Six on Saturday – 06/11/2021 – Wilty

Last Sunday I published a post, here, that showed last year’s poinsettia thriving in my garden, two weeks after our usual first frost date. Night temperatures have fluctuated a bit since then, and now, since I couldn’t get my act together to dig it up and bring it inside for the winter, that gorgeous tropical plant looks a bit different (a lot different, really, since I’ve since cut it back and it’s now turning into compost):

Not to be outdone, the nasturtiums joined the rush to the compost pile with typical flair for drama:

Every week Jon, The Propagator, invites gardeners around the world to show what’s happening in their garden. We’ve had three nights of below zero temperatures this week, and that’s meant doom for most of the flowers that were still in bloom here. It’s provided some very pretty garden moments though, especially first thing in the morning, before the sun melted the frost away. It brought one or two surprises, as well, and it means it’s time to harvest the last of the veggies, like these ‘Baby Babette’ French carrots (seeds from Renee’s Garden in California). They’re so cute; my thinning out in the spring was hit and miss so there’s a range of sizes for nibbling on over the next few weeks.

The biggest surprise of the week was to be found in the kitchen garden. I thought I had dug up all the Ranunculus mid summer, when the foliage turned brown – there’s a bag of the small octopussy tubers somewhere in the house. But lo and behold I found fresh growth hiding amongst where the nasturtiums has been. I imagine they broke dormancy quite naturally, with the arrival of colder soil temperatures…I had to dig them up though and force them back to sleep for a few more months, otherwise they’d turn to mush when the ground freezes in a few weeks. Very happy and healthy looking, aren’t they?

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The early morning frost fantasies are the real winners this week, though. Here’s a bit of two year old purple kale that has sent out leaf after leaf all summer long:

And here’s a Zinnia, last one standing in my garden (the petals were a luscious red a week ago) plus a flower bud on Viburnum carlesii, something to get me through winter, as I anticipate the fragrance from the creamy blooms in spring. Have a great weekend everyone!

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