Update - been busy

Wonderful weather ahead of us! It's been too cold to sleep without a blanket last night and it's going to get even colder tonight, in the low 40's - yeepee!

Now here's an update:

Haven't been gardening much, been too busy with work, which is a good thing, I guess. My Lantana cutting died. I broke off the new roots and when I tried re-rooting, it actually rotted away. What a shame! Need a new cutting!

No news on the seeds for my Cottage Garden. Not sure what I'm doing wrong! Might not be warm enough for them????

Gotta check on the last batch of Dracaenas and the Azaleas as well.

The potted Gardenias seem to be doing fine!

Update - Lost some Crotons

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong with these guys but I lost yet another croton. The leaves become all limpy and they seem to just wither away. This happened with one of the cuttings that had rooted. It seemed to be doing so well until it got limpy. Now the same thing has happened to the very first cutting I took earlier this summer. It had established so well and was turning out lots of new growth. Only thing I can think of is that they received too much water - need to  investigate it!

No sign of life on any of the seed trays. It's been over a week and nothing!

Everything else is doing well I guess. I've been pretty busy at work and didn't have as much time as usual to check on things.

Update on Everything

Gardenia Cuttings: I put half the cuttings in water, like MIL recommended. The other half went into my little green houses with rooting hormone. Some of the each went brown and dry. One of the cuttings in the greenhouse is doing very well though.

Lantana Cuttings: Doing well and showing tender, tiny new growth and tiny roots, see below:

Mum Cuttings: nothing happening yet, but they're also not drying out or wilting, so that's good!


African Daisies: each have their first true leaves! It's going slow though. Since they are on the porch behind the screen, they might not be getting enough sun. Will move them outside to see if that changes anything. See below:

Carrots: growing, growing, growing, see below:

Beets: growing, first true leaves about two weeks ago. See below:

Beans: still have blight (I think) but they are now wrapping themselves around the bamboo canes. I guess that's a good thing.

Crotons: the cuttings are still rooting and producing new leaves. Aside from the Dracaenas, the Crotons have been the most successful cuttings! They do excellent in the green houses.

Cacti: they are very slow! The green sprouts have turned a dark pinkish shade and very little growth. I'm planning on moving them into the terrarium jar tomorrow. See below:

 
Peace Lily: She's doing a lot better stuck in the water jar than in the soil. After I divided her, I cut back the roots and I know she didn't like that! I'm going to keep her in that jar, she seems to like it!

Parsley: having true leaves now! I love parsley in many recipes and I can't wait to harvest bundles of them to use and freeze the rest. See below:

Chives: doing alright but not very fast growers.

Onions: Benny, the cat had been eating the tender tops. They grew back but like the chives, they are slow!

Mr. Plant: has adjusted well to his new location wrapped around the tomato cages. Will have to move him eventually when it gets colder at night.

Morning Glory: bought a packet of seeds last weekend. Can't wait to sow them along with the Moonflowers next spring!

Did I forget someone? No, I think that update covers everyone; veggies, cuttings and seedlings!

Now for the weather, that's a different post.

Mid-week ramblings

African Daisies - are poking their heads through the soil! I'm thrilled. Really hoping to get at least some color inbetween the green stuff in the front yard.

Lavender - no sign of anything...yet.

Cactus - same!

Gardenia - still green, not wilting

Lantana - still green, not wilting

Mums - still green, not wilting

The latest batch of Dracaenas should be ready to move into their new spot by the weekend. With the weather on the "cooler" side, I plan to get started on the Backside Garden. More about that in a separate post.

