Winter Garden

Getting the gardening going in the winter this year.  We purchased two raised garden bags which have eight - one cubic foot areas each in a 2x4 grid.  The packets are laid out in the order in which we planted them.

The seeds are a bit old but something should still sprout.  We purchased these seeds back in 2013 and most of them have at least an 85% viability rating.  A few even higher.

My wife asked if that means they are all done for now since it's been 12 years.  The percent viability is at the time they expect you to be planting these seeds.  It's more like a half life though.  Every year less seeds will probably be viable and sure eventually they will probably all be useless and not sprout but even 12 years isn't so long for seeds.

There are records of seeds remaining viable for over a hundred years.  Some of the oldest seeds to germinate did so over a thousand years.  One source claims a seed was over ten-thousand years old and was still able to be grown into a flowering specimen.  Not sure how they dated that one but that's what they are claiming.  Personally I can easily believe the hundred year old seeds but past that I think it's more of a guess how long the seed has been around.

Claudette2 Hanging In There

So far she hasn't died yet.  There is still some limberness and some of the tips are still green.  I trimmed back all of the leaves since they were dry and brittle anyway.  The leaf stems fell off but so far the branches haven't followed suit.  

There is a little thinness to some of the branches and they might not all survive the ordeal but I'm still hopeful that she'll pull through.  All I can do now is water and wait and see.  I have to keep the ground from drying out and killing the root.

Clautedde1 however is still doing pretty good.  There are a couple leaves that have turned but that always happens anyway and isn't necessarily a sign that there is a problem.  What I'm watching now is the new leaf growth.  There are a couple new leaves popping in and I just want to make sure they continue growing.  If that happens then we're all good.

I did plant some tomato plants in that pot and they've already sprouted.  I expect them to die though and add nutrients to the soil.  Also the English ivy I put in is still green after a couple weeks.  Waiting to see how this affects things if at all.  Usually there is a little root but English ivy tends to sprawl and cling to things, possibly the outside of the pot.  If on the off chance Claudette2 doesn't make it, I have some other tree seeds waiting in the wings to swoop in for the pot.

Cactus Bush, For Real?

 

I had thought about taking a picture of this bush myself on my way home from work.  Currently you see more bush than cactus.  In fact you can only see about 5 of the paddles sticking out of a much larger bush than you can see here.  This is actually a street view image copied and posted as a jpg.

About a year ago there was no bush and it was just a cactus on the side of the road.

If you had seen this as an image on social media would you have expected it to be AI?  We watched a video recently on how to tell if an image is AI or not and this one might at first hit some of those alerts if you don't realize what you're looking at.  For instance the shadows on the inlet protection walls look a little  off except for the fact that the wall is vertical that the shadow is falling on.  This was probably taken around 8:00 in the morning in the late spring, looking at the grass and angle of the sun. The grass has been recently mown but the bush is obviously growing well.  The sun shadow is also mostly to the East and is high enough in the sky for a fairly steep shadow in the inlet so this is well past winter.

Do you have any pictures that at first seem like they would be AI but are pictures that you took yourself?

Claudette2 Stressed

So at the office I have had 2 smaller cacao trees growing in the same pot.  It was about time for them to be in their own pots but this really puts stress on them.  The larger one is doing fine but this smaller one that was continually living in the shadow of the other is struggling.  There are a couple new leaves pushing out but for the most part i think it will loose ALL of its other leaves.

I trimmed some of them back in an effort to reduce what it was trying to keep going but I think it may have been too little too late for them.  This is after a week of repotting and is better than losing all of the leaves on day 1 or 2.  It has always struggled though to even put out the smallest of leaves in the other pot, the leaves being 1/4 the size of the other tree.

The soil is still moist but not wet and draining out.  Added a little today to make sure there was enough moisture but it's hard to tell exactly what is needed at this point.  I guess I'll just have to be patient and see how things go.  Probably stop by here tomorrow as well to see how many leaves are left and assess the progress and state of the little tree.  There is still plenty of hope though.  I've heard of cacao trees that have come back even after a year of losing all of their leaves.  They really are resilient trees.

Texas Winter Preparation

 

Winter is coming to Texas.  It got down almost to freezing yesterday in the DFW area. The cities further North probably did freeze briefly.  Just means it's time to start to think about winterizing your more tender plants.  I've always said that I only want to plant things outside that can survive every winter.  Unfortunately not every winter is the same so I can only do my best.  Also the longer a plant has had time to acclimate, the better equipped it is to survive a harsher winter.

