No ordinary pineapple
A very fancy pineapple
Grip the base of the stem and twist and it pops right off…
Peel off several of the base layer of leaves…
Cut all the pineapple flesh away from the base and let it dry out for a day or two, then put in a jar of water comme ca:
And hopefully it will root!
It can then be potted and it will grow a whole new pineapple!
This is a painting of a pineapple I did a few years ago, it is one of my favorites. It hangs in our dining room.
I painted this pot last year: reminiscent of the painting, don’t you think?!
In bringing out this and other pots, I came across…
Some seeds we saved. From left: marigolds, lime basil and Wade’s Giant Indian corn
Making our way out to the garden…
It feels a little like…
stepping into…
a French impressionist painting.
But don’t be fooled!
There’s a fierce…
battle in progress!
He doesn’t stand a chance!
Sneak (or Snake?) Attack!!!
Yellow Belly Defeated! (aka gently placed back in the garden)
And who’s this?
Monsieur Toad
Evicted from his home (Sorry! I was turning over the dirt in the back nine!) but relocated by the Spy to the strawberry patch.
A lovely new home for Monsieur Toad.
There are loads of seedlings popping up everywhere.
I believe the seedling pictured above is Orach, but I have planted so many things I’ve mostly forgotten what was planted where. But I’ll know just what they are when they grow up!
Definitely tulips ;)
Our tulips are not quite as exciting as those we saw a few days ago at the Missouri Botanical Garden but still have a ton of personality. I’ve planted the herbs we bought while visiting the botanical garden, here are a few:
Silver Dollar Eucalyptus
Curry (yes, smells JUST like curry!)
Grey Santolina (which I bought thinking it was Summer Savory: are they the same?)
Variegated Fringed French Lavender
I also bought Rue (the purchased plant is not pictured here) but noticed it looks strikingly similar to:
This plant (weed) which is all over the yard. I wonder if they are the same thing?
I would like to start utilizing all the edibles (dandelion greens, purslane, clover, etc.) in all this grass:
April 26, 2014
Excellent representation of a pineapple. I totally got that it was a pineapple. That puts you in the “good” sections of artists inside the head of narf7. I love the colours of your corn. Are you going to plant those seeds? We share Joshua trees (red buds). Ours just lost it’s leaves where yours are flowering. We also have dogwoods. Lovely hardy things but one of them didn’t make it through our long hot summer. The other one only just limped through to the finish line. You should make Mr Toad a toad house. They apparently eat a HUGE amount of pest insect species so might be a good thing to give him a condominium to entice him to stay. We have a silver dollar euc as well ;). Looks like Chez Spy is going to look somewhat like Chez Serendipity. Wish we could gift you one of our spare brachychitons (bottle trees). A good idea to use all of the edible weeds…after all, they ARE pinching your nitrogen from the soil, only fair that they pay the ferryman ;)
I’ve been wanting eucalyptus forever, I think it is my favorite smell. We are fortunate to have a lot of toads and frogs in the garden, they make plenty of homes among the plants. I only till once (ideally in the winter, but usually finish right about now, and whew! finally done!) so as not to disturb all of the reptile condominiums in the dirt! I DO so wish we could do a seed/plant swap too ;)
Just imagine what we could share! We have those native pepperberries here (Tasmannia lanceolata) here and much of what grows here in Tassie is very different from what grows on the mainland of Australia because we are so much more diverse. We have 2 predominant species of euc. here in our area but one of them is slowly succumbing to climate change and our warmer drier seasons. The other one is going great guns. I guess natural selection in fine fettle ;). There are lots of things that I could probably send to you so don’t rule out the seed swap. I have purchased a lot of seed from the U.S. before. So long as it isn’t pine, the solanaceae family or the walnut family we tend to be fine :)
Your garden is looking wonderful and full of life. I had never thought of trying to grow a pinapple. I took your suggestion to regrow celery. It is thriving nicely in my kitchen right now. I plan to plant it later outside.
Honey
Thanks!
A lot going on in Spy Garden these days – Snakes, toads (so good for the garden!) and fierce battles – oh my! I’m oohing and ahhing over your redbud/dogwood landscape and drooling looking at your sweet pineapple!
Santolina and summer savory are very different plants. Santolina was used a dewormer. Savory is delicious & looks like of culinary thyme on steroids (much larger leaves). It is a great addition to salads and potato dishes. So many of the weeds in our lawns are edible – I thought dandelions were best eaten before they blossomed – I think they get bitter with age. With the blossoms you can make dandelion wine – but you’ll have to google that one. The rue-look-alike weed is in the buttercup family (Ranunculus abortivus) called crowfoot – definitely poisonous -don’t eat it. Sap from new growth is potent & can irritate the skin.
The lawn looks so lush and green – all too soon mowing will be a weekly chore!
And today we saw a skink. A weekend of reptiles! Thanks for the info about the Santolina and crowfoot. I kind of figured I could count on you to answer my questions throughout this post ;) Really appreciate you taking the time to share the answers! And definitely want to get some summer savory to add to the herb collection!
Glad to be of assistance! :-)