Diary of a Garden

ITS RAINING!!! YAY!!

2011-05-26T11:11:00.004-05:00

(hate you blogger by the way)

Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
Avg	5.75	5.10	7.20	5.06	6.10	5.01	6.54	6.20	6.01	3.25	5.41	4.66	66.29
2011	3.38	2.95	4.74	0.90	0.10

dying vine

2011-05-07T18:12:00.000-05:00

pomogranate, squash and cabbage

2011-05-07T18:06:00.000-05:00

2011-05-02T19:09:00.000-05:00

privet makes the best honey

2011-04-16T16:56:00.001-05:00

potato blossom

2011-04-09T17:03:00.002-05:00

sounds like something someone would call their sweetheart

"oh, my sweet little potato blossom"

blueberries to be

2011-04-09T15:40:00.007-05:00

if i'm lucky

weigela wine and roses

2011-04-02T19:21:00.001-05:00

Tulip

2011-03-23T19:50:00.004-05:00

Tulips don't bloom here unless you go to all kinds of trouble to put the bulbs in the
fringe making sure they have the proper amount of chill time (time you just don't get
here along the gulf coast). I have no patience for that sort of thing so when a gift of tulips
had finished their run I threw them out in the compost heap. This lone tulip decided to
bloom anyways. I sure do like tulips...but only when I don't have to work for them. :)

wisteria at the back fence

2011-03-22T19:16:00.001-05:00

white camellia

2011-02-12T18:19:00.000-06:00

SPRING!!!!

2011-02-12T17:42:00.000-06:00

Dwarf Bottlebrush "Little John"

2011-02-04T19:25:00.000-06:00

...and unto dust you shall return

2011-01-16T16:34:00.001-06:00

camellias after the rain

2010-12-31T16:39:00.003-06:00

lettuce in a tub

2010-12-17T18:14:00.000-06:00

Bees on Fatsia Flowers

2010-11-21T17:48:00.003-06:00

2010-11-03T18:02:00.000-05:00

spent ginger

2010-10-10T13:54:00.001-05:00

Unknown weed

2010-10-03T09:23:00.000-05:00

shadow

2010-10-01T17:43:00.000-05:00

Vine on crepe myrtle

2010-09-30T18:35:00.000-05:00

dragonfly

2010-09-11T11:16:00.000-05:00

Butternut Squash Blossom

2010-09-08T18:17:00.004-05:00

Century Plant

2010-08-17T17:10:00.002-05:00

Century Plant, originally uploaded by amyferg.

Pod things

2010-08-11T13:34:00.003-05:00

Pod things, originally uploaded by amyferg.

I have no idea what the ordinary leafy bush was that these pods came off of but they sure do look cool.

Wood + Water = Mushrooms

2010-07-25T18:37:00.003-05:00

Candy Striped Leafhopper

2010-06-13T09:38:00.003-05:00

Seems like I have a swarm of these on my basil plants.
Every time I come near they fly up.

http://scienceblogs.com/myrmecos/2010/06/summer_2010_bug_fashion_stripe.php

What am I going to do to get rid of them?!?

Bridal Wreath Arrangement

2010-04-12T20:36:00.000-05:00

with newly emerged fern fronds

That Time of Year Again

2010-02-27T18:14:00.001-06:00

Ginkgo Tree - Mobile Botanical Gardens

2009-11-22T13:22:00.001-06:00

A little late

2009-10-24T21:57:00.001-05:00

From a couple of weeks ago.
When it seemed like fall was never going to arrive.

Goldenrod = Fall

2009-10-06T18:23:00.000-05:00

The weather might not say it but the plants do.

volunteer cantaloupes

2009-08-23T09:09:00.000-05:00

Ultrasound

2009-06-21T10:05:00.000-05:00

Baby Limas

In Bloom

2009-05-31T13:02:00.000-05:00

"Lady in red"

2009-05-23T18:58:00.001-05:00

"Lady in Red" seems to glow in the dark.

Azaleas

2009-03-07T06:48:00.001-06:00

Micro Greens, Yay!

