Gardening
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Growing | Flowers
Here’s some eye candy, full of colors, of what was blooming two weeks ago in my parents’ yard. Verbena on the left and two kinds of spiderwort, Tridescantia, on the right. The amaryllis blooms were on their way out, but a few lingered. Clockwise: Oxalis, snapdragons, good question with a fly, phlox. Nicotiana, honeysuckle, columbine. I think the one on top is a coneflower that is getting ready to bloom but mom, if you’re reading, feel free to correct me! We’ve worked hard on getting the side garden going, adding new plants and seeds and I spent a few evenings pulling weeds. Chris has brought his variegated obsession (ok, I…
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Edible in the garden
Since planting a lot of the vegetables in early March (mom planted some in February, too) here’s a follow-up on how things are going. Right now the garden in the backyard is great but at the plot—not so much! We’re not sure what the culprit is, too many coffee grounds, too much water, who knows, but everything is fairly stunted. The onions are just now starting to bulb whereas my brother’s plot has well bulbing onions. The potatoes withered and are basically dead, something ate the tops of the okra, and whereas everything else is alive and doing ok, they aren’t growing and seem to be stunted. It’s very strange.…
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Shangri-La Botanic Gardens: Orange, Tx
Great white egrets nesting Itea virginica and white ginger flower Bunny, something I don’t know, beaver dam, and green heron Pond covered in small and giant salvinia, an invasive exotic Banded water snake, Nerodia fasciata The same day we went to the Beaumont Botanic Gardens we drove over to Shangri-La Botanic Gardens to see what they had in store. This was an affordable garden, $6 entry for a regular garden tour and then $10 for a garden tour and a boat tour down a bayou to a few of their education centers and maybe to see a beaver dam or two! We opted for the $10 and arrived there when…
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Beaumont Botanical Gardens
On our Sunday off a week ago in Beaumont we took a trip to a few botanic gardens. One of them is a free to the public garden, the Beaumont Botanic Garden. We arrived too early to see the conservatory but we did a tour of the garden. I think the rose garden was the most stunning but they did have some other beautiful parts in the garden. Several people were taking graduation photos. We’re off for at least a week as we switch projects down in the Big Thicket but when we return we’ll drop by the conservatory and see what’s blooming in there.
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Plot Happenings
Not our onion, someone else’s but it was too pretty to pass up. Several seedlings are getting their second leaves: The carrots… the dill… and the cilantro! Thinning out the okra… and the unlucky ones plucked out. A few of the plants that will give us the beautiful fruit that we’ll make into gumbo or be fried up…mmmm!
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365 Photos: Day 1
Tech info: ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/80sec, 55mm Chris started a bunch of tomato seeds the other day. We worked in the plot, too, planting lots of new seedlings including carrots, okra, dill, basil, parsley and cilantro. Grabbed a few already growing tomatoes to get a head start and put cages over them. Got some fertilizer going on them. Mom’s potatoes are coming up and her onions are thriving. I’ve been weeding out some of the flower beds in the backyard. A few more afternoons and I might have them done. One bed at a time! Anyone else growing anything?
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The Green Tunnel & Assorted Items
Green Tunnel from Kevin Gallagher on Vimeo. It really is like this! It was fun to look back and know exactly where some of these spots were. Ah, such a good trail. I’m getting Springer Fever a bit; it would be fun to watch all the thru-hikers for the year. Speaker was planning on hiking from Springer to Neels Gap in a week or two and see how all the hikers are doing. Ah, to be a fly on the wall of a shelter! Meanwhile I’ve also got Spring Fever. My mom and brother have garden plots in a community garden this year. Chris and I went out and started…
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Grapevine Botanic Gardens
Driving around Grapevine the other day we saw a sign for the Grapevine Botanic Gardens and for as long as I’ve been in Texas (minus the 8 years in Florida) I had no idea they existed. We thought they might charge to get in, but nope, they are free! Honestly, I loved it more than some larger botanic gardens I’ve been to around here. I think an oak hairstreak, Satyrium favonius on mist flower. Oakleaf hydrangea I was very happy to smell this butterfly ginger. I missed having it this year in my yard. One of my favorite plants in the garden for scent; strong and heady. They had quite…
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10′ Ylang Ylang Tree for Sale
I think our Ylang Ylang tree is going to be hard to sell. It was grown from seed and is now 10′ tall in a container. It is in the blooming stage already. If you are in South Florida and want to come by and take a look at it, drop me an email at oceanicwilderness at gmail dot com. Our price is $75 at the moment, but it is worth more than that. Heck, I have MORE plants so, send me an email.
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Monday Garden Musings
It is fairly quiet in the garden these days. After the cold snap, everything took a hit. I like this time of year because it isn’t so overwhelming. The grass doesn’t grow 10′ in a day and the vines aren’t trying to suffocate each other. It’s more relaxing. A little bit more reverse lens technique for some closeups: A fly buzzing the loquat flowers Plantain flowers Hibiscus grandideri about to bloom A less mature H. grandidieri blossom Chalice vine Variegated vanilla A little fern, a little recruit… I’ve been enjoying these garden blogs lately: Chiot’s Run The Inadvertent Farmer Fennel and Fern: they have a blog but it appears their…