Joe's Blog: Back From Vacation

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Back From Vacation

Well I've been back from vacation for just over a week now and it's kinda been a rough week. I got sick on vacation, two weeks ago and still haven't recovered. When I came back my plants had all grown like weeds and the weeds, they grew like, um well really fast weeds I guess. So even though I had been sick all of last week I was out working in the yard everyday after work. I finally finished my new garden area by my new drain and filled in around the drain with pebbles, then covered with birds of paradise and windmill jasmine (pictures on my next post). Then Friday I got the rest of my plants from California in the box I shipped so I had to plant all of those. Everyone knows one of my favorite things to do is garden. I even helped my sister with her garden while on vacation. So not even feeling like crap could keep me from working on my yard all week.

Then Saturday we had an appointment to take the car in to get the windows tinted. We have tons of parks/natural areas so we decided to check out this place called Tall Cypress Natural Area while we were waiting for the car. Not the best boardwalk we have walked, but it was nice, quiet, and free. The boardwalk was only 4/10 of a mile, so it was a short one. It's undergoing a renovation, if you would call it that, they are ripping out all the invasive/non native trees to restore it to it's natural state. I think it would be more interesting though if they let a few gators go in one of the swamps. The only real wildlife we saw were butterflies and tons of dragonflies.

Well after that we had a little more time to burn before getting the car so we went to Lowes to get paint for Adriana's room. I also got myself a raspberry bush which I planted right away. It's five bucks for a small container of raspberries at the store but the bush was only ten bucks so it will pay itself off tenfold next month. But once I start a project on the yard I also find more to do. So I took my strawberries in the containers and put them all in my new garden area which looks really good.

Sunday was the first day since I have moved into that house that I have sat around and pretty much done nothing all day. My cold came back with a vengeance Saturday night so I ditched church and laid on the couch all stinkin day. And two days later, I still feel like crap so I don't trust doctors anymore when they say to rest.

But I did snap a couple pics around the yard. Sunday I was taking out the trash and noticed my Gardenia finally bloomed so I picked a flower. A couple months ago I didn't know if this plant would even live. I was having trouble with it. The leaves were turning yellow and the buds kept falling without blooming. So I did some online research and learned that Gardenias are tricky and even the experts can kill them off. We have the perfect climate here for them, but the native soil (white sand) es no bueno (too alkaline). So I started pouring epsom salt around the plants to increase the magnesium sulfate. Then I had to bring up the acidity in the soil. So I started putting coffee grinds that Tia Fior was donating to me around the plant. Then I started pouring vinegar on the soil around the plant. Sounds crazy, I know, but it worked. My plants are rebounding and I picked a really fragrant white flower from it Sunday (picture of Natalie sniffing it below).

Then Monday after work I noticed my Yellow Iris had bloomed. This surprised me because I had just brought it back from California. I took some Calla Lillies and Yellow Iris from my mom's yard and transplanted in mine. I thought for sure that it wouldn't bloom after the transplant but it did(the purple one didn't, buds fell off). So there's a picture below. I also took a picture of my Delphinium. Why? Because it looks so stinkin cool. It's growing like a champ and looks much better than that stupid thorny berry bush I tore out of that planter.

So here's a couple pictures I took this week

I find it odd that this area has tons more ferns than fern forest. Hmm...