2009-02-12T17:54:00.002-06:00

Save Our Citrus

2009-02-05T09:56:00.001-06:00

http://www.saveourcitrus.org/

Scented Camellia

2009-01-02T12:16:00.001-06:00

Pine Trees Springing Up All Over

2008-12-29T06:09:00.000-06:00

I've never noticed these before.
I have seen them everwhere this week,
sprouting out of every crack.
The seed is the little "helicopters" that fall
out of pine cones.

Camellias (Part 2)

2008-12-27T17:38:00.003-06:00

These are a couple of my dad's.

Camellias!

2008-12-26T14:59:00.001-06:00

Scuppernong And Muscadine

2008-08-19T10:23:00.002-05:00

Correspondence with Karen Wagner
at Muscadine Naturals (muscadinenaturals.com)

Question:
Hope you can help. A friend of mine and I were wondering if there was any difference between a scuppernong and muscadine. Are they the same thing. I always thought muscadines were purple and scuppernong were gold. We saw your site and thought you might know the answer.

Answer:
The scuppernong grape is a Muscadine grape. It is a green-bronze color and was named because it was found growing near the Scuppernong River in North Carolina (an Indian name) in the 17th century. There are several other types of wild Muscadine grapes and many types have been genetically selected for commercial purposes like Carlos, Noble, Roanoke, Ison, Doreen, etc.
They are of interest to read about since they are Native American grapes (all the bunch grapes grown in the USA are from European stock). I hope this answers your question. Let us know if we can answer anything else for you.

Peach Fluff

2008-08-06T09:31:00.000-05:00

This is a patio peach called Bonfire. I came out one day and noticed white fluff covering almost the entire tree. It didn't appear to be moving. I'm not sure what it is, but I took a soapy wash rag and wiped it all down. The white fluff seemed to have redish-brown, flat specks under it that flaked off when rubbed.

Buddleja and variegated hydrangea

2008-08-03T09:36:00.000-05:00

Summer

2008-08-02T11:51:00.005-05:00

April

May

June

July

After the rain...the slugs are out

2008-04-05T13:03:00.000-05:00

Eastern Tent Caterpillar

2008-03-27T19:07:00.000-05:00

from here: http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl/bulletins/easterntentcaterpillar/easterntentcaterpillar.htm

It is a foliage feeder and, as the name implies, a web- or tent-maker. Cherry, apple, and other trees of the rose family (Rosaceae) are the preferred hosts, but larvae have been reported to feed on a variety of hardwoods, including ash, birch, blackgum, oak, sweetgum, maple, and poplar.

The eastern tent caterpillar is common and often abundant in Alabama. It is among the first insects to break winter dormancy and become active in the spring.

Nun's Orchid

2008-03-27T18:53:00.000-05:00

Finally

2007-09-21T18:15:00.000-05:00

lily

2007-07-03T17:18:00.000-05:00

Daylilies on Daylily Hill

2007-06-06T19:47:00.000-05:00

Blue in the Garden

2007-05-30T18:44:00.000-05:00

Pumpkin?

2007-05-30T18:38:00.000-05:00

I didn't plant this.
It just popped up, along with the 7 or 8 tomato plants behind it
in the compost pile.
I thought maybe they were squash at first,
but now it seems like we might have a lot of pumpkins on our hands.

Where is all that rain??

2007-05-24T07:39:00.000-05:00

And the rainiest city in the U.S. is...
Mobile — not Seattle — ranks highest in the contiguous 48 states

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18827213/

My Shade turns to Full Sun

2007-05-20T08:33:00.000-05:00

Last weekend my neighbor decided that it was too much work to
clean up after the huge magnolia tree in his side yard.
So he cut it down.

This tree just happened to shade most of the east side of my house.
I now have a beautiful view of his house,
and a full sun garden.
(And since we are now getting into some serious heat
I can't wait to see the power bill)

Good thing I held off on really planting any thing in this spot.
There is a tiny verigated hydrangea that
looks like its getting burnt leaves already.

