Wings and Wildflower

WARNING: Photo heavy post :)

A nice drive took us to Travares Florida.  We had signed up for quite a few classes at the Wings & Wildflower Festival.  The classes ranged from butterfly gardening with natives, to identifying native bees, and everything in between.

Cirikli Stilt Birds (Kids loved them)

The husband had a great time taking pictures.  I think he does a great job.  Here are some of the wings at the festival.

Hunter the Eastern Screech owl 

The Avian Reconditioning Center shared a few of their residence.  They are all injured birds who would not make it in the wild.  Except Henry he is for educational purposes.

Miko the Short-Tailed Hawk

Henry the European Barn Owl

Spartacus the Peregrine Falcon

Windy (or was this Stormy?) the Bald Eagle 

You can adopt a bird but it is not like adopting a cat from the Humane Society.  You can't take them home with you!

Meet the random Magnolia Green Jumper spider at Central Florida Zoo's booth

Central Florida zoo had a great table set up and were kind enough to share it with the locals.  Very nice group of ladies who came to represent the zoo.

A yellow corn snake trying to smile for the camera

A resident from the zoo 

As we explored the festival we did enjoy the sights of Hickory Point Park.  Having never been there before we where pleasantly surprised by the scenery.

This is the view from the dock looking at the festival.

Little Henry Lake

Butterfly Workx had a butterfly encounter the young 'uns really enjoyed. Even the almost teen spent the entire time chasing down a butterfly.  The husband chased butterflies and captured these.

Queen

Queen

Dryas Julia a very busy butterfly

Pipevine Swallowtail 

Zebra Long Wing

Zebra Long Wing

We learned about wildflowers, natives, and butterflies.  Oh, my!  I will point out, all the classes where presented by very educated individuals and had a little something for each of us.  Like the Golden Rain Tree is not native, and can be invasive!  Let me highlight just a few more people, places, and things.

The bee class was fascinating.  It was given by Jamie Pawelek.  Check out her website!  The kids weren't so interested, but the adults VERY interested.  Of course, it may have something to do with the playground right next to where the class was held.  Can you believe we have 315 species of native bees?

Birding takes a much keener eye than my son or I have.  Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is a great place to take pictures! (Thank you Mr. Dunkerton)

Lastly, Dr. Craig Huegel (University of Florida) is a very nice man.  We couldn't stay for his class (the kids got hot and tired), but buy his books!  I have really enjoyed them.

There was much, much more at the festival, but if you wanted to know it all you should have gone!

Hollis Garden

So the family went to Hollis Garden to have some quality time.  Two main things happened.  The oldest offspring complained about being hungry (what's new).  It also just increased my desire for a rose bush.

I think I have fallen in love

I have fallen in love with daylilies.  During the week I went and spent a little birthday money and picked up a daylily.  It is Aztec Gold.  It really is beautiful, of course now that I want a picture it is not flowering.  An internet search turned up a few local growers in Florida.  The varitey of the daylily is just impressive.  Of course, so is the price of some of the more unique flowers.  Another search turned up an online auction house selling one flower for $75-$100!  But, man, you should see some of those flowers.

Also, at the nursery, I found a Lady Margaret Passion vine.  After the vine sat outside for just a few hours...

Yep, a Gulf Fritillary butterfly fluttered around.  She landed on a few leaves.  I thought she was looking for a flower.  Nope. She was laying eggs.  The only trouble is, she laid a few on the side of the house.  She keeps laying, well it maybe another butterfly.  I want to plant the vine in another area of the garden, but I don't want to leave the babies with out a food source. 

The eggs don't take long to hatch.  One website said four to six days.  I did find this guy.

Eggs may have been laid at the garden nursery.  But, I still had a Gulf Fritillary find my plant after just a few hours.  How did she find it? 

Avest, me Hearties

It be the day to Talk like a Pirate!  So join me on this day of me birth and sail the high seas.  Find ye treasure, plunder, sea, and sail, on this fine September 19th!  I be sailin' in me new 50 gallon backyard sea.  It be the likeness of a pond it 'tis.

