June

2021

6/7 Willow Tree, bought Juniperus procumbens 'Nana' or dwarf Japanese juniper and Victoria blue salvia to line front path. Juniper will grow 4 to 6 inches a year and reach 4.5 feet. Salvia will grow to a 1 and 1/2 feet tall and 9 inches wide.  Needs richer soil. 

Fertilize citrus and avocado

plant moss roses and zinnias

2020

6/11 Went to Willow Tree with Bethia, where I picked out a crossandra and some Corsican mint. Not very sensible choices, but it was love at first sight. Now I just have to figure where to put them. 

6/30  Just Fruits and Exotics have shipped an Australian Green Finger Lime  and Sugar Belle Tangerine. They are unboxed and standing in the shade, waiting for their final resting space.  I'll definitely wait for the rains.  Tangerines ripen in November, and Limes are everbearing -- when they turn color and 'feel full'  Tangerines are on trifolate or sour orange rootstock so should like acid soil. ???

On a less cheery note, still working on thinning the bamboo, and yearning for a better backyard plan. But backyard serves no real purpose except as a path from Janie and Claire's cars. Got to plan around that.

2019

Rain lilies went to town after I separated them and planted them along the path!

Update:  Avocado tree is doing okay. It was blighted this spring, so no crops, but it's looking ok.  All the Santa Rosa stuff perished long ago. 

This year's new plantings: a really gorgeous Celosia which I'm trying to propagate. Just took three cuttings, and only three because I hate to denude the plants, they're so full and beautiful.  Looks fantastic with the red-leaved coleus, which I'm also working at propagating. 

I have a lot of purple shield which have graduated to pots on the window sill of the porch.  They're such a beautiful true purple, but they can't take full on heat.  I would put them around the palm tree but I think they'd burn up. They're very effective in pots near the door, but they should have something with them. I'm not sure what.  Maybe some flower.  

2014

Many new plants!!!

Mexicola grande avocado tree, courtesy of my sweet Bethia: If you do get just one tree, here's a tip to increase fertilization: Spray flowers with a weak honey water mixture, like 1:10.  The bees and wasps will be all over it, pollinating away!  Really worked for me.

It is sometimes called the year-round avocado because of its long harvest season. To extend the harvest, store fruit for up to six weeks in cool temperatures. The fruit matures on the tree but ripens after it is picked, so delay picking and store in a cool place to provide avocados almost all year. 

Moringa tree: In front yard, again, courtesy of my sweet Bethia: I'm expecting a bumper load of nuts...in about five years.2011

Home Depot: Broke down and bought a mini pink which I've almost killed already. Bought coleus which I immediately began to snip up and propagate with great satisfaction. Bought luscious begonia which will probably be dead by the next time I read this, bad me.

My order from Santa Rosa Nursery arrived: 

Items Ordered:	Price:	Status:
1 of : Buddleia davidii White Profusion	$4.99	Shipped
3 of : Gaillardia Mesa Yellow	$8.97	Shipped
1 of : Sedum Hot Stuff	$2.99	Shipped
1 of : Sedum Lemon Ball fall	$4.99	Shipped

It's not such a hot idea to order super cheap on sale plants; they arrived very root bound and droopy, the lower leaves burned yellow. I ripped out some whip-and-a-chain beach sunflower and replaced with gaillardia I planted Buddleia by the bougainvillea and hope it will be answer to all my dreams. I'm eager to see my sedums take off -- their leaves look radically different.

Also bought on impulse from Home Depot:  Calarhea. Medium light, moist soil, and warm home temperaures of 70 - 75.  Meant to be just a houseplant? Remarkably beautiful leaves.

My four cubic yards of dirt quality mulch from the city was probably at least one cubic yard too much, but oh well, I'm not through yet. Tired, but not through.

2011

A beautiful red bloom on the hibiscus, amid the beach sunflower.  I fertilized with fish emulsion last week, and this week, the hibiscus do seem to be blooming better. The fish emulsion is stinky, but it's fine stuff.

 I'm thinking a little purple queen near the wall would do well and look good.