Fatsia hands

2007-04-14T18:42:00.000-05:00

Another "what is this?"

2007-04-09T18:40:00.000-05:00

I see these all around town.
Someone has planted these in all the back azaleas.
My father almost pulled one out thinking it was a weed.

Before the Cold

2007-04-08T21:22:00.000-05:00

I decided to publish some of the pictures I took before the cold came.
I'm scared to think of what everything is going to look like this week.

Byzantine gladiolus with elephant ears in the background.

My first Iris: a Louisiana Iris, Jeri

An Azalea from the Mobile Botanical Gardens sale, Emelia Rose.

On a less showy note...

2007-03-28T07:09:00.000-05:00

The ferns are coming alive.

I hope to add a lot more around the yard this year.
There are a couple of houses on Spring Hill that have
them mixed in with azaleas. I haven't thought of a spot
yet where I can do that in my yard.

More Azaleas

2007-03-23T19:15:00.000-05:00

I like how the almost-red camelias go with the white azaleas here.

Azaleas in my Yard

2007-03-23T06:41:00.000-05:00

Azalea City

2007-03-16T17:57:00.000-05:00

This week is the best time to be in Mobile.
The azaleas are screaming from everyone's
yards. Maybe its just the parts of Mobile that
I'm in all the time, but there seems to be more
homes with azaleas blooming in their yards
right now than homes that had Christmas
decorations up....and I've felt like a kid driving
around trying to look at them all.

Spring in Mobile isn't quiet, its loud and in your
face. My dad complains that that in a couple
of weeks it'll be all over...he wants things that
bloom over and over or for long periods of time.
But itsn't it nice to join in this celebration once
a year?

So even though I got angry last year at the azalea catapillers
and thought I would never get another azalea ...
well I got a couple more.

Terrace Garden

2007-02-24T10:01:00.000-06:00

From last weekend. Good thing I planted peas,according to this site
http://www.inthegardenonline.com/picks_10vegforshadeC21.htm
peas are one of the vegtables that not require full sun.
Morning sun is all its getting right now.

These cabbages probably are not going to make it before it gets too hot.

2007-02-23T11:48:00.000-06:00

What is this?

2007-02-18T17:46:00.000-06:00

It just popped up in the middle of my growing
pile of leaves. It looks like its going to bloom
purple.

Frost-Bitten Magnolia

2007-02-18T11:25:00.000-06:00

Amaryllis

2007-02-14T19:40:00.000-06:00

Forcing Amaryllis before putting them in the ground.
Here is Minerva (now):

And Red Lion (in January):

Brrrrr....

2007-02-12T06:29:00.000-06:00

Its about to get really cold.
I've had to move all of my plants in again,
and cover the ones I couldn't move.
I'm ready for this cold to be over.
It will probably get the flowers on the tulip tree.

This weekend I started the terraced vegtable garden.Once again I had to pull up more Cast Iron plants.I guess I would have never noticed that they have flowers if I wasn't pulling them up:

Sorry

2007-02-03T14:54:00.000-06:00

I do this everytime...I start a website of some kind
and then I just stop. I'm not very commited to writing.
Should have been some sort of new years resolution....

But I haven't stopped gardening.
Even though there hasn't been much to do lately.

But there is a lot to catch up on, so let's see where I left off.
September?!? Ugh ok.

The best thing this winter has been the greens.
I have never grown salad greens before.
I don't know why. They have been extremely easy,
and extremely good.

This is some of them back in October but they have pretty
much looked the same since then.

The second best thing has been the Camellias.

Here is one of the kanjiro I have. I have three of them right next to each other and they ought to be beautiful when they get really big.

Here are the Shishi Gashira I planted behind the patio wall.
When we moved in there were these bushes with spiked leaves.
They didn't do anything but poke you, so they got ripped out.
These sasanqua are suppose to have cacading, low habitat
although I have seen conflicting descriptions on the web.

Here is one of them up close. Again...these ought to be pretty impressive when they fill in because I was impressed already. I had one planted last year and I waited all year for them to come back to the nurseries.

