Quick Update

Well it is the beginning of February, and I have been in my place for almost four months now. I haven't had any time in the yard lately, and we've been dealing with really cold weather down here, so there is some frost damage to deal with. At least a lot of the weeds got zapped by the cold!

But I did want to do a quick update of how things look. The container veggies are still going well. Tomatoes are developing and eggplant is getting large. Cauliflower still need to be divided and repotted into a few more pots (too many of them in one pot).

I'm not sure, but the Sweet Yellow Pepper looks like it could have a couple of little flower buds coming on.


The pic is really blurry, but there are two little buds in the center there that may be flower buds coming in!

The seedlings are doing well. The Bibb and Romaine Lettuce and Carrots are looking good. It'll be interesting seeing if I can transplant Carrots into a pot. I think I may try to grow the lettuce in a bag of potting soil, and see how that goes-- just lay the bag down, slice it open, and plant the lettuce transplants.


Likewise the Chives, Leeks and Cilantro are going well. I have the same concerns for the Leeks as I do for the Carrots. I don't know how they will handle tranplanting.


One of my Green Beans and my Rosemary have finally sprouted. Still nothing from the other green bean. I am about to start three more green beans.


I'm wondering what this little thing on my poinsettia is? It almost looks like a flower bud coming in. Do poinsettia actually flower? I've only seen the leaves color up like flowers, but have never seen actual flowers on them.


Also I have a single rangy rose bush next to my deck, and periodically it surprises me with a sudden bloom.


Very fragrant blooms it has!

So that is my quick little update. We'll see whether I have time this weekend to do any gardening.

Rare Florida Freeze

Well, while I was out of town on business, Florida got hit with a rare freeze-- the likes of which I haven't seen for many years. It got down to the upper 20s in Orlando where I was on business. When we went to leave about 6:30 AM to go to our show, there was ice on the windshield that had to be scraped off.

I'm not sure how cold it got at my place, but I think this area got around freezing. I worried what I would come home to. I knew about the cold weather ahead of time, so I brought in my potted plants before I left. So my veggies came through okay. I was really lucky. I only have one plant that I've found that could turn out to be totally destroyed by the freeze. That's my Chenille Plant:


A tour around my yard found a couple of other plants that seem damaged or stressed. For some reason, the Areca Palm behind the shed seems to have been hit pretty hard, but all my other Arecas are fine:


Also one of my banana trees seems to have been hit pretty hard:


And the other tree seems stressed, as does the (Draecaena?) next to it:


My ferns seem pretty stressed, but I think they'll survive...


...and likewise the Bird of Paradise looks a little stressed, but I think it will be okay:


On the positive side, my Poinsettia continues to bloom.


I'm excited about this! I've never before gotten a poinsettia to bloom again. Now I just need to trim it down and see how it does next year.

Also the bougainvillea by the shed has finally started to really throw some blooms.


It has been a little slower to bloom than the one out in the sun.

The Cape Jasmine is still hanging onto that bud, and won't let it bloom.


My tomato plant keeps going.


I think it's got about five tomatoes on it now.

My mango blooms keep going, too...


...and my eggplant and yellow pepper.


I have a flower coming in on my White Bird of Paradise:


The cauliflower are getting big, too, and need to be split up among more pots.


So I got pretty lucky with the freeze. A lot of people lost a lot of good plants. However I play a sort of "survival of the fittest" type of game in my yard. I refuse to spend too much time protecting and maintaining everything.

Triumphs and Tribulations

I decided to take an inventory of what has or is going well in my garden, and what is problematic:

TRIUMPH: I have succeeded in luring in birds to my garden. I have shrikes, grackles, doves and a woodpecker (seen in the bottom picture, third branch up on the right). I'm not sure what the bird is below. It doesn't appear to be the shrike that regularly visits now.








TRIUMPH: I saw my first snake in the yard today. I would like to have a black snake or some sort of garden snake around here to help control the spiders and bugs.


TRIBULATION: I got a splinter under my nail while gardening, and it will probably be there for awhile. There's no way to get it out.


TRIUMPH: I took another glance behind the shed today (which is pictured in the header of this blog), and found that at some point in the last month the wind got strong enough to knock over the work table back there.


That's not what's the "triumph". What's good about that is that it allowed me to get a better view of the area back there. I found out that there appears to be a sink or washtub back there, although I can't be certain whether it is connected to water. I can see a hose in the image as well, and it almost seems it may be connected to the tub?


Also I could see that there is a wooden "bin" built on to the side of the shed, I think. I thought I saw something like that the other day, when looking at the side of the shed from the front. (That's difficult to see, as there is a huge bougainvillea and banana trees blocking access to the right side of the shed.) So I don't know whether there may be anything in that "bin".

Then I also noticed that there is a ladder hooked onto the back of the shed.


Good to know!

TRIUMPH: I may have finally found an ant bait that works on the ghost ants that have overtaken the house!


I've tried numerous baits, and haven't gotten them to take any of them. They seem to like this one!


TRIUMPH: I finally have a shovel and a rake. The rake is awesome!



TRIBULATION: Anytime that I rake the pile of leaves by the deck, I have a bunch of what look to be roaches that go scampering for cover. It freaks me out everytime!


TRIUMPH: I'm excited to see that so far the seeds I'm trying to start are hanging in there. I'm hoping that I found a good spot for them, and the sprouts will get enough light, but it will be cool enough to prevent them from drying out quickly.



TRIUMPH: The weeding is slowly coming along.



TRIUMPH: My hibiscus is looking a little better today after I repotted it. I potted it the other day in the Timberline soil, and it began to wilt and lost the bud that was preparing to bloom. Today it has started to firm up again after I repotted it yesterday in Jungle Growth soil.



TRIUMPH: My bougainvillea continues to get more and more gorgeous.



TRIUMPH: The Angel's Trumpet has gorgeous blooms, despite the fact that it has hardly any leaves. I guess it puts all of its energy into its blooms.



TRIBULATION: My strawberry plant has never thrived, but has merely "survived". It's probably a year or more old at this point.



TRIUMPH: My orange tree continues to grow. I can't believe I've kept it alive in a pot for all of these years. I historically haven't been real successful with plants, because they dry out so quickly, so this one beat the odds. (Since I've lived in the house, I've been much more successful with the potted plants, since I have a hose now.)


TRIUMPH: My tomato plant is doing well, and the fruit is continuing to grow.


TRIBULATION: My aloe is pitiful. I don't know why. Maybe because it's rootbound? Or because it gets too little water? It's a very bland yellow instead of green.



TRIBULATION: My ficus seedling is not doing well. Perhaps I should have gotten some rooting powder before trying to transplant it from the ground to a pot? Or perhaps the shock of having initially planted it into heavy soil instead of starter mix?



TRIUMPH: My poinsettia actually bloomed a little this year! Now in 2009 I'm going to prune it back in hopes that it will really bloom late in 2009.



TRIBULATION: The no-seeums are terrible in my yard right now! I get eaten up everytime I go out to work in the yard.


TRIUMPH: I found my violet, which has been missing since I bought it days ago, and it was still alive. It was in a plastic bag on the table with some other items.



Those are my "Triumphs and Tribulations" for this week. We'll see whether I can turn around some of those "tribulations".