Mystery Beans

They are getting bigger and definitely some sort of bean.  I love pea/bean flowers. They are so delicate and dainty. They also offer up a nice change from all of the yellow of the summer veggies (think squash, melon, cucumber).

 They also have some beans. Problem is they are sort of a mystery plant. I got a little crazy and I planted a Bush bean, some Pinto beans and black beans at various times. However I did not label any of them, and they took FOREVER to come up.   I have no clue which ones these are!  I've tried a bite and they seem a little small and too furry to be edible at this time.  So maybe I have my first home grown frijoles!

Mystery Plant part Deux

and once again the garden is full of surprises, notably this one:

No seriously, what is this?

And not only is there another mystery plant, she is living WITH the other mystery plants.  (in fact I think I spied a 3rd mystery plant in that corner but I just CANT with that right now). So while I still try to figure out my first mystery (no news on that front as of yet) we are on to M-2 as I like to call her.

And clearly she's a girl, she has bells, one of the first things I noticed as I attempted my sleuthing.  Here's a shot:

It's a little blurry but those bells seem to house the flowers.  The flowers are pretty, similar to okra in shape and with a small dark center.  They only stay open for a day or so.

 and have a beautiful "star" shape when they first open.


Now google images has gotten me some BEAUTIFUL yellow flowered plants but nothing quite like this. It has grown much faster than M-1 but there is only one of them, hopefully she can self pollinate and I will get to learn what this is.  I have no weeds like her in the garden and so I must have planted her. I tried a leaf-not good- (and probably a habit I should stop).

mystery Babies

I had a dead patch of garden I recently mulched along with the more active parts of my garden. I had recently pulled out a humungo-squash and was preparing to use this as a spot to dig in some compost to get soil ready for winter plants. A few weeks later I went outside to dig some kitchen scraps in and I found a surprise.  Mystery Babies! They are getting bigger. they have even developed a second set of leaves~ TRUE LEAVES! That means they are true plants ! Now what are they? Time to do some research

The leaves are smooth and thin. The seedlings look like tomatoes but the true leaves look too smooth at this point. Also check out that stem...red.

Oh wait, Tomatillo's have red stems-I put some tomatillos somewhere in this garden in June, (two months is average germination time right?)

Tomatillo Seeds someone bothered to label

But oh wait: 

This is a tomato seed

Red stems... the "true leaves" of this tomato plant seem more pokie than what I've got going on, but there certainly are a lot of tomato varieties out there!

So lets follow along and see what happens as they get bigger, who knows maybe I am totally wrong and they will turn into this:

Transitioning, I'm doing it wrong

Most of my garden packs for "cool weather plants" are indicating that it is time to start getting those leafy greens in the ground. It appears that according to the gods that pack those seeds in the hermetically sealed envelopes, August and September are the transition to fall weather, in zone 'orange'.

So I have begun my winter veg plans:  picking plants; beets, broccoli, and brussels, celery, carrots, leeks and lettuce.  Checking my handy dandy companion guide (companion guide Magic Garden Nursery )and planning out where things will go. (trying to avoid another round of 'mystery' veggies). And trying to refresh my soil for these heavy feeds with compost as hot guys die off. (This compost process is probably the most stressful garden planning I have...what is so difficult about garden trash? I'll tell you another time)

But apparently the weather did not get the memo from the seed packers...

High's in the low 100's is technically a transition from high's in the 110's!

So while this is technically a transition we are NOT yet in fall weather, heck this is still hotter than other peep's summer. So while I had gotten prepared for planting my first winter garden it is back to summer maintenance around here. (Especially as some of my summer weather plants have decided to finally wake up.  I went out to a deserted corner the other day and found some late blooming somethings, mystery plants...Time will tell what they are, its been months with nothing popping up over there so I have no clue what/when I planted those little guys.)  It is back to watering, watering, watering and trying to prevent sunburn. .  Guess we will just have to wait...

The plus is I will be getting one more sweet round of tomatoes, beans, squash, cukes and whatever that is:

a buncha new fellas

2nd set of leaves-at least he's happy