". . . remembering the role model my now deceased MIL set for me. She killed snails in her garden with a hammer, saying to each one “This is your last day on earth.”
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Cordy, those pink fireworks looking flowers are awesome! What is that?Tim Burton’s garden
Since things are a little slow in the café today, I will share one of my long winded stories.
On the SOTD, ABQ2ATL was talking about how it is 95 in Atlanta and when it rains, steam comes off the pavement. Here in Florida, every day in July has been 90 and the humidity has been about 88, so it feels like 100.. And it has rained every day. June was about the same and even May was hot and wet. So I have done what any sane person would do under the circumstances—totally stayed in the house except for the 20 foot stroll to DH’s car (mine is in the garage).
Well today we had a thunderstorm at about 8 am and after the rain, it was only 78 degrees! I thought I have to take advantage of this. I am going to fix my swales and plant my potato vines. Swales are very shallow ditches that direct the rain out of your yard and to the street. Our new gutters changed the water flow in our side yard, so I am putting in the equivalent of dry creek beds. Except once a day they are not dry during our daily scheduled flash flood. We are putting in stones next month. And I have one of those corny little wooden bridges sitting in the garage waiting for assembly. I figure I burned lots of calories shoveling dirt and wheelbarrowing it to new locations. And a brief downpour was a feature because it allowed me to test the effectiveness of my redesigned swales.
Then on to the potato vines. I bought four flats of red potato vine to plant on the part of the lawn between the sidewalk and the street. I bought them in May just before it became unbearable outside. May to the end of July is a long time to sit waiting to be planted. After the swale redirection, it was starting to get really hot and sunny. Yikes. But if I didn’t plant the potato vines today, it would probably be mid Oct before I would leave the house again. I decided to soldier on.
When I bought the potato vines, I tucked them under a shrub so the sun wouldn’t fry them. The daily rains kept them watered and they just sat there and waited for me. Not a one died. But when I pulled them out to plant today, most of them were missing most or all of their leaves. I realized that a mother slug had given birth in them, and all the now adolescent snails had gnawed on them like a well chewed ear of corn on the cobb. I prompted conducted a mass genocide of snails, remembering the role model my now deceased MIL set for me. She killed snails in her garden with a hammer, saying to each one “This is your last day on earth.”
This is what potato vines are supposed to look like.
View attachment 3773580
This is what my poor sad chewed up potato vines look like.
View attachment 3773581
The green spots are where the slugs ate through the skin of the stem.
But I liked their spunk (the vines, not the slugs). These little vines are viciously attacked and cheerfully hang in there. I am a Darwin style gardener—only the fittest, with a will to survive, make it into my garden. And I have noticed that I unconsciously test them before I plant them—like not bothering to water them for a while. Well these little potato vines were still perky. As badly as they had been chewed you would expect them to be limp and shriveled, but they weren’t, so I decided to plant them anyway. They deserve a shot at a good life.
Florida doesn’t now have dirt. It has sand. Our sand is crappier than most because it is a new house and the builder brought in lots of course construction sand. I had to dig out sand for each plant and replace it with top soil and peat moss. It was hot, tedious, and miserable, but I finished. Here is a picture of my dirty hand. It is the French manicure-noir version.
View attachment 3773582
And boy does the new planting look pathetic. Really pathetic.
View attachment 3773583
It looks like Tim Burton’s garden. Everyone who walks by will think I have a black thumb. Why would anyone do this on purpose? It will look a little better when I put down new mulch tomorrow. But I figure if I put out snail bait, they should be full and bushy by the next time I leave the house which should be about 10 weeks from now.
Just to prove that I don’t have a black thumb, here are some pictures of what I had blooming in my yard back in February. I just never got around to sharing them back then, so I will use them to redeem myself now.
View attachment 3773584
View attachment 3773585
Tim Burton’s garden
Since things are a little slow in the café today, I will share one of my long winded stories.
On the SOTD, ABQ2ATL was talking about how it is 95 in Atlanta and when it rains, steam comes off the pavement. Here in Florida, every day in July has been 90 and the humidity has been about 88, so it feels like 100.. And it has rained every day. June was about the same and even May was hot and wet. So I have done what any sane person would do under the circumstances—totally stayed in the house except for the 20 foot stroll to DH’s car (mine is in the garage).