Taking Inventory

What was at the house already:
Dracaenas, Boatlily, Cordyline, Croton, Caladium, Bird of Paradise (died), Varigated Ginger (died), Socialite Garlic (not sure that's what it is)

What I brought along:
Boxwood, generic potted palm tree (from Walmart), white caladiums died), Shefflera (not doing that well but surviving), Poinsettias (all died)

New plant additions:
Croton Vera, Plumbago, Italian Cypress, Garden Mum

New plant additions still rooting:
Lantana, Gardenia

This summer, I've multiplied:
Dracaenas, Croton, Cordyline, Boatlily

My front garden - a work in progress

It lookes like this when we moved in (7/2010). The bed is a nice size and I like its location right infront of the window. Underneath the weeds and the mulch was a layer of big river pebbles. The winter 2010 was pretty harsh for Florida and many landscaping plants didn't survive. You can see the two dracaena bushes to the left and right side of the bed coming back with new growth. The two Cordylines (ti trees) on each side of the window had survived as well but are hardly present in the above photo. Everything else it weeds (lots of bindweed or wild morning glory). A pretty sad sight!

This is what it looks like now (10/2010). Mulch was replenished, dracaenas are gorgeous and serve as stock plants for my evergrowing collection of new dracaenas. The cordyline are slow growers but they're doing alright. The weeds were replaced by boatlilies and new dracaenas. To the left of the entry, in a pot, grows Italian cypress. Next spring I'm planning to add marigold, zinnias and calendulas for splashes of color.

My vegetable garden - work in progress

My Vegetable Garden - work in progress

Because we live on a golfcourse, we can't plant in our back yard (golfers need to be able to walk around in our backyard to find their stray balls).

To the left is the small patch I used to start my vegetable garden. The photo was taken right after we moved in. Nothing but weeds, very little "lawn". The waterhose close by is definetely a plus!

I added a small bed to the left of the concrete bed. I filled it with pebbles (found burried underneath mulch in the front yard), added some 16" square concrete pavers to display my plumbagos. It looked pretty bare! I liked the look of the river pebbles and after checking how much a bag of river pebbles sells for at Walmart, I determined there were at least $200 burried underneath mulch in the front yard. As I worked on the front yard, I collected the pebbles in buckets to transplant them to their new destination.

It's really sort of counter productive: the rocks absorb heat during the day and then release it in the evening and nights. No wonder we were sweating like crazy sitting on the porch at night.
I know I need to find a new location for the rocks............

Anyway, this is what my veggie garden looks like now:

To the right side of the patio door are pole beans, carrots and beets. To the left is my pot with dracaena cuttings, moses in the boat babies, croton babies, parsley, onions and chives.

Both beds are pebbles on black foil, I admit not the most ideal combination to place black nursery pots!



Either way, this is what I have now, it will evolve as I go along.

Love my Composter!

Love my Composter!

We tried "home made" compost bins made from metal stakes and chicken wire but they never really worked out the way we wanted them. There was either not enough heat or too much rain or it was too hard to turn the pile over with a pitch fork.

So, we went to Tractor Supply Store about two years ago and got this handsome roto-composter! 12 cubic feet capacity, rotates on its own base with recessed handles. We love it!

It's amazing how much material we were able to turn into compost and I'm not talking "grass clippings". We try to eat fresh as much as possible, meaning there is a bunch of kitchen scraps every day.

Because we moved during the summer, I didn't do any gardening and neglected the composter for a while. There's still a lot of good material in it right now but it's pretty dried up and not very usable. Now, I started adding "moist" to it: fresh veggie scraps, coffee and tea grinds.  We'll see how it does.

Yellow/Green Foliage Plant - what is it? Varigated Ginger!

So for months I've been walking through the gardening sections at WalMart and HomeDepot trying to find a plant that looks like the one above! I've spent hours and hours googling plant images, hoping to be able to identify this plant - with no luck!

Well, last weekend we took an axe and uprooted the entire thing. It had grown 4 times as large as in the photo above and had pretty much taken over the front yard. I had had enough! Because I wasn't able to even identify the darn thing I figured it was time to it to leave!

Well, today at HomeDepot I stumbles across Varigated Ginger - my mystery plant! Sells for $10 a pot - I had about $200 worth of it growing in my yard.

Oh well, I'm sure it will poke through the ground again next spring. Gives me enough time to decide wether or not I want to become friends with is.