Bees Sleeping on My Zinnias

They're so dang cute. I'm finding them every morning on my zinnias. Look at how adorable they are!

 

Easy Creamy Orzo

Um. It's BASIC. Like utterly basic. This is a "use what you have" dinner.

Saute onions and garlic until it's all soft and transluscent. Add in 1.5 cups of orzo; 2 tsps of Italian seasoning or your favorite seasoning blend (I happen to LOVE Spicewalla's Garlic & Herb); 3 cups of chicken broth, salt and pepper. Let it simmer for 10-12 minutes. Then add in another 1/2 cup of broth, 2 cups of frozen veggies, and whatever leftover chicken you have in the fridge. When the orzo is soft, after about 4-5 minutes, add in 1/2-1 cup of heavy cream (or milk or half and half), and whatever parmesan cheese you have in the fridge. Serve with crusty bread and a salad.

Happy Hocus Pocus Halloween

We went to Marshall's Farm Market in Eden Prairie this past MEA weekend. This year it was Hocus Pocus themed so we thought we'd see what it was all about. They had Hocus Pocus themed trivia throughout the corn maze, artwork, signs, etc... At the end there was a axe throwing game set up along with a football toss set up. Marshall's Farm Market had 6 sections of pumpkins set at $16, $14, $12, $10, $8, and $6. We bought one pumpkin for each of us at different prices and sizes. 

They also have a section set up for entertainment with pumpkin games, a huge chess set, a flying witch photo op, and pumpkin toss games. We took a photo in the coffin, with the flying broom, and played some games. 

Marshall's Farm Market itself is fairly small with a small selection of purchase items at this time of year because it's end of season. They do have freezers of meats and fridges of eggs and such. There is a whole table of fresh produce as well. It all looked like really good quality. They also have various knick knacks for sale in the different market sections, gourds, pumpkins, etc... 

It was super cute and I'm glad we went!

 

Strawflowers in my Garden

 

Check these strawflowers out. I only started planting them in my yard last year. To me in years past, they looked a little too poke-y and sharp to have in the yard with a dog and young children. 

I actually learned the hard way about having sharp and poke-y plants after a parent volunteer offered me tithonia for the school garden a few years ago. Tithonia, aka Mexican Sunflowers become extremely sharp and poke-y after the flowers are done blooming, the flower uses this method as a way to spread seeds (if you have an elementary schooler, you can ask them about "seed dispersal" in grades 2 and up - they learn the 4 seed dispersal methods in second grade). The dispersal of the tithonia seeds is done by basically grabbing onto whatever the pokey and sharp seeds can grab onto and BAM, the seeds are on their way to a new home, some blood may be drawn as well. 

But continuing on with Strawflowers - they are actually very soft and NOT as sharp as I thought they would be. In my second year of growing them, they are super easy to grow, they can withstand a minimal amount of dog pee (I just made sure to rinse really well after I caught Phil peeing on them!); they do love more sun that I originally thought (I would say they need 6-8 hours for full blooms); and they fill in empty spots very nicely. I'll keep these on my annual growing list for next year, I think I really enjoy the orange and yellow blooms so I'll keep a look out in the seed catalogs in January for some easy growing varieties.

In my video you'll see my plant that I grew from seed starting this past March. I planted three plants together to make it a little more showy. Blooms are still coming, some are mid-bloom, and at the end you'll see that the seeds of the strawflower are pretty soft and easy to disperse. If I had wanted to save the seeds to plant over the winter, an easy way to save the seeds is to cover the seedhead with a paper bag, snip the stem if it's all finished blooming, and then flip the bag with the stem, close as tightly as possible and shake all the seeds off. You can also just pull the seedheads off and put into a paper bag to dry and save in a cool, dark, dry spot in your home for seed starting.

Strawflowers are a super easy way to add color and variety into your garden if you enjoy annual flowers, they look great in bouquets, and give a great textured look to your garden.

2026 Jalepeno Plant Review

 This year's jalepeno plants exploded with fruit. Last year I planted about 4 plants, I think, and I didn't think it was enough jalepenos. I did two batches of jalepeno poppers, had them on the table once a week for tacos, and by the end of the summer, I had totally run out and the plants were done producing. This year I over-compensated, or I should say that I planted the amount of plants that I thought I would need - 6 - and ended up with way too many fruits and I still have more growing on the plants... it's mid-October!

When I grow jalepenos, I tend to look for the variety that is bred to grow in the cooler northern climates. This year I ended up with "Big Guy" and then a couple plants of the regular jalepeno from Burpee that is sold at Menards. Both varieties did well.

In my experience, if you stress the plants out a little bit, they tend to make hotter, spicier fruits and they over produce, which is exactly what I ended up with this year. The absolute opposite of last year. To mildly stress out the pepper plants - I water only half as much as all of my other veggie plants, I actually skip over watering them daily and water every 2-3 days instead. I let that soil get a little more dry than normal and then water well, nice and deep. Make the roots reach deep down and make the plant WORK to survive. Your soil health is also a part of stress - but for your soil, you need it to be healthy, so plenty of compost and loamy soil for growing peppers. The stress for the plants comes in the amount of hours in the sunshine and the amount you water the plants. The stress of survival puts the plants defense system into work - the peppers use the capsaicin in the white pith of the fruits as defense from pests so the plant actually gets hotter to protect itself. The more you know, eh?

October Heat + Blooms

Marigolds + Sweet Alyssum

Zinnia

2nd blooms for the lavender this year

Strawflowers

We've had a late heat wave this October - it's the middle of the month and it was 89 degrees yesterday! I ended up pulling almost all of my tomatoes, they were all looking droopy and diseased, maybe a little fungus-y so I decided to pull and hopefully save my soil from containing the disease and fungus for next year's veggie crop that I'll plant in that garden bed. I'll take a couple photos and share those this week. It's also hot enough that the mums I bought are a little droopy and dry out so fast. I planted 3 in the ground hoping they might actually grow a bit and they ended up drying out and 2 died fairly quickly. Climate change can be pretty rough on our annuals if we miss even one day of watering when it's dry and windy weather. I'm hoping my zinnias and strawflowers hold on for another 3-4 weeks so I can enjoy some homegrown bouquets for a bit longer. 

 

New House Color

I don't think I took any before pictures. BUT here's the new color! Details haven't been finished yet so we're slowly but surely getting there. We also need new louvered vent thingys into the little attic spaces at the very top of the house so I have a handyman coming in the next week to finish that and put up the house numbers, and probably the mailbox too. So far, I really like it!