A Yuletide I planted still blooming. I also planted a Marie Bracey but it never really bloomed.

Everything has been covered in leaves like snow.

Here's one of my erlicheer daffodils which are currently blooming.

And here is the carolina jasmine on the mailbox. Doesn't my lawn look good?! I think it looks better now than it has the whole time we have been here! That's because we overseeded it with rye grass this year. I also spread cottonseed meal last week...so we'll see if that does any good.

Fall Plant Sale

2006-10-12T16:29:00.000-05:00

The plant list for the Fall Plant sale
at Mobile Botanical Gardens is up!

Link

The sale starts next Thursday, October 19th
and runs through the 22nd.

1 year

2006-09-26T12:32:00.000-05:00

October 1st will be 1 year since we moved in this house
and my garden will be 1 year old.
The first thing I did, even before taking pictures of the place,
was to move these stones to form a path on the side of the house.
A pile of red bricks has become the border.

This is what it looks like now.
I still have a large spot to fill in the lower left corner,
and maybe a little spot on the right.

I have moved the elephant ear to the other side of the house.
It stands out more here and it seems a lot happier too.
It had no problems being moved.

Blooms

2006-09-10T15:07:00.000-05:00

Something has definitely changed.

You can see it in certain trees.
Its not showy reds or yellows or anything,
but a kind of yellowish hue.
Its dogwoods and somekind of huge maples
and a bunch of other trees
that I haven't a clue what they are.
I don't ever remember noticing this change before.
The best thing about having my own garden so
far has been that I feel more in touch
with mother nature.
But this post isn't about the subtleties of "fall" or
"late summer" or whatever this new season is.

Its about the blooms around the yard,
like this new hidden ginger I bought.
Which I felt good about buying because my
luna moth ginger is about to bloom.

Not only that I'm getting a new one!

My tulip tree is confused again.

And once again I think I've messed up on a hibiscus.

I don't know why I keep getting these things.

I don't have a magnolia tree and this isn't a bloom,
but my neighbor has one and these things
are all over the ground right now.

The hydrangeas are turning brown.
Seems appropriate for "fall/late summer."

Fall

2006-09-01T06:06:00.000-05:00

Ack! What are these things!
They reminded me of tomato horn-worms the
way they almost completely stripped my
waterfall japanese maple.
There are a couple of leaves left
so hopefully it will bounce back.
I dont think that it has even gotten any new
leaves since I planted it this late spring.
How many years is it going to take to bounce back from this?!?

Back to the topic.
Its 71 degrees out right now
and it feels downright chilly.
Fall is on its way?
My mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) is starting to bloom.

I thought I read that the angel trumpet behind it
would be blooming at the same time in the fall,
but I don't notice any blooms forming.
I also noticed one in Mobile last month still blooming
so I'm not sure what the deal is.

Malvaviscus drummondii gettting fruit.

white turns to red

Peppers

2006-08-24T18:14:00.000-05:00

Peppers always seem to do well here no matter
what you do to them...or don't do.
If they are in the sun or the shade
it doesn't matter.
This is one habanero plant we have.
There's what...11 ripe peppers on there?

Heres a chili pepper plant.
They were on the patio till my son decided it was
a good idea to pick them and eat them
...no matter what mom said.
Now they are just kind of hiding behind the holly bushes.

And they just keep coming.
Its too bad I don't like hot food.
Well...except for my crawfish and boiled peanuts.

Update

2006-08-19T15:13:00.000-05:00

I haven't had much time lately so I'm just going to go on a quick tour.

Dead Azaleas.
Not from heat or lack of rain but those evil azalea caterpillars
I talked about earlier this year.
There seems to be no stopping them now,
unless maybe I posion everything.

What hurts most are the new ones I planted.
You would think it would be easy to keep them off of these.
But they sneak in when I'm at work or overnight or something.

New favorite spot.
No Azaleas here.
Two kinds of gardenias
(they seem to love the weather),
Pink Pricess Philodendron in the urn,
an african iris that never bloomed,
and a stray sweet potato that somehow made it
outside to the ground
and is growing like mad.

