peppers too. I remember planting the seeds but I haven't seen the pot. I am waiting for some seeds I ordered from Seed Savers. I am getting broccoli and edamame. The farm in Boynton is harvesting edamame now. They said they were supposed to be ready in 80 days but they were ready in only 58 days. They are delicious. I bought some for Mimi and some for us. I also bought cucumbers and zucchini.