February

2024

Willow Tree: 4 pansies, 2 purple petunias, 1 clown striped petunia so ridiculous I couldn't resist it, a basil badly in need of repotting, fingers crossed, rosemary, and some cucumbers. Also bacopa, little white flowers, and an African bush daisy, euryops.

2023

2/9/23 Planted 8 of the pink tall weedy things I got at Sweet Bay, 4 pansies, all different colors, offset with some garlic chives, and a native porterweed.  Lots to go to fill in where I did away with all that ganges primrose that froze. Things are just coming back to life, milkweed, etc.

2022

Those chickens. 

To Do:  Order caladium bulbs for front, near palm tree. Prune cassia & Texas sage. Propagate crossandra. 

 2.5 - 3 foot tall. Blooms late spring through early fall. Perennial. Germination is 2 to 3 weeks. Space 1 to 1 1/2 feet apart. 

2019

New plantings

2/17, I planted a palm in front of the garage, with some milkweed I'd started from seed and some Schwacke magentas in front of that.  A nice little bed, I hope. Love the combo of magenta and orange. If everything grows and blooms.   

2/16, Started some amber wheels gaillardia, gaillardia aristata,  which I ordered from Swallow Tail Garden Seeds.

May get to be 40' tall. Leaves change color in the fall and then drop. DIED

2/16 Planted the Florida Maple which Duke Energy obligingly gave us.  The directions explained how to make a 'moat' around a young tree. Bury the tree level with the ground, but then build up a moat of earth around it so that it can access more water.  Clever.  Might be too late for the fig tree. 

Dividing and repotting: the Fancy Fern, the oyster plants which got so stepped on by the termite guys. Moved the baby beautyberry to a nice sunny spot nearer the fence. It seems to be surviving its uprooting and is putting out new buds. I'm hoping I'll have a longer and more beautiful blooming and berry show for it in this sunnier spot. The cranberry hibiscus are productive but they get so scraggly.

Rooting: Lucille's bays. One might actually make it. Two pots are still green. Update: Nope


2018



Just got back from the Saturday Morning Market where I purchased a mecardonia "little sunshine", a very cute little creeper which I hope will do for me what I thought the Ganges primrose would do last year.  I plan on propagating it and lining paths with it. Also, it would look terrific with my variegated sanseverria. The mecardonia requires full sun to part shade, which makes it a great choice for the front yard. NOTE; EXCEPT THAT IT IS AN ANNUAL.

Broke down and got a polka dot plant.  Think I'll put it by the back door, and maybe propagate a few buddies for it. 
2012
Yesterday, heavy rains. Today, a perfect day for gardening. The air was cool and moist on my cheek, the soil soft, and the weeds unsuspecting.  I was sad that Nov, Dec and Jan had left me so uninterested in the Great Outdoors. But no, as a good peasant, I was just busy laying low -- making new brooms and whittling nutcrackers -- until springtime.

Since we're having such a mild winter, it's safe (I hope!) to prune back all the dead coleus, the blue porterweed (and to weed that blue porterweed) and to try to come to some kind of conclusion about the beach sunflower which promises to overrun the front yard.  Potted up some brugmansia (???) cuttings that very obligingly rooted in just three weeks.  Planted out some nice pink Mexican petunias that I hope will do OK in our damp soil. If I remember to water them.

From Care of Injured and Orphaned Squirrels by  R. Avery Bennett, DVM. MS. Diplomate
ACVS College of veterinary Medicine, University of Florida Gainesville, Fl.
In north central Florida the birthing seasons are February-April and July-October, with a 44 day gestation period. Litters average 2.5 offspring in winter have been known to stay with their mothers for 3 to 9 months.

During the first week baby squirrels are pink with no hair and closed ears and eyes. At two weeks age squirrels turn a pinkish-gray color. The third week brings tiny hairs to the body and the hair on the back darkens. At 3.5-4 weeks the ears begin to unfold, fur starts to show at the nose and tail and spreads toward the body, turning brown on the muzzle and eyelids. Fur appears on the stomach and the incisors push through.. At 4-5 weeks there is a line velvet hair coat. Silver fur appears on the dorsal aspect of the tail. The eyes open at about 5 1/3 weeks and the squirrel begins to stand.