Monday, November 30, 2009

Simply Fall

"Two sounds of autumn are unmistakable,
the hurrying rustle of crisp leaves blown
along the street or road by a gusty wind,
and the gabble of a flock of migrating geese.
Both are warnings of chill days ahead,
fireside and topcoat weather."

- Hal Borland


Oak leaves and acorns on sandy soil.


Red gum leaf among oak leaves and acorns.


The autumn leaves on road pavement.


Leaves on leaves.


Gum leaves and gum balls.
© Burke's Garden, 2009.

November's Leaf & Mushroom

"November's sky is chill and drear,
November's leaf is red and sear."

- Sir Walter Scott

Pear tree foliage



Even mushrooms follow the trend.

© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Let The Zing Continue

"When the trees their summer splendor
Change to raiment red and gold,
When the summer moon turns mellow,
And the nights are getting cold;
When the squirrels hide their acorns,
And the woodchucks disappear;
Then we know that it is autumn,
Loveliest season of the year."

- Carol L. Riser, Autumn

Let the zing of autumn palette continue.

Our pear tree starts to show fall color
with Blue Butterfly still blooming
on the foreground.

Red and yellow foliage
on the trees by the road.

Dogwood tree's foliage has turned red.

Gum trees by the road.

Yellow foliage and fallen leaves
have allowed more light along
this country road.
© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Crimson Passion Vines Bloom

"In the garden, Autumn is,
indeed the crowning glory of the year,
bringing us the fruition of months of thought
and care, and toil.
And at no reason,
safe perhaps in Daffodil time,
do we get such superb colour effects as
from August to November."

- Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden


Crimson Passion Bloom




Two weeks ago I wondered if my Crimson Passion's flower buds would have time to bloom. My question is now answered.

© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Blue Berries

The zing of the season is finally here, after Thanksgiving (and Black Friday). It begins with this blue berries on trees and wild bushes. The deep blue color against green and yellow leaves adds variation to the orange-yellow fall foliage palette.

The weather starts turning, too. The lovely 70-ish˚F / 21˚C days will soon be over. The forecast for the next 10 days: high around 50-60˚F /10-15˚C and it's raining as we speak.

Blue berries on a wild bush
by the front road.


Blue berries on cypress tree
by the pig pen.
© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Fall Crop

Our pecan crop this year.



White eggplant and a small pumpkin. We feed these to our pet pig and he loved them!

© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A View from A Deer Blind

We sat in a deer blind one evening hoping to see some critters while watching the sunset. No critters were to be seen except hawk-chasing crows and a lone crane at the edge of the field.

Sun lit tree line.


It was a little breezy that evening but somehow
the bending limbs of the tree on the left makes it looks like
as if there was a strong wind and the crane with its
neck leaning forward was trying
to wade with the wind on its face.

The same crane with fall foliage on the background.

Note: The pictures were taken with a long lens and very high ISO; the bird was about 150 yards / 150 m from us, at 5.24 pm (after sunset) thus the blurriness on the pictures.

© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Visibility Limited

Day time has become shorter and shorter. Sunrise today was at 7.00 am and sunset 5.19 pm. These pictures were taken one hour after sunrise this foggy morning when the sun was reaching the bald black walnut branches.



© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Ivy

The ivy needs some attention, too.

©Burke's Garden, 2009.


The Flower of Hoja Santa

It's the second bloom of this Hoja Santa plant in the year. See the previous posting on this HERE.


Photos © Burke's Garden, 2009.

Reference from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoja_santa

Hoja santa (Piper auritum) is an aromatic herb with a heart-shaped, velvety leaf which grows in tropic Mesoamerica. The name hoja santa means "sacred leaf" in Spanish.[2] A Mexican legend says that Virgin Mary dried diapers of the infant Jesus on the bush of this plant, hence the name.[3] It is also known as yerba santa,[4][5] hierba santa,[4] Mexican pepperleaf,[5] root beer plant,[2] and sacred pepper.[1]

Description

The leaves can reach up to 30 centimeters (12 in) or more in size. The complex flavor of hoja santa is not so easily described; it has been compared to eucalyptus,[6][7] licorice,[2][8] sassafras,[4][9] anise,[5][10] nutmeg,[5] mint,[11][12] tarragon,[6] and black pepper.[5] The flavor is stronger in the young stems and veins.

