After getting fresh baggies of sugar syrup into my three Warre beehives, cleaning quail pens and doling out treats of watermelon and squash, and tackling laundry, I had my typical mid-morning brunch on the patio. Oh boy! The fall colors are vibrant and beautiful.
To plant Virgin’s Bower, a native Minnesota climber, I had pulled out all but two sunflowers. At that time, the sunflowers were maybe a foot tall. The two I left grew to over ten feet tall. One has a seed head that is way more than a foot wide. The other, an Arikara, is opening up lots of these vibrant blooms.
I checked the mail before taking my coffee cup inside, and found that the Russian Red garlic was delivered. This will be my first year of growing this variety. Wow! I should have ordered a lot more at the time, because this is perfection. And I did order more, after seeing this.
The bulbs are huge, and there are up to six cloves on each one. The color is a bonus. The smell says that we are in for some extra tasty spaghetti sauces next season.
Music garlic didn’t do very well in the drought and the heat this year. While the weather was tough on vegetable, fruit and flower alike, I had been planning to try a different variety. Waiting until all but one variety is sold out for the year isn’t the ideal way to choose one. All’s well that ends well.
Another of today’s treasures? This pretty quail egg. The hen laid it right after I cleaned and fed them, which is unusual. They normally lay in the afternoon and evening. What’s more unusual is the color of this egg.
I think they’ve been molting, as egg production has been down, and feather production has been up. They must be getting ready for cold temps.
Time for me to get back to busy, and help them by making a winter structure to go in their pen.
