May 2, 2009

Mystery flowers

Can anyone tell me what these flowers are? They sprang up spontaneously in my cousin’s yard a few years ago. When she saw their blooms she decided to transplant some into her garden and they’ve been thriving ever since.

They bloom in a variety of colors, from purest white to varying shades of pink and red. The blooms all grow out of the sturdy main stem rather than from little individual stems. The flowers are very delicate looking, much like hibiscus, but are much hardier. Hibiscus tend to wilt shorltly after cutting, whereas our mystery flowers stay bright and fresh in a vase.

I’m not familiar enough with the plants in this region (East Texas) to be able to identify our mystery blooms and my cousin doesn’t know either, so I’m hoping one of you will come to our rescue and tell us what these lovely flowers are.

Technorati Tags: gardening, flowers, mystery plants

September 27, 2008

Creating a little curb appeal

My house isn’t really visible from the street. What you see instead in a rather pathetic looking fence over a lumpy driveway, the top of my carport and the tiny garden outside my gate. Not an impressive first impression. It doesn’t help that the mail carrier runs over the front of the garden six days a week and that neighbors or their guests sometimes park there. The plant at the base of the mailbox post is down to just a few crushed clusters. I’ve always known it by its politically incorrect name of Wandering Jew, but I’ve just looked it up and see that it’s also called Inch Plant or Tradescantia zebrina. It grows to moster proportiions in our tropical climate, but it’s no match for a multi-ton vehicle.

I’ve replanted the area several times in the years I’ve lived here, thinking that people would see the plants and change their habits. Since that hasn’t worked I decided to try something that a few neighbors have done to remedy the same problem. The couple who tend the garden above have done a lovley job with a very limited amount of space, and they’ve managed to keep cars from spoiling their efforts.

Rocks that blend in with the landscaping won’t do. I don’t want someone hitting one in the dark and damaging their car, even if they shouldn’t be parking there. I’m not that petty, and besides, folks around here have been known to go to extreme measures to get even when they feel someone has done them wrong. I spent a good portion of my day today hauling volcanic rocks (which are dense with metals and quite heavy) and then painting them.

While the paint was drying (and after the mail was delivered) I planted three dozen bedding plants. I picked them up over a week ago, then didn’t plant them becuase I needed to get the rocks in place. My back has been giving me fits so I had to wait on that. A couple of the plants weren’t looking too healthy in their little two-inch posts, but hopefuly most will survive. These are Arachis pintol “Golden Glory.” I know nothing about them except that they look like peanut plants and should do well as ground cover on our hot, dry Leeward coast once they’ve gotten over their transplant shock and had a chance to spread their roots. They’ll need a lot of watering and TLC for a few weeks, then should fill all available space with little encouragement or attention.

Here’s a little painting tip while we’re waiting for the paint to dry. I wanted to paint all sides of the rocks so I had to wait for the tops to dry, then flip them over and paint the other side. Since I would be using the brush again within an hour or so I didn’t want to bother with cleaning it, but I didn’t want it to dry out either. I wear disposable gloves while painting. Holding the brush in one hand, I used the other hand to peel that glove off and over the paint brush. I put it in the shed, out of the sun, and it stayed moist and pliable until I was ready to use it again. Most any plastic will do - kitchen wrap, shopping bags - I’ve even used bread bags for this. If there’s gong to be a longer wait, put the wrapped brush in the fridge. It will keep for quite a while - at least several days, in my experience.

Late in the day the rocks were dry and I hauled them out front. I may add some others later to make a solid border - I haven’t decided yet. For right now, these will do to keep cars off of the new plants. Unless someone steals them.

Technorati Tags: garden border, gardening, yard work

May 8, 2008

I’m on a roll!

I told you a few days ago that I was working on the carport roof again, and that I was determined to stay motivated to do things around the house. Today I finished applying the roof coating. Here are some of the other things I’ve done in the last few days.

Those are my inspection report files for the last few months. They are all entered in the books and have been alphabetized. I hope to finish purging the file cabinets in the next day or two so I can get these filed away. I have more than four years of files in the office, but the file cabinets only have room for about three years, so the older files will be archived and stored in the shed.

I bought this patio table last winter and have had it sitting on the front lanai. I finally got the chairs and umbrella to go with it. Yesterday I moved them out into the yard and created a little eating/relaxing area next to the carport. I need to scoop up a bucket of sand next time I’m out so I can put it into the umbrella base. Darn thing keeps trying to blow away!

This is Lanai Lavender Star Verbena. I potted it and it’s sitting on the Lanai next to the front door.

Isn’t this a beauty? The tag says it’s Kupi Kupi, an indiginous fern. I can’t find it online or in my native plants book. I put two of them in my rock garden.

I also added two kinds of lavender to the corner between my herbs and ginger plants.

