The
pecan trees have started dropping mature nuts. I've been getting
about a double handful a day for the last week-ish. I don't think
it's going to be a large crop because looking up in the trees I'm not
seeing a lot of nuts up there and of the ones I've collected at this
point most are smaller than normal though they seem to be fully
mature. Any crop will be better than last year when we didn't get a
single pecan, nor did anyone in the area.
The
native at the back of the property has been dropping mature nuts for
weeks now and I've got nearly a bucketful of them. They're too small
for me to mess with shelling though they are said to have the best
flavor. They're in big demand in Asia and so I will sell these.
Minnie,
our dog the size of a cat, knows what I'm hunting for and hunts for
them too. She'll bring them in the house as we find them all over.
The other day, Marc and Minnie were out in the yard. When he came in
and sat down she followed. He knew she had something in her mouth,
suspected it was a pecan, and then she put this down at his feet.
A
perfectly shelled pecan with only slight damage to the meat.
The
cooler weather of 'fall' and by that I mean our highs are in the
80s and not the 90s has brought out the fall cycle of blooms.
Some of my plantings are maturing and so this year I am having many
butterflies in the yard and of various kinds. This makes me so happy
as it was rare to see one when we moved out here. My yard in the
city had been mature for years and I missed that. This shrub, a
native sun and drought tolerant perennial that I can never remember
the name of, is one of my favorites and one of my disappointments. I
thought it was supposed to bloom all summer and it does send out
those long bloom stalks all summer long but none of the little pink
flowers ever peek out. It does bloom gloriously in the spring and
fall though and the butterflies love it. I guess being planted
against the west side of the concrete bunker is a little too hot for
it.
I
planted a native passion flower vine that has been disappointing in
that I never see it bloom but it has proved a hatchery for
fritillaries and something else as I've seen two kinds of
caterpillars on it.
Between the shop yard and my yard with all the
bee and butterfly plantings I've been adding there, I'm seeing the
aforementioned fritillaries, swallowtails, sulfurs yellow and white,
long wings, monarchs, a queen, a hairstreak, a couple of crescents.
Other
things blooming...rangoon creeper,
morning glory bush, plumbago,
yellow bells,
ginger,
toad lily, mistflower,
periwinkles, the ever
blooming penta, the white and purple phillipine violets,
and the yellow
trumpet flower is putting on a mass of buds.
Oh,
and this was our sky the other night.
i am always envious of the beautiful blooms you have. Flowers I have hardly ever seen, some real exotics.You really have a green thumb.We had a 1st frost this week, so blooms are thinning rapidly.I had a bumper crop of pumpkins this year, and will feed extras to the animals
ReplyDeleteYour garden is beautiful, as ever. I have an email this morning that my order of anemones, allium, and paper narcissus (for Laura) has shipped. Hundreds of bulbs. My garden isn't a jungle yet, but it's getting there.
ReplyDeleteI love to hunt for pecans after a rain. Though we no longer have a large tree in Houston, there are small native trees around. My fingernails were a brownish green for a week last year as I pulled the pod from around the little pecans. They are tasty, but not as rewarding as the big ones. Good news is, I found a pecan farm a couple of miles from my city house and am going to give them a visit as soon as their sign goes up. The store-bought bagged ones taste like they are years old.
ReplyDeleteso glad your blooming gardens are being found by the butterflies! that ginger is beautiful. i don't have any pecan trees on property but there has to be some nearby as the crows bring over nuts and crack them on my driveway.
ReplyDeleteMy toad lilies went crazy this year and I have to divide them again. Is that one flower a Persicaria?
ReplyDeleteif you mean the one at the top that I can't remember, no. similar but no.
DeleteI do love pecans but shelling them at that size could hurt.
ReplyDeleteYour fall garden is spectacular.
You're still getting a lot of flowers! And I'm glad the butterflies are coming around. The pecan thing is really interesting -- I wonder what determines whether you have a crop or not? We planted toad lilies but ours never did much. And that Minnie -- so clever!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful beautiful beautiful!! We still have some flowers - our geraniums, petunias & knock-out roses are still going strong. This is the first year that I'm seriously ready for cooler weather. My internal temp has gotten so high that I spend my days sweating if I'm not in air conditioning. Ugh. It's supposed to be in the 80s today. Sigh.
ReplyDeletegotta love menopause. my internal temp totally flipped. I used to be so cold natured and now I can have sweat dripping off me by just standing in the shade on a day in the high 70s.
DeleteEvery time you do this, I just sigh and moon over your flowers. Beautiful. As for nuts -- well. I spent a while this afternoon watching some Arkansas squirrels burying black walnuts -- with the husk still on. They look so funny carrying them around. For a while, I couldn't figure out what they were, they were so big. Then, I walked around the grass, and found some. I'll never try to husk and crack black walnuts again. A rock and a hammer are obligatory. I found a place that sells them shelled, and that's the only way to go.
ReplyDelete