Birdwatching in Florida

Love these plant combosTodays photos are from Rebecca Sweet, who wanted to share some photos from her mother's garden in Meadow Vista, California. I'm so glad she did! Rebecca says, "My mother, Linda Anderson, who gardens in Zone 8a, is a master at combining foliage in a way that's exciting yet not overwhelming. In the first vignette (first photo), she's placed the frilly and deeply lobed leaves of a burgundy heuchera near the needle-like leaves of 'Angelina' sedum. Those two are then placed near the variegated, lance-shaped leaves of apulmonaria with a punch of strappy 'Silvery Sunproof' liriope poking through. And hovering overhead, like a protective mother, are the finely cut leaves of 'Dissectum' Japanese maple. In addition to my mother's artful combinations of contrasting foliage, she's also aware that too much contrast can cause someone to reach for the Excederin. To prevent a headache, she adds an element of harmony by emphasizing color echoes throughout the bed, using the maroon foliage as well as the flowers from both rhododendrons.

Beautiful bird baths

Leaves by Jenny at www.leavesbyjenney.com  sells leaf shaped waterfalls you should check out.

Bokashi

Compost Guy talks about bokashi -- how to do it and how to make it.  Can't wait! I'm getting my buckets now!

Bokashi Bran

Extra bokashi bran to use with your bokashi composting kit or around the house.  Bokashi bran can be added to litter boxes to help control the odor.  Bokashi can be mixed into traditional compost piles to help inoculate the pile.  It can also be added to potting soil or mixed into the soil with transplants to help with the decomposition of organic matter and to inoculate the area with beneficial microorganisms, both of which help with plant growth.

How to Use:
Sprinkle a small handful of bran over each 2″ layer of scraps and press the layers down to ensure contact and to remove airspace.  Harder to break down items such as corn cobs, avocado skins, meat, and cheese will require more bran.  Green mold is bad, white mold is good.  If you are seeing green mold then you need to add more bran.  Foul odors are also and indication that proper fermentation isn’t taking place.  If you smell foul odors then you need to add more bran.  Proper fermentation should have a sweet, vinegar like smell.  At 70 degrees complete fermentation takes about 14 days.  Cooler temperatures will require more time to properly ferment.
Ingredients:  Wheat Bran, Filtered Water, Blackstrap Molasses, Azomite, Sea Salt, EM
Questions?

Price: $11.99

No, I'm MAKING my buckets now!  Lisa's two bucket trick

Make that THREE buckets:

http://www.bokashicycle.com/FAQ.html

Can I use Bokashi culture mix to get rid of my pet's droppings?

Yes. We do not recommend using Bokashi fermentation to process animal feces because there is a small risk that organisms in the feces if then processed and placed in a vegetable garden could cause problems. If you are going to process that material and place it in the ground for ornamental plants, it will work well and get rid of the odors and mess that can be hard to otherwise handle. You should mix the feces with other plant material, leaves, or wood chips so that the Bokashi culture mix has a rich amount of material to process. Then after fermentation bury it in the ground covering it with about 8 inches of soil.

Can I use Bokashi culture mix with my kitty litter?

Yes. If you add a handful of Bokashi culture mix to the kitty litter each week, it will greatly help in reducing the odors of ammonia and waste in the litter. You can then ferment (pickle) the litter mixing it with leaves and other organic debris and use this product in the soil for ornamental plants. Do not put this material in your vegetable garden. There is no harm for your pet in using Bokashi in the litter.

Flavia or yellowtop (or goldenrod) blooms anew

I visited Marie Selby this last week (I'm in love with a strangler fig, i. e. Moreton Bay ficus -- who cares if it strangles its host? Vampires are in this year.) and during our garden tours, I kept noticing nice little straggles of goldenrod out of the corner of my eye. Goldenrod! Why was Marie Selby's blooming and mine wasn't?

So I came home and it was in bloom! It's very ethereal and light hearted, and I like the height of it, between two and three feet tall, but not so bossy and dense as that beach sunflower. It's such a joyful event when a plant blooms again.

Stan & Jill's cactus bloom

Wow, so beautiful!  Thanks for sharing!

Cottage garden bedding plants

Milkweed attracts the monarch butterfly.

Gulf fritillary loves passion vine.

Black swallowtails enjoy fennel, parsley and dill.

The cloudless sulfur likes cassia flowers.https://www.south-florida-plant-guide.com/butterfly-gardening.html

Donna Belcher McGlasson

 Angel's trumpet, beautyberry, sweet almond, ginger, gardenia, yesterday/today/tomorrow, sky vine

Kathy Ewing Charest

My garden out front is a more loose, free flowing “English style garden”. I saw above that you recently purchased Texas sage, great choice! The can become very large and bushy, but with occasional trimming (I like to cut pieces for indoor vases), will stay smaller.

Other textures, colors and blooms I use in that space are porterweed, Venezuelan buttercup, ground orchid, snow in winter, roses (a must have), bulbine, copper plant, blue plumbago, milkweed,

Jennifer Dukes Howell

This is my butterfly garden done in an informal cottage style. I have Texas sage& Panama Rose in the back for height- I also had Pink Jacobinia but it didn’t do well. I have Goldflame honeysuckle on the fence. Then i have several sages, cat’s whiskers, pentas, i later sowed zinnia seeds, and Bush daisies for the center. I added parsley & dill for host plants. Snd the front edge is daylilies & agapanthus.

Donna Belcher McGlasson

I have a cottage style Englush garden in the works. I have, however made it Florida style. It's a till in the works. Angel's trumpet, beautyberry, sweet almond, ginger, gardenia, yesterday/today/tomorrow, sky vine