gone fishing

well, not exactly but you get the idea. hoe and shovel are hanging on the wall hooks in the garage along with all other gardening tools and effects. tomorrow , errr, no, it is already tomorrow... this morning before the sun is fully risen we will be on the road for the beautiful blue ridge mountains of north carolina. we won't have wireless and we could very well not have cell phone connection. ahhhh... just the cooler weather ( 50's at night is predicted) and all the beauty of our surroundings.

we actually will spend the end of our 10 days in apalachicola at the beach and the very last night in tallahassee.

hopefully, i will figure out my new camera and bring back some wonderful photos to share.

snapper upgrade

mexican petunia

after what feels like a rookie crash course in "more than you can take in about cameras"--- yesterday i made the plunge and bought a new one. it is what they call a 'bridge' camera (not a DSLR); it is a Canon PowerShot S5 IS which i purchased from ritz camera store because they have a 10 day guarantee allowing you to return for full refund if you aren't completely happy. i am having a difficult time with my practice shots. most of them are blurry and i haven't been too successful with the zoom. it made me wonder if i had made the correct choice because i wanted a camera i could just zoom, point and click and every snap would be perfect- close-ups and moving objects. ha.

[i've included some snaps that aren't too bad from my practice today. if anyone knows anything about this camera or anything else comparable i should look into - please, please feel free to share- i welcome all information.]

so, i trudged (i know it sounds dramatic but i have been to ritz 4 times in as many days-yikes- who has time for this?) back to the camera store with the intention to return this one and upgrade to the DSLR. for the money it seems like a couple hundred dollars more is well worth the difference for the quality and ease it offers. they are bulkier to carry around though. in the end they talked me out of it... saying that for the money, i'd be really happy with this one once i got used to it. they gave me an extension on my return allowance which helps me not feel so rushed in making a final decision.

jewel of opar bloom

we are leaving for a blue ridge mountains vacation on friday so i will have plenty of time to get to know and explore my new toy. now, if i am not thrilled with it by the time i get back home, i still can return it and get my money back or choose another one.

crepe myrtle - gone to seed

chickadee

bring the outside inside

Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. ~John Ruskin

a simple way to add ambiance and style to any decor in your home (or office) is the addition of a vase or pitcher of fresh flowers. a few days ago i was hostess to a few ladies for an evening get together in my home. all the usual fare of homebaked goodies, coffee and raspberry tea was served. in preparation for a hospitable welcome, i set about to create some flower arrangements to place in strategic focal points.

for an effortless way to custom design an arrangement i purchased a mixed bouquet of flowers from Publix for $9.99 and then made my way into my garden with pruners in hand.

gathering some cuttings from what i have readily available in my garden i clipped sprigs of xanadu, variegated schefflera branches, liriope and pittosporum. pittosporum is one of the few shrubs that remain from what i inherited from the previous owner. besides its hardy capacity to withstand heat, cold, salt and just about any other abusive situation, it makes for an uncommon addition to most any fresh flower arrangement.

working on newspaper makes for easy clean-up

when finished just roll up all the leftover
mess and discard

a couple of helpful tips when using mixed variety bunches from the florist or local grocery store are to:

1) separate all the clumped stems by cutting them apart turning them into single stems. they are much easier to work with and they will look much better in your bouquet.

2) make new cuts to the bottom of each stem at varying heights as you wish them to appear in the vase.

three vases of posies on a budget; one for the breakfast table, one for the guest bath,

and the unexpected addition was the tiny one for the kitchen window.

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom,
maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Audra Foveo

the kiss of rain

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby. ~Langston Hughes

finally, last night, some much needed rain did some kissing of my earth. it had been over a week (again) since we had any rain. in all my days i don't remember there being an entire week without afternoon thunderstorms in the month of august. something about hurricane dean sucking all the moisture out of our air while it was concentrating its fury on the yucatan and mexico. so it was to be that we were spared the hurricane but not the drought. all living things were happily basking in the after-drippings this morning. all my sleeping beauty friends eagerly preening, chirping, and feeding in what appeared to me a blissful state. maybe that was just my own bliss at being dismissed from hose dragging, hand watering duty for at least 24 hours.

Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while. ~Kin Hubbard

i chuckled at the truth of this quote (i'm guilty). AND ... apparently i would be minus a few posts. i've given way in my writings about the lack of rain, the abundance of rain, the lack of rain some more and the unforgiving heat wave multiple times the past weeks.

the state of the garden in august (it's almost over - whew!)

photos taken this week

what remains alive in

defiance of the adverse conditions

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

carolina chickadee

i'm not one for a fairy tale imagination. my mind is more the kind to cut right through the cloudy aspects of an issue and clear the mud away fairly quickly. but i have to admit yesterday as i stood still in the shade canopy of my backyard handwatering ... a scene out of sleeping beauty (i think it was her - maybe it was cinderella - see i am not even good at remembering fairy tales) came to mind. the one when all the birds come flitting down out of the trees, surrounding her with chirps and song. and if i remember correctly other animals also join her and they commence to chatter about like humans. well there wasn't any human chattering but birds & butterflies were everywhere.

as i stood approximately 5 or 6 feet away from a bird bath and bird feeder minding my own gardening business, to my delight i was privy to a birds eye view :-) of several species enjoying their morning frolicking.


i didn't have my camera with me yesterday but today i attempted to repeat yesterday's experience. not a huge surprise- it wasn't at all the same today- maybe because the time of day wasn't the same- i'm not sure but none-the-less i was able to get a snap of this carolina chickadee which according to my birds of florida book is rare or absent south of tampa bay. these 4.5" little cuties tend to join the company of mixed-species foraging flocks that also contain tufted titmice of which i spotted several at the same time and another small bird that i still haven't been able to absolutely identify (i want to say it was a blue headed vireo) but was thrilled to watch. the chickadees and the titmice don't sit still very long as they are quick to fly from limb to feeder and back again. a pair of rufous hummingbirds i've been watching over the past couple of weeks made an appearance at the same time. then of course there were the usual suspects - doves, a plethora of cardinals and blue jays. the thought has occurred to me several times lately that i even enjoy hearing the caw-caw of the crows in the early morning- something about that sound that gives me the feeling of wide open spaces.

i'll be glad when these dry spells and the heat are memories but it has been cause for ample time to reflect and do some observing while i drag hoses around and get my handwatering done.

superior fit and dexterity

sometimes the gear gets me as excited as the hobby. strange, i know.

every avid gardener needs a good pair of gloves (or two, or three). once i started wearing gloves... yikes... i actually did all my gardening bare handed for years. for some reason i couldn't get used to having gloves on my hands. not being able to 'feel' as i went along did not appeal to me. unfortunately, my hands are all the worse for it now. needless to say, i made myself get used to them and i am incessantly on the hunt for the perfect gloves.

my current favorites from smith and hawken... only when they get wet-- which is a given-- the leather fingers dry stiffly making it necessary to soften them up and i don't abide taking the time to do this with each use.

i have experimented with many different variety of gloves over the years: short , long , leather, thorn resistant, all purpose, lightweight, water resistant, sturdy, and even form-fitting knit gloves. typically my right thumb and next two fingers wear clear through the ends of the glove long before the glove itself wears out.

i may have discovered the glove of all gloves. while i was working my day-long project on friday the pair i had recently ordered from smith and hawken arrived in the mail. without delay i excitedly donned them to assist me in my tasks and to give them an immediate test-run.


my new digs ( a pun - yes)--VERY comfortable-- i dare say the MOST comfortable pair i have ever owned. they are light lime green (a favorite color of moi), not pale yellow as they appear in this photo.

here's the scoop:
Fashionable and functional, these sturdy, lightweight gloves protect your hands while offering superior fit and dexterity. They are ideal for digging, weeding and planting in the garden.
Fingertips and palms reinforced to resist abrasions, punctures and tearing

