State of the Garden: 2/18/13

The garden is still going pretty well. We had some pretty cold weather last night (I think we got down to around 37 degrees), but the plants seem to have survived just fine. My bean plants have the first flowers showing...

Including my Scarlet Runner bean plant...

I planted some radishes, and they are doing well. The front row were pre-germinated. The back row was planted as seeds. However they seem to be growing at an almost identical rate.

I had a Better Bush tomato ripening on the vine, and something ate it.

Today I found the critter had been back, and had now removed the rest of the tomato from the vine...

...and then started in on the other tomato that was ripening.

I noticed that it was able to determine which side of the tomato was ripe, and only eats on that side. So it reached into the tomato cage and at the ripe side of the tomato, ignoring the green side exposed to the outside of the cage.

So whatever is eating the tomatoes is able to get its head between the bars of the cage, which are probably only 2 inches apart. I had assumed that it was my resident opossum, which I believe is still around, since I can see from the new mulch that I laid down that something is still going under my shed.

I've watched my opossum go under there before, so I know that's his usual route under there. However I also know that he is a big boy, so it's surprising that he'd be able to get his head through the bars of that tomato cage. Of course, it's always possible it could be a rat or mouse. Who knows? I just hope it doesn't continue to be a problem. Especially since I have a yellow pear tomato plant with about a dozen tomatoes growing on it at all different stages of development.

My grapevine is hanging in there, but has something weird going on with it. It seems to be dying close to the ground, but the vining arms are doing fine.

The leaves near the base are turning brown and falling off...

...yet this vining tendril is bright green and healthy in appearance.

Weird. And I saw this guy on one of my bean plants. I don't know whether he's good or bad.

I've noticed that my bean plants have some drying and wrinkling of the leaves on some edges. I'm not sure what is causing it. I'm speculating it could be the warmer weather we've been having, as it seems I'm at the end of the growing season for beans and peas.

My jalapeno continues to grow. Part of me wishes my snacking critter would try snacking on this!

I have two tiny little bell peppers started...

And my passion flower vine continues to bloom like crazy, but no fruit have taken.

My strawberries are still going well. I have a dozen or more now, with the first two beginning to show a little ripening.

My mango tree is showing signs of something snacking on it as well. A lot of the leaves are looking eaten up.

But it has mangoes growing! The strange thing is that our warm weather seems to have caused a couple of blooming spurts. So while I have fruit growing up on top of my tree (where the tree bloomed about a month ago)...

I have fresh blooms coming in down below...

So there's a lot of activity going on in the garden. Now if I can just figure out what to do about the midnight snacker that's eating my tomatoes!

Front Garden Bed

When I bought my home, it had been abandoned for awhile, and was very overgrown and wild. Little by little, I am getting a foothold in it. Baby steps.

This was the front garden bed when I first saw the house.

It was edged in rotting railroad ties. We've trimmed up some of the things and done some weeding, but little else.

So today, with our beautiful weather we've had the last couple of days, we decided that it was time to tackle this area. We weeded, dug up the rotting wood, cut up what I think was Brazilian Pepper growing in the front bed, etc.

While digging around in the front bed, I found five of these curved cement edgers had been buried upside down in the ground. Not in any understandable pattern. I don't know what the deal was with that. They were buried all the way to the "tops" (upside-down. They were really the bottoms.)

After that was done, we put edging bricks down and filled the beds with mulch.

Additionally Woodrow built me a patio to hold my trash cans. He wants to do a little more work on it, since the second half added today slopes a little.

One nice surprise today: I discovered a papaya tree behind my shed...

 

Unfortunately I also found that mother-in-law's tongue is taking over my well head. I need to get this cleaned up ASAP. Next project.

But for now we are very pleased with the results on the front bed. Unfortunately I am absolutely EXHAUSTED and every muscle in my body hurts! So I won't be doing any more yard work this week!

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!

Garden Update

First a few before and after shots:

Behind shed BEFORE


Behind shed AFTER




Side yard BEFORE


Side yard AFTER




Raised bed BEFORE


Raised bed AFTER




Southwest corner BEFORE


Southwest corner AFTER




Front yard BEFORE


Front yard AFTER



So we are slowly making progress.

While cleaning up the Bird of Paradise in the southwest corner, I turned up this bloom.


I also uncovered this scat on the deadpile currently in front of my shed.


You know, I'm always fascinated with animal scat, and trying to determine what left it behind. Since I have a privacy fence out back, I have to wonder what's getting in my yard at night, and possibly lives in my yard under the shed.

This swing is a new addition to the yard.


It was given to me by Mom's neighbor. We have it in a shady spot that faces the west, so we can sit out here and watch the sunset.

And Woodrow bought me a wheelbarrow for the yard work.


He got sick of hauling stuff out to the road for me using the little dinky cart that was given to me by my mother. :)

I also discovered these supports that were installed on the fence to support the bougainvilleas that grow against the fenceline.


My passion vine is blooming like crazy. Every day it throws up a new bloom.


And it is supporting a new Gulf Frittilary caterpillar that is growing like gangbusters.




I swear every couple of days I go out to find it substantially bigger than a few days before.

My mango continues to grow:


However the mango tree has dropped a lot of it's smaller fruit. But it does have a lot of new blooms and small fruits coming in. So I'm hoping that the fruit loss is normal.

The tomatoes look good. One is almost ready to harvest, and there is one other small one coming in.


However my eggplant is infested with aphids..


...and some have spread to the pepper plant.


My jasmine is beginning to bloom. Yeah!


And I'm trying to figure out the deal with the cauliflower. This cauliflower was planted a few months ago from a tray of cauliflower bought at Lowe's. Both the cauliflower on the left and right came from the same batch, had the same soil and by all appearances the same conditions. They sit right next to one another.


Yet one is obviously thriving while the other isn't. All I can figure is that the one on the left gets slightly less sun than the one on the right, and it likes it.

You see this guy?


This guy LOVES to chatter and sing! He actually seems to seek out people. He will land near me overhead, and sing like crazy, and sometimes mimic the whistles of me and Woodrow. I think that this might be the same guy who sings up a storm in the middle of the night. Woodrow often hears him between midnight and 2 AM. I even got audio of him recently, but the file is too large for Photobucket, so I have to find a different way to post.

The greatest miracle of all? I finally discovered the Guava tree!


The notes for the house mentioned a guava, but I could never find it. I finally discovered it, hidden away behind the wild bougainvillea next to the shed.


Now I just have to figure out how to move that bougie, so I can free the guava from its grasp!

So that's where we stand at this point. TONS of work to do yet, but it is slowly coming together.