OH!
I got a Leaf Eater.
This thing is great!
Its been chopping up my leaves into a fine powder.
I've just been putting it directly around the plants as a mulch.
Soon those leaf piles will be gone!

Starting Zinnia's from seed.

New bush, snowball Virburnum.
Where am I going to put this monster?
Probably where some azealas used to be!

Mushrooms

2006-08-04T07:37:00.000-05:00

I've been on "vacation" this week
before I start my new job Monday.
This means I don't have as much time to sit
in front of the computer and write and read blogs.
But things have been pretty quiet in the garden except for the rain.

Yay! Its been raining!
And with the rain comes lots of mushrooms.

Foliage

2006-07-26T13:22:00.000-05:00

My sweet bay tree seems very happy to be out of her pot.
I have carried her all around the country
and she's lived but since I've planted her she's
really flourished.
This picture was after the great rain we had yesterday.

Fatsia.
I wanted a sort of tropical feel to the side of the house,
but I questioned yesterday whether it isn't
starting to look like an overgrown jungle.

Unknown hosta.
A row of these were planted in front of the house by the previous owners.
I killed two of them by trying to move them to the back yard.
Thank god I didn't try to move more.

Elephant Ear 'Black Magic'
Not looking too black.
I wonder if its because it now has to hide under the angel trumpet?
Anyways it almost disapears in this spot
so I'm trying to find a place it can shine.

Amy Azalea with new leaves.
Underneath are her leaves
that had what I believed were spider mites,
but might have been azalea lace bugs.
Either way a couple of applications of soapy water
seemed to stop the spread and brought out pretty new leaves.

This bush, I don't know what it is.
I see them all the time in Lowes or in people's yards
but I never really stopped to find out what it was.
I like how someone trimmed it into a tree form though.
It gets pretty white drooping flowers on it,
but you can hardly see them through the verigated leaves.

New leaves from our oak trees.
I believe they are laurel oaks.

Turk's Cap or Malvaviscus drummondii

2006-07-24T08:57:00.000-05:00

Ever since I read about turk's cap over at Zanthan Gardens
I've wanted one.
I pass them everyday on my way to and from work.
They have been blooming up and down Old Shell for months now.
How pretty it would be blooming next to our bedroom window!

I could have gone and bought one from Plant Delights for $11 (plus shipping),
but when someone called it a weed online
it was all I could take.
I made a plan to go steal a cutting this weekend.

I loaded up the babe, the stroller, and some clippers
(who knows how woody this thing might be)
and headed out for the great heist.

Actually it didn't turn out to be all that exciting.
It just happend to be growing down an alleyway,
not in front of anyone's house,
with a bunch of other weedy plants.
Underneath the large mother plants were little babies.
I pulled one up.
Probably not a great example for Alex,
if he even knew what his crazy mother was doing.

Anyways...
I got my weed, Yay!!

Dreaming of Fall

2006-07-20T13:57:00.000-05:00

We have finally been getting some rain!
It gives me a break from trying to keep everything
alive...watering morning, noon, and night.

So I've been dreaming of fall.
(I know I have a long way to go)

I've started to order things that won't get here
and /or I can't plant for another couple of months.

First I ordered two types of Turban garlic,
Lotus and China Stripe. I wanted to plant some garlic
because my mother used to grow it under the plum tree
in Summerdale, but Bill Finch's artlcle on
Growing Garlic in Mobile really got me excited
about doing it.

Then I've ordered a bunch of bulbs
from Southern Bulb Company :

Butter and Eggs
Double Roman
Pink Rain Lily
Jonquil
Campernelle
Lent lily

I guess I got all caught up in the excitement
and ordered some more over at Old House Gardens :

Erilcheer
Oxblood Lily and
Byzantine Glads

I still have to order seeds for the fall/winter vegtable garden too.
We are going to try a bunch of greens this year.

Babies

2006-07-19T09:08:00.000-05:00

This is a baby snake I found while making my rounds this morning.
Isn't he cute?!
He'll probably grow up to be a some huge, horrible
poisonous snake,
but I left him alone.

