Happy Earth Day 2013

The day was beautiful (even if I had to work)!  My little group planted a few flowers, adding to the Pumpkin Patch.  Oh, but you haven't heard the story about the pumpkin...  Around Halloween time, the little group dug into a large pumpkin.  Seeds and goo were everywhere.  Great fun was had by all.  Wash off the sidewalk, clean hands, and back inside.  Let's fast forward until April, during an outdoor check for lizards, frogs, flowers, or snakes. Yes snakes, it is Florida.  We had a five footer in a tree once.  Well, we find three baby leaves that are different from the grass leaves.  What else could they be, but pumpkins growing from our big pumpkin six months earlier.  We were concerned the mean lawn mover would mow them down, so three little pumpkin plants got dug up and replanted in a pot... and the pumpkin patch was born.

Missed the Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day-April 2013

A lot has been happening around the garden.  Never a free second...well if I would manage my time better...

Here are a few plants blooming in my little piece of paradise.

Aztec Gold daylily

Spiderwort or Cow slobber(snot)

Ghost Succulent-Graptopetalum Paraguayense A resent gift

Coreopsis Salsa

My first GBBD-Mar 2013

A blogger that I have just started reading (May Dreams Gardens) had posted a fun idea this morning...Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  Every 15th just post what is bloomin' in your yard.

Louis Philipe Rose

Lady Margaret Passionvine

Coreopsis

Bulbine

Black and Blue Salvia (looks like someone yelling)

Next go round with seeds

Blanket flower
Black eyed susan
Dahlia
Cosmos
Lupine
Phlox
Milkweed
Zinnia

Parsley
Carrot
Cuccumber
Pepper
Tomatoes


I tried something different to get the seeds to start.  Lets hope!

Edit added video-Central Florida Gardening-Seed Propagation

Should have trusted my instincts

Things have been a little busy around these parts.  Between a sick dog, new plants, cookie booths, and freezing temperatures...yes, it is a little busy.  

I kept an eye on the weather report.  Wind advisory; so no bonfires.  Temps in the high 30's.  Okay, should I cover the seedlings or not?  The new plants; cover them or not?  Well, it will only get down to 38 and no freeze warnings.  I guess they will be fine.  

I should have trusted my instincts.  It got down to 28° F!  I had ice on my windshield!  Man, it was cold this morning.  

I checked the plants after work.  All the butterfly garden seedlings are looking fine.  The tomatoes look rough.  I lost the cherry tomato plant my daughter planted last fall.  Well lesson learned.  Always cover the tomato and pepper plants!

Oh well, I have more seeds.

That time

It's cookie time!  Yeah Yeah cookie time Oh yeah!


Troop Beverly Hills-Cookie Time song

The wish list

We all have wishes.  Hopes.  Dreams.

Source: sarahraven.com via Pastorjoelle on Pinterest

I have a wish for a beautiful meadow filled with flowers to attract wildlife.  The hope is for Florida-friendly and native plants that are non-invasive.  I also have a dream of a successful vegetable garden.

When my dear husband was setting up his fish tank, he created a list of all the fish he had hopes of caring for.  I love lists!  He went back and forth with his list a few times, changing and editing.  I have done the same with my plant list.  It is a very LONG list.

I have been doing research and learning how to garden in Florida:  what are the best plants for this area, how to begin a garden,  how to maintain a the soil, and much more.  The point that continues to be made in every book, blog, and website is that Florida gardening is like gardening on another planet.

The best advise that I have taken from all the research is...take it one step at a time; be patient!  Last year I tried to change the whole yard.  Little success was made.  This year I am going to take one section at a time.

The wishlist so far

Annual
Black eyed susan Redbeckia hista (su, f)
Blanket flower Gaillardia pulchella (y) considered short lived perennial
Phlox
     - drummondii (sp) native to Texas
     - nivalis (sp) trailing phlox native to northern Florida
Tickseed Coreopsis spp. (sp, s, f depending on species) according to UF/IFAS website there are 13 native species of tickseed in Florida

Perennial
Beard flower Pogonia ophioglossoides (sp, s)
Blackberry lily Belamcanda chinensis (s, f)
Blazing star
     - Liatris elegans (f)
     - Liatris spicata (s) Dense blazing star
Blue porterweed Stachytarpheta jamaicensis (y) we are at the tip of it's growing range
Cosmos Cosmos bipinnatus (sp, f)
Daylily
Lupine
     - Lupinus diffusus 
     - Lupinus perennis (sp, s)
Milkweed Asclepias spp. (y)
     - Butterfly weed Asclepias tuberosa
     - Savvanah milkweed Asclepias pedicellata
     - Whorled milkweed Asclepias verticallata
     - Green antelopehorn Asclepias viridis
Paintbrush 
     - Carphephorus corymbosus (f)
     - Carphephorus odoratissimus
Powderpuff or Sensitive plant Mimosa strigillosa (y)
Rain lily Zwohyranthes
Salvia Salvia spp.
     - Black and blue Salvia guarentica (sp, su)
     - Forsythia sage Salvia madrenis (f)
     - Hot lips sage Salvia Microphylla (y)
     - Lyreleaf sage Salvia lyrata
     - Red sage salvia coccinea (y)
     - Snow nymph salvia coccinea snow nymph (y)
     - Wendy's wish salvia wendy's wish (y)
Spider lily Hymenocallis latifolia (s)
Stokes Aster Stockesia laevis
Tampa Verbain Glandularia Tampensis

