Song of Chuck-Will's-Widow announces planting season arrival

Chuck-Will's-Widow

Whip-poor-will

Every night I can hear the song of the chuck-will's-widow singing.  For the longest time I thought it was a whip-poor-will, who got its name from the sound it makes.  I decided to share them both with you so you could hear the difference.  Who knows, one day your little grandchild might want to know this and you'll be just the person to know.  We know that our grand kids think we know EVERYTHING.  It's nice to be special.  Reminds me of getting those handfuls of daisies and dandelions from the kids and putting them in a vase with water on the kitchen counter so we could enjoy them for a few hours.  It was one of the lessons of sharing, giving and the joy of plants all wrapped up into a single, lovely package!
Best Planting Dates
A dear friend provided me with a great link to the old Almanac again.  Do you remember that thing?  I used to actually buy that every year for years and years and read it from cover to cover.  Just change the location to your own locale and it will show you the best dates for planting each type of seed.  It also includes very handy grow guides for each plant type with simple clicks.  This was really, really nice!  The plant categories include: vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, shrubs, and houseplants.
Vegetable Gardening Online.com has a very cool little tool.  It lets you plan your garden online using a drag and drop option.  You can drag the little veggies and plants into a grid whatever size you plan for your garden.  It even lets you plan your companion planting before you put them into the ground.  Because it makes noise, it's a fun little toy for adult and kids!  This could be used as a good learning tool as well.  I had a ton of fun playing.

When I watered the plants today, I was a little surprised at how big the beans are getting.  Just wait until Saturday, when I post the photos!  I also noticed that the sun is getting a LOT hotter as the beans in one section of the lanai were laying down on their sides they were so dried out.  This means that I'm going to need to make some big changes.  I didn't even look at the lavender because I ended up working until 7:00 tonight.  So, I'll need to peek at them during a break.  This is one reason it's REALLY GREAT to work from home.  I am able to water the plants on my break. The bad thing is that I work really late some days and I usually just grab a sandwich and eat at my desk for lunch.  I probably need to check on the hanging baskets in the front of the house because it's just hot, hot, hot full sun all day and they'll be burnt to a crisp.  They are fine for the winter since they are ivy, but during the summer I usually bring them into the lanai for a bit of shelter from the hot sun.  

Living Wreath
I found this cool little project I wanted to try.  Planting a living wreath.  I finally got my act together and ordered the supplies this past weekend from Save-On-Crafts.  The instructions for the wreath are from English Gardens.   I picked up the sheet moss and the wire wreath frames.  While the wreath frames aren't exactly what the instructions called for, they were pretty close.  I expect this weekend to put it all together.  Save-On was the least expensive for these material and I spent hours looking for this stuff and checking for the lowest prices. I'm not sure if I'll use the pansies or not, because these will be on the southern exposure in Florida and virtually no shade.  I also want to snatch up some of the seeds from that gorgeous purple azalea I showed you under the lugustrum a few days back.
If you are handy at all or have a handy housemate, I have another little project for you.  Take a gander at this beauty. 

 It seems pretty easy to build on your own, as long as you remember that you need to have a resting spot for each plant so the soil does not wash away.  I'd say slip a half tube (like a gully or ditch) into each hole and then make sure to affix it in place with caulk.  Then, you can put the small plant into the opening so it will grow out of the opening.  If you want the easy way out, you can always purchase it.  Check out Green Head for details.

Our surprise sprouts

Dill seeds planted  February 11

Planting Seeds & Spring 
Is it a sign of getting old when you don't remember what you had planted in a pot the year before or does this mean you have too many plants?  As I was doing my "daily rounds" I found some new sprouts showing up to the garden party.  It looks like the dill is about ready to be moved into its permanent home.  

Close encounter of bean sprouting

 The beans, ohhhh the beans.  Those took two tries.  I had a bit of help from 3 year old Josh.  Everything went just great, even down to the poking the little beans into the dirt.  We put 2 little beans into each little compartment.  We found some old peat pots that made it so much easier for a toddler to understand to keep the beans into their squares.  The trouble came with the watering.  He drowned the poor little beans and then they got all furry and rotten.  Of the 12 seeds we planted, only 2 made it out alive.  So, last weekend, Josh and I started again. But, I was not paying attention and I handed him the bean seed envelope from last year without doing a viability test.  He did a wonderful job this time!  When I realized my mistake, I took out this year's bean seeds and poked in 2 more seeds into each compartment.  In less than a week, we have stunning results!

Bean Seeds planted 2/25/2012

Along that walk of mine, I also inspected the trees because we planted 2 new trees last year and I was a bit worried about them.  The Crepe Myrtle looked for the most part dead.  It really needs close inspection to realize this is not the case.  Look closely now.

The Bougainvillea was looking dead as can be until the past week or so and then little by little, flowers began to appear.  The reason I'm bringing both of these up is that sometimes we're a little quick on the draw with our plants and don't give them enough time to show us they are still alive.  These were trees and they usually do things a bit faster.  Last year, I was pulling out what I thought were plants that died from a frost and lo and behold, I found 3 that had a teeny bit of green buds on them.  I transplanted them to a new sunny location that was in a more protected area and I babied the heck out of them and those little sweethearts came back.

Still recovering section of Bougainvillea

Recovered section of Bougainvillea