Some plants just have to come in of course.  One of our friends had a dozen or more plumeria plants which they kept on casters so they could easily bring them in every winter.  There is no way they would survive outside being tropical plants (trees) even though they have pretty sturdy branches.  We plan to one day have a greenhouse that would effectively make it possible to have a permanent home outsideish but in the mean time it's coming inside for the winter.  Just have to keep the cats away while it's there.

Going to try to protect the fig tree better this winter so it can hopefully come back strong next year.  It has struggled all year to make the few leaves it had and never had a chance to even think about fruiting.  If these new, more tender, branches can be kept safe though we have a chance to really get it going and have the tree we wanted in the first place.  Otherwise I may just have to dig it up and start over.

Beef and Bittermelon

A friend grew some bitter melons, too many to use by himself, and shared some of the harvest with us.  With the word bitter in the name of the vegetable I was warry. That's when having a wife who can find anything, including good recipes, is priceless.  She found this recipe making a stir fry with the bitter melon but more beef than bitter.

Part of making it less bitter is removing the white inner pulp, the source of the bitter.  I didn't want to remove it all though since that is also where a lot of the benefits of the bitter melon reside.  It's bitter for a reason and a little bitter is a good thing.  With the sauce you make for this dish it really compliments it.

We started by slicing the beef thinly for stir frying.  This was boneless chuck roast. We marinated it for an hour in a mixture of corn starch, for thickening, baking soda, for tenderizing, oyster sauce, mirin, and dark soy sauce, for flavor, and a little extra water to keep it from burning to the bottom.

The bitter melon we sliced crossways to add surface area so the sauce could really coat it, it is pretty bitter if you don't offset it. We added garlic, some black beans for texture, more mirin, sugar, more soy, sesame oil and pepper.  You know your taste better than anyone so play around with the quantities to see what suits you best.  In the end there should be 1/2 to 3/4 cup of added stuff.  Otherwise it can get saucy, unless you want more saucy.  It's good over rice.

Fall Weather

Fall is here and I couldn't be happier with the weather.  It's cooling down and the rain is still only intermittent.  Plants everywhere are loving it too.  This little guy was just growing away in this planter near one of the shopping centers nearby.

Cooler weather also means less need to water so much to keep things from dying.  Not too little though, so much still has months to grow and become hardy for the winter.  We have turmeric that I still need to figure out what to do with.  The fig tree I plan to mulch so it stays warm over the winter.  Probably also get something to go over it so it might have a good start in the spring as well.  Early to rise early to fruit.  No figs this year after its near death experience last winger.

The plumeria will have to come inside when it gets too cold.  Also have to figure out when that is going to be.  This is the first time I've gotten one of these to grow so well and not die after a week.  I can't have all of the plants people give me die immediately.  That wouldn't be very encouraging.

I have a few seeds that I want to get going too.  One is a pine seed I got from a nice tree outside a hotel.  I intend to plant it where it can really take off and not destroy my foundation or water/irrigation lines.  So much to do and no time to do it in.

Fall Tomatoes

I have to wonder what tomato I got these seeds out of.  I thought they were more round than these.  All of the ones here are kind of pointy and long.

I guess the cross pollination came into play here.  This happens a lot in producing fruit.  Apples particularly are planted in areas with varieties that you eat and varieties you plant because they give off a lot of pollen. This makes it unlikely that the seed you get out of an apple will produce a tree that will give you the same kind of apple.

At any rate they look good and are a decent size.  The one in the back should be good to eat tomorrow and the two in front there in a day or two after that. Several green tomatoes are here and there and I expect it to continue through early fall.

Another seed I got recently is a pine seed from a hotel pine tree I was near.  The tree was trimmed a lot and not too tall but it looked nice.  Thinking about planting it at the edge of the HOA lot where the drainage goes.  Pine trees usually have a pretty good root system and there near the lake will keep it in good shape through the hot summers we get here.

Hibiscus Flowers

We were recently at Beard Park in Little Elm. Apparently the area combined several smaller settlements to make a town, eventually with a dry goods store, post office, and more.

There is a replica house and post office there, unfortunately with a wasp infestation.  They left everyone alone though so I guess it isn't too bad really. Likely they were attracted to such flowers like the hibiscus shown here.