Grasses
Chalky Bluestem Andropogon virginicus variety glauca
Elliot love grass Eragrostis elliottii
Lopsided Indian grass Sorghastrum secundum
Muhly grass Muhlenbergia capillaris
Purple love grass Eragrostis spectabilis
Sand cordgrass Spartina bakerii
Wiregrass Aristida beyrichiana
Pineywoods dropseed Sporobolus junceus

Vine
Purple Passion vine Passiflora incarnata
Dutchman's Pipevine Aristolochia elegans
Coral Honeysuckle Lonicera sempervirens

Shrub
American beauty berry Callicarpa americana
Florida cracker rose Louis Philippe Rosa
Florida flame azalea Rhododendron Austrinum
Blackberry
     - Rubus apache     
     - Rubus cuneifolius pursh Sand blackberry
Blueberry (southern highbush cultivars)
     - Emerald
     - Jewel
     - Sweetcrisp
     - Farthing
Raspberry (not really recomended)
     - Dorman red (not a great taste)
     - Heritage

Water plants
Banana Plant Nymphoides aquatica
Iris Iris virginica
Mosquito Fern Azolla caroliniana
Pickerelweed Pontederia cordata
Tape/Eel Grass Vallisneria americana
Water lily
a wealth of info at http://www.wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?start=0&collection=FL_central&pagecount=100

My dear husband took me on a trip for the V-day holiday...

Black and Blue Salvia

Budding Louis Philippe Rose

If one red rose says "I love you" what does a whole bush say?

Perfect match

I have found my perfect match and he is pretty handsome also.  Yes, I am talking about my husband.  It is going to be mushy gushy time in a few days, so I figured I would start here.

He has put up with a lot over the last few years.  He is right by my side, no questions asked.  Okay, sometimes there is a deep sigh, but he is still next to me.

The thing that has me really tickled about him is that his hobby fits well with mine.  He is the fish guy.

He does a really nice job decorating and caring for the tanks.  He built the caves for the big tank from scratch.  My husband checks the water to make sure the fish have all that they need.  No one likes it when a fish doesn't make it.  Every few days or so I get a donation of water from the tanks.  During the dry season the donation really helps the thirst plants.

I keep pestering him about a planted tank.  Right now, that will not work.  With his cichlids in one tank and the goldfish in the other...they like to dig up plants.  He did pick up a small pond for me, on my last birthday, in which to put plants.  He is very excited to put the goldfish into it.  It is a project that will take some planning, but something we can work on together.  The perfect blend of our two hobbies.

Of course it will probable be another year before we get to it! HA!

The learning curve

Solarization of the yard is the process of covering your yard, usually with plastic, to kill off unwanted weeds or grass.  Here are some helpful links to give you more information.

Solutions for your life UF - http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in856 

Wayne Schmidt's soil solarization page - http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/solarization.htm 

Popular mechanics - http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/lawn-garden/4350153

The learning curve is a favorite phrase I use in reference to failed experiments.  A few months back (like the beginning of summer), my husband helped me cover up the back yard to solarize the lawn.  I wanted to kill off the grass so my daughter could plant her butterfly garden.

Ugly right?

On Wednesday, we took the cover off.  Yep, it's the learning curve.  Under the tarp we found green.  Not what we expected.  The funny thing was that all the grass had been killed off! The spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) and really soft nice looking clover that grows under the oak tree where growing very nicely if a little flattened.

Still ugly!

We had done solarization on the side where the veggie patch is growing.  It worked great for that.  Perhaps the tarp let in too much light with out being folded?  What ever the case my husband (such a good man) helped me fold the tarp and cover a smaller section.  

We did discover this...

My husband said "Turbo snails!?  It eats other snails."  All I could think of was the racing snail from The NeverEnding Story!

What would we do with out the Internet?  The same research would just take longer.  The snail answer is Rosy Wolf snail (Euglandina rosea).  It does eat other snail and is native to this area.  Good snail!

The soil under the tarp looked good.  So to save face I took a box of seeds a good friend of mine had given me and sprinkled it around.  It is the American Seed wildflower sunny area mix.  With luck something will grow...if we can keep the chickens out of it.  

Indecision

Should I stay or should I go now?

Are we moving or are we staying?  What would be best for the family, school, pets, finances...to many choices and not enough decisions!  So of course the garden got left and forgotten (sort of).  That is ok it was winter (sort of).  As of now the final decision is we are staying.  That could change once again.

The garden will continue to bloom if I am here or not.  Seeds have been started!  We will continue the little to no cost of gardening as much as we can.  This is just in case we do find that magic dream space to fill all our needs.

We will find joy in what we have and count our blessings.