New for 2019 in our Sunnyvale garden, Zinnia ‘Benary’s Giant Wine’ features rounded, fully double flowers packed with wine-red petals and opening up to 6 inches across. As the flower matures, a circle of small golden stars surrounds its center disk. Resembling dahlias, they are borne on very long sturdy stems. Blooms early summer to frost. We purchased our seedling …

New to our Sunnyvale garden in 2019: Liriope muscari ‘Royal Purple’, commonly called lilyturf or blue lily turf, a tufted, tuberous-rooted, grass-like perennial which typically grows 12-18″ tall and features clumps of strap-like, arching, glossy, dark green leaves (to 1″ wide). ‘Royal Purple’ is most noted for its attractive grass-like foliage and deep purple flowers. I plan to integrate it …

New to our Sunnyvale garden in 2019 is Clerodendrum ugandense (aka Butterfly Bush). Note: There are over a dozen different plants with the common name of Butterfly Bush. Clerodendrum is an open, evergreen shrub reaching 6 to 10 feet tall by 6 feet wide with 4 inch long dark green glossy leaves. From spring through fall appear the delicate and …

Scotch bonnet is a variety of chili pepper named for its resemblance to a Scottish tam o’ shanter hat. It is native to West Africa. Most Scotch bonnets have a heat rating of 80,000–400,000 Scoville units. For comparison, most jalapeño peppers have a heat rating of 2,500 to 8,000. This is a pepper I had not grown before in our …

What to do when you have more figs that you can eat? Make preserves. We have two fig trees in our Sunnyvale garden. One is a Black Mission Fig growing in a 66 gallon pot. The other is a Panache Fig (aka Tiger Fig). This is the first time for trying this recipe. The ingredients are simple enough: Figs, lemon …

In 2019 we planted 8 types of melons (including Honey Rock) in our Sunnyvale garden. For Christmas, Marie had given me a ‘Fruit pack’ of seeds. The Honey Rock melons are up to six inches in diameter with a tough, coarsely netted skin and sweet, flavorful salmon colored flesh. The plants are vigorous, producing five to seven fruits per plant …

Stuffed bell peppers, like fritattas, are another of those Anything-Goes recipes. The base is cooked rice, tomatoes, veggies, and cheese. Optionally add ground beef, beyond-beef, beans, corn, or tofu. Season it for any cuisine. Sometimes it is Italian (oregano, basil); Indian (curry, garam masala); or Mexican (cumin, mexican oregano). Many of these ingredients are harvested from our Sunnyvale garden in …

Equisetum (horsetail, snake grass, scouring-rush, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. Native to North America. Equisetum hyemale is a vigorous evergreen perennial with a striking vertical habit with multiple bamboo-like dark green stems arranged in dense clumps. Each stem has vertical ridges and is jointed or …

July’s garden is full of sunflowers, ripening vegetables and fruit. We were out of town for a few weeks so the garden was on its own — with some help from the extensive drip irrigation.

Our volunteer Blenheim apricot tree produced a lot of fruit this year. Last week, at the end of our harvest, I cut down one branch and harvested over 200 fruits. I tried giving them away on Nextdoor but there were no takers. I froze about a dozen bags of apricot halves. I didn’t want to waste the rest so decided …