Growing up we had a lot of hibiscus plants.  This was another of my grandfather's breeding projects.  I really don't remember the colors we had, I was little and that was probably the least of my concerns.  Everyone knows that lizards and garden snakes are much more important.  Our yard really did have a lot of both of these. The anole were all over the house and green houses.  As for the snakes all you usually had to do was turn over one of the larger rocks to find one curled up resting.

This was only one of the colors they had out at the park.  Got a few seeds of course to see what cross pollination occurred out there. There may have been even more hibiscus flowers in the area. Pollination can happen over fairly large distances and with the number of pollinators in the area the likeliness is pretty good. We'll see what pops up.

Hummingbirds in the Garden

We got a hummingbird feeder for the backyard and they're already hovering around it.  The most we've seen at a time is two so far.

They were already attracted to our yard with our plumeria plant so it wasn't really a surprise to see them. One of them has a red throat.  Not this one though.  I haven't looked into it but I'm guessing it's a male thing?  Will have to look it up later.

Ok, it's later and yep it's a male thing.  The females have no red coloring.  It might be a mated pair then that we're seeing come around.  That would make sense since they aren't chasing each other off.  Hummingbirds can be territorial and aggressive to interlopers.

The cats have taken a keen interest in the hummingbirds coming around and have jumped at the window more than once trying to catch them.  We have since bought another hanger for the feeder and moved it further into the yard.  That also keeps the other birds away from it and less likely to scare each other away.

Plumeria Flower

Our plumeria puts out mostly yellow flowers with just this tinge of pink.  The pink is much more noticeable on the back though.

This is after a day of falling off of the plant.  It's still holding its shape.  Probably why they are so useful in making leis. Abundance is nice since they grow all over Hawaii but if they wilted in an hour they would pretty much be useless for crafts.

This got me to wondering if you could use them elsewhere.  I quickly found a unanimous "Don't Eat Them."  Ok, I won't.

They are used in fragrances though to varying degrees. Some claim to be just like the scent but reviews range all over the place.  About what you'd expect for any product.

This was one of my grandmother's favorite scents though and she had a candle that did smell just like plumerias, although she liked to use the word frangipani which made finding out exactly what it was, once I grew up and didn't remember clearly what she called it, difficult to say the least.  So nice I can go outside right now and smell it straight from the plant.

Plumeria Flowers

The flowers are getting further along.  I wasn't really sure what to expect but it wasn't this.  I had though there would be a couple flowers here and there but this looks like it's going to spread and keep making more clusters.

Really though I think it's about done with the splitting.  Maybe about 15 flowers from my count.  It's nice that they are spread out like this though so they can really show off.  I can't wait until it gets bigger and really gets blooming.  Some of the trees we've seen in Hawaii have hundreds of blooms at once.

It's about to hit 100 degrees outside so I really need to be on keeping everything watered.  Heat is the number one thing that kills a garden around here.  I'll probably need to water at least twice a day if not more when the heat is unbearable outside.  We're also on the lake so I'm expecting that the humidity will keep up with it and maybe drop the temps around the house at least a degree or two.

One thing I don't know about this plant is what color the blooms will be.  There are so many different colors it could be from white to deep burgundy.  I'll just have to wait and see what I got. If you haven't been reading the rest of the blog, I got this plant from a friend who originally bought it for her mom but hadn't picked it up from us for some time and was sweet enough to let us have it after we planted it and took care of it for over a month.

If you have a favorite plumeria color or favorite flower in general I'd love to hear about it.

Turmeric Plant Out Back

I really love the way turmeric plants come up.  The straight tall shoots unfurling and spreading out.  They have a nice thickness to them that I appreciate.  They form much the same way elephant ears and ginger do. Not sure if they're in the same family or anything but they grow similarly.

So far it seems that turmeric likes rich loose soils that drain well.  They don't mind a pot.  Currently this one is right in among day lilies and some other plants but it'll probably have to be moved to keep growing and spreading well.

As mentioned before I've heard it can go well wrapped around fish or other meats.  I wonder if they can be used like banana leaves...  We like to get tamales from Glorias that are wrapped in banana leaves and they are awesome!

Tomato Flowers

It's been a while since I've had a good home grown tomato.  These grew from seeds and are a smaller variety so they should produce pretty quickly.  They've shot up in the last week.  I wasn't sure they were taking hold at first.  Last Thursday though I noticed these little flowers growing and hope sprung anew.

Again once the sunflower is gone it'll have more room and may be getting much bigger.

