After some good rains in late summer to prepare us for winter, we have passed through another equinox and into autumn. It’s always a little surprising how quickly the days become noticeably shorter. The sun is low enough in the sky that the second flush of Lattarula figs (Ficus carica ‘Lattarula’) in section B struggles to ripen because the deodar cedars (Cedrus deodara) to the south are now blocking the sunlight. That’s late September for you. At home I pulled my tomatoes up by the roots to force them to ripen, but the rains have kept the roots wet and the plants aren’t even wilting. That’s Seattle for you.
Other than some sort of tiny ants (where did those little devils come from?) eating the root hairs of some of the plants in section C, it was a pretty good season for plants.
Beach plum (Prunus maritima) on the south side of section C. That plum is the size of a grapefruit and could feed a family of four. Just kidding. Beach plums, at least the ones growing in the Medicinal Herb Garden, are the size of a cherry, and a small cherry at that. Their pits look just like cherry pits. I’m refrigerating all four that I collected and will plant them in the spring to have more beach plum shrubs for border areas. Their floral display is over the top. Hopefully fruit production will catch up one of these growing seasons.
In the absence of tamarillo fruit (Solanum betacea) we must make do with dwarf tamarillos (Solanum abutiloides). They’re edible when they turn orange. Some might even consider them delectable. Some others that is. Find them in section C before they are consigned to the greenhouse for the duration of the winter.
Camera angles can be so deceiving. This calabash/bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) at its soft, green, edible stage is almost three feet long. There are many delicious shrimp and calabash recipes throughout the warmer parts of the world.
Tiny bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) with flower still attached.
They look like they could turn into hard, inedible gourds but they turn yellow, get soft and split at the bottom when they ripen, allowing their seeds to drop to the ground. They are eaten when they are still green, as above.
Ripe fruit of sticky nightshade (Solanum sisymbriifolium) in section C. Even the husk around the edible fruit is spiky on this plant.
Ripening fruit of the purple devil (Solanum atropurpureum) in section C.
First fruit of the tropical soda apple (Solanum viarum) in section C. The whole plants will go in the dumpster before the fruit ripen. Ditto for all of the spiky Solanum species. They are worrisome.
The squirrel-sown chestnut (Castanea sativa) in the border near the fig tree in section B is 15 feet tall and already has at least six fruit though they are probably all duds.
Ashwaganda (Withania somnifera) which amazingly overwintered last year, grew quite tall and robust and produced a lot of fruit.
Those are healthy plants. They seem to like section D.
The regular rain we received this summer has been good for the zhi shi/trifoliate orange/hardy orange (Poncirus trifoliata). The unripe fruit are used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat various stomach and abdominal complaints. The ripe fruit can be used to make marmalade and maybe, in a pinch, as a substitute for yuzu (Citrus junos) in a kosho recipe, perhaps with some freshly picked matsutakes (Tricholoma magnivelare…or whatever our North American matsutakes are currently named). Later… Ok, strike that idea. I recently tried the rind of Poncirus trifoliata fruit. It’s not a contender with yuzu.
Look at those colorful grapes. Soon they will all be dark purple and ripe. These are California wild grapes (Vitis californica) in the woods north of Cascara Circle.
Northern bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) fruit are coated with a waxy, fragrant substance that is used to scent candles on the east coast.
Medlars (Mespilus germanica) always produce a a lot of fruit but this year it’s looking like an extra bumper crop. Maybe that summer rain helped.
Female flowers on the eastern gamma grass (Tripsacum dactyloides). Those fuzzy, white stigmas have just emerged and will slowly turn purple…
…as these are just starting to do. The male flowers are conveniently located above the female flowers so that the pollen they drop will land on these sticky stigmas.
Female flowers are visible on the top stalk. The middle and bottom stalks have male flowers to the right and female flowers to the left (though the male flowers haven’t opened yet on the bottom stalk). Ideally, the stalks would be upright so that pollen would fall down onto the female flowers, but maybe, probably, the wind is strong enough to blow pollen sideways.
First flowers opening on the oku momiji haguma (Ainsliaea acerifolia) in section B. The hardware cloth kept the rabbits from eating the flower stalks this year.
