Nearsighted

 I wear contact lenses so I can see distance.  As I've gotten older, the lenses actually make my reading vision worse.  With naked eye, I can read just fine - even pill bottles! So if I have my contact lenses in, I have to wear reading glasses.  Damned if you, damned if you don't.

Anyway, I went out the other morning to have a look around -with my naked eyes.

Damn it.  Aloe mite on Aloe fievetii. Aloe mites are not visible, but eventually their existence IS. These ugly galls caused by their injecting a chemical into the plant while feeding.   

Again yesterday morning, walkaround.  *Photo taken after snip-snip. DAMMIT JANET! Planted in a clay pipe, Aloe johannis-bernardii also has a telltale gall. Thankfully both plants had new pups that don't look affected.  I cut off both of the older growths, bagged tightly and threw them in the garbage.  I treated both with BioAdvanced 3-in-1 Insecticide.  I've had luck treating aloes with this before, after removal of galls.  Of course I've killed aloes doing this as well.  I'll keep a close on these (without my contacts inserted) and throw them out completely if I see any weirdness.

I did a very thorough check and don't see signs of it anywhere else, yet.  The whole issue had me wondering, how many aloes do I have?  I did a haphazard counting, I'm sure some were missed.  52 aloes in the front garden and 119 in the back.  Whaaaaaat?  Small 4" potted aloes in waiting not included. 

In good aloe news... Aloe africana seems to be spouting extra early?  I'll have to check last year's bloomtime.

closer...

And Aloe megalacantha is shouting fall orangey-ness. *Sorry for hose and cat. 

Such a cool bloom, orange with purple tips. 

And planted in the meteor in the front, an aloe that grows on rock -aloe molederana 

has locked in and showing new growth.

Other notes from the walkaround.  I don't grow fuchsias, except this one... Fuchsia corymbiflora from the old Annie's Annuals made it through the great front garden reno last year. I'm so glad it did, there's something refreshing about it flowering in the midst of this heatwave.

The plants here get mostly shaded by the front porch, some early morning sun then nada.

It is supposed to cool to the mid 80°'s after today.  I'm going to brave the heat and clean up the farm a bit.  Trim pumpkin leaves so the fruit will color up.  The pumpkin leaves give me hives, so this will be a barrel of monkeys. This Cinderella pumpkin is ready!

The little black (blackjack) ones are my favorite.   Dang, the corn is good.  I'll admit I  have had corn & cornbread for dinner more than one night. 

I put a few blackjack pumpkins on the mantel. 

Happy September!