The garden shop was out of bell peppers, so I’ll go back for those later. I’ll use them more than the habernaros and Hawaiian chilis that I planted. I also added two new basils, a Chinese parsley, marjoram, sage and French thyme to the herb garden.

Many people aren’t aware that having depression doesn’t necessarily mean that you sit around all weepy and sad all the itme. Sometimes you just sit around. That’s what I’ve been doing for several years. My depression is characterized by lethargy. I call it couch sitting, though sometimes it’s in front of the computer or in bed. My house and gardens have really suffered from neglect. I seem to have turned a corner though, so I’m working hard at holding onto the drive and keeping things going. I’m really pleased with the things I’ve accomplished in the last few days.

Technorati Tags: chores, gardening, yardwork, home maintenance

July 11, 2007

Salad Days!

I was worried that the seeds I purchased for my friend’s lettuce garden/birthday gift were duds. Only two of the couple of dozen I lovingly sowed into the soil had sprouted at the end of a week. I’m guessing now that perhaps the problem was that I buried them a little too deeply, because there’s obviously nothing wrong with the seeds. I put some between the folds of a piece of damp paper towel over the weekend and they’re sprouting like crazy. Seeds from the lettuce mix and mesclune envelopes are springing up and ready for planting. The third package, Romaine, isn’t producing, but I think I bought it from older stock, so … lesson learned.

The problem now seems to be that I started the planter a bit too soon. My friend’s birthday is still several months away. I think I see a lot of salads in my future. My neighbors will probably also have a chance to appreciate my bad timing.

Technorati Tags: gardening, Hawaii, lettuce, photos, seeds

July 8, 2007

A bounty of mint!

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I bought several little 4-inch pots of mint a few months ago. I wasn’t feeling hopeful about them, since I’d killed several mint plants in the last year or so. I planted them all in dappled shade this time because I’m pretty sure it was too much sun that thwarted my previous efforts. I’m happy to announce that they seem to be thriving.

The orange mint is so happy it’s throwing out a few delicate flowering stalks.

The Kentucky Colonel mint (hybrid spearmint) shares the shade of my rosemary bush with the orange mint.

The peppermint gets a little more sun where it snuggles between the marjorum and oregano, but it’s looking healthy, too.

The little lettuce sprouts I showed you last week are thriving, also, but looking rather lonely. There are two small plants here, out of the dozens of seeds I planted. I’ve started trying to germinate some seeds inside so I can hopefully increase the crop before I present it to my friend for her birthday.

Technorati Tags: gardening, gardening in Hawaii, herbs, lettuce, mint, photos

July 1, 2007

Bougainvillea

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The day that I first arrived in Hawaii, I was greeted at the airport by my boss. He drove me to the “company house” where an office was maintained and personnel were housed while on rotation from the mainland. I was scheduled for a three-week temporary assignment, and was determined to soak up as much of the Hawaii experience as I could during my stay. My culture shock bagan at the airport, where the scented air and colorfully clad business travelers overwhelmed my senses. On our drive out to the country (near where I now live) I was amazed at the intensity of the color of flowers on shrubs lining the freeway. My mind momentarily percieved hot pink tissue decorating the dusty green bushes, unable to accept that flowers could bloom so brightly in such profusion. It was bougainvillea which gave me my introduction to the effects of a tropical climate on flowereing plants.

The boss spent much of his time landscaping his newly-acquired property whenever he was on-island. In his absence, groundskeeping was added to the duties of his employees. I had been asked to stay in Hawaii and take over our Pacific operations, so I was frequently chief gardener. I was at first charmed with the bougainvillea hedges he planted along both long sides of the lot. They were no more than two feet tall when he planted them, but within only a few months they were forming a dense hedge and topping four feet. At the end of six months they were towering over me.

I’m still amazed by the beauty of bouganvillea, but two years of tending them was enough for me. They’re very messy, with their blossoms turning into heaps of brown tissue-like debris that blows around and litters their own space as well as all of the neighbor’s yards, no matter how often you rake them up. It’s the thorns though, an inch or more in length and sharp as needles, that I find most off-putting. My arm are still covered with scars from my efforts to keep the wildly growing masses pruned. They’re at their lovliest when left to grow untended anyway, as these scenes along a country road attest.

Update: I have six little lettuce leaves poking through the soil in the planter I seeded last Sunday. I’m happy.

I didn’t visit any of you last week, and missed quite a few of you the week before. I’ll try to make up for lost time and catch up on all of your posts over the next few days.

Technorati Tags: bougainvillea, gardening, gardening in Hawaii, photos

June 24, 2007

Home Depot Garden Club Newsletter

I’ve been getting the Home Depot Gardening Club Newsletter for about a month now and I’m really enjoying it. I get an early head’s-up on sales and special promotions, and the gardening emails are especially nice. They sent me a weed-control issue and a coupon for 50% off on week-blocking fabric just as some strange little clumps of vegetation started popping up in my xeriscaped side yard, so I really appreciated that!