This is baby Althea.

Her mother is kind of a white/light pink

with a red inside.

What a pleasant suprise to have this just pop up.

Here's mama making more babies.

My baby.

Side Patio Garden

2006-07-16T19:09:00.000-05:00

Side Patio Garden
Originally uploaded by amyferg.

Root Garden

2006-07-16T13:20:00.000-05:00

We have a large pine tree in our back yard
who's roots are exposed down the side of a hill
like a waterfall.
I've decided to put hens and chicks
(and maybe other succulents?)
in the nooks and crannies
the roots create.

The pine needles seem to be falling more this week.
According to this site on pine straw management,
there is a small peak around this time
(or maybe more around June?)
in the slow monthly rise that peaks in November.

Azalea Fruit?

2006-07-16T13:14:00.000-05:00

Guess it has to be.
Can't really find anything on the internet about it.

Update: Dad says they are new leaves
with the begining of a flower bud.
I don't know about that.
I still can't find anything.

"It's not the heat, it's the humidity"

2006-07-14T14:54:00.000-05:00

At weather.com for 36608 :

3pm

92°F

Feels Like
103°F

azalea caterpillar

2006-07-12T20:21:00.000-05:00

Second Season Tomatoes

2006-07-10T10:47:00.000-05:00

According to the Plain Garden Planting Cycle we have two tomato seasons here.
I have never tried to grow tomatoes in the second season.
By now the tomato plants are usually 10 ft tall and
I'm just fed up with watering and staking and bugs
to even think about starting this again.

But we got our plants started pretty early this year
and they were all determinate plants so they didn't get out of control.

So I cut off two branches of the old tomatoes,
stuck them in bottles of water on the windowsill
until they sprouted roots
and put them back in the cleaned-out pickle buckets.

Just two of them.
We'll see how this goes.
Gary says it will proababy go great
and we'll be mad we only did two.

Interesting Ferns

2006-07-06T13:44:00.000-05:00

At the bottom of all of our oak trees we have these ferns.
I don't know what kind they are
but they only plump up like this after it rains.
In a day or two they will be all shriveled up again.

The Forgotten Flowers

2006-07-06T10:34:00.000-05:00

This morning I decided I was going to start taking pictures
of the forgotten flowers /plants around the yard.
Plants that just aren't that exciting.
This dianthus is about as far as I got.
The humidity was at 95%
and every time I wiped off the lens
it would fog up again.

This plant is almost 2 years old.
It blooms continuously.
It looks kind of pink in the picture but its really a dark red.
I bought some more to plant on the side of the patio.
They did well until the weather warmed up
and cut worms got to them.
The worms would cut off a piece which would die and turn brown
and then a new section would spring up.
I got so tired of looking at brown, dead plants everywhere
I dug them all up.

Wilted Azaleas

2006-07-05T12:38:00.000-05:00

This is how badly we need rain.
The old Indian Azaleas are wilting.
Everything is wilting.
We got a little bit of rain today at lunch.
(That is why I didn't get a closer shot of this...I didn't want to get hit by lightning)
It was good enough for today.
Now if we could just get that everyday.

Rose problems

2006-06-30T13:31:00.000-05:00

So I've been hovering around my rose Zephirine Drouhin
ever since I found out from reading zanthan: http://www.zanthan.com/gardens/gardenlog/archives/002127.html
that I probably have rose dieback
and she doesn't have much more to live...
even though I didn't get to see her flower yet :(
I guess I didn't plant her right or something.

Anyways, I saw these little things hanging off one of the leaves.
I didn't know what they were...but looking around
it seems they might be lacewing eggs.

New Garden Bed

2006-06-29T14:42:00.000-05:00

This is what I worked on at lunch today.
It looks like a small area in this picturebut at the rate I'm going
I should have this finished by Christmas.
First layer is newspaper.
Second are composted leaves.
Third is composted cow manure.(Bought by the bag)
Last is shredded bark.

