Garden Pic Wednesday: Showy Hibiscus!

-
Today's Garden Pic is my huge showy red Hardy Hibiscus!
This one is out front in the corner bed behind all the 4 O'clocks. It's unusually tall for a Hardy Hibiscus---7 feet.




Plastic Owl On Squirrel Patrol Out Front:
A couple weeks ago I noticed squirrels were digging up my brand new Purple Shamrocks and nibbling off the bulb tips at the bottom of the stems. Just the ones in the front beds. And they were eating the whole bulb. So I replanted any I found out of the ground and got my old owl to put out----but he was falling apart and faded from years in the sun, so we got a new owl.
It appears to have stopped the problem. The trick with plastic owls is you have to move them every couple days minimum, so Owly here gets shifted back and forth across the yard to stand guard over my beds.




Box Turtle Feed:
I put watermelon rinds and popcorn out for the Box Turtles nearly everyday now. They come out to spot in the afternoons expecting to find a meal--sometimes one. I was surprised to have the 2 visitors.
The one on the left has a pretty yellow striped head.


Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment!

Popular posts from this blog

Garden Pic Wednesday: Amaryllis & Chinese Stonecrop

-
Image
I have 2 Amaryllis, each in a container out in my front beds: one is a dark, solid red and the other is this reddish-orange & white. Both have been faithful to bloom for like 15 years! Today's other picture is Chinese Stonecrop in one of my patio containers, which is just now starting to bloom. I'm not quite sure how it got there exactly, but it looks really good!
Read more

Mama Kat Thursday: Worst Gift Ever

-
Image
The Mama Kat topic for today is:  "Share a story about the best or worst gift you ever received." You wouldn't think chocolate could be a  worst possible gift, but, in this case, it was. It wasn't even wrapped. It was just a Dark Lindt Chile Chocolate bar that a guy from our singles Bible study handed me. He was a regular at our Sunday night study, a Navy guy in the school for learning how to disarm explosive devices. He knew I fancied chocolate and he happened to fancy Lindt's spicy Chocolate Chile bar. So, one evening at our on base Tuesday Bible Study, he called me aside and handed me one of these Lindt Chocolate Chile bars.   "Here, this is for you, " he said. I said, "Thank you,"  accepted it and slipped it into my book bag to take home for later. " No, " he said, his face clearly displeased I'd dare keep it for myself. "I want you to share it with everyone else." What? You give me a gift, the
Read more

Mama Kat Thursday: May Flowers!

-
Image
This weeks Mama Kat blog prompt: "April Showers bring May Flowers. Show us your May Flowers!" A white ceramic kitty peeks out from behind Hosta that's between Red Saliva and  Pink Million Bells in my front garden container! **** A stone Hippo swims among wood chips beneath  a Curly Parsley in a container  on the back patio! (He's a gift a friend brought back for us from his visit in Africa.) **** In Florida, May brings Easter Lilies! My house was surrounded by dozens of these all blooming at once! **** May also brings Gardenias! This bush is heavy with blooms both new and old!  **** In Florida, May is blueberry season! These are container blueberries. **** My young tomato plants in my veggie garden! The one on the right is bred particularly for Southern heat & humidy; the other is a Roma. Both are determinate, meaning they only grow to a set height.  you look closely you can see Marigold leaves poking out from ,
Read more

Garden Pic Wednesday: Thriving Rose Bush!

-
Image
  Thanks to a garden club, I've learned how to better care for my rose bush and this year it's thriving! It's thick, bushy and covered in blooms! This is a Julia Child Floribunda Rose. I selected it because I wanted a smaller size rose for my front flower bed and this one grows a max of 3 feet tall and wide. I learned from the garden club the proper time to trim a rose and that's what has made it so bushy. Roses here in Northwest Florida need to be trimmed and shaped the week of Valentine's Day, Feb 14.  The right time will vary from growing zone to growing zone in different places where it's colder, but the correct time in any zone is evident when leaf buds are showing along the stems with even a few small leaves beginning to pop out. The other important thing is buying some Rose Food and fertilizing according to directions.  Tons are dark blue Bachelor Buttons are blooming adjacent to this yellow rose, so the show of blue and yellow is quite striking!  
Read more

Mama Kat Thursday: Legend of the Paddling Machine

-
Image
Today's Mama Kat prompt to share about, "a time I was sent to the Principals Office." Frankly, I wasn't the sort of child that ever did anything required me being sent Principal's Office.  But I do recall in first grade   having some highly imaginative classmates who instilled an abject fear in me about anyone getting sent to the "Principal's Office." They swore up and down that the Principal had a "paddling machine" hidden in his office, a machine with multiple arms, each loaded with a wooden paddle.   I was too naive not to believe every tall tale these girls spun and the very prospect of being sent to the "THE Principals Office" now terrified me. Later, when I was in 5th and 6th grade, the Principal's office also became the "school library" and I often went there to check out a book.  They had a long wooden shelf unit along one wall loaded with books we could sign-out, including the whole hard-back Blac
Read more