Japanese Maple

I got this little maple in 2006 and it was this skinny little twig for
$40. I had to stake it in case a storm blew it over! The trunk at the
time was probably as big as the stake. Today, it has a 1" diameter
trunk! Finally took the stake out because it looked sturdy enough to
stand on its own. I wish it was more umbrella shaped, but it has
decided to grow to the right. Oh well...

Honeybees News!

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1918282,00.html

Mosquitos & Hot Peppers

So you're probably wondering what the heck do hot peppers have to do with mosquitos? Well....nothing! Just the two things I wanted to talk about today!

I don't know if this was just last night, but I was outside for maybe 10 minutes and I got 6 mosquitos bites! Three on my lower back and three on the back of my left ankle! Ugh! They itch like C-R-A-Z-Y!!! This is one part of summer I don't like. I have been lucky all summer...haven't gotten much (one?) till now! Of course, I hide inside the house at sunset, but I was surprised to see that they were out already last night at 6pm-ish since the sun wasn't even setting yet!

As for the hot peppers....I almost threw my new pepper seeds away! They were stuck in the junk mail. Luckily I saw something out of the corner of my eye that looked like a big white envelope! The pepper seeds I ordered for next year finally arrived. I got some chocolate habaneros 'congo black', Caribbean red pepper, and the king of all hot peppers....(and you though habaneros were bad!) Bhut Jolokia peppers! Otherwise known as the "ghost pepper", which is three times as hot as the habaneros! I can't wait to sucker someone into eating one.....muhahahaHAHAHAhahah!!!!

Slugs!

So, I went to harvest any ripe tomatoes today only to find that someone else has gotten to them already! There were holes all over them! :( Then I saw the tell tale slime trail....grrr!!! Ya know, I don't mind sharing, but at least share! They just hogged all my ripe tomatoes! :( All three went into my compost bin instead... There are a few green tomatoes left so hopefully they will ripen up. I also added organic slug bait so hopefully they will stay the heck away!

Butterworts For Sale - $2 each!

These act like fly paper! Great for fungus gnats!

New Wall

We moved our backyard wall further back to get more patio space. Looks good huh?

Habaneros!

Bulbophyllum in Bloom

Marigolds in Bloom

I started these from seed.

Bakyard Work

Our backyard patio is being enlarged and the best part is that I am not doing the work! Not that I did it the first time around...but I am hoping I get a corner of the remodel for an herb garden! Nothing that would be too far off from what I'm doing now, just more permanent.

On another note, my plumeria cutting looks like it is about to bloom and in its first year! :o The seedlings are growing quite well and have grown a lot! The one with the broken tip has branched. This could be a good thing....a squatty plant!

The habaneros are all ripening up! Tomatoes are YUMMY as well as the garlic! I can't believe it is August already though...Seems like it went by too fast as always!

Phal. John Ewing in Bloom

Phrag. kovachii

So my Paph. henryanum died a slow death. I bought it with 5 fans I
believe, but it had no roots when I got it home to repot. Wasn't
successful at re-rooting it. The seller promised a replacement.
Instead of getting the same plant I asked for a different one and I'd
make up the difference. I have been drooling over a kovachii and
thought it would hurt less getting one this way. It's like making
payments on it! LOL So I now have my most expensive orchid at a 5"
leaf span. Wish me luck!

Cash for Clunkers

I've been away the last few weeks...sorry my first post isn't quite about plants, but since this is a blog about sustainability I had to touch on this. The current administration thinks that throwing away money is a great idea without ever knowing where it actually ends up. When they run out, just print more! What is wrong with this thinking? Let me tell you starting with the Cash for Clunkers idea...

So you have an old car that's not environmentally friendly. The government wants to give you money so that you will trade it in and get something more eco-friendly. Sounds great on the surface...you'll SAVE THE WORLD! But that's where it is most flawed...keep in mind that we are in a recession. A lot of people are out of work and a car is not a small item to buy, expensive even. So a person trades in their "clunker" that they do not have to make payments on any longer and gets a new car, which comes with monthly payments AND full coverage insurance required since the bank isn't going to loan you any money if they are held liable for anything you do without it! Suddenly, you are in a money crunch! What if, like my taxi driver in Vegas, her husband gets injured and isn't able to work? Now you're down to one salary, car payments and full coverage insurance to pay on it!

PEOPLE!!! THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA!!! OBAMA IS NOT OUT TO SAVE YOU!

Also, did you ever stop to think what happened to the old clunkers they took? I'll bet you anything they got sent to Mexico or China. So they are STILL polluting the air! Don't think for one moment that a perfectly good SUV did not get sent elsewhere to make more money on rather than taking it to the scrap.

On top of it all...making a new car would cause more pollution than keeping an old one! Not all eco-friendly products are made w/o expending energy of some sort. It usually boils down to natural resources...the very ones we are trying not to use.

Think about it!


In gardening news...my habaneros are ripening up and I just harvested 3 tomatoes today.

NOT Bell Peppers!

My "yellow bell peppers" are really not looking that way. I don't know
what they are, but what are the chances that this was the only
seedling that survived that I started and the only one that doesn't
match what I had wanted on the package?!

My Garlic Harvest

I can't remember which ones are Music and which ones aren't. They are
smaller than I expected, but at least I got some!

New Blooms

I am so hot from cleaning the house that I decided to take a peek at my plants. I wanted to weed some plants out and downsize some, but as usual, that was pretty unsuccessful. I only found one plant! Of course, I didn't look outside, but as I was looking at what was left of my collection in the basement, while the others summered outside, I saw this little guy in bloom! I didn't even know it was in spike! When I say little...it is LITTLE! Maybe about 3" wide? The flowers are smaller, but they are also fragrant! It's a Neofinitia falcata. What name I don't know...forgot to look on the tag. It smells good enough to eat! I also found a Masdevallia in bloom. I saw the bud come up a few weeks ago and thought it was the only one, but turns out there are more to come! I will get a picture of it when it finally opens up all the way.

First Stargazer Flower in Bloom

New Planters

With new Caladiums...looks nice! Let's hope what I transplanted
survives!

Front Yard Today

Added Nasturtium seedlings after the storm washed away my compost.

Supposedly Yellow Bell Peppers...

These do not look like any sort of bell peppers to me!