Plant Propagation, The Basics, July 2018

Nothing eats my echinacea., they eat everything else instead. Drought is eating my budget. $200 waterbill. Hugelkultur bed going in asap, my poor peppers and tomatoes in their buckets aren't thriving.

Home. Surprised anything is still alive, weeds are going gangbusters. I have a lot to still do, but it is underway, as well as seed gathering...
I woke up this morning feeling as if I had been run over by a freight train, chuckl.

My post got blocked this try again ,
kitt Good to see your homecoming went well

The help and a few seedlings

Yeaah, my Doodle kitten appears to be off his diet, so I have a 10 and a half month kitten weighing in at 35#. It is rough on my sheet when he decides to stay indoors aat night...

Welcome home Kitt...looks like the weeds took advantage of your absence.

Mingles doesn't look like much help. ☺

Kit Kat enjoys the cool patio bricks.

Kitt It does not take long for weeds to do that , 'The Takeover ' Written by The Lost Gardener ,,
Sun Kit Kat is cute , Tribbles likes cool concrete 3

4 is a little visitor

Oh Sunkissed, that's not good as I have the same challenges. What I do now is a LOT of work, and prolly not quite correct to tall about..getting rid of squirrel's ( tree rats ) my Husband calls them, but you could try spreading barberry bush clippings all around exposed or not exposed what ever works, and weighting them down with some medium size rocks. Helps keep critters out ( sticks you real bad) and seedlings get support. Or, Cage - trap them ( the critters) ..let them go 5 miles away... we catch a lot of critters that there is no room for here with 8 dogs around me. ugh.
cayenne pepper stuff doesnt seem to work as much as barberry

Sort of reflective about perhaps having a Metal garden 1 ,,

2 a petunia

No way to rid of squirrels as we have about six oaks on the property, and a few other trees. Winter Springs is also known as the "City of Trees" we should be known as the "Squirrel Capitol" ☺ I do have all kinds of methods to deter them, sharp seashells, wire covers my hubs rigs up, the pepper doesn't seem to work. They still get into some things, no matter what I do. I've learned to live with it, those tree rats relocate many of my gingers.

I'm enjoying all your blooms Ju, and nice capture of the praying mantis, don't see them very often around here. Tribbles cute too.

Gypsi, $200. water bill...ugh.

Sun sometimes I have had them called ' hood rats " 1

5 is a crimson rambler , morning glory 14 or 15 ft over my head

Imust have tried to log in earlier when they were doing maintenance, so have returned now that I can get to the site. More of the jungle🤕. Think my new bug issue comes in the guise of grasshoppers. Green and brown striped ones. Stuck a thorn in my thumb next to the side of my nail, so cripplin around it...

Kitt some nettle scratched me the other morning little things like that that happen are so darn aggravating , It's like sticking yourself with a fork , makes you feel a little silly besides it usually burns ,,
Hope it goes away quick for you ! Love the bee and bloom,,

Not goin away quik enough, infected its trying to get. On my hand where the arthritis makes me think I have a razor pressed along the wrist to thumbs end bones. You would think I would quit this compulsive grabbing for weeds...
Metal garden looks neat. 102* outside, just the weeds would survive under it...the tree rats would still find a way to bury acorns under it. I know our possum is still hangin around, he left some of my garbage on the porch. At least he didn't sling it around like the dogs do, so it was a neat tite hole, sigh. I do know better.
My daughter brought me cukes to grow, they were called Munchers. I didn't expect to be growing gherkins..

Adorable cuddly kitties.

Hope the hand heals up Kitt. I am bad about pulling weeds as I walk around without gloves on, guess every gardener does that.
Nettle is wicked, grows all over here, but I don't have any in the garden.

I'm kind of glad I didn't do any vegetables this year, it has been one of the wettest I recall...ever. I do notice at local produce stands crops have been hurt by too much rain. I think I'll start some tomato seeds for fall though.