My friend Tricia over at As The Garden Grows is enjoying her newsletters too and wrote up a Home Depot Gardening Club Article of her own. Tricia is my mentor when it comes to garden blogging, so I feel like I’m in good company.

Flo lives just across the island from me. I’m just starting to grow some vegetables to go with my herbs, but she’s an old hand at it. She mentioned in a Home Depot Gardening Club Article on her blog that she’s looking to the newsletter for advice, too.

It’s easy to sign up for the Home Depot Gardening Club Newsletter. Just click the link, provide your email address and you’re good to go. I love the special offers and coupons that are selected with gardeners in mind. It’s really nice to qualify for discounts that aren’t availble to anyone else, too. Did I mention that it’s free? Go. Sign up. You’ll thank me later.

Technorati Tags: garden club newsletter, gardening, Home Depot, special offers

A little refuge

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It’s a rather bland corner. Take a climbing road about a mile up the mountain from the ocean. You’ll arrive at a corner with condo complexes on each side of the road. There’s nothing else up there but the two complexes. They both have lovely, professionally landscaped grounds that I’ve featured on my blog in the past. I rented a condo there when I first came to the island, before I bought the house. My son and I called it Peacock Corners.

There’s landscaping around the bus stop on the corner, but it’s doesn’t have that oh-so-refined look of professionalism. That’s because it’s a labor of love by one individual. I’ve watched him working there many times, a little old man who probably lives in one of the condos, with no yard to call his own. He’s adopted the corner. I don’t think the county has ever given him any grief about having taken over the public right-of-way land.

There are beaten paths between the plantings, proof that others regularly find a few moments of peace in the cool shade of this little piece of paradise. Stones are artfully arranged around some of the shrubs, and large boulders mark the corner and keep turning cars from straying into the garden. Can’t you just picture a quaint little Bed and Breakfast tucked away in a corner like this, with lovely gardens to walk through as you approach it?

There’s a small cluster of cotton bushes growing at one end. I have no idea why they’re there. They’re certainly not typical of Hawaiian gardens. Maybe the gentleman gardener is a displaced Southerner like me and they remind him of home. Whatever the reason, it must please him to have them there. That’s cool. I want him to be a happy gardener for many years to come.

Here’s my little Sunday project. My dearest friend eats salads every day. She mixes them up, enjoying a wide variety of greens and other tasty tidbits. She lives in a condo with a small paved yard on each side. I found a nice planter, about three feet long by maybe eight inches wide. I’m going to start some of the seeds growing so I’ll have a leafy bounty when her birthday rolls around, and I’ll present it to her with the extra seeds so she can keep it going. Now if I can just remember where I put the third seed packet I’ll be good to go.

Technorati Tags: gardening, gardening in Hawaii, peacock, photos

June 17, 2007

Adding some color

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I’m hoping to eventually have a riot of color from my new ginger plants. My impatience wouldn’t allow me to wait that long, so I added a few flowering annuals this week. Above is Penta Galaxy and some tiny Blue Daze Evolvulus. Below is Vinca in pink, red and white.

I haven’t decided yet whether to add other plants to these beds. The ginger will be pretty dense sometime down the road, but that day is far enough away that I might play with some more flowering plants while I wait for time to pass.

Technorati Tags: gardening, gardening in Hawaii, ginger, Hawaii, heliconia, photos

June 15, 2007

Lawn update

I’m very happy with the progress my lawn has made. After my dismal failure last year I was more than a little pessimistic as I laid the sod this time. I was leery each day for the first week or so, expecting to see it wither and die like its predecessor. My little mishap with the fertilizer which burned a few spots didn’t bode well, but just look at my hardy green carpet overcoming my ineptitude! I’ve cut small patches of sod from some of the denser areas to fill in areas that weren’t growing as rapidly. You can still see a few gaps, but they are rapidly filling in. Neither my home nor any of the others on the block are exactly Architectural Classics. They’re all just typical little cookie-cutter houses on the lower end of the middle-class scale. We take pride in our gardens and landscaping, though, and I’m looking forward to bragging rights on my little lawn in the near future.

I know that people around the civilized bemoan the chore of mowing their lawns. I’m looking foward to getting down on my knees with my clippers again this weekend and tidying up my little green patch of paradise. Typical of me, I probably won’t get around to getting my unruly hair clipped and tidied this weekend, as necessary as that is to my professional appearance. But the lawn - well, the lawn just feels like a higher priority for the time being.

Technorati Tags: grass, Hawaii, Hawaii gardening, Hawaii lawn, Hawaii photos, landscaping, lawn, photos