Fall Transition Now Complete!

All the hard work in previous months: Lettuce Seeds planted on Aug 27 & Sep 20 indoors under grow lights … Transplanting of lettuce seedlings into the garden on Sep 27, Oct 15 & Oct 20 … have resulted in four beds of lettuce … the one in the foreground producing the lettuce picked on the right for an evening salad!  All this and the Bell Peppers are still producing as you can see below on the left.  I did pick all the Jalapeno Peppers (see pic on lower right below) on 10-22-18 from the 3 plants which were over 5 feet tall. 

Now when you plant 7 different varieties of lettuce, it's not so easy to identify the exact variety planted … unless you keep meticulous records (which I don't).  This isn't helped when you buy say a seed packet labeled Looseleaf Blend and the seeds which sprout aren't exactly the seeds listed as the 5 options per the packaging. Take for example, the following 6 Looseleaf Blend lettuce plants pictured below.  The seed packet lists 300 seeds for 5 different varieties of lettuce.  I was able to identify the four varieties shown below:

But what about that fifth variety ... Black Seeded Simpson … which one of the two below is it? … they don't look like the same variety of lettuce ... do they?   Also, the sample pics on the Burpee website aren't always that helpful anyway.  The problems of maintaining a home vegetable garden!

I also started some Sun King Broccoli seeds on Sep 20 indoors.  I transplanted them into the garden on Oct 21.  So they have been in the ground about 10 days in the pics below.  It will probably be mid January before I have broccoli to pick.  Broccoli does great during Houston winters.  Have had wonderful success in past years.

Other varieties of lettuce planted include Four Seasons, Green Ice, Antares, Sunset & Green Frills Hybrid.  Hopefully as the lettuce grows it will be easier to identify all five varieties.  Here is my best guess so far.

Switching gears to the front yard … those Ageratum seeds I transplanted about 45 days ago have been growing very slowly … but what is forming the top middle stem if you look more closely?

Last but not least, the two large pots of Hibiscus are still producing beautiful flowers … should do so until the first frost … Hibiscus won't survive Houston winters … too sensitive to cold!  I'll put in new plants next March!

Almost forgot, I took out the purple Sweet Potato Vines under the Crepe Myrtles.  They had overwhelmed the green Sweet Potato Vines.  Then I added some Gold Bar Miscanthus with its beautiful striped foliage and some Purple Fountain Grass to divide the green from the remaining purple Sweet Potato Vines as show below.