I've never done anything like this before.
I don't know how it’s going to turn out.
The hostas and Japanese maple were planted before I started this.

Basil on a Hot Tin Roof

2006-06-29T10:45:00.000-05:00

As mentioned before, our yard has a lot of shade.
Everything seems to be growing...it just grows a lot slower than if it had more sun.
I think our tomatoes actually did better this year with a little bit of shade.
Although Gary attributes this to the fact that we got them started earlier.

Anyways, I thought our basil was doing great
until I saw that Gary's mother's basil was about two foot tall with plenty of girth.
She tried to make me feel better by saying it was because
ours was started from seed
but we have a pickle bucket with a store bought plant
that doesn't look much better.

I figured it has to be the sun.
Right now it looks like most of the day's sun is
directed right at the roof of the carport.
So up went the basil plants.

We'll see if that helps any...
or if I just end up breaking my neck
falling off the ladder.

Its Banana Spider season

2006-06-28T09:26:00.000-05:00

Little baby banana spiders are everywhere.
This one is hanging out over by the trash cans.
They are really scary looking
but I'm told they aren't dangerous
and they eat lots of bugs.
Yay spiders!

My mom told me she thought they were called
banana spiders because they hung out
in the banana trees.
These spiders are also called Golden Silk Spiders or
golden orb-weavers.

Wikipedia says they got their name from the fact that
"the yellow threads of their web shine like gold in sunlight."
I've never noticed their webs to be yellow in any way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_silk_orb-weaver

Crape Myrtle

2006-06-28T08:20:00.000-05:00

With all the crape myrtles in bloom I've been dying to get one.
I did all the research about what size I wanted (not to big), what color (white),
the shape (of a small tree)
and decided on one that should be fairly easy to get in the fall when
I would plant it.
Acoma it was.
Now I would just wait.

My father has some in his yard.
They have been there for quite some time
and they are still pretty small.
They are a pretty puple and babies seem to be
springing up all over the yard.
So I asked him for one.
I figured it would be easy just to plant
one next to the mail box
since the front of the yard gets some of the most sun.

He comes over with this.
From Walmart.
I don't know what it is.
How big it gets.
It IS very pretty though.

All my planning for nothing.
Ah well, this seems to be the anti-plan garden anyways.
Isn't that life?

Vacation

2006-06-26T14:16:00.000-05:00

Gary, Alex and I went on a vacation to visit my mother in Atlanta.
There we took a trip to the Aquarium and the Botanical Gardens.
At lot of my pictures from the gardens look like this.
(If I could have just had a keyboard on my camera to take notes.)

The best part?
It rained while I was gone!
hallelujah!

With the rain it seem like there are even more mosquitoes.
Is it possible?!?
I am determined to get rid of these things...
or at least cut down on them.
I'm going to rake up all the leaves.
Cut everything back.
What am I going to do about the rain gutters?
Maybe they are breeding up there.
I don't know what else to do.

I know there is a swimming pool across the street,
The house that no one lives in,
that must be swarming with them.
And then there is the swamp area down the street at the park.
I have a feeling there is no winning.

Pineapple Mint

2006-06-20T10:38:00.000-05:00

The first mint I haven't killed.
Everyone is always freaking out about mint.
INVASIVE!!!
OH NO...YOU HAVE TO KEEP THIS IN A POT!
Not me. I can kill some mint.
I've killed it in Oregon.
I've killed it in South Carolina.
I've killed it in a container.
I've killed it in the ground.
But look!
This glorious mint is still growing!
The leaves seem a lot tougher than the other mints.
I don't need any wimpy plants anyways.
:)

The sky is falling

2006-06-17T19:06:00.000-05:00

Yesterday a huge limb from an oak in the back yard fell
on our house... and I saw it come down.
It wasn't dead. Nothing was wrong with it as far as I could tell.
Pretty strange. It smashed the cast iron plants I moved underneath it.
(and dad smashed the mums trying to move the limb).
Maybe its mad about the plants.
Or maybe its mad that my neighbors trimmed two branches off of it.
(I certainly am)