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Note to self

Category: New Gardener | Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:01 pm

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Keep snap dragon seeds and petunia seed separate when gathering seeds.

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The lesser of two evils

Category: New Gardener | Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 4:47 pm

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I just came in for a break from out in the rose garden. My hands are all blistered up and Im hot!

Im not a happy camper. My hubby mowed the yard and garden this past weekend and did a horrible job at it. He didnt mow within a foot of my rose bush and didnt move any pots. I know the tall grass around my rose bushes help spread the infections from rose to rose. So I have been hand cutting thick, wet , tall grass from a foot out in. Ive been working at it for three days now. Now why didnt he mow closer? He could see my rose bush very clearly! >:Z

Now he rented a lawn mower for $40. I paid that to the yahoo who weedeatted all the plants in the ground including the bottom of my roses. But at least I didnt have to hand cut thick wet grass that is 1 foot x about 20 foot.

Now I must pick the lesser of two evils!

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More

Category: New Gardener | Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:31 pm

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Last night I bought more stuff...

Two Birds Of Paradise (mine froze this past winter)
Three Black Magic elephant ears
Two Yellow RainTrees (THANKS TO KIM!!!)

One of the Birds of Paradise, One of the Black magic and One of the Rainttrees, Are going to my mums. Im also taking her two of my bush that I just ordered.

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Still figuring it out.

Category: New Gardener | Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:42 pm

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The one thing I have found as a new gardener is that you spend alot of time doing research on plants. I do it backwards tho. I buy the plant cuz it catches my eye and then do the research on it.

Because of this I have plants that I have no where to put. I only have so much shade space. Well, I have the back yard but I have three dogs that like to run. I dont think they would be too happy with me if I took their space away. They wouldnt be as understanding as my other half when I took his driveway away! HA!

This year I wanted to try seeds. Im learning as I go. Ive lost some of the seedlings but others are doing well only to die when I plant them outside. Maybe Im planting them too early.

I have found myslef being lazy this last week. I have alot of yard to dig up and Im not doing it. I started it and as Im sitting here, I can see the huge container I have my seeds in. So I know it has to be done.

I keep having these two side talks with myself...and yes I am answering myself back!

OH!!!! I just heard thunder!!!! And it just got really dark out!

Anywho, here the usual talk....

Pinkie: ugh I have to do all that digging!
Denee:Well, yeah....
Pinkie: ISnt there an easier way?
Denee: Yeah but you cant afford a landscaper.
Pinkie: But thats alot of work! And it needs to be done now so I can get the seeds in the ground.
Denee:So do it.
Pinkie: I dont wanna.
Denee: Too bad lazy butt! You bought them so you sow them!
Pinkie: Youre no help!
Denee: Hey Ill be out there too when you are diggin it up!
Pinkie: I have way too many ideas for my own good.
Denee: Thats because your mind works more than your lazy body!
Pinkie: SHUTUP!

So you see, Im no help to myself. I just get pissed off with myself and clean my house....and the garden still isnt done.

I have this vision in my head of what I want my garden to look like. The problem is Im so new at this that I dont know if I can pull it off. I dont know how. I want a garden that looks natural. But I know its like when a woman wants that natural look when she is doing her makeup. Its alot of work to get that look.

I think alot of it has to do with ,first and foremost, Im an artist. Im anal about the details of my work. I will spend so much time with the details that I lose track of time. To me, thats what makes a work of art good....its all in the details. Details draw you into the work you are looking at....right? I like strong lines....clear lines. Because of that, Im finding it very hard just to throw seeds on the ground and hoping for the best. Even the rose garden is planted with very clear lines. Even tho I was trying to go for a more natural look there. It so didnt happen. All my flower beds so far have very clear lines and sharp corners. The tallest plants in the back with the shortest up front.

Thats not what I want. But the artist part of me is taking over.
(Ill post some of my artwork so you all who read this will see what Im talking about when it comes to my eye for detail.)I want my garden to look natural but to do that I have to let go of my eye for clean lines and details. I keep hearing the artist in me yelling......thats not neat! Thats very sloppy!



While Im all jokes and giggles about the things going on in my yard, I feel like Im coming to a cross road. Where the artist in me and the gardener in me are about to do battle. I personally think that this will make me either a better gardener or a better artist.

The artist Denee is telling the Gardener Denee that the lines have to be clear and defined and the Gardener Denee is telling the Artist Denee where to stick it.

Heres my work...Sorry the pics arent so great...
My very first peice...







One I did 2 years ago..








The one Im currently working on...















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I HAVE DISCOVERED......................

Category: New Gardener | Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:40 pm

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.......... the Gradening knife! If you know this knife, then you know its a gardening must have! It cuts through the tought roots like butter(including skin....I learned this the hard way......twice!!) It makes my job so much easier! I paid 9.99 for it at Super Target.

