Romanian Eggplant Salad

As promised earlier this month, here is my recipe for Romanian Eggplant salad. It is a success every time we make it for company or parties.

ROMANIAN EGGPLANT SALAD (SPREAD)

Wordless Wednesday 10/23/2013

Yesterday

Today

Last night we had temperatures of 33F. Still a few more pots to bring indoor. At least we got the lemon tree in yesterday! Thanks hubby! What a job to get thirty plus pots cleaned , trimmed and ready for indoor!! Thanks Alexis!
I am all sore today!

Do we have enough winter interest in our garden?

        
             I am going to share with you a few pictures I took in the last four winters and I want to ask you the following question:

Do we have enough winter interest in the garden to create a pleasing view for us and/or visitors? 

Our home in the winter

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - October 2013

 Welcome to our USDA hardiness Zone 5b garden here in Ohio, USA. As you can see, there are lots of flowers blooming in the garden:

Dinner plate Dahlia "Islander"

      This perennial Blue Hardy Ageratum has been on my mind for 10 years. I looked for it everywhere in nurseries because I saw it in a garden blooming late October and I said to myself: I have to have it! I was so excited that a nursery saleswomen brought it to me from her own garden...but it died the first winter in my garden. This past spring I found seeds online and I started it indoors. Every single seedling made it to a mature plant that bloomed and bloomed with beautiful light blue clusters! The one problem I see with this plant is that the slugs love its foliage and this year we had lots and lots of slugs.
   2015 up-date on Blue Hardy Ageratum:  Since this is a very popular post and people keep comming back to it and read it, I need to inform you that this plant was very invasive and this spring I had to pull it out of my  moist humus raised day lilies bed.  In only two seasons it quadrupled in spread and invaded even the roots and clumps of nearby plants.  It is a very SCARY INVASIVE pretty blue end of summer plant if given good soil! I will give it a last chance in a dry more shady bed by the Shed. Don't say that I didn't worn you!
2016 up-date on Blue Hardy Ageratum: Even though I pulled this plant at the end of the 2015 season in the spring the bed was filled with it again and it was a marvel in bloom. I will again try to get rid of it but if some returns from forgotten roots it will make for a nice October display.

Hardy Ageratum (Eupatorium coelestinum)

Spider flower (Cleome) - reseeds itself every year

Chrysantemum "Harmony" (Dendranthema)

Rosa "Sunny Knock Out®" - such easy to grow and a very long repeat bloomer

Two varieties of Dead Nettle that thrive in this garden : Lamium maculatum "Purple Dragon" and "Aureum"

Sedum "Angelina" front with Sedum sieboldii (in bloom) tucked under Corydalis Lutea  - another great bloomer in this part shade garden

Knotweed or Persicaria virginiana "Painter's Pallette" with the very "dangerous" but pretty red seeds

Bloomerang Purple Reblooming Lilac

Red Zonal Geranium (annual in a pot)

Toad lily or Tricyrtis Hirta "Myiazaki" - Isn't this a beauty?

Hydrangea Forever & Ever® 

This Japanese Candelabra Primrose is a little confused! It thinks that is May!

Japanese Anemone or Anemone hybrida "Party Dress"

Japanese Anemone or Anemone tomentosa "Robustissima"

Pink Spider Flower or Cleome

Aster novi-belgii "Bonningdale White"

Masterworth or Astrantia reblooming in the fall

Achillea "Paprika"

Coreopsis

Nasturtium "Alaska mix"

Verbena  - blooming Summer to Fall

There are interesting foliage plants alive and vibrant in the garden:

Trailing Coleus

Siberian Bugloss or Brunnera "Jack Frost"

Solomon's Seal or Polygonatum striatum

First year for Hardy cyclamen - unfortunately no flowers this year

Autumn Fern or Dryopteris Brilliance with Japanese Primroses foliage

Two sedums in love! Angelina with Blue Carpet (Sedum hispanicum minus "Purple Form")

Ajuga Reptans "Burgundy Glow"

The foliage of Epimedium grandiflorum Lilafee turns color to shades of brown and red in late fall

Coleus "Mississippi Summer"

Virginia creeper

Yucca with Acer palmatum var. dissectum "Inaba shidare" and a dwarf topiary juniper

There are the berries, cool seeds and exotic fruits in the garden:

Beautyberry shrub or Callicarpa Dichotoma

Hemlock

Burning Bush with berries or Euonymus alatus

Meyer Lemon tree in pot

There are the fall views to take in:

And there is Halloween around the corner:

Check out other October gardens at Carol’s main Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day post at May Dreams Gardens. Thanks so much for visiting today!

A fall tradition in our family: peppers and eggplants from the local farm

         One of the fall traditions that we introduced with our kids as soon as they can walk is going to a local farm and picking eggplants and peppers. We love eggplants because after roasting on charcoal or wood we freeze them for a Romanian eggplant salad  (link here). We also love to roast and freeze sweet and hot red bell peppers.  This year we even attempted pickling jalapeno peppers picked from the farm since our daughter Alexis loves hot peppers as much as us. The taste of our own prepared peppers is out of this world. There is nothing at the grocery store that compares in taste and texture with our own peppers at a fraction of price that you pay at the store.
         The kids don't care what we have them pick as long as we take them with us at the farm and let them take the tractor ride.  We end-up canning about 20 lbs of eggplants and 70 lbs of peppers of various kind every year. We had introduced some of our neighbors and friends to our tradition and they all love it.

Fall 2013: Tractor pulls the kids to the fields

Wordless Wednesday 10/10/13