My wife doesn't much care for raw tomatoes but cooked are fine.  I find this isn't so great for the varietal flavor of the tomato and loses something.

If you like tomatoes raw or cooked, what's your favorite variety.  The usuals are plum, cherry, and hothouse but the beefsteak and brandywine can also be found occasionally, especially at more specialty grocery stores like Central Market.

Composter

Finally got a real compost drum.  I prefer a pile but our yard really isn't set up for such a thing.  This will have to do.  These are quicker though so I'm thinking eventually I'll get the hang of it and it'll be fine.

One thing it won't do is attract ants to it but it also won't have some of the beneficial bugs that help till it together and further leave organic compost material.

I've transferred the contents of the laundry basket that I had put compost stuff in into the barrel and gave it a few turns.  The other thing is the slosh.  It has a bit of moisture in it.  I hope the screws account for that. There are over 60 of them holding it together.

At the previous house there was a good location for a pile.  One of the things you have to keep in mind is that they create heat and can be flammable even if they seem wet.

Sunflowers

This sunflower has gotten pretty heavy.  I hope this means that the seeds are developing well.  I've kept it watered so this should be the case but won't know until I try harvesting.

The head is getting yellow but I want a little more darkening before I cut it off.  Once he's gone the pot will have that much more room for the other plants.  Will need to spread them out soon.

In this pot I have several things.  Among them are tomato plants, turmeric, day lilies, green onion, and some kind of fruit tree (apple I think? really not sure.)

Up front there are of course more things growing but this was out back by the bird feeder where the seeds for the sunflower came from originally.  So much going on at one time right now though.

Day Lilly After Rain

By now if you can't tell that I really like my day lilies then you haven't been paying any attention.  These flowers are short lived but have a lot of color.  One of the benefits is that, as long as the conditions are favorable for it, they will keep putt on flowers.

This year the temperatures have been significantly lower than average and thus the blooming time has extended all month.  Of course if you keep them watered well they can go even longer.

I should be able to cross them soon when I get more blooms at a time.  The plants make pods with round black seeds, a dozen or more at a time.  I crossed the lily I use for my avatar myself.  Unfortunately I planted it on the north side of the house and it got very little sun.  It died back and didn't return.

I now have 4 places I'm growing lilies and keeping a good eye on them.  I don't plan to have that happen again.  They also like being dug up and replanted.  The one on the front right of the house in the front planter was not really dug and divided like the rest of them have been and it shows.  It's put on some flowers but not like the rest.  Come fall I'll dig him up, divide, and replant more spaced out, probably 4-5 dimes the space.   Thinking doing the same around the tree and putting lilies there too.  I should have more than enough by then.

Planning on getting a greenhouse soon too.  Not sure how soon, maybe next year even, but sooner than I thought.  I was looking at 6-7 years out.  Rushing a plan is never a good idea.  See how things are working and plan accordingly.  You can always revise a plan whereas revising a yard is a lot more difficult.

Sunflower Bust / Turmeric Boon

The sunflower produces only one seed.  We replanted it in hopes of a better plant next time but I really don't know.  There are many reasons this can happen.  Looking at the flower head though, I think the culprit is poor pollination.   I only ever saw one bee hovering around and that likely is the only seed that got a good dusting.  There are bees around of course but we are a bit away from their usual grounds.  We have farms near us so they may have bee hives.  There are also woods around the lake we are next to so there could be wild hives as well.  I think the more flowers people plant the better the chance we will get some good harvests.  I know we have neighbors planting gardens, at least little ones.

I don't think the HOA wants bee hives in the neighborhood so the best bet is to plant some bee friendly plants near the woods in hopes of attracting a hive over there close by.

On a better note, we planted some turmeric in various pots.  I know at least one of them started rooting but I can't remember which one I found that way.  One of them, and of course I can see this one easily, has sprouted leaves.  This is the first time I've actually gotten turmeric to grow.  Usually it either dries out and composts or gets too soft, rots, and then composts.  Either way it ends up being other plant food.  Anyway I have high hopes of some day harvesting my own turmeric plants.  That would be awesome!

I see the entire plant is edible so I'm now looking forward to using it to cook either pork or fish.  Both would be good.  The taste is said to be gingery, makes sense because it's related to the ginger plant, and somewhat floral.

What would you use turmeric leaves for?

