I took a day off of work today to bring my mom to a doctor’s appointment. Before we left, I had the chance to check out the back garden, which I hardly get to see in daylight since the days are so damn short.

I turned the compost in our new Smith & Hawkins BioStack Composter, which I won at a city composting workshop, and can definitely feel the heat being generated. I want to get another one, so if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area and want to get rid of yours, I’ll take it.

Compost

I dreaded seeing the Coleus pots and, yup, they are all pretty much dead. The poor things. I should have move them into the patio, but there’s just not much room. I walked around the garden to look for more potted casualties, and found that the other plants are actually doing fine, including the Avocado, Lemon Grass and Solanum pyracanthum. Just to be safe I moved them to an enclosed area along the house wall.

Solanum pyracanthum

Lemon Grass

I found some Sugar Snap Pea seeds that I collected in late spring, and I decided to plant them along the two empty trellises in the vegetable garden. I know it’s late, but I’ll see if they grow.

I found some bulbs (Allium Christophii and Bronze Beauty Dutch Iris) that I bought a few months ago and forgot about (bad me!)… I don’t know where to plant them, so I’m putting them in 1 gallon pots for now. I also found some other Dutch Iris and Spring Star Flower bulbs that I dug up from one of the beds and also planted them in 1 gallon pots.

Bronze Beauty Dutch Iris

I checked the coleus cuttings that I took about 2 months ago and noticed that they finally have roots. I planted those in 4″ pots and place them in an enclosed shelf in the patio.

Potted Coleus cuttings

I snagged one of them from Home Depot’s floor. It was labeled “Cache”, but the other Coleus were also labeled Cache, so I don’t think that it’s actual name. I’ll call it “Unknown Coleus Cache” for now. I got the other five from my co-worker, Purr, as thanks for helping install a flagstone pathway. I also don’t know the names, but know they are from White Flower Farm. For now I’m calling these “Unknown Coleus from Purr”.

[Added Dec. 12] The Unknown Coleus from Purr are Black Magic, Peridot, Bronze Pagoda, Garnet Robe and Rattlesnake.

I also took photos of our Shallots and a Rosemary plant that I’ve had over 16 years.

Shallots

Rosemary Flowers

The whole Rosemary plant