Nice flower shots. Love the kittys, too. Ouch, Kitt! It's too hot here and not enough rain. I'm losing things right and left. Oh well... I had cukes a few years ago, they frew up the morning glory arbor, and I loved them. But I am the only one who loves them. Would love to have some gerkins!
Aphids sucked one of my pink milkweeds dry before I could get to them. Saved the root, it's washed and in another location , now.
Can't believe I got a re-bloom from this orchid I bought a year ago..
We went up to visit my youngest daughter and my grandcat , Lincoln, and stopped at a lookout over the Flint Hills Cattle Pens.
Kopper King is making a seed pod! I do have to split it up this Fall, tho.

Lots of pretty pics, love your cats Ju, and your daughter's cat Debra. That orchid is a real plant? (my luck with them has been fatal for them)

I used a steak knife to make a hole in a plastic lid for a plant insert this morning and slashed my finger too. Alcohol rinse, turmeric powder, honey from my bees, bandaid. It's feeling a lot better. Germs get immune to neosporin I think

going to start hugelkulture soon, truck load of wood and 105 outside right now. It's just sitting there, several year old pecan chunks.

Debra Cute ,healthy looking Kitty ,, Love the Flowers ...

Trying to get some plants going I still am , Most you have all seen ,
I have some Nanking Cherry seeds I am still trying to the Deno fridge method ,
No luck so far , Time shortly coming to trim the plants outside , more cherries if done well , Starts and cuttings of the same beginning though ,
I have to race the Beetles to get them ,

Gypsi be careful with the knife , too late ,, oh well in the future then ,,

Gosh, ALice, careful! Ju, plz start a nanking for me... Mine has not bloomed even with a started bush from a cutting from it, still no blooms.

it wasn't a deep slash but it was a shock, I thought I was smarter than that. Got my solar wax melters rolling cleaning up beeswax, and my Cockscomb Celosia had 2 seedlings big enough to move to good sized pots.

Gypsi , I nearly half cut through my index finger once clean oiling a blade ,I felt like such a goof ,,Surprised me that it did not hurt more than it did .
Good about the Celosia ,
Debra I am thinking of doing so , The starts outside may or may not root until next spring , Their about a foot or so tall The seeds in a couple weeks I will know if their any good or not ,
Trimming back the Nanking cherry in fall made a big difference in the cherry production , Mostly I seriously pruned away lower branches ,and a neat trim to the upper branches ,

It isnt the damage that hurts, its recovering from it that hurts. I kept my thumbs in dishwater all day, wrapped it with bactroban and a bandaid last night and its almost healed tonight.
More cicadas out this year than last year. The rainbow grasshoppers are new to me- generally I get the common ones. Still, I am keeping an eye out for the ones that keep holing the morning glory leaves, and other plants...

great shot! wow! :D

Found them! Yummy! Chicken and green chili tamales, scrambled eggs an chilis, good food...Hatch chilis taste like no others

yumm hatch peppers.. in anything are good.

I agree, Hatch are the best, hard to find in FL, Publix carries diced only, wish I could find whole to make my Chili Rellenos Casserole.

That little rainbow grasshopper is unique, great close shot.

Saying hi all , Here are some plants and blooms
1 Tribbles "I am thinking about it "
2 milkweed pods
3 Wildsunflower with a swamp Milkweed just behind it
4 Stand of Jerusalem Artichokes
5 Hibiscus

We were offered fresh whole Hatch chilis here before I left for Cali. Maybe a month before...
Doodle likes to be in front of everything. Am told my lone hummingbird was buzzing him on the front porch yesterday, he wasn't interested. Odd sleeping form, but its Doo. Welll, time to get back to my own piddling jobs, chuckl

1) Succulent pot featuring propeller plant and echeveria Perle von Nernberg
2)orange coleus, elephant ears at edge of large front bed
3)Rudbeckia tiger eye gold in same bed
4) moss window basket under garage window
PS. Stupid program shuffled the deck but should be easy to sort out. Sorry

This message was edited Jul 27, 2018 11:05 PM

This message was edited Jul 27, 2018 11:06 PM

This message was edited Jul 27, 2018 11:07 PM

Keith . Wonderfully nice !!! Thank you for sharing ,,

Anything growing here has to like 100°, dry no rain in awhile type plants, too.