Day Lily #2

Here is the other day lily we bought last year that has decided to finally bloom.  This one is an orange flower with a little darker center, a more common flower.  This cluster has quite a few blooms on it though.

Day lily flowers only stay open for a day but the presence of so many buds means that it will have flowers for several days even if each individual flower is fleeting.

Next spring I'm going to have to amend the soil and divide up the root system.  It can get really crowded and dividing give the plants plenty of room to divide and thrive.

Again I'd like to try cross pollinating these guys.  This kind of flower is perfect for toning down or possibly a splash of contrast, depending on what the genes decide to do when crossing.

It's been a while but when I was a kid, back in the day, my grandfather had a grant to cross breed hibiscus plants.  I don't recall how many varieties he produced but I remember him making charts and reports on the resulting plants. We had so many pots of them inside and outside of the house.  The den would have them lining the wall in winter if it was going to get too cold.  I still remember the flagstone path that led to the sitting area out back and the flowers that surrounded it.  At the time I thought of it like my own little jungle.

Office ivy Growth

Since last time I posted about the ivy it's grown quite a bit.  It used to be in front of the wire sculpture and has since grown into it, around it, and back down the other side.  Some impressive growth here.  Our office manager said she'd like to repot it so it keeps growing well.  It doesn't seem to have complained so far though so I'm not sure if that's needed.

One of the reasons ivy plants trail out so much is to have more room to put out air roots.  These take the moisture out of the air and help the plant to keep going.  If you feel along the ivy you can find these little root bumps all along it.  These also help the plant cling onto anything it comes in contact with.  They will form those webbing out roots and grab hold of buildings, trees, rocks, anything they can find.  Apparently they don't seem to like the wire metal though.  It has avoided clinging to it.  Not sure if it's because it's metal, too thin, or what.

The white planter it's in has gone through some changes too.  Currently it's sporting sun glasses and a beard.  At one time there was an ear ring but it didn't last long.  I have one of these pots at home too.  It's made to hold your glasses and be a place to put a plant on your desk.  I don't think they though about an ivy though.

Local Bees

Finally saw a bee in the area.  I figured there would be some bees or something that pollinates since this area used to be mostly farming.  I didn't see him at first since he was so small but here he is.  Nice to see we aren't entirely pollinated by wasps, which are also a common pollinator.

The big sunflower is still forming seeds.  The head has drooped entirely and the petals are brown and mostly fallen off.  Just waiting for the stem to start turning colors, which indicates the seeds are about done forming and ready for harvest.

Something I still think it amazing is the color in the petals of the sunflower.  This specific flower has been blooming for about a week now and the colors are still this bright and vibrant.  And as I said about the other flower, the petals will lose their colors and drain out completely once they are done.  Reminds me of red glass.  A lot of red glass turns quickly in the sun and fades but there are some recipes that keep the deep red color.  Every pottery and glass company either has to inherit the recipe from previous generations or reinvent the red.  I have yet to find a readily available recipe for this. 

More Day Lilies

This is the second planting of day lilies from last year.  They are in the ground which is pretty hard due to the high clay content of the area.  Even in the bed which was intended to grow things besides grass, it's having a hard time with it.  So much of what I have has to be grown in pots still until I can afford to spend the cash and time to upgrade the areas.  I think time is more rare still since I live so far out now.  

Timing is a tricky situation.  You have to know when to go places.  Not if they're open or not but how traffic will be in the direction you're wanting to go.  There's usually only a heavy traffic flow in one direction. Unfortunately if you're going and coming back along the same route you want it clear, so avoiding rush hours.

On a happier note we got some more unique day lilies last week from some friends.  I was admiring their lilies and they told me to dig up a clump.  It ended up being about eight plants after dividing the roots.

These specific lilies have a double flower. That is to say a flower nested in a flower, the petals at least.  So it has twice the petals of a normal day lily.  I will have to wait until next year to see if I can cross pollinate them though, unless I can get them to flower again.  Some of the previous lily plants we've had would bloom more than once a year but they would have to have the same blooming times for them to cross pollinate. 

Daylilies

I have grown daylilies for a long time.  It's been a while but I'm happy to have these pretty little guys in the front now.  I almost gave up on them since they didn't do so well in the pots they came in and almost died.  Fortunately though, I wet them, put them in new pots, and new they live in this nice large pot. We got back from our cruise and these new flowers welcomed us back.

The cruise was awesome!  I always wanted to go across an ocean on a cruise and finally got the chance. We had a whole 12 days on the open ocean although my wife was able to stay busy giving presentations about every other day.  She also participated in the passenger play on the last day of the cruise.

