Hello Again!

I seem to be neglecting this. Well here is the most recent image of myself with a 2nd harvest of red cabbage.

Next we have some fennel. I like fennel but at this point am annoyed by how much fennel I have had. Anyway, this fennel plant is impressive.

Here's several small cabbage head regrowth. They look like large brussel sprouts.

This turkey is coated with 5 squares of dark chocolate. It's my trial thanksgiving turkey. I believe the chocolate worked about the way I thought it would. It stayed adhered to the bird well and seemed to keep things moist.

Cabbages, butterfly, ladybug and hops

Cabbages fascinate me endlessly. This is a tiny 2nd growth.

This better illustrates what's going one, though these have not filled out like the picture above

I have not seen many butterflies but this one flitted around a lot. It likes verbena, lantanas and coneflower.

here's a late season ladybug. I seem to have manged to keep them in my garden all during the growing season. I swear flowers have been vital for that.

White Flowers and 2nd Cabbages

Earlier this summer, or was it still late spring? a nice lady offered me a moonflower seedling. It began blooming this week. The flowers are about 6 inches(15cm) in diameter. They open at night like many night blooms and have a very nice perfume.

 

This next flower is shown much larger than life. It is old man's beard clematis. It is pretty invasive but at this time it's very nice. Not only are they pretty but like the moonflower, they smell very nice.

 

I still get a kick out of seeing mini cabbages sprout from where a large head was.

 

Catching Up Eye-candy

It really is hard to keep up. Here's some non sequential photos that caught my eye.

This was the salad bowl. The beets were in it early on and though they are stunted are still lovely. Enough has survived in it to keep it pretty even though they aren't exactly thriving.

This is a good view of the 2nd crop of cabbages filling out. I get a kick out of this everytime I look at it.

These hops are glorious. It will be worthwhile to harvest them this year. Last year they were far less productive.

This is my 3rd post today! I intend to do one more post. I took too many pretty pictures not to.

Red Cabbage Crop

I am not keeping up with my garden. This curb cabbage was starting to split. I harvested it but probably will not eat it given its proximity to the street.

 

I will however encourage a second crop. Notice the mini-cabbage heads on the side. If it heals they will grow.

 

Just like these guys here.

 

I know that cabbage is a cliche to some as far as ornamental vegetables go but I still get a kick out of them. And this is Pittsburgh, well actually Wilkinsburg and we tend to be 10-20 years behind most trends.

Food Safety

This is a little late but outside of healthcare, food safety is being discussed as legislature, specifically HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act. I do not feel as well informed as I should to discuss this but people have and do die when we neglect regulating food safety. It is a matter of national security. I found a good non-partisan blog devoted to this issue, Marler Blog, well actually he tracks food poisoning around the US. "Bill Marler is an accomplished personal injury and products liability attorney," so begins the description. I feel guilty for not being able to speak better about this. It is this guy's job to know what is going on with food safety, anyway, it just passed in the house. I still do not know exactly what sort of suspect modification and improvements have been made to it. Some parts were threatening to small farmers, and I am not sure what has been left in.

I'll talk about something I know a little about, my garden. Here's my cabbage growing back in. After a cabbage is beheaded, it often sprouts numerous smaller heads to replace it.

My yarrow is starting to grow in. In part because I am concerned about food safety, I do not eat anything grown on my curb. I understand in some areas that they are trying to force farmers to have dead barriers surrounding their fields to prevent disease. Seems to me that this would not work. What drives me nuts about the internet is that I read so many little things and cannot quite recall my source. OK, it is the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, which I found out about via ACTION: Speak Out Against the LGMA!, a post in Lavida Locavore.

Anyway, my scarlet runner beans have reached the top of this tower I made from a bunch of rose of sharon that was towering over much of my back yard. Now these scarlet runner beans will tower and perhaps the hummingbirds will enjoy them.