Pennyroyal

Pennyroyal is a mint that I've grown for years but I can't really say why.
I do love the flowers but can I live without them, well, no.
Of course there are other plants just as pretty

but still I grow it for some reason.

I think the reason is it sort of scares me.

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Pennyroyal has been used as a tea and was regarded 

as a highly important herbal plant in days of past.
People even cooked with it! I say this with surprise

as it is quite strong smelling and I can imagine it to be a 

strong flavor. Even though it has had many uses in 

the past, it is to be regarded with caution as it is toxic.
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Confused? Me too, is it safe or is it toxic.
I view it as mostly toxic and figure it might be

well used as a repellent and 

maybe I should hang it throughout the house.

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What do you think of Pennyroyal?

I like it in a pot on the front steps, although this isn't the best picture.

I feel like maybe it keeps out evil as it is so scary.

Funny thing to me about Pennyroyal is one of the nicknames -
Pudding Grass (really pudding, even a meat pudding)!

A street side planting

This was a street side planting somewhere in the area!
I see purple petunias and I think the orange ones are zinnias but

what are the pink ones?

Manzano Orange Pepper Plant and Flowers

Who knew an orange pepper with a purple flower and 

black seeds and heat heat heat!

The plant is getting tall and I love the fuzzy leaves.
Unlike the peppers I've grown before.

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This plant will be coming in the house when it 

starts getting too cold out. Although word is

this pepper comes from the Andes and can tolerate

below freezing temps.

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Tradewindsfruit.com  has seeds for the Manzano orange pepper.

I've not ordered seeds from them I just wanted you to

take a look at their website! LOL I love looking at all

those peppers.

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Wikipedia has more information about this pepper

variety and from what it says this is a long lived - tree like

pepper - it can live up to 15 years!!!! WOW

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Did I mention HOT!!!!!
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A local market carries these peppers, when I saw
the black seeds I saved the peppers because
I wanted to grow this pepper.

More re-purposed containers

Junkmarketstyle.com has some great ideas, that's where the idea for the re-purposed
butter containers came from. Check the original out here.
I bought this brand of butter at Safeway, I think it is their butter brand. It was inexpensive
and I bought it for this purpose in mind. Pretty darn cute don't ya think?
Do you see the wood peeking out from behind the violas? That is a bird house my son
made for me but I don't want to put in the yard, I like it on my porch!

You can see the zip sandwhich bag sticking out the top.

I put the bag in and used a funnel to put some soil in, 

stuffed the baby plants in and funneled in some more soil.

Do you like it?

Woosh!

Woosh! It's been quite windy overnight and into today, the 

poorly staked green beans couldn't quite handle it.

If you look closely you can see the green beans hanging on the vines.
~
I picked them after this photo and then I broke out in a rash.

Green bean plants cause a rash as do peach leaves and fuzz, the spring 

sunshine causes a similar rash.
I've decided that I should wear  cotton pants and
 long sleeve shirt and a hat when in the garden. 

fft yeah right

I probably should, it would be cool and comfy and protect me

from multiple irritants but I'd ruin that kind of clothing

out there.

~
I am thankful for the bountiful harvest of green beans

this year, rash or not.

A couple of photos

The 1 lonely fig.
|Do you grow figs and if so does this look

like a black mission fig to you?
That's what the tag said but honestly I wouldn't know.

I planted this Japanese Anemone last summer, here is the

first flower.

Cilantro in re-purposed planters

This is my cilantro, it's flowering.  It went to flower

rather quickly, is that normal?

It's growing near the sweet potato, I used a plastic coffee "can"
and a smaller dog food bag.
Why do I buy coffee in the grocery store?
For re-purposed containers for my plants.

Rudbeckia and Knautia

I happen to think this is a stunner of a combo, I didn't plan it and

cannot take credit for it. As if I could take credit for it in the first place.
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Knautia macedonia is an easy to grow perennial. Actually it is
beyond easy, plant it and wait for it to come up in other places.
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It can be a bit taller and lanky so it really needs to be planted
where it can weave through other plants.
That is what happened here but like I said,
I didn't plant it in that spot.
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The first bed I planted the knautia in needs some help.
It's a very dry-weedy-unkempt garden bed.
It has been neglected while I work on the rest of the yard
but it's past time and I think the knautia is too big for it's bed.
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I want to thank everyone for stopping by from blotanical.com
I am finding it very difficult to find the time to
visit everyone and keep up with the end of summer
garden along with the photos I am taking to stock up for winter.
Do you stock up on photos for winter?
Oh and I am looking for a job.

Joe Pye Weed

Joe Pye Weed takes up this corner of my yard.

In front is a red twig dogwood, slightly to the right 

is a oak-leaf hydrangea and the brown crispy on the right edge

is what's left of Queen of the Prairie, she look was beautiful

earlier this summer.

On the left is some rudbeckia and  a carpet rose

that doesn't seem to love it's location.

A stunner in any light.

This is the shortest stalk in the whole bunch, the rest of the plant

is 10 feet plus!

