persimmons in the yard

when we bought our home, we had no idea what was growing in the yard.  there was so much overgrowth and neglect that it was a bit overwhelming.  slowly but surely over the 5 years we have been here, we have removed, relocated and replaced many things and trimmed back others as well.  gone are the monstrous forsythia and all of the nandina as well as the lovely plastic pointsettias that were placed in various beds in the yard.  missing is most of the pea gravel that served as mulch in some of the beds.  one of the surprises in the yard besides the little grape hyacinths that popped up in the lawn is a pair of persimmon trees.  we are both fans of the familiar japanese fuyu persimmons that you find in produce and grocery stores and we were excited.  that is until we had the opportunity to taste one.  we have american persimmon trees and the fruit must be eaten when it is soft and mushy, unlike the firm ones we sometimes purchase.  if you do not know the meaning of astringent, try eating one of those fruits before it has been hit with frost and is still firm.  you will be lucky to peel the insides of your cheeks off of your teeth since they are the most astringent thing you can imagine.

lately, i have been doing a little research and a little reading on  native foods of the south and i read an article by a local food writer.  this got me to thinking about our little trees out back.  it was a warm sunny day and i headed out into the back yard with a bucket to try and gather some to see if they were worth the effort.  

as you can see, this little

tree has quite a few

still on the branches.

as they ripen and soften,

they fall to the ground

where they can be

gathered.

if you walk through the neighborhood,

you will find persimmon trees growing

wild.  they have most likely sprouted from

seeds dropped by the various animals

eating the fruits.

one of the ripe fruits on the ground just

waiting to be picked up.  darry likes to 

eat them and he is not much help if i am

trying to gather a bunch.  the fruits can be

put into a food mill where it is a little work to 

press them through, separating the pulp from

the skins and seeds.

another tree in the neighborhood

where i can easily gather the ripe

fruit.  ours are so high up that we 

have to wait for them to fall or tap

the trunk with a mallet to make 

them fall and then gather them.

crazy cactus

over the years, i have been given several "christmas" cactus plants.  you've seen them in the stores covered in their colorful blooms.  the blooms last for a few weeks and then all you have is a funky looking plant.  for the truly ambitious house plant gardener, you can attempt forcing the blooms every holiday season or you can do what i did.  put the plant outside in a sunny location for the summer and just let it grow.  then wait for the days to shorten and the night time temperatures hit about 50.  when the forecasts start calling for these cool nights and the overnight temps are dropping in to the 40's, you should see the plant start to set flower buds.

once the plant has developed buds, move it inside to a bright location, no direct sunlight, where the temperature is a constant of about 70 and wait for the show to begin.

when i moved my plant inside in mid-october, it had many more blooms than last year.  

it had so many blooms that were growing rapidly that we thought it would be

in full flower for halloween.  

this is a closeup of some of the blooms.  this is actually the second time this year

that the plant has flowered.  when we first put it outside in the spring, we had

a cold snap that forced me to bring it back inside.  this was around easter and the 

warm weather outside followed by sudden cold weather with shorter days forced a few

blooms, but nothing like the number you see in this photo.

the plant is now in full bloom as you can see.  (thanks for the photo tanner!)

even though the plant had a rough summer, it lost a large section to some sort

of ailment, the number of blooms is impressive.  some of these plants bloom at 

christmas and others bloom for thanksgiving, like this one.  hopefully, it

will still have some blooms for the holiday.

lubie and patches

it's hard not to like these two, it's also obvious how much they

like each other.  i can't believe that someone would just 

move away and not find a way to take them!

varmints in the garden!!!

along the side of our carport is a small bed of perennials.  last year darry added a few cannas to the bed and they did very well here, too well in fact.  they multiplied enormously and took over the bed crowding and shading many other plants this summer.  they weren't affected much by the drought either.  when we had our first frost this week, they were damaged and it signaled the time to cut them back for the winter.  many times over the summer, i mentioned to darry that they needed to be relocated since they were too aggressive for this bed and he decided to do it when he cut them back.  sugar bear beat him to the punch.  we were unaware of the invasion of moles in the bed until i found her in the bed digging.  boy did she dig, grape hyacinths bulbs, dahlias tubers and other plants lay on top of the soil baking in the sun.  i had visions of her hanging from the tree by her tail i was so mad!  that was when darry made the discovery. he gathered up all of the bulbs, tubers and plants and then he dug up all of the cannas making sure that he pulled up every single tuber.  in reality, it wasn't moles it was voles.  they are vegetarians and bulbs and tubers are their favorite meal which makes them the enemy of many gardeners!!!

what my poor little bed looks like now.

the frost also killed of many of the plants out in the front lasagna bed.

we plan to fill it with perennials next spring

more damage in the yard by either moles or voles

they seem to like this area by the north side of the house

some of the damage by the perennial bed