Trees and Plants

Gardening at Fort Doberdale

I saw this lovely succulent masterpiece at a local Home Depot over the weekend, and tried to resist, but could not. First, I tried to resist getting a sales person to tell me how much it cost because there was no price on it. She said it was $14.99. I had in mind it was five dollars more. Even so, it took some convincing in my own mind to put out that money on a trinket. OK, a beautiful living trinket, but it wasn’t something we needed during these inflationary times. I tried to resist putting it in the cart, but could not. Being it was the only one, I figured I would push it around while I shopped for what we did need and eventually I would lose interest in the trinket. That did not work. Three people made comments on how cute and adorable it was, and by the way, where abouts did you find it? “I’ve got the last one, it’s in my cart and going home with me.” I did not lose interest, and now I know why dogs covet one ball, even though there are similar ones in a toy box.

The trinket’s name is Sam. Sam does brighten up the yard, though. I am sure to look at him a lot, and pray I can take good care of Sam the Succulent. Those succulents that are planted with glued stone are not my forte. But! Sam’s worth a one-of-a-kind try!

Here are some lovely bloomers in my garden. The Hibiscus and Frangipanni.

And here is a sweet potato plant, chamomile and corn stalk, and more corn with some squash.

Finally, the neighbors around me have some really nice mango trees. I have 2 or 3 in pots. I haven’t planted them yet due to I am not sure I can do the maintenance on them. <sigh> There is a lot of work to the great outdoors.

My Buddha Dog watches over the place when the rest of us are snoozing or otherwise making a living.

Isn’t he adorable?

Helen

Trees and Plants

11

Jun

2008

Seeds and Seedlings

Helen

These were the last seeds I put in the ground. This happened on Friday, May 23. The back of the packet has directions, but I wish it had a box for light. Instead I have to search through the directions to see which sort of sunlight the seeds prefer.

All the seeds are in the ground now, and none too soon!

Luigi is making a salad using a potted plant and his orange Cuz ball. Mon Dieu!

Last night, I used the Furminator on Taylor. You see, I took her to the vet on Wednesday to get a snippet of a stitch that was sticking out of her belly clipped off. OK, I was really there to say so-long to my vet, who is having her second child and leaving the practice she’s done business at for 8 years, and her husband and she are moving back to Lansing, Michigan. That didn’t really matter to Taylor, though, because she is inherently uncomfortable about being around vets. I am too, but only because I come out of there usually so much poorer!

When I went to work on Wednesday morning, I found Taylors fuzz all over the seat covers. That’s why the Furminator came out last night. And I’d heard that dog hair keeps varmints away, so I threw it on the place I’d planted the corn.

This afternoon I took some pictures, and upon close inspection, I found some sprouts already! Yeehaw! I think they are squash.

Helen

Luigi, Taylor, Trees and Plants

29

May

2008

Today’s Plantings

Helen

During my lunch break today, I saw ominous rain clouds approaching for the first time in two solid months. So I figured it was a good time to get some more seeds in the ground, fast! I chose the next two packets in my pile of seeds. The third type of pumpkin and a bell pepper that is supposed to ripen into white fruit. The pumpkin seeds were fine, but those pepper seeds were small!

It was a challenge, but I got them both into the ground before any rain fell.

The rains hadn’t arrived yet, but thunder had. I like a good challenge, so went to get the next two packets in the pile. These were tomatoes. The seeds in these packets were also small. I never really looked at the seeds in tomatoes while I’m eating them, this was a wake up call. Small!

I started cursing at this point being the packet said to plant them 1/4-inch into the ground, the ground is not totally soil, it’s got a lot of lumpy rocks in it, and the seeds I could barely see. But, I did something along the lines of planting, as I poked a hole, plopped in a seed, and found some soil to pour over the indentation.

Just about then, the rains came. Woohoo! I didn’t have to water the newly planted seeds. And Raven got a good look at the first rain storm of the summer. She’s always at the front of the line.

After work, I decided to plant two more of the remaining four packets. Lettuce and zucchini were next in the line-up. The zucchini was a fine sized seed, but I about fell over when I opened the lettuce packet and tried to find the seeds. They pretty much are the size of flea dirt, but they’re white. I have no idea where the seeds are in a head of lettuce, but at this size, I won’t hold my breath, or maybe I should. A seed this size could easily go up one’s nostril with a mere inhalation.

I planted the zucchini back in this little spot.

Being I couldn’t see the microscopic lettuce seeds, I can only surmise that there are some in the dirt here.

Leissl and Ginger told me it was a job well done. Aren’t they the cutest smiley faces around?

Then Ginger said, “Play ball!”
So we did.

Helen

Ginger, Leissl, Raven, Trees and Plants

22

May

2008

Second of Five Planting Days

Helen

Here’s today’s seed plantings. Winter squash will go nicely in the dogs’ daily crock pot stew. As for the pumpkin, this is the second of three types of pumpkin I’m planting. They take several months to develop, so by Halloween, we should have a nice pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin to stop by and join us for a glass of pumpkin punch.

Ginger is showing us the area behind her where today’s seed plantings went.

And here are the seeds that went into the ground.

Planting a Garden Fort Doberdale Style

Helen

I ordered seeds and they arrived yesterday. It took me a day to get motivated, but today I started planting. The first two seeds I put in the ground are sweet bi-color corn and we-be-little pumpkins.

This is the glorious patch of land that I used today.