Well today we had a thunderstorm at about 8 am and after the rain, it was only 78 degrees! I thought I have to take advantage of this. I am going to fix my swales and plant my potato vines. Swales are very shallow ditches that direct the rain out of your yard and to the street. Our new gutters changed the water flow in our side yard, so I am putting in the equivalent of dry creek beds. Except once a day they are not dry during our daily scheduled flash flood. We are putting in stones next month. And I have one of those corny little wooden bridges sitting in the garage waiting for assembly. I figure I burned lots of calories shoveling dirt and wheelbarrowing it to new locations. And a brief downpour was a feature because it allowed me to test the effectiveness of my redesigned swales.
Then on to the potato vines. I bought four flats of red potato vine to plant on the part of the lawn between the sidewalk and the street. I bought them in May just before it became unbearable outside. May to the end of July is a long time to sit waiting to be planted. After the swale redirection, it was starting to get really hot and sunny. Yikes. But if I didn’t plant the potato vines today, it would probably be mid Oct before I would leave the house again. I decided to soldier on.
When I bought the potato vines, I tucked them under a shrub so the sun wouldn’t fry them. The daily rains kept them watered and they just sat there and waited for me. Not a one died. But when I pulled them out to plant today, most of them were missing most or all of their leaves. I realized that a mother slug had given birth in them, and all the now adolescent snails had gnawed on them like a well chewed ear of corn on the cobb. I prompted conducted a mass genocide of snails, remembering the role model my now deceased MIL set for me. She killed snails in her garden with a hammer, saying to each one “This is your last day on earth.”
This is what potato vines are supposed to look like.
View attachment 3773580
This is what my poor sad chewed up potato vines look like.
View attachment 3773581
The green spots are where the slugs ate through the skin of the stem.
But I liked their spunk (the vines, not the slugs). These little vines are viciously attacked and cheerfully hang in there. I am a Darwin style gardener—only the fittest, with a will to survive, make it into my garden. And I have noticed that I unconsciously test them before I plant them—like not bothering to water them for a while. Well these little potato vines were still perky. As badly as they had been chewed you would expect them to be limp and shriveled, but they weren’t, so I decided to plant them anyway. They deserve a shot at a good life.
Florida doesn’t now have dirt. It has sand. Our sand is crappier than most because it is a new house and the builder brought in lots of course construction sand. I had to dig out sand for each plant and replace it with top soil and peat moss. It was hot, tedious, and miserable, but I finished. Here is a picture of my dirty hand. It is the French manicure-noir version.
View attachment 3773582
And boy does the new planting look pathetic. Really pathetic.
View attachment 3773583
It looks like Tim Burton’s garden. Everyone who walks by will think I have a black thumb. Why would anyone do this on purpose? It will look a little better when I put down new mulch tomorrow. But I figure if I put out snail bait, they should be full and bushy by the next time I leave the house which should be about 10 weeks from now.
Just to prove that I don’t have a black thumb, here are some pictures of what I had blooming in my yard back in February. I just never got around to sharing them back then, so I will use them to redeem myself now.
View attachment 3773584
View attachment 3773585
This is beautiful! What is it called?
Dear Cordeliere,
I forgot to ask...what is the name of the plant in your second-last photo? I really like it.
Starburst Clerodendrum
I moved from CA about 3 years ago, and I thought gardening would be about the same. Of course, Florida gets 5 times as much rain and is 20 degrees hotter, so it is not even similar. Here in Florida, you can grow tomatoes in the winter but not in the summer. It is too hot and wet for them. You can't even grow impatients here.
It has been interesting to try to find plants and trees that I like. Since I am a life long gardener, I didn't want the builders package of landscaping. I didn't want the same 10 plants that everyone else has. The clerodendrum was one of my best personalized finds. I love the burgundy black leaves and the flowers are just fabulous. It is not super common here, but it is not super rare either.
Thanks for posting your pictures. They cracked me up. Those possums look like a formidable adversary. I am glad I don't have to keep my plants in cages.