Superior grip in wet or dry conditions
Ventilation panel with moisture-wicking mesh keeps hands cool
Terry-cloth thumb panel acts as a brow wipe
Carabiner hook quickly attaches to a belt loop
Adjustable wrist closure
Machine washable

hotter than hades

my plan this morning was to spruce up the front walkway flower bed by trimming and thinning out the rhapis palms or lady palms as they are referred to sometimes. this easily grown palm multiplies quite efficiently by trailing underground from the mother plant and rooting up to make new ones. they can be left bushy and full or (as i prefer) kept trimmed exposing the trunks and leaving the fronds to bush out only at the top. their height and thin trunks give a sort of wispy and tropical feel.


this was one of those days when i started working in my yard early and didn't quit until late ---and it was way beyond my intended stop time. have i mentioned lately how hot and humid and unsuitable for garden projects it is? :-) it's interesting how once i get going and i AM hot , sweaty and dirty ( don't mean to be gross) that the heat of august is not as intimidating as it seemed prior to getting started. no question it was ridiculously hot but there is something about having a determined purpose that moves me onward.

the before photo

things were looking a bit like a jungle. there is no convenient way of getting to the palms because there are other plants in front of them and the bed is bordered by railroad ties (i know - i think they are atrocious- they are on my wish list to replace). i approached the job starting at one end, clearing the path and trimming as i forged through it. eventually i made it past them to some overgrown bromeliads, impatiens, and resurrection fern.

a surprise along the way--- whenever i dig around in my yard or get under brush it is likely i will find an old stray tennis ball from when the kids were little. i smile to remember how they used the garage door to practice their forehands and backhands... or the multitude of baseball games using a tennis ball --played in the backyard.



about the time i got past the palms and spotted the tennis ball i remembered there used to be some exposed large stones right about where the tennis ball lay. the stones were for diverting the rain run-off at the joint of the roof. somehow those stones were not even visible anymore due to the overgrown bromeliads and the leaves and dirt that had made their way piled on top.


i set about to clear out the resurrection fern and with a steel rake pulled back some deliciously rich soil teeming with earthworms from the compost that was brewing on top of the rocks.
oh --there they are. i moved the bromeliads to the wall and put some in another bed- they are very easily transplanted. then i dug up some of that great soil and spread it at the base of the other plants in the bed to share the wealth nutrients.

i would not have guessed there was this much debris that needed to be trimmed out of this bed-- this is only half way through my mess.





i followed my own advice today and moved some container pots around for emphasis. these were formerly in a bed in the backyard and now they have a new home on the front walkway to brighten things up there a bit during this hardly-anything-blooming-august-month.

the after photos

from each angle

reassigned containers placed strategically and lady palms nice and neat.


a view from the other side of the driveway. this is the look i prefer ---the tall, spindly trunks of the palms can be seen and your eye looks through them to the beds on the other side. mind you, they also need ground cover at the base due to their spindliness- i used liriope here.

tomorrow i will start early again but mostly regular lawn maintenance -

tonight i will sleep very well.

the heat is on

not a lot of new projects going on in august. i'm doing good to keep up with weeding and some trimming --because with all the heat and rain almost everything that grows gets too tall and bushy about this time of year. most everything is under stress and either looks scraggly or droopy and/or it is at the end of its bloom. for all the 'man-hours' i put in every spring-- by the time august rolls around it is difficult to tell. there is just not much that looks great at this point.

i do have some big ideas for when it gets a tad cooler... and have i mentioned yet that is can't wait for the cooler weather? :-)

i decided to post a few random photos i've take over the last week or so.

this is one of the plants my neighbor gave me. i stuck it in the ground and it grew. since then i have made several cuttings from it and started new plants. i've chosen to place these at the back side of my back yard where they get tall enough to poke up and over all the shorter plants. they are nice also because of the variegated colors they produce.

