Fall 2012

A recent harvest from the garden included leeks, tomatoes, Georgia Flame peppers, a butternut squash and a Golden Midget watermelon.

Watermelons are round and therefore easily roll off surfaces that aren't level.  This is why the watermelon pictured below is practically split in half.  The sound the melon made when it hit the lawn was a wet thudchrrrusscch.  My mouth began to water as the sweet fragrance of warm, ripe watermelon filled the air.

It's delicious!

It's late in the season but the orange bell peppers are finally beginning to blush.

The Brussels sprouts and kale are loving this cooler weather.  I learned my lesson last year and won't up-root the sprouts stalk prematurely.  These mini cabbage-like veggies thrive in cooler weather.  Perhaps we will have fresh Brussels sprouts with our Thanksgiving dinner this year rather than just the greens as we did last year.

The strawberry bed is lush!  Next June, we should be knee deep in strawberries.  Next week straw will be added to the top of the bed to protect the strawberry crowns from the winter cold.

Beautiful zinnias.  Flowers will always have a place in Wright Gardens.  Aside from looking lovely, they brought so many bees, butterflies and dragonflies to the garden.

"Beauty is only a byproduct... The main business of gardens is sex and death."

-- Sam Llewellyn

The onions, although growing, don't seem to be growing quickly.  I dug one up that had tall greens but where the onion bulb should be, there was a white pea-sized nub.  It smelled fantastic but an onion bulb it was not.  I'll try digging up another tomorrow and if it looks the same as the first, I'll leave the rest in the ground to over-winter.  Hopefully, by doing so, come late spring, an armful of onions will be pulled up from the Earth.

Garlic!  It's nearly time for it to be planted.  Wright Gardens will be growing 50-60 bulbs of garlic again this year.  Next week the garlic beds will be prepped and the soil amended with fresh top soil, compost and peat moss.  Then, in three to four weeks the garlic will be planted.

In addition to Chet's Italian Red, Georgian Fire and Chesnok Red, a forth garlic variety will be planted this year - Spanish Roja.  Mmm-M.

"I appreciate the misunderstanding that I have had with Nature over my perennial border.  I think it is a flower garden; she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass , and tries to correct the error."  -- Sara Bonnett Stein

Friday afternoon, my beloved and I attended a bulb sale at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  We came home with a just a few bulbs to add to our flower beds.

Muscari armeniacum (Grape Hyacinth) - 15 bulbs

Tulipa 'Blue Spectacle' (Double Late Tulip) - 20 bulbs

Tulipa 'Sensual Touch' (Fringed Tulip) - 10 bulbs

Tulipa 'Sweetheart' (Fosteriana Tulip) - 10 bulbs

Nectaroscordum siculum (Sicilian Honey Garlic) - 10 bulbs

Fritillaria imperialis 'Aureomarginata' (Guinea Hen Fritillary) - 1 bulb

Fritillaria michailowsky (Guinea Hen Fritillary) - 5 bulbs

Allium 'Silver Spring' (Ornamental Onion) - 1 bulb

Allium 'Globemaster' (Ornamental Onion) - 2 bulbs

Allium 'Gladiator' (Ornamental Onion) - 1 bulb

Allium schubertii (Schubert Onion) - 1 bulb

Crocus flavus 'Yellow Mammoth' (Crocus) - 10 bulbs

Iris reticulata 'J.S. Dijt' (Dwarf Iris) - 25 bulbs

Chionodoxa forbesii 'Pink Giant' (Glory of the Snow) - 25 bulbs

Just a few... Our spring beds are going to look glorious!

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