African honeysuckle (Turraea heterophylla) flowering in section D. It’s not related to the other honeysuckles (Lonicera spp.) which are members of a different family, the Caprifoliaceae. African honeysuckle and Chinaberry (Melia azedarach) are the only members of their family, the Meliaceae, represented in the garden.
Early stage in the development of a flower on Maximilian sunflower plant (Helianthus maximiliani) in section D…
…and a freshly unfurled flower. Perennial sunflowers can spread out a bit but they require little care and can fill an open space quickly. They’re good for wild border areas but might be too vigorous for small or orderly gardens.
Umckaloabo (Pelargonium sidoides) flowers are tiny and fragrant. Native to South Africa, Umckaloabo root is used to treat respiratory illnesses.
Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) has hairy fruit consisting of several seeds. This desert plant has hung on in the xeriscape bed through a couple decades of Seattle winters. It looks a bit like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree but it flowers and produces fruit.
Great golden digger wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus) on the narrow-leaved milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) in the xeriscape bed. So many wasps and bees and flies can be found around and on the flowers in the garden. When they’re feeding they are easy to observe. Hurry if you want to see them before they disappear for the winter.
The stink bugs seem to be increasing in numbers and diversity, but maybe I’ve just started noticing them. These might be nymphs of the southern green stink bug (Nezara viridula). They appeared to be sucking the juice out of the fruit on the udo plants (Aralia cordata).
After following it around the garden, trying to take its picture, I finally got an acceptable shot while it was resting on the tea (Camellia sinensis) hedge. It is a holly blue butterfly (Celastrina argiolus) that is native to North America and Eurasia.
The manzanitas (Arctostaphylos spp.) on the western border of section C have leaf gall on some of their branches. Apparently this is caused by the manzanita leaf gall aphids (Tamalia coweni) which are protected within the gall. The plants look healthy and only a small percentage of their leaves are affected by the galls so there is no management required.
Black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) feeding on the seeds of the Chilean tarweed (Madia sativa) in section A. This bold little bird practically owns section A.
Yellowjacket (Vespula sp.) sipping nectar from the flowers of Chinese angelica (Angelica sinensis) in section A. It’s good to have plants with nectar attracting the attention of yellowjackets in September. Better flowers than the food we’re trying to eat at our picnics.
Bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) and honey bee (Apis sp.) together in one place. I’ve occasionally seen bald-faced hornets and yellowjackets ambush, kill and eat foraging honeybees but the feeding must be good enough at some of the nectar sources that coexistence is possible.
Vana tulsi (Ocimim gratissimum), a tender perennial,grew to six feet this summer. It is a much bigger plant than the annual tulsi (Ocimum sanctum)…
…which grows inches away and rarely gets much taller than a foot and a half.
The perilla/zi su/shiso (Perilla frutescens) grew to be over six feet tall this year in section C. That’s the tallest I’ve seen it.
The hardware cloth cage around the groundnut (Apios americana) vines has protected them from rabbits and allowed them to flower once again in section E.
Hog peanut vine (Amphicarpea bracteata) with developing seed pods in section F. The seeds are edible.
Seed pods of white swallow-wort (Vincetoxicum hirundinaria) in section E. This was its first year flowering.
Big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) is flowering again. It has been a few years.
So common on the dry east side of the mountains, it’s a garden curiosity on the west side.
Naranjilla (Solanum quitoense) flower in the same bed as the tamarillos. I can’t wave my garden wand and make Seattle a tropical or even subtropical location (nor would I want to), so I will store this plant in a greenhouse and hope it is big enough to produce fruit next year. It’s hard not to grow frustrated at times with our zone 8 circumstances. We see glimpses, intimations of what zone 9 must be like but it’s just…out…of…reach.
Late summer sunlight in section E.
September is Silphium flowering time. Behold prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum) in section C on a wet morning. This resilient plant, native to the (formerly) deep, rich, prairie soils of the Midwestern USA, has managed to survive in the wastelands and margins of its former home, displaced by pavement, buildings, the plow and human-selected agricultural plants.
dwarf tamarillo
beach plum, medlar, grape and fig
chestnuts nearly ripe
See you in the garden.