Crossing the date line was different though.  We got the same day to redo.  I know it wasn't actually the same day but it was still neat.  Not a lot of sun on the cruise but that wasn't too bad really.  There was plenty do do on board.  The crew did their best to make the trip enjoyable and memorable.  The guy on the piano particularly was awesome.  He had a huge range of songs he knew.  Probably our favorite place to go in the evening to wind down.

After it all though I still wanted to sleep in my own bed.  Nothing quite like being home.  Next time I really want to have some friends with us though.  6 cruises so far and so far it's just been us two.

2025 Blackberries

Did yard work today, the first full mow of the season.  I got some trimmer string and rewound the trimmer.  So much easier to use than the brush cutter.  The plastic blades though really aren't that sturdy.  Cut the mint a little but really it doesn't grow very tall so it was literally just the top leaf or two.

Speaking of growing though, the blackberry in front around the tree had this little guy growing on the vine.  This is the first of who knows how many blackberries we'll get from the plants.  If they all turn out to be this small though I may just kill it.  It's pretty thorny for such small berries.  It needs to be at least 4 times this size for it to make the cut.  No pun intended due to those thorns of death.

Calling back to the mint though, when the yard was cut (and thus the mint) the fragrance was not overpowering. It was more a hint of mint in the air.  Pretty nice actually.

Update on the fig tree:  The little branches are getting significantly bigger.  Not quite as fast as I'd like but getting there.  Still removing bottom leaves occasionally and it's working pretty well.  I can tell the difference between the branches I remove leaves on and those I don't.

Gathering at the Bird Feeder

As far as I can tell these are house finches.  These are all female though since the male has a distinct tinge of read on his breast. I don't think I've ever seen this many birds on the feeder at one time though.  I have been keeping up with making sure there is always seed there so I really shouldn't be surprised. 

Among the other birds we've seen flying through are blue jays, cardinals, and mockingbirds.  Flying above and around the are there are often turkey vultures, ducks, herons, and some other kind of smaller raptor, probably a hawk of some sort.

The seed we get is relatively fresh since the spillage has created a small sprouted forest.  It will be mowed down this weekend so somewhat short lived I guess but I wasn't trying to grow my own seed anyway.

Looking forward to mowing the mint though.  We'll see just how minty the air will get.  Our friend who gave us the  mint says when he mows it a nice aroma that fills the air.  We really don't have a lot of mint though so I'm not expecting it to be overwhelming.  I might try to reign it in a little though so it doesn't really become a huge problem.  I do need to get the edging done though before we take off on our trip. 

Fortunately we have friends coming to take care of the house and cats, mainly the cats.  We've been prepping for them and have made several dishes that we've frozen for them to have plenty to eat.  Still need to get that manual put together so they have a go by for anything they need to know.  Missing the cats already and haven't even left.

Roses and Cats

Cats really like flowers, especially roses.  I'm not sure what it is about a rose that attracts cats so much.  A quick search revealed nothing so I'm not the only one who doesn't know.

Our current cats were very interested when we received some roses recently, even standing up on their haunches looking like they were begging to have a treat.

Our previous cats were so used to eating a petal or two for a treat that they could tell when you walked in the door if you had a petal hidden in your closed hand.  If I dropped a petal it would hardly hit the floor before a cat was on it.  They nearly inhaled them.

Of course these flowers did not go to the cats due to being from a florist.  As most know, pesticides are a constant worry for store bought flowers so they actually went outside (the flowers not the cats) so they would be safe.

We used to have rose bushes in front of the old house but we haven't added much to the new house yet.  We though we'd be in the previous house forever but things happen.  The plants we had stayed there for the most part and we get to start over.  We'll probably get roses at some point in the future since they are such a nice flower to have around.  We already got the daylilies and the fig is coming back but that's been about it as far as planted plants that we have chosen.  Still planning on doing a garden at some point but that's still in the planning stages.

Cherry Blossom Season, Japan

It's cherry blossom season in Japan again and one of our friends sent us some awesome pictures from the Nagano prefecture which is Northwest of Tokyo on the coast near the Sea of Japan.

The cherry blossoms sweep across the country each year. So while you will have local events surrounding the blooming of the cherry trees, you will be able to see it at different times starting at the south and spreading North up the country.  So if you miss the blooms down in Kyoto you still can catch them up in Sapporo if it hasn't been too long.