Find ye grog and a crew and sail the ocean blue!

http://talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

Only in Florida

OK maybe not in Florida, but who else would have this kinda story?

On my lunch break, I had to run to the post office.  I grabbed my lunch box, took it to the car, and drove off.  Once I got to the post office, I open the front pouch on my lunch box to grab my drivers license, and saw a pair of eyes staring back at me!  It took my brain a few seconds to register what the eyes where attached to and by then the little lizard had registered what was happening, and jumped.  Of course it jumped at my head; where else would it go.  Now, I don't think of myself as an over dramatic person, but I did scream.  This caused the lizard to jump again.  Now the lizard is on my seat and I am looking at it, its looking at me.  I ask it "What are we going to do?" It cocked it's head.  I have no idea how long this little lizard has been here.  I don't know if I carried it into work.  Was it in the car this whole time?  It sure can't stay here though; it is WAY to hot.  I look around for something to hold the little lizard.  I want to catch it and not hurt it.  What do I find but a McDonald's coffee cup...huh, maybe that will work.  The little lizard sees me coming, and what does it do?  It jumps on my shirt!!  OK, fine, be that way.  I got out of the car with a lizard on my shirt (what a sight that must have been in the post office parking lot), carried the little lizard to the grass, and set it free.  I was very happy I saved this poor little fella and no damage to the lizard, or myself.  Well, I did lose my voice again :)

A few days ago the offspring were at a youth group, so my dear husband and I took off to the store for a few minute.  We discovered a Dutchman's pipevine on the clearance rack.  Once I picked it up my husband found a lizard on it.  We gave the lizard a few minutes to run away before we purchased the plant.  (Maybe it never left the plant, like we thought, or it had friends and that is how a lizard got into the car.)

Dutchman's pipevine looking a little sad

I planted the pipevine yesterday. Gave it lots of good soil and some water to help perk it up.  It was really root bound.  I sat back and looked it over.  Some of the leaves are spotted and probably need to be trimmed, but I lost my garden clippers and don't want to mess this plant up.  As I look more closely at some of the leaves I see...

It's just about and inch long

Yep, a Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar.  It had to have been on the plant when we picked it up.  What an exciting bonus purchase.

Munching along the plant

We also picked up a blackberry (rubus natchez) and raspberry (rubus caroline) bush on sale.

Blackberry

Raspberry

With luck, these will grow and create berries.  They did not come with extra friends.

It's expensive

I am surviving strep throat.  I still have very little voice.  My husband says it's kinda sexy.  My doctor said "Try not to talk".  RIGHT...I work with small children and have children of my own.

Right now I have no voice and I feel like ranting.  Gardening is expensive!  I mean, from the ground up, it costs $$$$.

To start with, the soil needs to be amended.  That means compost, nitrogen, and other additives to build up the soil for gardening, especially here in Florida.

So, let's talk about making compost.  A class at the local extension office costs $35.00 and you get a free compost barrel.  (I don't see that as free... I'm paying $35 for it).

You don't want any grass, or other unwanted pest, growing in the fresh new garden space; so, weed tarp.  OK, the price of weed tarps, when a large area needs to be covered, is ridiculous.  Nope, Nope, NOPE... can't make me.  Plus, that weed tarp doesn't last in this heat.  (I still like the newspaper idea, it is working great; just as long as enough paper is laid down.)

Mulch would be next.  I have three gardening spaces I am starting. All total, they are 1300 sq ft.  If I mulched them, at three inches deep, it would take 109 three-cubic-foot bags to cover.  (Thank you friendly garden calculator at http://www.gardenplace.com/content/calculator/mulch_calc.html#)  A bag of mulch will cost around $3.50, give or take.  So the grand total would be $381.50

We haven't even gotten to the plants yet!!  It is enough to make you change your mind about the hobby.  But, you don't garden because it's cost effective.  I remember as a kid, my Dad looking at an empty corner and saying, "Ya know what I could do here?"  He was a carpenter and he always had an idea.  I see yards on my drive home and think, "Ya know what I could do with that?"  I have been bitten by a bug just like my Dad had been.  You can't fight it.  While my family and I visit more nurseries and gardens, we will just have to be smart shoppers.  Like the five gallon Dutchman's pipe vine I picked up today for $3.00 (I am very tickled by this find)!

