Parsley seed progress 5/1/2012

Tam's year old Parsley 4/27/2012

Herb gardening is nice.  I think it's easy to grow them since they act like weeds for the most part.  When you go to the grocery store, take a look at the cost of those herbs.  Wowie are they expensive!  Growing them is cheap, cheap, cheap.  All you need is a little patch of soil and a little tender loving care.  You saw the parsley seeds I planted a bit ago.  When 

I got home on Monday, I was pleased with the progress.  While in Charlotte, I was impressed with my daughter's parsley.  It never went dormant over the winter months and as a result, is taller than my grandson! As you can see from the year old parsley, it has some rambling tendencies, as all herbs do.  For this reason, it's in a raised bed.   Mine are also in containers for this same reason.  It is not uncommon for me to have my herbs carry over from year to year and this happened even when I lived in Chicago, so it's not only in warmer zones.  Most of the herbs like lots of sunshine and good drainage.  There are tons of websites that give great tips on how to preserve the herbs - two of the most popular being  hanging upside down to dry  in a cool, dry, dark place or freezing.  I often just go outside and pull from the plant as I need it - except lavender.  I hang the lavender flowers upside down as they bloom to try to get the plant to become a bit bushier, rather than taller.  Keep in mind that when using fresh herbs, you don't need to use as much as when using older, dried herbs.  Fresh herbs are a little more potent and give a bit more flavor.  The basil is coming a long nicely finally.  I'm not exactly thrilled that it's all bunched together, but at least it's coming up at last.  I was getting a little worried for a while. 

Basil seedlings  5/1/2012

 I'm trying to pick out little basil babies here and there and move them to more appropriate places in the planter now and again, hoping they will not die.  So far, one has crapped out.  We'll keep trying and see what happens.  These bunched up little puppies will cramp each others' style so they can't stay this way.  Soon, I'll have to thin them out.  
The last thing I wanted to talk about were the beans.  Those beans, as you may recall, have been a real challenge this year.  I lost a total of 4 bean plants and my avocado to whitefly.  So, I thought you'd like to know that the remaining bean plants have already been harvested once and are again loaded with beans waiting for Saturday's visit of the little gardener to arrive and gather up the harvest in his basket.  He was so excited about what we gathered that I just don't have the heart to harvest without him.  These beans can wait until the weekend to be cut from the plant.  Considering the rocky start we had, things are indeed looking rosy once again.

Bean harvest 4/22/2012

Queen's Tears

Repotted Queen's Tears parent & pup

Queen's Tears (billbergia)close up 

While I was walking Miss Savannah I saw a beautiful flowering bromeliad.  I had to look it up on the internet and learned it's called Queen's Tears.  I just had to have it.  I kept passing by it day after day, longing for it, yearning.  I just couldn't take it any more.  Without any gloves or equipment, just a dog, a leash and some poop bags, I took a tiny piece of the parent plant and a teeny pup from this raving beauty.  I left the forest with lots of scratches that itched through the night and happily carried home my prize jubilantly.  When I got home I mixed up a batch of 2/3 soil and 1/3 perlite to house my new plant.    I did this right away and gave it a bit of water.  The things to remember about this plant is that it's a bromeliad and that it propagates by having pups and it only flowers once in its lifetime.  However, I've been watching this plant flower for at least 3 weeks now.  This plant is for zone 10 and above or as a houseplant (put it outside for the summer).  It does not like full sun, so keep this little sweetheart in partial shade for the best results.  The photo to the right shows a nice close up how really cool these flowers are and now, you understand my desire to have this plant.  

Chinese Lily 4/20/2012

I've been swamped with houseguests and then away in Charlotte so please forgive me for letting life take me away from blogging for a bit.  It has not prevented me from gardening but from discussing my activities.  I'll try to catch you up on what's been going on.  It's quite late tonight so it'll be short and sweet for now.  While I was away in Charlotte, the plants grew like crazy!  The Chinese Lilies finally started blooming.  

The Lemon Lime tree had a lot of trouble.  I sprayed it several days with my homemade white oil using my new sprayer since the old sprayer crapped out finally.  I ended up with more oil on me than on the tree.  I sprayed both trees to be on the safe side.  Today, I did a little inspection and while I saw a couple of ants on the tree, the ants were not moving.  It was not the ant parade I saw a few weeks ago.  I also had a nice surprise of a nice sized piece of fruit that did not fall off and two new flowers beginning.

Kalanchoe 4/30/2012

Finally, one of the the kalanchoe plants is really gorgeous.  It's in fully bloom and looks so good that I moved the other one right next to it.  It obviously likes the sun exposure in this location.  I was really amazed at how nice the plants looked when I got home.  Being gone for 10 days, I thought I would find a bunch of dead plants, but that is not at all what I found.  Take a look!

Petunias

The deer started eating my petunias in the hanging baskets.  In fact, I was furious when I saw the basket today when I went to water it.  I used to think Bambi was cute and that image has been fading over the past few years.  The avocado is looking terribly sad with black spots on the leaves, some holes eaten in the new growth and the leaves sagging something terrible.  I thought I saw some whitefly.  Yes, the darn whitefly is back.  I sprayed the plant with some white oil and then put in one of those yellow sticky cards.  This year is starting off really badly.  It's barely April and I've already had more problems this year than the entire year last year.  This is really frustrating.  I did lose both of my hanging basket flowers to the deer last year, but it was a bit later in the year.  I'm going switch out the plants and put the ivy plants in the front and put the petunia plants inside the lanai where the deer can't get them.  This should help solve one problem.  The yellow sticky card should solve the other problem.  My mom is leaving in another two days.  We have 2 days to hunt down a few air plants (Tillandsia), get the Queen's Tears delivered that I ordered, pack up the lavender I started drying and a little hanging terrarium for the air plants.  It's always nice to go home with something to remember your trip that lasts forever.  Plants last forever.

