Steps of laying bargain paver bricks. There is metal fabric under them to keep the moles from heaving the bricks. I had so many scraps, chuckl. Time I scrubbed more cinderbrix, and acquired a different paint color. A find while clearing woods. Dunno if it is solid enough to keep once it dries out, I shall see.
Basils are blooming. Salvia and bleeding heart clerodendrum never died back, so 1 blooming the other growing. Another pic of the lorapetulums now.. I am having an issue in one tomato, changed its bucket, but also have something chomping down the parsley roots there. So, off to research...
Paving job is looking good Kitt. Isn't retirement wonderful!
Retirement hurts, chuckl. Still expect to get up and head out to meet a time clock when I wake.
I made it to the bulk mail center. The amended return will help me pay my 2017 taxes which aren't paid yet. Need to amend 2016 too. I think there is another $500 buried in undone bookkeeping, if they audit me do I get to keep what we find???? could be interesting, but I'm not expecting an audit. One look at the material cost line dropping by about 500% - yeah that was the left off expense. Rock, stone, dirt, equipment. I buy stuff..... and I had my hands full when I did that return and ever since.
As for my mice and rats, I found an assistant yesterday near the front pond. Juvenile rat snake. Now off to bed, work tomorrow
hope to seed clover in the morning before work. going to put my lily bulbs in dirt. In pots for now. No daylight, no time during daylight
Tip my hat to ya Gypsi, you make me ache to be younger and doing things again. Hot today, wind blew a gust thru and temps drop 3* tomorrow, that is keeping my maters blooming. I have worked on leveling that bed since I want it 14" long- and coastal has to retreat. Remi has a new dig going out in the yard, I ought to go water and throw some greens in for the mole lure, of course at the moment he is laying on the carpet sneezing and hacking the dirt out of his throat. Cats are laid out in the sun with a young anole near sunning also. Had 3 hummingbirds one day, and back to maybe 1 now. They must still be trickling north.
I had a hummer in my crossvine before work a couple of days ago. Little male. But I was in the house and with the screen good pictures just don't happen.
I'm tired. The grandkids wore me out this past weekend and pond season is wearing on me, have a sinus infection. Taking holiday weekend off for more bookkeeping and gardening, pond stuff at home.
Sadly my juvenile rat snake turns out to be a plain bellied water snake, he's come to eat my frogs. Probably chase him out of the ponds later... wish he ate rats.
Crossvine. Honeysuckle. First rose on the climber My favorite peach Iris.
I didn't do much today. I did get my coleus order planted into pots yesterday. I only walked the dogs once today because we had rain the majority of the afternoon.
Housekeeper was here today. Then there was a volunteer from Hospice and a Hospice musical. Hospice musical is a very delightful young lady that plays the guitar and sings to Vern. He just perks up when she shows up. I spent the majority of the day in the house, trying to stay out of the way of the housekeeper. She has been our housekeeper for many years so she knows us well. She works around Vern because he is so slow to get up, get showered, dressed and then eat.
We were 84 yesterday, 68 today with rain, 77 tomorrow, 85 Thursday and 90 on Friday. Poor garden does not know which way is up. Roses and irises will be in full bloom by Friday. Hopefully the wind will hold off for a few days.
I have high wind and hail due this afternoon. Need to add a couple of supports to the old shed and tack that roof down, almost lost it saturday, expecting 2 inch and larger hail. Plants not in the ground are getting tucked under something. Yikes.
Ummm, I hear N.TX getting hail. Our temps are edging down, but it is still 77* outside. 100& chance of rain, tonite. Was working on leveling, sewing my metal fabric edges down in spots, Dog was helping me weed with a mole ahead of him for a carrot. I will take the help, chuckl. My herb garden is asking for tlc. I need to rest, so going to check the clouds again.
I checked my tomatoes today and I have a tomato on my Big Boy. Such little things it takes to thrill a little old lady. We are heating up and will be in the mid 80s for the next 7 days. He comes the heat.
