The Mother Garden - Fall 2016

It had been a while since my last pilgrimage to the Mother Garden (and to see my own mama and papa), so last night was the night for a semi-regular visit.  I got to take in the renovated kitchen, to enjoy some mommy food, and sleep in my high school bedroom.  And then there are the rewards of the Mother Garden.  It is of course past its prime, although in prime autumnal state.





Queens front porch. The little yellow and purple calabrochoa are on the left. I tried to find seeds, but it is very hard to tell with that plant which are the seeded ones. May just have to wait till spring and see what takes and perhaps pilfer a plant from the Mother Garden.

Front yard - before the side garden fence. One of the thriving hydrangea.

Tomatoes, winding down.

Tomatoes - still some ripening ones, despite the general wind-down.

Among the many peppers.

Yes, that is a doctored water gun. My papa uses it to try to dissuade the squirrels.  I think the squirrels may just laugh at his attempts.

View under the squash arbor.

Dancing lady orchid in full bloom, despite the recent cold.

Mums. I think my mama said this was a revived potted mum from Tet - one of the ones my aunt purchased for Tet decorations.

More mums - this one on the verge, but not quite there.

Bacopa - thriving.  I tried to find seeds for this one too; I could not. My mama is not sure whether it sets seed at all.

Peppers - pretty and multi-colored.

Seeds and dried stalks, with roses in the background.

More peppers. Mama loves peppers.

Snapdragons, still going strong.

Red mums.

A different cluster of red mums.

 

There were seeds, but not quite as many as I would have thought.  But some worth gathering for planting back into next year's urban terrace jungle.





Seed heads, against the garage walls.  I could not remember which these are - the pink cone flowers? The yellow coreopsis? I decided to forgo seed gathering.

Hibiscus seed pod.  I considered taking these.  But mine are still surviving.  And there were more seed heads not yet ripened.  They can be gathered during Thanksgiving if need be.

Seeds of the green shiso.

Not sure what this plant is. I thought it was flowering tobacco, but not sure that is right.  Mama compared it to a dragon head - so maybe that will be its colloquial name here for now.

Seeds of the dragon head flower.

And more dragon head flower seeds - pretty photo, no?

I decided to gather some.  They did not take last year.  But maybe this year....

Strawberries, dried and withered.

The last of the strawberries.  I decided to take some of the dried ones for propagation.