Ouch! Mindi B, I couldn't, just couldn't. I normally pick them up and move them to the bushes or something.". . . remembering the role model my now deceased MIL set for me. She killed snails in her garden with a hammer, saying to each one “This is your last day on earth.”
This is really not my style. When it comes to gardening, I usually plan, purchase, and supervise. In CA, we had a gardener who came and spent 8 hours a week grooming our postage stamp size lot at the beach. Here in FL, we have a crew that spends about 10 minutes on our yard blowing away leaves and spraying weeds.
We will call them in to install all the stones in the swales. We use them for planting trees and shrubs. But since they don't speak English and since the report to their boss and not me, it is frustrating to get things planted just the way I want them. In fact, yesterday I dug up and replanted the last 5 vines they planted for me. And trying to explain the curving path I wanted for the swales would have been impossible. I just don't know how to communicate "build the bank up here, take the excess dirt here, etc etc"
I know I know. I don't do gardening myself so our gardener must be pissed off if they knew. But I don't do this very often either.That would be giving them a new buffet to destroy.
Yeah sorry I would have smashed the slugs too. I'm not a bug fan. Especially bugs that damage things.
8 hours a week? It must have looked beautiful. That's even more high maintenance than my yard. Our gardeners swooped in last week. Two days, 4 guys, 8 hours. They seem to do the spring and fall cleanups and two of these midseason cutbacks per year. Plus they come weekly to mow and do a bit of weeding. They are easy to communicate with and on autopilot for me thank goodness.
DH paid to relocate a woodchuck last month. A few weeks later something is back living in his hole.
Well at least the garden looks good this year. I think it's the first year in the last five that we have not had a drought.
8 hours a week? It must have looked beautiful. That's even more high maintenance than my yard. Our gardeners swooped in last week. Two days, 4 guys, 8 hours. They seem to do the spring and fall cleanups and two of these midseason cutbacks per year. Plus they come weekly to mow and do a bit of weeding. They are easy to communicate with and on autopilot for me thank goodness.
DH paid to relocate a woodchuck last month. A few weeks later something is back living in his hole.
Well at least the garden looks good this year. I think it's the first year in the last five that we have not had a drought.
Tim Burton’s garden
Since things are a little slow in the café today, I will share one of my long winded stories.
On the SOTD, ABQ2ATL was talking about how it is 95 in Atlanta and when it rains, steam comes off the pavement. Here in Florida, every day in July has been 90 and the humidity has been about 88, so it feels like 100.. And it has rained every day. June was about the same and even May was hot and wet. So I have done what any sane person would do under the circumstances—totally stayed in the house except for the 20 foot stroll to DH’s car (mine is in the garage).
Well today we had a thunderstorm at about 8 am and after the rain, it was only 78 degrees! I thought I have to take advantage of this. I am going to fix my swales and plant my potato vines. Swales are very shallow ditches that direct the rain out of your yard and to the street. Our new gutters changed the water flow in our side yard, so I am putting in the equivalent of dry creek beds. Except once a day they are not dry during our daily scheduled flash flood. We are putting in stones next month. And I have one of those corny little wooden bridges sitting in the garage waiting for assembly. I figure I burned lots of calories shoveling dirt and wheelbarrowing it to new locations. And a brief downpour was a feature because it allowed me to test the effectiveness of my redesigned swales.
Then on to the potato vines. I bought four flats of red potato vine to plant on the part of the lawn between the sidewalk and the street. I bought them in May just before it became unbearable outside. May to the end of July is a long time to sit waiting to be planted. After the swale redirection, it was starting to get really hot and sunny. Yikes. But if I didn’t plant the potato vines today, it would probably be mid Oct before I would leave the house again. I decided to soldier on.
When I bought the potato vines, I tucked them under a shrub so the sun wouldn’t fry them. The daily rains kept them watered and they just sat there and waited for me. Not a one died. But when I pulled them out to plant today, most of them were missing most or all of their leaves. I realized that a mother slug had given birth in them, and all the now adolescent snails had gnawed on them like a well chewed ear of corn on the cobb. I prompted conducted a mass genocide of snails, remembering the role model my now deceased MIL set for me. She killed snails in her garden with a hammer, saying to each one “This is your last day on earth.”
This is what potato vines are supposed to look like.