Interestingly, although the cherry blossom is important in Japan, even being a symbol used for the police, some find the pear blossom to be even more preferred.  Pear trees have a white flower while cherry trees have a pink flower so it's probably more what color someone likes better.  Either way you get a lot of petals on the ground.  Another friend once sent us pictures of a river that had been covered with cherry blossoms.  The boat was cutting through the sheet of pink. It was surreal.

Lemon Mint

We got two kinds of mint that I put under the fig tree.  Mint can be hard to get to grow sometimes but when it does it can take over.

On the plus side it can help keep some bugs down like fleas. We haven't had a problem with fleas as of yet but it can't hurt to prevent them in the first place.

The mint shown here, I believe, is lemon mint.  I could be wrong but that's what I'm told we were given.  The other mint we have is spearmint.  These have spread out a little but still not very far. 

The fig tree is still coming back nicely and has several shoots now.  Taken off two leaves so far and not a lot of change. Will wait a bit longer before trying it again.  Maybe it's not quite big enough to send enough to that sprout to make a difference.

The green onion is blooming nicely. Several poof balls of flowers have opened up and some fairly large ones.  Also planted a red onion among the green ones.  It was sprouting anyway.

I was able to remove a lot of weeds recently.  The best time to do weed removal is right after a good rain or possibly during a rain if it is late and will get dark before it's over.  Instead of having to fight the weeds to pull them out, most of them came out fairly easily if not immediately.  A couple of the harder ones to pull were the dandelions.  They have a tap root that can go down for a while even on a relatively small plant.

Blackberry Bushes

We moved in a year ago now and the front tree came with the house.  Now however there is a blackberry bush, vine, something, growing under it.  Blackberries frankly grow on a glorified groundcover.  They sometimes get a little height on them but more often they need something to grow on so they have support to go vertical. Back home, southeast Texas, they grew everywhere but mainly along fences where they had the support of the chain link fences typically used.

Unfortunately another of the plants trying to grow up near the tree they planted is another tree with some wicked thorns on it.  Not sure really what it is (was hopefully) but I pulled it up as best I could with a plumber's wrench.  Better to grip the thorny trunk with.  Will see if the thorny tree tries to come back and will also see if the blackberry bush ends up making any berries.  As you can see, there are already flowers growing on it but the rain and high winds we've been having might just prevent all that from coming to anything.

The day lilies are springing back way better than expected at least.  Wasn't sure if some of them we repotted into the large pot of dirt were even going to survive but they're the best ones so far.  No flowers yet but the greenery is off the charts.

Hoping to get some raised beds put in some time soon as well as an herb area.  Might be in the raised beds and might not.  Wil see after I put together a yard plan.  Not going to go the route of the haphazard way I did it last time.  Such a sprawling mess and not maintainable.

Other of note in the yard:  The green onions are flowering but not unexpected.  The rosemary was unfortunately a casualty of the winter weather as was the pineapple plants that had gotten so big over the summer and fall.

Spring Fig Growth

As you can tell the fig is finally growing this season.  There are currently 5 shoots and if you look closely at the image you can see a sixth possible location at the base of the freeze damaged area.  The temperatures got super low over the winter and severely damaged most of the plant.  Fortunately though I was able to get it acclimated to the soil and it was able to root well and settle in.

The cold damage is clearly visible here as the bark can be seen split up the sides.  These branches are dead but the root system is still good.  You can also see a mint plant growing right up there around the base of the tree.  Wasn't sure how hardy it was going to be but it's spread quite a bit.  There are 2 kinds that we planted but I really couldn't tell you what they were.

Something I learned while at the previous house in Arlington was to encourage growth to pick the lower leaves.  Will try this later today to see if it helps on such a small plant.  It doesn't have much to work with at the moment so I'm going to go slowly with only 1 leaf on 1 shoot.  Probably this front one in the picture since it has some nice leaves growing in already.  That back one i think might be in trouble if I did it to him.  Of course if this works like I'm hoping it does then they will probably all have a bit of trimming before it's all done.  I will want to remove the dead limbs before too long as well so bugs don't start thinking it's a dead tree to break down.  Also limit access to the more tender insides.

The fig tree is just the beginning of what we have growing in the yard though.  There's more in pots and up front that will be shown shortly.

Spring Plumeria

The plumeria is bouncing back as you can tell.  The lone leaf is still there but it now has 4 more to keep it company.