I had my hair done today. Covered up my white roots an fo a hair cut. Then I went through Trader Jo's and another grocery store before getting home at 4pm. Vern was getting concerned but he is always happy when he sees my face. He is having a hard time eating so I decided he needed something easier to eat. Made him black eyed peas over white rice and butternut squash sauteed with apples. He cleaned his plate.
Hail, I think, is the worst thing that can happen to your garden.
The day is gone and need to clean up the kitchen because family will be here soon to help put Vern to bed.
Hugs to you all.
Fortunately most of my garden that is in the ground are winter crops and almost done, I picked broccoli for the fridge today, and cooked the spinach and ate it. Have a screen guard a foot tall over onions and rest of the spinach, would have had to untangle tomatoes from cages to cover, so I didn't. did cover my one jalopeno pepper and my surviving calendula. Trees protect much of my garden, so stuff in pots went on the east side of trees or on the porch.
Aquatic Iris mostly went in the pond but some for customers are in the greenhouse. And my solar pool cover is still over the greenhouse. It's not hailing though, just thunder lightning and heavy rain, almost past.
my land iris are in full bloom and they will live, I'm sad to be losing blooms though. I have a couple potted for daughters, stuck them under a shrub
My computer has been out a couple days , still catching up .
kitt I was thinking the same as Keith about the pavers
Gypsi I get rat snakes here rarely , been a season or two since I have seen any .
Bulb blooms on a rainy day
I have a tiny snake called an earth snake- eats earthworms and is barely bigger than they are, and I have seen 2 this year. Thanx Joe, Dog was mole grubbing besides those pavers, (weeding) and was glad we did it that way. Those claws of his can go 1' down with one swipe. Ah well, I needed to weed there anyway.
Kitt, I'd rather clean 3 ponds than lay pavers. I didn't see those earlier, thank you Ju for mentioning. Pretty pics ju.
I love the rough earth snakes.
my dogs don't dig where I want them to
Well you guys must be busy. Vern didn't do to well yesterday so dinner for today is already to go into the oven.
We have had rain off and on all day. Nothing heavy, just a few sprinkles. Went from 87 yesterday to 70 today.
I have one Durant that is totally leafed out and one that is struggling. I dug around in the pot yesterday, and I discovered it has been totally invaded by a tree root. I got a lot of the moisture small roots out but the pot is to large for me to tip over to remove the tap. My lawn guys will be here tomorrow and I will have them turn it over and cut off the root. Should have thought f that over a moth ago.
My old helper put all of my tomato cages up against a wall by the garden. They are square and fold up. They are all tangled up and I have only been able to get two out. I will have helper tomorrow get me out a few.
I looked yesterday and high up on the orange trees there are opened beautiful blooms and the bees have found them. Might have some oranges after all. The blooms that were lower were blow off last week with the high winds we had.
I have a manicure and pedicure on Tuesday so I will stop by the nursery and grab a few annuals to finish out a few pots.
Thursday I have a teeth cleaning appointment. I can go to the nursery if I do not buy enough but that is usually not the problem.
Happy Easter everyone.
I try to avoid nurseries as even with 1/3 acre and half of it devoted to veg and ornamental garden, I still run out of room
Happy Easter Sharon. Hope Vern has a better day and you get some oranges
Always running out of room. Yes. Me too. The fennel may not make this latest transplant, but we shall see. My cedar box, Tumbling Tom, and Doo. Lunchbox Orange peppers are setting! Tomorrow I WILL be unstiff enough to go finish the next step. Chuckl
My goodness, your tomatoes look so healthy and look at the harvest. Your bed look great but I know how much work that is and so does Gypsi. No wonder your body shut you down. I have been there a few times in my life when I was not smart enough to stop and then my body just shut down on me. Kinda like when a car overheats.
Vern felt better but had dinner and ate more that 75%. Then he looked right at me and wanted to know if because he didn't eat all of his dinner were the people in the white coats coming to take him away. He was dead serious. I told him he didn't eat his dinner last night and wanted to go to bed and Tracy, DD and Kris, SIL, came and helped get him in bed.
