The Butterfly Moon

We've had a few cold fronts now that brought us a lot of rain and some nice autumn temperatures. Highs have been mostly in the 70's and lows in the 50's. The butterflies, bats, and birds are migrating, and in about a month we should have our first frost.

Here are the mini-tubers I grew from true potato seed. The ones that didn't rot the first time I tried to plant them had been waiting in the fridge all summer. I planted them in a window box, and they're sprouting very nicely. I'm going to keep piling soil on them until they get all the way to the top of the container. I hope this time they grow more tubers, maybe enough to plant some in the ground later on. I'll also take this container inside when we get a freeze so they can keep growing all winter.

The first thing I planted in my new raised beds is the garlic. I have Red Toch, Lorz Italian, S&H Silverskin, and Elephant planted. The silverskins are already started to poke out of the ground.

With all the rain, the peppers and eggplants are making a second crop. Here are the Fenguyan Purple eggplants making more very long skinny fruits.

The Lemon Drop peppers are also doing very well behind their protective cage, and so are the other second-year peppers in the front garden.

That one Waltham Butternut squash is still growing, so maybe I'll get ONE butternut squash this year.

Even the Rattlesnake pole beans are trying to make a fall crop, though the deer are still eating all their leaves off periodically. I'll protect them much better next year.

I'm also letting my Thai basil flower and produce seeds. They're very pretty with their purple flowers.

In the back, the Tall Telephone peas are starting to climb their trellis. Along the sides I planted other fall crops like kale, chard, and lettuce, but they keep getting eaten by caterpillars before they have a chance to grow much.

I've harvested one fall Tatume squash so far but haven't eaten it yet. The vines look good but still are mostly making male flowers.

The Bishop's Hat peppers are doing much better too. They didn't really do much over the summer. I still haven't harvested a single ripe pepper. But since the fall rains they suddenly started growing a lot of fruits, and they're doing especially well now that we found and removed that tomato hornworm that was eating them up. I might actually get a nice crop of them before it freezes.

The lima beans are also making some more pods, but I still think they must need bean inoculant. All summer they just grew lush vines but hardly any bean pods. That's not how lima beans are supposed to act, or so I'm told. Next year I'm inoculating all my beans.

The okra is also making a fall crop. I know this one is Texas Hill Country Red, but I'm not sure what the other ones are. I also planted Beck's Gardenville and Eagle Pass (all purchased from Native Seeds/SEARCH), but I lost track of which was which.

The fava beans are also doing well with all the rain. I put some bean inoculant on them, but forgot to on the peas.

The sweet potatoes are also looking great, or at least the Carolina Nugget, Dianne, and Molokai Purple ones are. White Triumph still looks awful. I guess that one is a dud.

Finally, I found this really cool Green Darner dragonfly under the leaves of a mulberry tree in my yard. It was cold out when I took these pictures, so I think he was still sleeping. This is probably where he roosted overnight, and he'll fly away once the sun hits him and warms him up.