Choice Morsels

Two Garden Pics for you today: First, my Red Hardy Hibiscus is in full show right now!    Next: My Mango Calla "Mango" is it's color. This shot was it's first flower, but it has since put up a second. Gradually the yellow part turns green as it's actually a leaf and not the flower---the flower is inside. It's in my container garden out front. You'll notice it has polka-dot leaves. Not all Calla's have polka-dot leaves, but I chose this for it's leaves in particular, for visual interest, since the leaves remain all season to fall.   Other Things: I'm starting to work on  organizing stuff for a Salvation Army pick-up. I have some furnishings and plan on boxing up the majority of Dave's clothing. I can ask for a truck. I considered trying to sell some of his clothing, but what sells is rather picky and most of Dave's clothing is Walmart---so not that sellable. Plus it would involve me doing all the mailing---tired of that already with the ...

I actually tried a couple new recipes this past week, but forgot to take any pictures! Both were good, so I'm going to make them again next week and try to remember pictures! Lots of steady rain the past 3 days! It's been good for the grass! It was so dry this spring, the grass didn't really get started well. Mowed just the north side today. We'll be having a new sliding glass door put in within a month. Hurricane impact glass. UV resistant. Same company that did our windows is doing the door. The sales guy, Leon, who came to our house reported their business has been steadily booming, because all these people suddenly stuck at home because of the virus decided to remodel this or that. In fact, they've hired more people! Also their glass manufacturer, Simonton, has remained in full production.   So that was interestingly news. Today's Garden picture is a nice shot of a Hardy Hibiscus! It just recently started blooming. It's puts on a pretty stup...

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--some...

We had a nice, much needed little thunder shower yesterday! I recently replanted a mix variety of lettuce seeds in a pot of rich garden soil that I put near the front door in the strawberry bed. Also a short row of radish seed.  The strawberries don't like the end of the bed near my front door, so I use it as an auxiliary garden. I didn't find the lettuce seed performed that well in the veggie bed. Not sure why. Maybe the sun is too intense. But I have gotten good performance from it in a pot--usually one that's more shaded. That's a trick about gardening in Florida--things that like full sun further north, needed partial shade here. Today's Garden Pics are my gorgeous Hardy Hibiscus! This is not the tropical form, which is a shrub, but the tall upright variety that dies back in winter and returns from root every spring. They average 4 to 5 feet tall and run in a variety of shades from light pink to deep burgundy red, plus white and I believe a ...

I got to my Interval Training Cardio class this morning. I missed Monday's class because a power-out made my clock wake me too late!  I was honored today that the instructor asked me to be an example of "modified" aerobics for the class, so students unable to do "high" aerobics would have a pattern to follow! ("High" involves jogging and jumping, while "modified" is done without jogging or hopping---easier on the knees & feet.) After I came home and ate lunch, I re-applied anti-pest powder to beans and tomatoes, since the last application was washed off by the rain overnight. Also snipped a bunch a basil to put in my dehydrator today! I really need to mow---but it's 90 degrees right now, muggy as a wet sock and looks like another daily rain is pending. It's just that time of year. Today's Garden Pics are of some of the more unique things in my garden: First is my bi-color Hardy Hibiscus. This is a single plant  from...

I missed my window of opportunity to mow. It was sunny, but I was diddling about on the computer. I saw it was starting to look cloudy, so I went out---and wouldn't you know it---thunder and sprinkles. I did stay out a bit edging some beds, planted a couple of fresh squash seeds, trimmed a bit of skirt the 1 pampas was developing and dead-head a couple hibiscus. My window may return later in---I could see bright clouds and a sunny blue sky to the north, beyond the storm cloud. Or it could remain stormy and gray. On the Gulf coast it's a feast or famine thing. As promised, the Garden Pics of the Day are two front flower bed shots in the rain: First up, a shot of the our parking slot. That tall, leafy plant in front of the Pampas grass is the bi-color Hibiscus. Interestingly, it's actually illegal to park vehicle on the street you see in the back ground. Though, of course, everyone parks extra vehicles on it all the time and it is a dead-end street, so no traffic. Howeve...

Since for July 4th, 2012, I thought this pic of my red and white petunia's would be appropriate! You can also see my pretty miniature roses below it. (The petunia's are in a pot; the rose is in the ground next to it.) Petunias need frequent dead-heading and tend to get long and leggy as they bloom out.  I snip those legs and "train" them to be bushy with a limited drape. This forces them to sprout new growth. The next photo, below, is a shot of one of my Hardy Hibiscus I have in the front yard next to the parking spot. Notice one bloom is red and the other, pink. Yet this is one plant from a single root. It's uniquely bi-color. The pink portion of the plant didn't bloom last year, so I didn't know. I plan on trying to save seed from this Hibiscus to see if I can luck into more.

I have 2 garden pictures for you today plus instructions on how to do your own flower arrangement! First up: a photo of my very tall Hardy Hibiscus! Hardy Hibiscus comes in red, pink and white. It's a very good investment for the garden because it comes back from the root every year as tall, leafy stems that bloom all summer. Multiple stems. Being so tall, Hardy Hibiscus is a good background garden plant, though it looks best against a structure, a fence or needs staking to keep it upright. It also tends to re-seed itself readily, however, here in the deep south, mine don't spread themselves around. They just come up from the same ol' root every year. However, my Mother leaves in Indiana and hers spread themselves by seed everywhere. They will thrive in any soil and prefer full to partial sun, that is more sun then shade. To avoid this you just have to dead-head the finished blossoms. Now my Hibiscus in this photo below are unusually tall---7 to 7 1/2 feet at ...

The Garden of Pics of the Day  are a couple views of my flower beds and a shot of my tomato plant laden with tomatoes. First up, my front flower bed: This is what people see when they park in the driveway or pass the house. It's a corner bed, triangle shaped. You can see my large pot sitting on the stump that once was a pine tree. This is the pot that has the little blue ceramic cat in it and also has the creek stones I brought back from Indiana. This bed faces east and just gets morning sun.  I took this photo around noon, which is why it's so bright.   Next, a view of the flower beds on the opposite of the driveway from the front bed: You can see the gravel parking space we built below. In the foreground is one of my Rubeckia plants full of blossoms. My house is on the left, the neighbors on the right. In the background you can see a very tall, leafy plant with grassy pampas behind it. That tall thing is my Hardy Hibiscus, which is j...