But it's still expensive!

Happy gardening and planting!

I was home

I stayed home sick for a few days.  Let me tell you it was the first time I had strep throat and I hope I never get it again!

Well, in between naps, what is a person to do?  I did web searches of course.  Found a few new blogs and garden websites that are interesting.  This site, http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/companion-planting/, has a very handy companion planting guide.  Very handy!  Of course, I had no idea, when we started the vegetable garden last month, that some plants DO NOT grow well next to others.  Like the poor tomatoes that are slowly dieing next to the beets.  They do not play nice with each other.  The above mentioned excel spreadsheet helps you figure out what plants will grow well next to another.  Just click on the drop down menu, select your vegetable, and the list of companions magically appears.  Tomatoes are friends with pepper plants.

Since we know what plants will play nice with each other, why not plan out the garden?  That is where this website come in handy, http://www.growveg.com/Default.aspx.  It is so basic a program, it's perfect.  It is pre-programed with each vegetables spacing needs.  Just decide what size garden you will make, and plug in all the plants.  Here is a sample garden from Grow Veg.

Sample White House Vegetable Garden

So, I decided to work on the vegetable garden we created on the side of the house.  The size is 4ft wide up against the neighbor's fence and then follows the length of the house.  The issue is that 4ft is a little long to reach across and work on, especially for a child.

The Veggie garden currently

After inputting the dimensions of the garden into Grow Veg program, I placed the plants we currently have growing.  We need to get to the veggies in the back, and since I can't move the fence, lets add some paths.

Here are some paths.

The garden looks very sparse now.  You can see a lot of wasted space between the house and the garden.  Let's do more planning.

The final (Maybe)

The garden is expanded a little and I added some paths.  This should help the offspring get at the plants.  Also, the Grow Veg program has a button for square foot gardening.  I used that to place the vegetables and found I could place more then double the plants.  I am interested in maximizing the planting space, so the square foot gardening method may be what I am looking for.

Wait...why don't the kids and I worry about learning to get the plants growing first, and then work on maximizing.  Two of my great-granddaddies may have been farmers, but they sold the farmer long before I was born.  This is all new stuff to me.  Right now I'll extend the garden and create the paths.  The kids will plant another round of peppers and lettuce.  Soon we will get to eat some yummy vegetables!

What tree is this

A debt (Dang if I didn't catch that) Debate was started (as always in this house).  What kinda tree is this?

Pretty sure it is a live oak but as always we debate and second guess in this house hold.  So what do you think?  It is a lovely tree 8' 10" trunk and taller then the one story house we own.

It came from the neighbor's...

We all know the economy is not the greatest around here.  A large amount of home are either for sale, foreclosed on, or just plan abandoned. That also means a lot of yards with little or no maintenance.   We have not had neighbor's in many months.  Enter the creeper from the neighbor's yard.  

On my walk around the yard, I noticed the runner's in a bare spot in the grass.  So, who is this invader from the neighboring yard?  Lets follow the trail...

Aah!  Here!

Who is this plant? 

Cat's claw vine, Macfadyena unguis-cati

Queue ominous music.

So, this fence is the neighbor's.  Let's follow it around, shall we.

It is a little out of control.

Okay, this is really no man's land, but it WILL be taken care of!  The family who lived here before were really nice people.  Maybe cleaning this up will help them get this place sold.  The thing that kills me is that only a few months have gone by and all this growth has happened.

Turns out two vines are growing back here.  

If anyone knows what this second plant is, I would love to know.

Okay, in the mean time, Happy Gardening!