Growing Moss

I'd love to have a moss and fern garden, except I have come to the conclusion in the seven years I have been in my house that shade isn't all that is needed! I need water too and ther IS such a thing as DRY shade! I have found very few ferns that will grow in dry shade. The hosts seem to love it, but moss is totally out of the question! Someday...

Mossandstonegardens.com
Tripplebrookfarm.com

Chickens

Earlier this summer, my neighbors moved and so did their chickens, which I had grown to love as my own as I had fed and cared for them also. Oh how I miss my chickies! I don't have enough space to have chickens, but I hope to someday as their eggs are to die for! I am a member of a backyard chicken group already and the August 2012 issue of Southern Living also talks about backyard chickens. The reading materials it suggests are:

Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens
Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds
Backyardchickens.com
"The Chicken Coop" and "Fresh Eggs Daily" on Facebook
"Coop designs" on Pinterest
Backyard-poultry.meetup.com

Potatoes!

Just harvested my blue potatoes today! I'm not sure I got more than I planted as I planted two large potatoes...

I am really bad at keeping up with this blog this year! Of course, not much to post about since I did not grow much this year. The garlic was dismal this year! I didn't have time this spring to baby it like I normally do and it's been an especially dry summer. Even my lilies did not look that great this year thanks to the drought.

My Dahlia 'Duet' did GREAT this year and all in an itty bitty pot too! I'm pretty sure it has rooted into the soil below. I got a new Dahlia called 'Hawai'i' this year and the first bloom I got looked nothing like what was pictured, however, as it blooms more, the flowers are starting to look more like the picture!

My watermelon hasn't gotten any bigger. It seems they have hit a plateau. One is about softball sized and the other about the size of a baseball. The stem is still green so I am letting them be even though it is September already!

There has not been many stink bugs this year. I thought it was because I did not grow any tomatoes or my feeding the wild birds, but I spoke to Doug Oster at the Phipps Tomato and Garlic Festival and he mentioned the same thing! Go figure that the year I choose not to grow any tomatoes there aren't any stink bugs! Let's hope they don't come back!

This is how the tag looks...

This is what bloomed!

Another bloom....this one looks a bit closer to what the tag looks like!

This one is the most recent bloom. Now we're talking! The blooms are much bigger than I expected. Not a bad problem though!

Samba's Begonia

Last year on about June first I was exhausted from worrying over Samba dying that I took a break and went shopping for some food. While out, there was a stand of plants for sale...how could I resist? I walked in and thought I ought to cheer up myself with a new plant. I bought this beautiful begonia and it bloomed and grew, albeit a bit leggy throughout winter. I put it outside this spring and it has filled in and grown beautifully! It's a nice reminder of my buddy... I hope I can keep it alive for a long time!

Wasps/Hornets

Watered my Plumerias to find too much activity behind this candle. Turns out they are building a nest! Yuck! :S

Best Deal Ever!

These Smith & Hawken metal pots were $49.99 originally. I've been looking for this style for a long time, but was unwilling to pay the price they were asking for! Guess it paid off to wait because I got these for $14.99 each! Woot! Gotta love a good Target deal!

My First Watermelon!

This pic was taken awhile ago...this watermelon baby is about 3" in diameter today. There are four so far!

Dry!

It's been so dry this year my grass is brown! My garlic looked pretty bad and my Stargazer lily flowers are no where near a big as they have been in the past. Even buds have dried up! I'm going to have to water more so they have better growth next year.

Clematis

My neighbor and I both thought this Clematis had died last year as it just up and turned brown! Little did we know that not only would it come back, but with buds! The flowers are much smaller than I had expected, but the are pretty still.

Kopper Kettle Itoh Peony

Bloodroot Seedpod 4.26.12

Mayapple 4.26.12

Garlic 4.26.12

4.26.12 Mini Iris Blooms!

Garlic 2012

Today was in the 80s! I wonder how my garlic will fare this year with the early heat waves? As you can see, my lilies are growing like weeds!

My Logee's Wishlist

I love looking at the Logee's catalog, but dang are things expensive in there! Not that I haven't bought more expensive plants, but they aren't usually the size Logee's sells them for! So here is what I have been drooling over:

1. Advocado 'Day' (Persea americana)

2. Fig 'Petite Negra' (Ficus carica)

3. Double Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansia species)

4. Angel's Trumpet 'Angel's Summer dream' (Brugmansia hybrid)

Spring Has Sprung Early!

This last week, it was in the 80s here! It was GREAT! My garlic is already a foot tall and my lillies are poking out of the ground! It drops back down a bit this coming week, but I am OK with that!

My new Hellebore bloomed....NOT the color I expected! In fact, it is FAR from it! It was supposed to be this beautiful red color and I got GREEN! I wish I remembered who I bought it from so I could RETURN it! UGH! Now what the hell am I going to do with it?!

My collard greens survived the winter and is trying to bloom now. My neighbors are going to be moving this spring and I am going to miss them dearly as well as their kiddos and chickens! This corner of the neighborhood won't be the same again! :(

Last month I got a new foster dog, but she isn't much of a gardening buddy! She ate my fertilizer this morning!

It's been a super mild winter and I am grateful! I just hope the bugs aren't too horrible this year!

An Unusual Winter

It's been extremely warm this winter. I am not complaining by any means! I am SO glad that there hasn't been much snow. Phil, the groundhog, said there is six more weeks of winter. I'm A-OK with that as long as it stays as it has been! My garlic and hyacinths are peeking out of the ground already. They'll be alright though. I'm thinking I may not plant tomatoes this year as it is useless to plant any when all the stink bugs just eat them all anyway! My Bhut Jolokia doesn't seem to have survived the winter this year, which really sucks. I've started new seeds. I hope they sprout! I may have to get them their own light next year! I think I may do without the habaneros too since we have plenty in the freezer. That ought to last my chili making for a long while!

Battle with Humdity & Air Movement

2:08pm

I forget why, but I used my thermometer/humidistat elsewhere awhile back from my light stand, thus forgetting to check what the parameters had become. It was a low of 45% humidity! Eek! I turned off the fan last night and put up my portable humidifier. I got it up to 55% humidity and turn it down some before bed so it wouldn't run out of water as it only holds a small bottle of water (20 oz). I awoke to the humidity back down to 45% :( I have since cranked it back up to full speed and it has been a few hours already, but it is only at 50% still. I don't want to lose anything to mold/fugus so I have turned my fan back on, but plugged it into the timer so there will be air movement when the lights are on and off when the lights are off. Hopefully this will give my poor plants some much needed boost! I completely forgot that mealybugs like a dry environment. No wonder their population exploded this year! Hoping this will correct the problem!

On another note, I got my first seed catalog already and I am already drooling at the thought of what I can plant next year!

10:15pm

So the lights have gone off and so has the fan. I just checked and the humidity is up to 59%! I had to turn down the humidifier a bit even though I would love to keep it at 60% all the time. I don't want mold to grow in the house!