pathway to the backyard from the brick patio

i've just this week made some cuttings from this tall bushy plant- i am hoping they will root easily so i can have more of these by next year. they are kind of wild and bushy so i've placed them at the base of a couple of oak trees - they have a bit of a tropical feel.

these purple flowers are called mexican petunia - it is difficult to contain as it easily invades the entire area where it's planted with new shoots that travel across and up to make new plants. i have more of them growing at the back of my property where everything is allowed to grow a little more wildly. i have used the garden gates in this bed to sort of reign it in - but it is an illusion as the new stems travel underneathe and up anyway. still-- i like it because the purple flowers close up by evening and re-open each morning.

florida natives

maybe because i'm a florida girl i am especially fond of saw palmettos. palmettos conjure up several feelings for me. they remind me of a time when florida wasn't as congested and the streets were not as wide; when there weren't as many restaurants and buildings and crowded neighborhoods. when we first found this house (23 years ago) even though i didn't know much about gardening i got pretty excited that we had substantial amounts of oak trees and at the base of them- palmettos.


i guess not everyone thinks of them as fondly. my former next door neighbors came from the north and they promptly removed all the palmettos from their landscape. i tried not to gasp out loud.

for me they serve as foundational plants - sort of the backdrop for all the other plants i've chosen to layer in front of them. as you can see by the photos i typically crowd other plant life right up next to them. in some areas it will be azaleas, sometimes it is bromeliads, in other areas it is caladiums or combinations of each of these.

Palmettos give me that feeling of both florida woods and the beachy tropical settings we all know and love who adore this beautiful state. i often cut the fronds for fresh arrangements to bring indoors. the bloom on them makes its own statement in a striking cut flower display.

the grass withers and the flowers fade...

can it get any hotter? all plant life is wilting and suffering (not to mention- i am too). my lawn woes seem never ending. after fertilizing in june and a few weeks later in july applying a granular insecticide --by the end of july my lawn was in distress. it went from lush & green after fertilizing (which only lasted a few weeks) to sparse & light green after my sod web worm episode and slow recovery. i keep reminding myself it is this difficult every summer due to the unpredictable rain patterns and drastic heat. but that doesn't make it any easier to stay on top of the problems.

now i realize there are bigger issues going on in the world but this is a garden blog so please pardon my trivial pursuits.

i've been trying to determine what i could do to help the situation. i knew i couldn't use a typical fertilizer because it is too hot and it could burn the grass. saturday after the usual weekly tidying up i got the idea to spread 4 bags of milorganite on the lawn in an attempt to give it a midsummer boost. it's a first time experiment. i used to use milorganite all the time - not on the lawn but as a general shrub & plant fertilizer. somehow i hadn't used it in years. the great thing about it is that it won't burn the lawn and it doesn't have to be watered in immediately - but the rain does activate it.

we got our first really good rain in seven days tonight. these are the small things in life that make me very thankful. i'll be looking for greener grass in a few days.

here are some other random photos i took this weekend:

crepe myrtle still blooming

coleus getting tall and leggy- i staked up several of these and also made cuttings and put some in the ground. if they get enough water they will root and make new plants.

just for fun--i lay on the ground to take this photo of some of my tree cover

not a big fan of yellow

characteristics of allamanda:Full sun; moist, rich humus soil. Tolerant of many soil type; no salt tolerance. Sensitive to frost, foliage hardy to 30 ° F for a short time.Except to their tenderness to frost, they grow without major impediment.Landscape uses: as a shrub if pruned, as a vine on a trellis.

truth be told, i am always on the look out for plants that grow well and don't need much attention. maybe because i have so much to take care of and not a lot of time to do it. maybe because i'd like to enjoy the beauty of a garden and not just work in one.