Sharon, Vern may be having his system shut down. My grandfather would see his deceased kinfolk standing around to visit him, and tell me to invite them over. He had just had his kidneys try to fail...he also lived to 92 yrs old ( another 4 yrs). I have heard voices call me when asleep that waken me to silences- or weather- but I never have seen people ( or ghosts?') I just hear them and understand intent. It does make me shake my head at myself occasionally.
I told myself when we decided to upgrade the garden that ANYTHING I actually managed to keep growing was a bonus this year, but I still get a thrill that things are surviving. I really really need to lay out a plan for the plants, but as usual, everything is just stuffed wherever I can find. Am tickled my red noodle beans sprouted, but never saw a single one of the french fillet beans and the beans have totally disappeared. Did have crows around for awhile which was irritating the local blue jay. And the dog.
I saw tomatoes on my cherokee purple, took a pic but work calls.
A few blooms ,
1 paperwhite
2 tulips
3 a Pileated woodpecker , sort of pix , difficult to get ,, bird as big as a chicken ,
4 pear blooms
Tulip
Beautiful pear blooms
They are big woodpeckers, love the blooms! they are looking good!
Peonies on coffee bloom. Peonies not on coffee live but don't bloom. These are my rescued peonies from 3 or 4 years ago.
No idea what kind they are, they were about to be dug out and tossed to make room for a deck by the new homeowners, who didn't even know they were peonies., First summer they lived in pots in the shade
my queen elizabeth rose propagated from the one from my old house, propagated from my neighbor's back in the 90's just before her husband dug it up and put in tomatoes.
My dark red rose, might Mr. Lincoln, closest I could get to my old Don Juan that I was not able to propagate.
Hardy Oxalis started from 2 bulbs found hiding under monkey grass at my old house in 1992. Now have the stuff all over.
Premier climber rose started from cuttings.
Wildflowers - Coreopsis Lancer I think, pink buttercups, and I think Ironweed. The bush is wisteria, it did live thru the winter but didn't bloom this spring.
Wisteria yes. Blooms sometimes come better after it is hacked down some.
Cukes leaping finally- have had enough rain they should have drowned. 3/4" last nite. Ha! Stayed gray and they didn't hide fast enough in 74* so got the 2 of them on this little Husky Cherry Red mater. Thinking deer topped the sweet peppers. Gonna have to resow the Honeywort. One is trying to straighten up with the primary leaves cut off. Tall, sparse Sun Sugars tomato plants. So different than the others. I was moving the wheelbarrow yesterday and backed into that purple swimming pool, chuckl. I will say the oregano smells awesome when crushed. My fall hasn't hurt anything apparently...
Wading pool herb garden is a great idea. My tomatoes are not that tall yet
It was being used as a temp home, but the height definitely softened the unexpected fall on my booty.
Still a great idea. But by the time I could get it in, it will be too hot for most herbs
I am holding my breath on the soils I have and counting myself lucky when plants grow. The soils are still settling they are so new. My tomato pots are solid roots. The oregano has survived the 12" of rain we had, so the hole in that wading pool must be pretty big- don't remember spotting it when I chunked the garden dirt into it. It helps that it is mounded I am sure. Days are getting so hot I cannot work outdoors long from noon to 4 pm. SO, have slowed momentum down on projects, and turning my eyes back onto indoor projects. Squirrels have found the tumbling tom tomato, and they are biting them in 2. I cannot say there is no water and they are thirsty because there is water everywhere. Darn tree rats. Hummers were here when it got cold, when the heat returned they disappeared except for one or two.
These are the Brown Sugars, a Russian tomato. They are the ones that sprouted roots on the stems in the rain while the other var. did not. Today, at noon when I walked out, they have developed an unusual droop none of the others are going thru. Excess heat? Not enough moisture? The parsley and fennel have also done this. On the parsley I discovered the roots eaten off. No clue what is happening to the fennel. Brown Sugars are in different dirt than the fennel. Went back up and checked, the rewatering the Brown sugar plants helped. Guess I better up their times watering. HA! I caught that bottom feeder! I think it was adding Sevin pwd when I watered those BSUGARS, chuckl. Flush em out.
