Don’t try to read my mind, it’s scary in there.
The first eggplant that I’ve ever grown was eaten on Friday, September 26th, 2008. It started out looking like this:
And then it became oven-roasted eggplant slices with an asian-inspired tahini sauce. (Sorry, no after photos - it didn’t last long enough!) I think it was pretty tasty, but I’m not sure that it was actually that fabulous. I was kind of caught up in the “I grew it myself” moment, so it might have just been kind of “meh”. I couldn’t even tell you. 
Several people have asked me about the Salvia guaranitica that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. I’m happy to answer individual questions vial email, but I thought readers might be interested in having the information at hand.
If you’re interested in some technical information, you can find it via the University of Florida Extension Service. You’ll see that this Salvia has a wide potential range of habitat. It is not, however, a U.S. native, so keep this in mind if you’re trying to keep your garden focus on native plants. Please note that there are several spellings for S. guaranitica. I’ve seen it also spelled “guarantica”.
If you’re interested in purchasing this Salvia, both times that I’ve purchased it, I purchased it as a mature plant from Home Depot (two different states). I’ve seen it at other nurseries, and if you do a google search, you should be able to find it easily. I’m going to attempt to grow it from seed next year, so we’ll see how that goes.
I really love this plant, and I’m glad to see that there is so much interest in it!
Nasturtiums are one of my most favorite plants. Easy to grow, pretty, and edible. You can’t really ask more than that!
Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.
I popped out to the garden this morning to check on things. The butterflies and bees are going nuts over the Coreopsis and the tomato flowers. They seem to like the sage flowers as well.
There are about five tomatoes on the Purple Cherokee tomato plant (that isn’t actually Purple Cherokee, but that’s another post) and one on the Pineapple tomato plant. The Better Bush tomato plant isn’t doing so hot. I finally had to transplant it from the upside down container into the ground. I think we’ll get a few more tomatoes from it, but I don’t know if it will survive.
If I’m reading the signs right, we have 3 eggplants incubating right now. I’m over the moon about eggplant these days, so I’m very excited to grow my own. I keep buying them at the farmer’s market and grilling them, and now I will be able to grill my own!
The basil went crazy once I transplanted it into the ground:
Maybe I should have carried this at my wedding instead. 
Andrew commented on my last post, that the flower pods (or whatever they were) look like alien heads. When these ‘aliens’ grow up, they’ll be quite beautiful. Can you guess what they are?
We spent the weekend out in the boonies. I enjoyed the wonderful open space, but I found myself focused in a little bit more.
The vines of this plant were intertwined with the blackberry bushes in front of the house we were staying in. I’m not 100% sure, but I think they’re some type of morning glory. Cool, no?
Ollas, Spanish for pots (pronounced oh-yas), are a brilliant, ancient irrigation technique. Check out the Urban Homestead and their step-by-step directions for using ollas. It sounds like they would work well in anything but sandy soil… I wonder how they would do in this ridiculous clay we have in our backyard?
(Thanks to Ravelry Green Thumbs Group for the heads up on these!)
It’s been raining so much here lately, that we haven’t been able to mow the lawn much. I know E isn’t particularly happy about it, but at least the bees are happy. They seem to like the clover that’s growing in the yard:
I’m trying to pay more attention to the bees… and to the smaller things in life that I tend to overlook because I’m busy or just plain not paying attention. Bees are on my mind more and more lately because of the news about Colony Collapse Disorder. I now have a number of veggie plants in the back yard, that won’t get pollinated unless the bees or other insects are drawn to the yard. Imagine what will happen if all of the bees die?!
So here’s to our slightly overgrown lawn, bees, and the other small things that might get overlooked.