To all the newbies, run out and get one. It will become your best friend in the gardening business! Im telling you!

And for all the "old pros" who knew about this knife and didnt let a newbie know........ I stick my tongue out and give you a big fat ****RASPY****

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Finally done moving............

Category: New Gardener | Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:45 pm

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And half my plants are dying, gone or MIA. I hate it! I worked so hard on them. And to make matters worse, the ground here is nothing but clay. When it rains theres standing water everywhere. So very few of my plants can go in the ground!!!!!!!!!!

I just found out yesterday that this use to be a crawfish pond!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They filled it in! And not very well! Its fine until it rains. So we didnt know until the day we moved in. It was raining pretty hard as we pulled in to the yard. We stepped out of the trucks into ankle deep water! Im so mad I could spit!

Im going to have to build raised flower beds. I just hope my plants, esp my roses can with stand being in containers for the season.

We have a small pond in the front yard. Well, I had the bright idea to dig about a foot down into the ground up against our house (its a good 30 feet away from the pond.) so I could replace the clay with soil so that maybe it will drain better. It was hot out so I dug the hole (a foot deep and about 5 foot across) and went back inside to cool off for about an hour. I come out and the dang hole is filled with water!!!!! The pond was draining into the hole! So now I have a hold full of water up against my house. We are having fill dirt brought in to fill it.

I have a bunch of seeds that have spouted and not where to plant them now. Im so upset I actually started crying when I saw the hole filled with water. It just hit home the amount of work that is going to have to go into having a garden here.


All this standing water and its not even rainy season yet.

I did plant my elephant ears and violas in the ground. They arent minding the water so much. But there are these huge crawfish holes appearing IN! the plants! They dig down and push the clay up so it looks like little chimmenys (?) coming up out of the ground. Well, they really like it when I dig in the yard because the next day there will be crawfish "houses" in that spot. I have never seen one before (except boiled) and I thought maybe if I can catch them, I can transplant them into the huge fields around us. I did catch one but he got me with his huge pinchers............. I wont be trying that again.

I have even gone as far as to think about offering in the paper for anyone who wants them and can catch them, they can have them for free. But I was told by the post man that even if I did that, there are twice as many waiting to take there place AND that the ppl would have to dig down to get them! So instead of one pond, Id have 30 small ones.....Figures. But one good side of that.... I wouldnt have to drain the pond to fill it in! HA!

Three weeks in and I am hating life. Hopefully it will get better.

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Dang ebay!

Category: New Gardener | Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 2:50 am

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As new gardener, Ive am still looking for that certain look most gardeners look for. Some like lots of flowers with no trees or bushes. Some like mostly green. Some like butterflies and birds in thiers.

Well, Im still looking. I know I want a nice full garden with lots of green and bold colors. Reds, blues, purples, oranges, yellows, ,etc. You get the picture.

Im off to a green start! LOL I have a dwarf banana tree thats shooting off pups like crazy.

Because its so warm this week in FL but a hard freeze coming at the end of the week, I ate my Wheeties and got to digging! We had gotten tons of rain this past week so there wasnt dirt on the roots of the banana tree, it was MUD! I got the tree dug out and toppled over but could not get the thing out of the hole! LOL

After getting 90% of the mud off, I was able to pull her out. Right now, she out there drying out. Tomorrow she is off the neighbors yard.

Ok back to the beginning topic....(I tend to rabble)

I have two palms, tons of different types of elephant ears, a beautiful fern tree, ivy, Bird of Paradise, heather , aloe and two roses. Now I have more than that but thats the major stuff.

I have mints that I couldnt kill off if my life depended on it! I forgot about them about a month ago. I thought I had killed them. But nnnnnooooooooo. There they were today! And now, I cant tell them apart! I had three different mints..... I think they have morfed into one!

OK Im rabbling again!

I love ebay! And since its gotten cold, Ive had more time on my hands. So, ebay stocks have gone up thanks to me! LOL

Ive shopped for alot of stuff on there but for some reason, never looked in the gardening section. When I found it, my hubby threated to take my bank card away! LOL We dont use credit cards.

By anywho, last week I bought
Purple Passion Fruit Vine Seeds
Royal Poinciana seed
Bromeliad Queens Tears

Im have some serious buys remorse over the Royal Poinciana. Have you ever seen one!? They get HUGE! Yes , beautiful and HUGE! They put full grow oak trees to shame! What was I thinking!? I wasnt, I dont think!

But today, I did it again. But I was looking just at the pretty pictures (yes Im easily distracted by shiny objects) this time. I came across some beauties!
EXOTIC HAWAIIAN GINGER! Five plants.....
SCARLET RED
BLUSHING PINK
HYACINTH BLUE
REGAL WHITE
GOLDEN YELLOW

Now I dont think this is the ginger you cook with.....god I hope not! LOL Hopefully they are just pretties.