most of what i choose to plant in my yard is not exotic or unusual - actually i don't think there is anything in it that could classify as exotic. what i've set about to do is to plant varieties that are pretty but easily maintainable. AND i have to like them a lot- and naturally, my taste changes from time to time-- i am a female you know. :-)

i know looking at my yard the average person wouldn't think any of it is easy but really-- overall --it is. i rarely have to spray insecticide- which i really try to avoid since most of it kills "everything" even the good bugs. sort of like antibiotics for our bodies. but don't get me started on that. so if i find a plant that attracts bugs i don't keep it. for instance, oleander is very tropical and pretty when it blooms but gets inundated with caterpillars that eat every bit of green off the leaves. so i don't have them anymore. too much trouble.

this year the yellow allamanda flowering vine i planted (probably at least 10 years ago) bloomed profusely. [by the way, thanks to senior gardener who was admiring the yellow bloomer while at my house and I.D.'d it for me---i didn't know its name prior to that] i noticed it first in june and today it is still blooming this nicely. this vine appears to go dormant in the winter and then in the spring here comes the green vine and the flowers start blooming around june. i have even replaced the fence panels it is growing on and it keeps on growing. while i am not a big fan of the color yellow who could deny the sunny, bright feeling these blooms give away without expecting much in return? these are the kinds of plants i can recommend for hardiness and ease of maintenance... which is what i am all about for my garden.

i planted this pink allamanda which i prefer to the pink mandevilla

(because it attracts bugs) on this trellis in the spring. it has not

bloomed as profusely but i am happy with it nevertheless.

nerdy butterfly stuff

lately i've been a bit captivated with my observances of butterflies. we have several varieties of them frequenting our yard so fortunately for me i find simple pleasure in watching them. i see them flitting and floating about from flower to flower. only, until recently, i've not bothered to figure out the names of these visiting beauties. now i am fascinated to learn which ones i am seeing. they seem especially attracted to the pentas, the plumbago and just about any flowering plant.


plumbago


penta


long-tailed skipper

i don't think i have ever seen a Long-tailed Skipper - Urbanus proteusone until today. i was doing some hand watering and out of nowhere it landed right in front of me on a marble leaf plant. i had to look up its name but i am so excited my (need i say, less than great) camera actually captured it.


Some of the other butterflies i have seen frolicking about in my yard and neighborhood i don't have my own photos but you can click on the link to view them. I had to rescue a Gulf Fritillary - Agraulis vanillae- out from the pool cage this weekend--sometimes they come in when i have the door propped open doing my container watering. several of the all yellow species-i can't quite identify--maybe Little Yellow - Eurema lisa --i'm not sure. and of course we see more than our fair share of swallowtails.


Thanks to a fellow-blogger, i have been lifted another notch out of butterfly ignorance. I now know why a beautiful giant swallowtail Papilio cresphontes would be positioned on the street like this one I spotted on my morning jog. who would have thought? these lovely, graceful creatures which (until recently) i truly only noticed hanging around other beautiful creations like flowers --actually have quite --shall we say-- a 'variety' for their diet.






i didn't have my camera so i thought i would miss the opportunity to snap this swallowtail's photo. i guess this butterfly didn't have its fill. i had time to get home and back down the road and even after i had snapped- it stayed to finish its morning find. there was something smashed and dead on the road.

i did some research since my curiosity was peaked and here is an excerpt from what i found:

While flower nectar forms the bulk of most butterflies' diets, these insects actively pursue many other kinds of food (some species do not utilize nectar at all). In addition to finding the sugars, salts, nitrogen, and amino acids they need to survive, they must also consume certain chemicals used for making sex attractants. Tree sap, wet soil, flower pollen, and dead plants are part of the motley assortment of foods commonly sought by butterflies, but the full list is far longer. Butterflies are supreme opportunists, and their expanded menu may also include rotting fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms, as well as carrion, owl pellets, mammal dung, urine, bird droppings, slug slime, tears, sweat, and other animal secretions. These items do not readily come to mind when we think of colorful, frolicking butterflies, yet they are common alternatives to flower nectar.

well i find it fascinating. it makes me even more aware of how God thought of every detail when He created the cycles of life and how the food chain takes care of the delicate balance of nature.