Keith, so beautiful, I especially like the coleus garden and the succulent pot...well just all of it...HA!

Sleeping kitties know how to endure these hot days. ☺

Gorgeous arrangements Keith. Ok. I will have to try Hatch chiles. Meantime I started some peppers from a mixed hot pack, can anyone tell me what these are?

yes the wiring diagram for the chevy. have to go feed dogs.

I love my soapwort blooms

Gypsi I don't know what the pepper is , love the Swallowtail butterfly ,

1,2,3. some seed started Echinacea
4 Monarch
5 A seed started Bronze Fennel

Anaheim variety of pepper- probably a serrano, those are a common hot pepper that aren't too hot used in stuff. Seems like they are included in a lot of areas as a hot pepper

I'm thinking that one is just a small jalapeno. Going to have to bite one and see. Hoping not serrano

Gypsi, take a small bite.

We had an unexpected rain storm this afternoon. It cooled us down to low 100s and that was a blessing. You could hear the trees and plants breathing a sigh of relief.

I have some seeds that have germinated and I will take some photos. Some have self sowed and others I planted.

My Italian pepper plant, which is a slim sweet pepper, lived through the winter and is now about 2 1.2 feet tall. It is covered with blooms bu does not set peppers until it cools down. I check it everyday for horn worms because last year it's brother got destroyed by horn worms.

One more month of high heat and then we head downward. I am so ready for a nice cup of coffee on my back patio in 80 degree weather, not 110+.

JU, good job on your seeds.

Kitt, so glad you are back home. How are you feeling?

Our neighbor has two very tall pine trees that help shade my Koi pond and 1/2 half of my back area, including the BBQ. They are diseased and being removed. They are over 40' tall and been on the property 16 years. First it will be scary when thy are removed, then it will be interesting to see what happens to my landscape that is used to being in partial shade. I will take a photo. Before and after.

Thank you and Hello Sharon ,, My seeds are sort of though , The Nanking cherry and Primodonna Echinacea seeds still have not sprouted , Only one of three of the Bronze fennels is seemingly going to succeed ,
It has been drizzling here for hours .. Be interesting to see what your landscape does

I have been hesitant to show work in progress in the triangular are some older taller purple coneflowers behind the red rounder bricks are the Echinacea I showed above The two empty also have one Echinacea in them now , Empty space to the lower right will probably have a phlox placed there , just out of view in the middle of the space pots I will put the bronze fennel ,
in the front the plants are red yarrow , purple fleabane , and a speedwell , the spaces in the block will probably have White native fleabane in them and then the blocks will be tiled
Far to the right out of view there is a glass top outdoor patio table and chairs and fountain I will make a set space for , lot to do for finish yet to go , ,

Splurged on 2 new pots for bigger plants- the poor root beer plant has been waiting patiently for a year now, but has a new home tonite. The ground has turned to concrete it is so dry now. I am good Sharon, thanx. Everyone here is hoping for rain on Tues, I just don't see it happening with the heat and humidity the way they are. The white arch holding up the morning glories gave out tonite, chuckle, will be propping it up tomorrow as it is the shade for the cukes and sweet aussie basil plant...same for that lorapetulum branch resting on the fence. Fertilizing tomorro, but why hasn't my clematis bloomed? At least it is the largest I have ever seen it get (which doesn't mean anything since it barely grows 1 vine 2' hi when I am on the road,) I will keep babying it, will see. It should be interesting if you have professionals taking the tree down Sharon, you should watch it if you can.

Definitely take a before and after on the landscape Sharon. I like to have coffee outdoors when it is below 80. If its above and daylight and I'm outside, I'm working.

gotta go out and bring Dak and Bravo in. Toads singing up a storm in the ponds. Only water around, they are happy