Garden Update: May 2010

Current garden status:

For the first time since I've lived here, my magnolia is in bloom!


The trees by my lanai are in bloom as well. Now that I have these blooms to help me identify them, I think that I am now comfortable identifying these as Shady Lady olive trees.

The lubbers are infesting the yard-- both big and small lubbers.

So far they haven't been destroying my vegetable plants, but they have been eating the sheffelera. That's alright by me.

My gardenia is in bloom now...


I do nothing to this thing, but it seems to love it's location. I fear it won't do so well after we cut down the ficus, which currently provides it with shade.

The rubber vine is in full bloom right now.

I love this shot that Woodrow got of the rubber vine.
Pretty!

More veggies and other updates

I decided that for Mother's Day I would give my mother a potted okra. She likes okra, and like me has been growing a few veggies.


I am now growing an assortment of herbs, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers and melons.

I also noticed the other day that one of my Plumeria (Frangipan) seems to have died.



Perhaps it took a bad hit from a lawn mower or weedeater. I was told by a nursery person that these are especially sensitive to damage caused by weedeaters and bumps from mowers.

I also bought a plant at an arts and crafts show Saturday. I don't know what it's called, but it looks like a colorful version of a Hens and Chicks succulent.


I thought that it might be pretty in front of the house, where I have no hose to water potted plants.

Not bad!

Unfortunately I uncovered a carpenter ant nest when I moved a pot yesterday. Well, unfortunate for me. The lizards were all very excited! They all came running when they saw what was going on! I had three of them vying for the buffet. I learned that the adults ants must have a fierce bite, so they are avoided by the lizards. The lizards seemed to be concentrating mostly on the winged ants, and occasionally an egg.






Grody! But I found both the ant and lizard behavior fascinating!

Garden Update: April 2010

Jeez! Has it really been 9 months since I posted here?! How is that possible? Well, the unruly garden is still unruly. We did some work in it today.

I've decided that the large ficus needs to come down, after a lot of debate and asking others for their opinions as well. The consensus is that the roots are a liability and will likely undermine the foundation. So Tommy started cutting off the ficus branches. Now is a good time to take it down, as the hard winter freezes caused it to lose at least half of its leaves.

Mom and I did a lot of weed-pulling, filling up a large 65 gallon can. Mom also lopped off some palm fronds, which got hauled out to the road.

One thing that has been going on in the yard is lubbers. I know. I always have lubbers. Only this time, it is baby lubbers. I first spotted them nearly a month ago, when I found about 30 of them around my swing and deck in the backyard.


Then a week or so later, I spotted a second nest in the...yucca?...located near my front door.

That's a lot of lubbers in my yard this summer! When Mom and I were pulling weeds today, we kept coming across lubbers scattered around the yard. I don't like to kill anything, and I also don't like to use chemicals around my place. So I decided to capture as many as I could and I'll release them in on a vacant lot on my way to work tomorrow. So I started collecting them in a jar. It was pretty tough, because as you let one in you would often find another would jump OUT of the jar! But in the end, I wound up with a jar of five lubbers!

So tomorrow morning a vacant lot will have five more lubbers, and my yard will have five fewer. I'll keep doing this, slowly getting down the lubber population without harming them or polluting the environment with pesticides.

The yard has TONS more work to be done, but at least I am beginning to get a vision. Things that I previously loved and refused to remove I am now planning on taking out. I want a yard that is low maintenance, and low water requirements. I'm considering doing some bromeliads for this very reason, like the ones that they have out at the bromeliad and orchid center.




Beautiful!

The mango has surprised me by blooming. We'll see whether it comes to fruition and I get any edible mangoes out of it.


I noticed the other day that something is eating up my loquat. Maybe the lubber babies? Today I bought a tomato plant and some herbs to start with. Next weekend I hope to plant some veggies in the garden bed.

I spotted Black Ivy (my black snake) recently, so she is still around and survived the winter. I also spotted a raccoon a few weeks back. Doh! I hope that doesn't become a problem.

Stay tuned! More to come!

Surprise!

I was checking out the new sprouts coming in on my Plumeria the other day.



I leaned in to get a better look at the single leaf that has made an appearance...



...and then glanced left at the Plumeria tips next to my face. Surprise!



To give you a little perspective on the size of the body on this thing, those branches are about 1 to 1 1/4 inches thick.



I hate surprises like that!

That's one big caterpillar!

I went out to water my plants the other day, and found this guy by my hose.



I don't know what kind of caterpillar that is, but it sure is big!

Bad Ant

See this?



This is a bad ant.



At least as far as I'm concerned. I seem to be allergic or "sensitive" to these ants. One bite can become a swollen black lump the size of a half-dollar and with a red bulls-eye in the center. And it hurts like the devil when it bites! I still don't know what it is. I call them "oak ants", because they are commonly found under oak trees. This one was by my lanai. Beware!

Saturday Brief Update

I got a shot of this garden helper.


I'm not sure yet what he is, but I see them on my mango all of the time. I always like seeing them, as I believe that they are working hard getting the bad guys and keeping my mango healthy and happy.

Unfortunately I have not been able to spot my Gulf Fritillary caterpillar for a couple of days. I'm concerned that a bird may have gotten him. But I did spot this little guy.


Looks like a new GF on the passion vine. I need to move the passion vine to a more sheltered location, to try to give this little guy a better chance at survival.

I have a number of flowers about to bloom on the passion flower vine.

My loquat is showing signs of freeze damage from our last freeze.


I think it'll be okay, though.

I spotted one of the lizard eggs from a couple of months ago. It seems maybe a lizard actually hatched from it.


The other three are still intact.

I found these seeds on my deck the other day. I don't know what they are from.




That's a quick update for today. No time in the garden today, aside from watering the potted plants.

Charlotte's Web

After I got home from work, Woodrow was showing me what he'd done out in the garden today (more cleaning up behind the shed and weed-pulling). Then he was looking in the shade garden at the dragon plant, and he saw this...


What's that?


A nest of spiders! Now THAT'S what I need to see, having arachnophobia as I do. Knowing that all of those spiders are growing up to be BIG spiders, and in my yard! But I need to hope that they are of benefit to my yard, and they stay well-hidden and out of sight of me in the future.

Progress Report

Well, I spent a couple of hours Saturday working on the weeds. I decided to concentrate on the area between the shed and the screened lanai.

While I worked, I had a little bird spend time with me.


You can see in the picture that he is essentially "laying down" on the wire relaxing. He took a short "nap" up there, and I even watched him yawn and stretch as he finished. Then he flew over to my deck bench and flitted down to my potted tomato and beds in search of lizards and bugs.




Afterwards he flew back to his spot on the wire and spent a little more time with me.

I spent about two hours pulling weeds, and had some success in improving the yard.

BEFORE


AFTER


BEFORE


AFTER


BEFORE


AFTER


BEFORE


AFTER


I ended with six piles of weeds...


...that filled a full yard bag (the other one is from my last weeding venture).


Some of the weeds were really hard to pull. This one in particular has a really deep tap root.


When it is allowed to grow bigger, it is impossible to pull and must be dug out with a shovel.

I also came across this caterpillar in the weeds.


Don't know what kind it is.

Also my seedlings continue sprouting.

My leeks, mystery seedling (found in packaged potting soil), and cilantro are all doing well...


...as are the Bibb and Romaine lettuces and carrots...


The chives are sprouting, but the green beans and rosemary are still a "no show".


That's my progress for this week. Slow and steady wins the race.