View attachment 3773580
This is what my poor sad chewed up potato vines look like.
View attachment 3773581
The green spots are where the slugs ate through the skin of the stem.
But I liked their spunk (the vines, not the slugs). These little vines are viciously attacked and cheerfully hang in there. I am a Darwin style gardener—only the fittest, with a will to survive, make it into my garden. And I have noticed that I unconsciously test them before I plant them—like not bothering to water them for a while. Well these little potato vines were still perky. As badly as they had been chewed you would expect them to be limp and shriveled, but they weren’t, so I decided to plant them anyway. They deserve a shot at a good life.
Florida doesn’t now have dirt. It has sand. Our sand is crappier than most because it is a new house and the builder brought in lots of course construction sand. I had to dig out sand for each plant and replace it with top soil and peat moss. It was hot, tedious, and miserable, but I finished. Here is a picture of my dirty hand. It is the French manicure-noir version.
View attachment 3773582
And boy does the new planting look pathetic. Really pathetic.
View attachment 3773583
It looks like Tim Burton’s garden. Everyone who walks by will think I have a black thumb. Why would anyone do this on purpose? It will look a little better when I put down new mulch tomorrow. But I figure if I put out snail bait, they should be full and bushy by the next time I leave the house which should be about 10 weeks from now.
Just to prove that I don’t have a black thumb, here are some pictures of what I had blooming in my yard back in February. I just never got around to sharing them back then, so I will use them to redeem myself now.
View attachment 3773584
View attachment 3773585
Ohh, I can so relate!
I live in the subtropics in Australia, so I understand rain, humidity and flash flooding.
And pests....
Here the local brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) are ravenous and my potted plants have to be kept inside cages that look like mini aviaries.
Last week, I asked DH to move one of the cages, which he obediently did, but I failed to notice that he had left the plants outside the cage instead of putting them back in. Sigh. He is very much a 7/8ths of the job, type of man.
Here are what the geraniums in the small cage, which were not left unprotected, look like...
View attachment 3773830
Here is what happened to the plants that were left out of the other cage OVERNIGHT!
View attachment 3773833
Yes, those twigs represent two geraniums, one rose, and a kaffir lime tree.
It's days like these that I remember how much I used to love my possum fur cushion as a child before the brushtails become a protected species!
Cheers to you both! You are creative, brave and intrepid gardeners. I'll stop complaining now about something eating my Heuchera.
I am not a bug fan either. I just don't like to kill any living things. They don't have a mission to destroy our gardens deliberately, they are just being them. I have a device at home will catch spiders alive and I then move them outside and I hate spiders!
I don't think I will have a problem with others do what they need to do. I guess I am a hypocrite in that sense.
I don't think I will have a problem with others do what they need to do. I guess I am a hypocrite in that sense.
So I think this is a ironic photo accurately depicting our great British summer here! This was Saturday and it rained all day! We were in our local pub having drinks and it rained non-stop!
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I am not a bug fan either. I just don't like to kill any living things. They don't have a mission to destroy our gardens deliberately, they are just being them. I have a device at home will catch spiders alive and I then move them outside and I hate spiders!
I don't think I will have a problem with others do what they need to do. I guess I am a hypocrite in that sense.
Lol! I drive my gardener absolutely bonkers because I can't bear to kill anything "in cold blood," if I can help it.
I have tried many different plants experimentally, but if something requires too much pesticide or protection to keep it alive, (and it doesn't respond to an initial spraying and a good talking to
) I pull it out. The front of the house is mostly deer-proof, but something started taking a liking to my heuchera last year and ate it again this year too. I'll give it one more year, but if it happens again, out it comes. I tried grapevines in the pool garden and those needed too much spraying for bugs and fungus. (I really feel for vineyard owners.) I've pulled out Cherry Laurel (Shot-hole fungus) and certain varieties of Pieris Japonica (Bugs and Fungus). I've pulled out roses (Japanese Beetles and Blackspot) and many others. I just don't want all of that pesticide and fungicide in my ground water going into the well. And I don't want anyone breathing it in either, or working with it. I mostly try to work with Mother Nature and not argue with her too much.
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And moment later this was served and it made it a lot better.
