Seed Experimentation

Well, I'm exhausted. I did some yard work today, and have more to do tomorrow. Now I'm tired and sore.

I noticed the other day that it appeared that my fence was leaning in where my bougainvillea is located on the back fence. So I decided it is time to work on taking it down. It can get really beautiful a couple of times a year, but it is a nightmare to maintain, and is now jeopardizing my fence.

These new loppers I bought a few months ago are pretty great.

They had no problem cutting through a thumbsized branch of bougainvillea...

And my new Kobalt handsaw had no trouble cutting through bigger branches...

I cut down probably about half of the bougainvillea, and filled up my large 65 gallon horticulture can. I'll try to work on the rest next weekend.

I've also been testing the viability of my old seed. I started by putting seeds and beans that all had a 2009 "best by" date on damp towels.

Then I rolled up the paper towels and placed them in a ziploc bag labeled with all of the seed names.

Then I checked the seeds a few days later, and I found the beans and peas were doing really well.

Then today, after about a week, I checked them again, and found nearly all of the beans had germinated.

So I decided to try some experiments, instead of just throwing away the germinated seed.

First I cleaned out one of the deck beds.

Then I planted a jalapeno and sweet red bell pepper, and a Better Bush tomato plant (which already has a couple of small tomatoes on it). And then as an experiment I took some of the Big Red Ripper Pea, Garden Bean and Royal Burgundy Bean sprouts and put them about an inch down in the soil along the back. I also put a bunch of the Brandywine tomato sprouts around the outside of the tomato cage.

We'll see how it goes, and whether any of the sprouts grow.

I also put some trellis around my new grapevine.

Earlier today, while I was at Lowe's, I came across some boxes made to sit on a deck railing. So I bought a couple. I drilled some drainage holes in the bottom (I love when I get to use power tools!)

Then I put 4 Dwarf Taylor Bush Bean seeds along the back, and 4 Dwarf Oregon Giant Snow Pea seeds across the front. We'll see how they do, and how "dwarf" they are!

I also took 2 Dwarf Taylor bean sprouts and put one on each side of the box. We'll see how they do.

Then I took the remaining sprouts and spread them around the yard. Some I pushed into the soil, and others I just tossed on top. I put some around my mahogany trees and some around my grapevine. 

And I put some sunflower sprouts around my tree stump.

So we'll see what happens with all of my sprouts and seeds. I also sprinkled some Giant Columbine seeds over some soil in my decorative pot. I'll be curious to see what happens with them as well.

I have more work to do tomorrow, and I'm exhausted just thinking about it! I still need to do some weeding, re-pot my pineapple and some strawberries, put some lettuce seed in the other deck railing box, maybe clean out the other deck planter (to try sowing some Cornflower and Wallflower), and maybe finally put my Bird of Paradise in the ground (I've had it sitting in a pot on my deck for years). Oh, and I have a new papaya tree that I need to put somewhere, but I'm not sure yet just where.

So busy day tomorrow, too!

Big Day in the Backyard

Well, today was the day- the downfall of the ficus. I've intended to take it down for awhile, as the roots are dangerous to my plumbing, septic and foundation. We began by cutting off some of the lower branches last year. And then we had an unusually cold winter. After that, the tree dropped all of its leaves, and has since been getting some leaves back in little tufts. But the tree was definitely not doing well.

So it was time for it to finally come down. Tommy, Mom and Jon came over to help take it down, and my boss even came to help load it into his trailer and take it over to his property to burn.

Unfortunately this video came out sideways...

But when it was all done, all we were left with was this stump...

We may cut it down further later on, or I may use it as is to mount bromeliads or something.

Many thanks to everyone, as it never would have gotten done without them. And thanks to my Dad for offering to bring his chainsaw down here this week to do it for me!

Everyone is tuckered out tonight. Even Zook has been sleeping all day, after having played with Katy for hours. And now a storm is moving in...

...and it's knocking mangoes off the tree.

So it's a nice stormy night after a hard day's work. There's nothing better than that!

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: 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!