It is native to the Americas, from northern South America to Mexico, and has escaped cultivation in Florida.[13]

Usage

It is often used in Mexican cuisine for tamales, the fish or meat wrapped in fragrant leaves for cooking, and as an essential ingredient in Mole Verde, the green sauce originated in the Oaxaca region of Mexico.[4] It is also chopped to flavor soups and eggs.[14] In Central Mexico, it is used to flavor chocolate drinks.[5] In southeastern Mexico, a green liquor called Verdín is made from hoja santa.[15] American cheesemaker Paula Lambert created "Hoja santa cheese", the goat's milk cheese wrapped with the hoja santa leaves and impregnated with its flavor.[9][11] While typically used fresh, it is also used in dried form, although drying removes much of the flavor and makes the leaf too brittle to be used as a wrapper.[16]

A B C Blooms

Purple Aster blooming at last.

Bougenville blooms.

Clematis reblooming.


This has nothing to do with the title, but...
couldn't resist taking pictures of these beauties
over and over again.
Passion flowers by wooden post.
© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Curcuma

I have been trying to grow ginger from rhizome that I bought from the supermarket for cooking, here in Texas, but to no avail. My friend who lives in California told me that ginger's rhizome that has gotten too cold in a fridge won't grow. She's been growing ginger purchased from Asian grocery stores that put their produce out in room temperature there and it grows well. So she shipped me a piece of California bought ginger with some new growth stem on it just to make sure it's alive, and besides that she also sent me turmeric and zedoary (white turmeric / cutcherry / kencur) plants.


Turmeric, or Curcuma longa, is a ginger family native to South East Asia. The rhizome is being used widely for spices or traditional medicine in Asia and Middle East, dried or fresh. It gives the orange-yellow color to curry dishes. It is also used outside Asia & Middle East for food coloring in pickles, prepared mustards, even dairy products such as cheese, butter, margarine, ice cream, yogurt, and cake as well, a cheap substitute for saffron. Turmeric's medicinal and cosmetic properties include antiseptic, antibacterial, remedy for gastrointestinal problems, diet supplement, sunscreen agent. It needs to be in temperature between 68˚- 86˚F / 20˚- 30˚C, definitely has to be brought into our house in winter. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turmeric.

Turmeric plant.

The rhizome of turmeric plant used for propagation in this case.


Zedoary, or Curcuma zedoaria, is also a rhizomatous plant in ginger family and used as Asian culinary spices (aka cutcherry / kencur in stores) or as medicinal agent, dried or fresh. It's like white turmeric with stronger fragrant and bitter aftertaste. Besides the culinary and medicinal uses, it apparently posses ornamental quality, too. It could grow to 3 feet / 90 cm with maroon cluster of flowers in spring. I am not sure about its hardiness. One source says it's tropical (not hardy), other says it's hardy up to zone 8. It's in the green house now and I am going to take them into our house when the temperature got really low, for precaution. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zedoary and Stokes Tropical.

Zedoary plant
Photos © Burke's Garden, 2009.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Foliage Appeal in The Green House

Fern (second year) and Aeroplane plant
(first year, Bruce Miller).


Kimberly Queen Fern (first year),
surprisingly survives in our garden for 3 months now.
We tried Boston Fern which has similar look
but they didn't like it here and died
in a matter of weeks.
More about this in another posting.


Schefflera plant, purchased from WalMart,
has been growing well and now is safe in the green house.


Coleus and purple fountain grass
have been dug up from the yard
and transferred to safety.


I am trying to save these Polka Dot plants
for next year, too. Other plants that
I've dug to safety are sweet potato vines,
petunia and chamomile seedlings.
© Burke's Garden, 2009.

Coral Geranium and Carolina Breeze Hibiscus

They've been moved to the green house and bloom a few days later.