These plants really are good at being dormant.  You can see the dark bottom of the plant where it was when it was bought last year.  Then the tannish area above it where it grew last summer/fall.  Now the green area on top is the new growth since it came to the office.

I should probably bring it back outside so it can take full advantage of the spring / summer sun.

One of our friends used to have over a dozen of these in pots and she'd take them out of storage every year to have them grow more.  Some were over 5 feet tall.

A coworker at the office confuses the chocolate tree with coffee.  I can see the confusion, although they don't look anything alike.  Would be neat to have a coffee plant also though.  They're spindly compared to the trunk a cacao tree will eventually have but who wouldn't like to have a little home grown coffee?

What plants do you currently have growing  in your garden/pots?  What would you like to be growing?  Do you have a plant wish list?

Wallapini Gardening

 

Recently my wife sent me a text about a sunken greenhouse.  This looks like a good idea especially since the HOA's main concern is that things don't stick up over the fence line and make the neighborhood look bad from the street.  This would make the greenhouse significantly lower and in turn make the HOA happy.

On the down side though there are some factors that may make this less ideal.  I looked up some information on what goes into making one of these and came across a site specifically on helping people decide if this was the way to go for them.

First off you need to consider the land.  North Central Texas land in general has a lot of clay which makes an issue for drainage of this kind of structure.  The solution they propose for clay is to put in French drains to get the water out.  This could work if the drain had somewhere to go.  Our lot is pretty flat and thus doesn't have anywhere to go really.  I'd have to run a pipe all the way around the house to drain out the front near the sidewalk and that would be to the lowest point inside the greenhouse.  That point is not the floor level but below the cold sink which is needed to regulate the cold air inside the greenhouse.  Apparently within a greenhouse (supposedly warm) there is often a cold air that sinks to the lowest point and can possibly keep your plants too cold if they are the lowest point.

Second concern I though of was what to do with all the dirt that has to be dug out.  Where do you put it?  The site assumes you have a bit of land and are able to choose an appropriate location.  Pretty limited here but some of the dirt can go into planters after construction.  Again clay, so not ideal.  A possible idea that just came to mind, make bricks.  Not sure if it's the right clay but I haven't dug down to see.  Another idea is to use the excavated material to berm up around the outside.  This would make the insulation twice as tall as what was dug out.  More building a hill around the greenhouse for insulation.

Third, it's labor intensive to build.  To do this properly and not give up in the middle I'd need help making it.  Friends would probably help some but in the end it probably means hiring some help to finish it.  Also renting a truck and possibly equipment to dig and haul stuff.  Gardening is not for the lazy.  It takes time to do a lot of it and persistence to keep it going.

There are many more concerns than this when deciding to build but these are some of the first thoughts after reading a page on Wallapinis.

Sean’s First Snow

This is the first time our cats have seen snow.  They were born in the winter but there wasn't much snow to speak of last year.

This year we got 3-4 inches of snow at one time.  Nearly a week later we were still seeing snow in super shady spots along roads and by buildings even though the temperatures reached well above freezing.

Some of the flakes we saw were well the size of half dollars.  For those of you who might not realize money comes in a hard form, and not just your parent's plastic, that would be about two and a half fingers wide.

This picture was taken at the start of the snow fall.  As you can see, the houses in the background are just starting to get some snow accumulation on top of their roofs.

That corner you see would be a good spot to put a garden shed, leaving a 5 foot walking area around the side and back for maintenance and mowing.  Five feet is about as narrow as you usually would leave a mow strip so that it can both be accessed and be able to have enough light to actually grow grass between a shed and the fence.

Maintenance room is one of those things I really hadn't thought much about when laying out our first house backyard.  But then again it already had a shed that was hard to get around.  The previous owners had put it caddy corner to the lot footprint and the north corner was a mere two feet and way too shaded to grow anything but saplings which were a huge problem for most of the time we lived there.  I should have taken a week or more off just to clean up the backyard but so many thing take up time we never got around to it.

This time we're master planning the yard so that we can make the most of it.  The fig tree is a prime example being several feet from the fence to give it adequate room to spread out.  Fig trees in our area can get pretty big pretty fast and I'm hoping to train it well so we can get plenty of figs in the coming years.  This snow should help it acclimate well.  I checked it after the thaw and the branches still looked amazing.  So many things we've learned since then and we're going to be implementing a lot of new things going forward.