I do love this plant and it's neighbor Queen of the Prairie.

Anacortes

Anacortes, WA is one of our favorite places to visit.

Although it was a cloudy day, it's always beautiful.

We like to hike in the Washington Park area,
there is always something different to see.

I do not know what plant this is. I really need to get some
id books.

A couple of fungis!

~ ~ ~
Cap Sante park is another beautiful area bordering the marina.

The fennel grows abundantly along the marina.

This beautiful tree not only has the marina as a backdrop but that

fennel behind it makes it really stand out.

I should know what this plant is off the top of my head....
I had to look it up in my field guide, of course it's sweet white clover.
Considered an invasive but it smells wonderful. It reminds me of my

childhood - it must have grown wild along the road as
I could always smell it when we went to town.

I think this one is Spreading Fleabane as it grows in sandy areas

and this was along the shoreline.

Curlycup Gumweed.
I was excited to see it's sunny face,
that lovely yellow is so cherry.

Dustybay.blogspot.com covered the gumweed recently, 

check it out.

A heron flew over our heads to land in this tree, probably

waiting for us to get out of its way down on the beach.

I love this area, can you tell?

Yikes, green beans!

Gosh aren't those nice,
we are having a beautiful late harvest of green beans.
I say late harvest because I know in places

where summers are warm the green beans

can be harvested all summer long, not just
 in August and September.

This is what the green bean area looked like last month.

The bush beans were putting out a great harvest at this time

and nothing had taken over yet.

I didn't expect all of the bean seeds to sprout.

None of my other seeds sprouted so well.

We have had to stake and restake and restake the green beans.

~

Like I said I didn't expect all of the seeds to sprout

but they did and now they are top heavy.

~

Someone didn't help me put the stakes in for the beans so maybe
just maybe it was a weak setup?!

Next year something different will have to happen!

Those pole beans are flowering beautifully and producing well,

it all works out!

The pole beans are a larger meatier pod. 

I planted 2 varieties of bush beans on the outsides

of the bed and the pole beans are in the middle of the bed.

A mistake yes! I shouldn't have planted

bush beans on both sides of the bed because

a duh is that the shade side didn't grow as well.

It's been a lesson but a very edible lesson.

This is my favorite photo today!

Using the sprinkler may be one of the worst ways to water

a garden but it is one of the best ways to enjoy

the watering of the garden.

Do you see all the little birdies? They greatly enjoy the sprinkler.

Sweet Potato in an odd planter

There was a huge sweet potato sitting in a bag on my counter.
I forgot about it as it was behind some other stuff. AHEM

Anyways it sprouted so I planted it.

Did I mention this is a cat food bag?

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There is an area on our back patio, it's a cement beam running
along the edge of the patio and it may be holding up something?
I don't know what it's purpose is exactly but I do know it

isn't pretty looking.
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There are all kinds of planters on it but I was running out of

planters so decided to start repurposing various containers
to use as planters. This is one of those containers.
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Very pretty leaves.
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Our weather isn't really warm enough for there to be 

a sweet potato harvest but those pretty leaves make up for it.

Fuzzy Wuzzy

I've no idea what little bugger this is but it is cute.
Yes I think it's cute.

~
When my kids were young we would check out

books from the library to figure out

what critter was what.
~
I should buy a critter book.
I call them critters because when is a bug a bug and

when isn't a bug a bug? !



Crumbling table

A tree was cut down, I don't even know when but there

was this wood in our yard. We've moved it around a few

times, not really sure what we are doing with it.

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The top piece I loved and felt it should be a table,

the bottom was probably a part of the same tree.
~
The table has been sitting in this spot for more than a few years
and is starting to show it's age.
~
It will move onto it's new home as mulch in one of the flower beds
or as mulch in the path.
~
I will miss my little table, I may have to figure out a new one soon.

Pretty flowers for a hummingbird

This vine doesn't look all that pretty does it?

That one section turned brown (I think I broke it)

and I really wish it didn't look like that.

~
A hanging basket should be pretty shouldn't it?!

Here is a close up of the flower which is actually quite small.

While the flowers are on the smaller side, the vine

just keeps popping them out even though there are quite

a few seeds developing.

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Oh and did I mention the hummingbird really enjoys this one!

Pretty flowers

Just some pretty flowers growing together.
This was last week, when the sun was shining!

Green zebra!

Green Zebra.

Yup it is a green tomato, when ripe the lighter stripes
turn yellow. It's flavor leans toward tangy.
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According to Wikipedia the tomato was bred
by Tom Wagner of Everett, WA.
What a small world.
~
Now if only our tomatoes will ripen,
we've had a short season.

Flowering at an odd time?

A spring time flower yes?
 Well normally it only blooms in the spring
but this has been flowering at the end of August.
Not sure if it is normal for it to rebloom but it never has for
me before, could it be our changing weather?

Our summer isn't as warm, it was rather cool and cloudy.
Summer as we know it didn't start until August and
is going strong now, over this week though
the weather is going to cool.
I am hoping it is a short term cool down,
we deserve a long summer don't we?
I can hope.