1&2) Celebrity has a different issue, I picked up some Daconil, but haven't used it yet.
3&4) Prudens Purple I have been fighting another problem with cut fruits/blooms. Usually only the Everlasting Sage has this problem. Getting too hot to set blooms here really soon. Cukes are finally growing- lots of male blooms I may have to start helping along. Well, time to go fold sheets...
Caregiver is still here and Vern is still eating breakfast/lunch at 12:30. She leaves at 1pm so then I am on my own. Just got back from a short walk with the dogs. It was sprinkling when we started but started to increase so we turned around and came back home. Our temp today will have a high of 75. Great for setting on tomatoes.
They had a report on the CBS local channel about hummingbird moths and all of the photos they have received from viewers. It said all there was to say about hummingbirds but they did not mention that they produced the tomato worms. I saw one in my font landscape about a week ago and I check the tomatoes, peppers and bougainvillea everyday but no damage so far.
We are normally in the 90s by now and we have been in the low to high 70s for two weeks and that is great for setting n tomatoes. We have already had more rain year to date than we have all year.
Kitt that first photo looks like blossom rot. I do not recall what causes but Google will give you a breakdown.
I have never been able to grow cucumbers. My mom and dad grew wonderful cucumbers but they were at an elevation of 5700. She also grew beautiful green beans. Cooked them in her pressure cooker. Took us years to determine how she cooked her green beans. I discovered the secret when I cooked some in my Instapot. I texted everyone in the family and told them my discovery. Such a small thing made everyone so happy.
Kitt and Gypsy, I go to the water garden area at Lowe's and I buy a shallow 36 radius about 1 1/2 feet deep container. I drill holes in them and spray paint and use them for succulents or herbs. They are about $12. Try buying a pot for that at that size.
Caregiver getting ready to leave. I was going to dead head some roses in the back this morning but the rain got in my way.
Hugs to you all.
That is a great idea drilling the water pot Sharon. I have a few other water things that might be made to hold land plants. Cool.
enjoy that rain. I've got some coming in the morning then probably done for the early summer rains
cleaned a pond under a fig tree today, captured a branch that was resting on the waterfall and had roots, brought it home (with permission from pond owner) and potted it up. About 3 feet long and a nice bunch of roots
This message was edited May 20, 2019 10:35 PM
I have an oleander tree in a pot by a sumac tree. I tried to move it today because it was growing toward the tree. I could not even budge the pot. I went on the other side and tried to push it instead of pull. Still would not budge. Then I tried to tip it and could barely get it off the ground. It had been invaded by sumac roots and I probably saved that tree from dying of thirst.
I have been snail hunting with this rain and have already sent many generations, over 100, to snail heaven. They love my succulents. I may pass tonight because we are suppose to get a good rain tomorrow and the rain really draws them out. Any one of you know why the rain draws them out but the irrigation does not. Not as much as the rain does.
Gypsi, I have a dwarf fig tree that is probably 15' tall and bears some beautiful figs. I have many neighbors waiting for them to get ripe. I do not eat figs. But it is a beautiful tree.
I spoke with my neighbor this afternoon and his lemon tree has no lemons, same as my orange trees. Just a bad year because of the temps, wind, rain and no bees because of the weather. I will just give them a good trim, feed and let them rest until next year.
Sharon , snails are a shade and night creature , Sun dries them out , Think of them as a worm with a shell ,
My snails I leave many as they clean the soil and earth Unfortunately they eat a plant once in a while
1 pots of lillium and liatris
2 Fernleaf dill
3 Largest of the Tomato plant seedlings
4 bronze fennel seedling
5 yesterdays sunrise , looking like fall ,,lol I'm not ready ,,,sigh ,,,
This message was edited May 22, 2019 7:44 AM
Good to hear from you Ju. Pretty dill and fennel. Would make nice fillers in flower pots. LOL
Keith , Hi ya ,, I don't have any pots that large ,, I'm only glad their growing ,
They are doing well Ju - good to "hear" your voice. you too Keith. I'm winding up pond season, will be around more in June