Hanging Terrarium

Ant Feeding Frenzy Put to an End! 

I showed you some pretty blossoms on my lemon-lime tree that miraculously made it through the winter.  About 2 weeks ago, I noticed a bazillion ants marching up and down the live portions of the plant without a care in the world.  I sprayed them off and they returned.  I was frustrated and once again googled my heart out to try to find out what the problem was.  It seemed the issue was scale insects are on the plant, which secrete a sugary substance the ants are "farming."  It can also be aphids.  The answer is white oil.  Next step was to make homemade white oil of course because I do everything at home if at all possible.  I googled that too.  I found several recipes and they were all pretty much the same.  1 part dish soap (I used Sunlight because the recipe I used specified this brand), 2 parts vegetable oil (I used teaspoons for 1 quart of water so I had no leftovers) mixed well and then dilute 1 tablespoon of this into 1 quart of water and spray all over the plant including both sides of the leaves.  This needs to be repeated on a weekly basis until the problem is completely eradicated.  The oil will suffocate the insects and this mixture will kill the sooty mold as well.  This should not be used until after the flowers have blossomed and the fruit has set.  I've also given the soil a nice, citrus fertilizer spike to give the plant an added boost of vitamins to help it recover.  

Plumeria

Parsley

The little baby parsley is looking very cute.  After all this time, the seeds seem to finally have taken hold and growing on one side of the planter.  We'll wait a bit longer until the seedlings get a bit larger before we thin them out and move the ones we pluck out to the other side of the planter.  I'm just glad to see that they are finally growing.  I thought for a while we weren't going to get anything in the box at all.  Would you believe the plumeria is actually beginning to poke out the top of those slips??  I am amazed!  The sheet of paper that came with them said 90 days or something like that to get roots.  I was a bit concerned because little Josh was having a ton of fun with the hose last weekend and sprayed water water everywhere and my plants got soaked.  The instructions were VERY clear about making sure not to over water these slips.  So I was more than a little worried about them since they took on quite a bit of water if you recall.  Today, I was more careful and prepared for my little man.  I moved them far out of the little guy's reach as well as the range of the sprayer.  

We have BEANS!!

Can you believe it?  After all my moaning, groaning and complaining during the whitefly infestation, and losing 4 bean plants, we've gotten the plants to recover well enough that we actually have beans.  My husband actually laughed at me when I told him.  They are a bit skinny yet and need to fatten up a bit yet.  So, we'll watch them over the next few days or a week and let them finish growing before we harvest them.  

Drying Lavender

Today, I planted some sunflower seeds on the side of the house next to the lavender.  I'm hoping that if I do this next to the lavender.  I need to stop and pick up some more lavender to plant on the other side of the sunflowers beneath my bedroom window.  I want it to waft into the room when I open the window.  I have that going on by one of the other bedroom windows with the jasmine and it's absolutely heavenly. In fact, so wonderful, I want to replicate it for my own room with the strong scent of the relaxing, lavender scent.  Maybe it will lull me to sleep at night.  :)
I also harvested the lavender that had flowered for two reasons.  I want the lavender to bush out a bit rather than being tall and spindly.  I also thought it would be nice to take advantage of the blooms and allow new blossoms to take their place.  I have pulled all the leaves off and tied them into 3 bunches and hung them upside down to dry out.  They can be used in sachets, soap, candles or in a small vase.   They will stay smelling sweetly for a long, long time.  I wanted to try to do this today since I took yesterday, today and tomorrow off work.  

Oleander 4/9/2012

What a gorgeous showy display the oleander is giving this time of year.  It's only been a few weeks and that single flower has turned into a tree full of blossoms.  This got me to do some research.  I knew how to care for the oleander based on experience and the little card that came with it when I first got it 11 years ago.  However, there was a lot I did not know about Nerium oleander.  We'll get to all of that after we discuss the care.  It has average watering needs and prefers full sun.  The soil pH should be from 6.1 (mildly acidic) to 7.8 (mildly alkaline).  I use a spring application of all purpose time-released fertilizer every year.  Otherwise, I mostly ignore this flowering shrub/tree.  It's a really pretty plant that's deer resistant.  It got some sort of caterpillar action one day when it was inside the lanai, so it got moved outside.  I planted it next to the house in the back part of the house where we could kind of forget about it and not worry about it and quarantine it and the caterpillars from my healthy plants inside the lanai.  It recovered just fine, but forever lived with the nickname of "The Charlie Brown tree" by my husband after the sad looking Christmas tree in the Peanuts cartoon.  The name does not fit in any way, shape or form any longer, but it did very much at the time. 
Let's talk a little about what I learned about oleanders.  These plants are extremely poisonous.   I was not aware when I got this plant.  In fact, I'm not sure if I bought it myself or my parents got it for me.  I know we all thought it was a beautiful, flowering shrub.    "Oleander poisoning occurs when someone sucks nectar from the flowers or chews leaves from the oleander or yellow oleander plant. Poisoning can also happen if you eat honey made by bees that used the oleander plant for nectar."1  The poisonous toxins made by this plant are contained in all parts of the plant: 

Close up of Oleander 3/17/2012

• Flowers
• Leaves
• Stems
• Twigs

Based on what I read about this plant, I have mixed feelings about this plant.  While it is quite beautiful, it is really a hazard to have around.  In order to collect seeds, one must wear gloves.  To remove the plant, the crown of roots must be completely dug out.  I read several stories of people and their pets who have died from this plant.  The toxins affect the heart, like the foxglove plants.  I will have to think on this one for a while before I make up my mind.