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!

Slowly but Surely

Well, the yard is coming along, little by little. I hired my cousin to come over and do some work around the house and yard for me. Remember behind my shed? That picture in the banner at the top of this blog? Well, this is it today...

And to the right of the shed has been so overgrown you couldn't see that there was an entrance there to go behind the shed. This is a shot from a couple of years ago, and the areas still looked like this, or worse...

While the bougainvillea is beautiful, it is nothing but thorns and a nightmare to work around, and makes entering that area behind the shed impossible. So we are working to get rid of it. This is what this area looked like after my cousin finished with it today...

And now my guava tree can finally see daylight...

My Bismark Palm can now be walked under, which will make it much easier for mowing...

And the garbage guys have their work cut out for them tomorrow.

I'm hoping that they pick up the horticulture. I didn't expect my workers to leave a huge pile of stuff like that!

The sink from behind the shed was quickly picked up, but there is still a gardening table waiting for someone to snag it up.

The deck has been cleaned up and looks like a deck again. One of these days, I need to grill out again.

So a lot has been done around here in the last week or two. And I'm exhausted, even though I'm paying someone else to do the majority of the work! What I can't figure out is what this was doing laying on my bathroom floor after they left.

How did a wasp wind up dead on the floor? All I can figure is it came in on my cousin without him even realizing it.

 I'll be interested to see what happens with the yard over time...

UPDATE: I still live in a jungle

I've been trying to work on the yard a little, after much neglect for far too long, and have barely made a dent. Today I decided to try and pull a few weeds, and found it much easier than usual, given all of the rain we've been getting. NOTE TO SELF: After heavy rains is the best time to weed! The saturated ground doesn't hold onto the weeds as hard as it usually does.

I quickly filled my large horticulture bin (55? 65 gallons? Something like that...) with weeds, and it didn't even make a noticeable difference.

I also found that over the last couple of months, my swing cushion has literally disintegrated...

So I need to haul that out for garbage pickup this week, and then look into getting a new one.

Last I saw it not so long ago, it had some tears, but didn't look like this. So either the sun and rain has really taken its toll over the last few weeks, or the raccoons have-- or both!

Unfortunately I moved an old pot sitting on the deck in front of my shed, and found the wood rotted beneath.

I am finding that my deck is not holding up well. I have to wonder whether the wood they used was pressure-treated, or maybe it is simply because it wasn't sealed. In any event, I'm trying to think of plan B in anticipation of the deck needing to go in the upcoming years. At that point, I will probably switch to a brick or paver patio instead.

Then next to this I noticed what looked like strange little rocks or seed pods. Upon closer investigation I realized they were snake eggs!

And good-sized eggs at that! I don't think my little black snake Black Ivy could have laid these. I would say that the snake that laid these would have to be at least 3 1/2 to 4 foot long, wouldn't you?

I found the hole dug into a little bed in front of my shed, next to a tree. I counted at least 18 eggs. Unfortunately I am guessing that the raccoons got to them before they were ready to hatch, due to the way they were scattered around and the hole that seemed dug DOWN instead of up and out.

And then next to the nest, I spotted this little guy. He was dead.

Poor little guy.

I just have to wonder just how big Momma snake is to have eggs this big?

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!