I also got
PINK Plumeria Seeds (which arent just pink but some are white with pink)
and
Thai-Malai Plumeria Seeds (they are a hot pink)

Im doing what I did lost year! Last year my whole garden was pretty much blue and green.... this year its leaning towards PINK! AND I DONT EVEN LIKE PINK! LOL

I have found Im a lazy gardener. Stick it in the ground, feed it, water it and cross your fingers!

So, this year should be very interesting....... thanks to ebay.

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Learning as I go.

Category: New Gardener | Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:14 pm

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The spring of 2005 was my first year gardening and I fell in love with it. I have the "gardener" gene from my mother. She is a wonderful gardener. All she has to do is look at them and they grow.

Since I was little , Ive tried out my green thumb. I remember when I was about 5 , I stole some green pepper seeds and planted them in a little hidden corner of our back yard. I watered them everyday and weeded the little area. Well, because noone knew what I was doing, there was noone to tell me the diff between my little sprouts and weeds. I weeded out my seeds! LOL. I was heartbroken when I saw what I had done.

Over the years, Ive killed many a rosebush. I gave up on growing about 6 yrs ago.

This year I wanted to grow a herb garden. My hubby was so understanding. We spent hundreds on soil, plants and supplies. We even built a three step planter. Its about 6 foot long and each "step" is three foot wide. The first and smallest step is one about a foot tall. It was for my herbs. The second "step" is about two foot deep and the top one is 5 tall.

Next to it, I have my shade garden. Since I love tropicals, I planted tons of elephant ears (only one didnt rot). Im part of an online comm called freecycle - freecycle.org . I recieved several free plants from there and alot of elephant ears.

My flower garden was shaped like an "L" in my yard. I have a banana tree that was suppose to be a mini..... its not! But its putting out babies like crazy. I got it as a tiny tike early spring and its now over 7 foot tall and has put out 6 babies. Sadly Im going to lose the mother tree because its so big, I cant move it with me to La. My neighbor said he would take it. My landlord said he would cut it down if I left it. I dont have much of a choice.

I learned that you dont put Bird of Paradise in the ground if you dont want it to take over! LOL Its now moving into my nieghbors yard. I dont know how it will grow back but because of several nights of freezing weather, the whole thing turned brown so I cut it to the ground and covered it with mulch , its own leaves and plastic to keep the roots warm. I have to buy a large pot to tranfer it too so I can take it with me to La.

I have two Majesty Palms or so the tag said. I looked them up online and they are suppose to get huge but the tag said that they wont..... we will see! One of the palms had two babies on its truck. I seperated them from the mother plant. One died and the other I planted at my moms. Its so cute! Not even two foot tall and so bushy! Its doing better than mine!

I have a philodendron and its not so good. I cant seen to get it to grow! Its in a spot that gets full sun but is protected from the harsh FL afternoon sun. Now it has little white spots on the larger leaves.
I have to get a large pot so I can dig it out of the ground and take it with me.

So far winter has being terrible in my garden because I dont know what to do. When we got our first freeze watch, we covered the banana trees, and the palms with plastic. When I uncovered them the other day, they all had what looked like rot on them. The fronds from the palm had orange on the tips with white and black spots. I cut them all off. Now my palms look pitiful! LOL Oh well. Because of weather in its 70s they are growing back.

This spring I have to firgure out how to keep the catapillers off my garden. While I know most what them in theirs I dont want them in mine. My garden is for looks only. Those little boogers went through my garden like an all you can eat buffet! Herbs and all.

This spring Im going to try an all container garden being as we are renters not home owners. I just mixed my first container of plants. I have a fern tree and I added an asapargus fern from the ground into the pot next to it and a small cutting from my false heather. I put some false heather in with one of my palms. Those little boogers can grow!

I killed my lipstick plant.... I need to clean it out so I can use that pot. But I keep thinking I can get it to grow back....but the thing looks so bad! But on the good side! My ivy is trying to grow into the pot! LOL

I tried something this past summer. I threw abunch of bird seed down in the garden and it grew! Then in the fall, we had all kinds of birds feeding off them! My cats didnt know what to do themselves. HAHAH! It was so funny to watch. They were chased, attacked and now are just plain scared of any bird outside! It was great. Those birds gave them hell! We had a bunch of cardials hatching in our back yard this past spring and they are the ones that mostly terrorized the cats. They had done it from an early age when my cats were just kittens. When the door was open to the house and the cats went outside and the birds show up, they will come running back inside all crotched down! HA!

I need to transplant my sage.... its the only herb that survived the catapillers. <sigh> But on the good side, my mints came back.

I am chilling two rose seeds. I thought I would try my hand at them. Next fall Im going to try to grow cuttings from the two bushes I have.

OK, I am done for now!

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