Florida Garden Chat With All

We have the South Florida GG, which I lurk in, the Much Ado thread, which I also lurk in, but I wanted to start something we all can jump right into and tell what we are doing today in the garden. I will start with this:

I have been working all week since the roundup on the 5th so haven't had time to do any real planting. I DID put some plants in over at Billy's last Sunday, now today, it's my turn here.

We went to town and picked up a new tire for the cute little dump trailer he gave me so now I can haul manure around with my tractor all day long.

But to start, I need to plant all the new goodies from the round up, plant my share of the 5 pounds of caladium bulbs I got from Caladiums4less sale and get out to the daylily field and pull all those nasty little turkey oak stumps that are determined to make new little trees in my daylilies.

Water, water and more water for so many plants. We got a 10X20 poly tarp to put over the barbecue area for shade. That blue one just isn't big enough. I'll be resting out there with a misting nozzle some time today since they are predicting 90 and they are lying about 40% chance of rain tomorrow.

Okay, it's getting hot now, getting outside to work. Weekends only last 48 hours

Molly

molly you should thing about adding a drip system doesnt cost that much and you can keep adding to it you can add misters sprinklers all that HD has some and Lowes to Paul PS hope my Elaphant Manure is doing good LOL

Paul, the drip system sounds great, but I am having a time and money problem, there is a shortage of both around here!!!

Wow!!!! thanks for reminding me about the ele. poo, that is something else that needs tending today.

I also got an offer from a freecycler today to pick up some veggie and flower starts. I'll need to find the time to get on over there to pick them up.

Molly
:^)))

ok

HI Molly - like this thread - it is smokey over here in lake city, so bad I can't even work outside - these darn fires north of us are causing a real problem. I did go into Middleburg today and was able to breath some clean fresh air - first time in over a week.

I usually can work out in the heat, rain etc. But this smoke has really gotten to me....just hope we get some of that rain they are predicting for tomorrow and the air clears abit.

If you get a chance do check out the drip kits - they really aren't that expensive - I was able to get one at Walmart for $20 and it has 5 heads. I'm trying to pick up a kit every payday as I find myself not being able to plant anything because I'm spending so much time running around watering the different areas I have planted. They are super easy to install. I'm also trying to get a number of hoses that I can just leave layed out with certain sprinkler heads on them so all I have to do is hook up the one I want to the faucet and turn it on. Really trying to save time this year as I feel it is going to be another dry one.

Judy

Judy,

I have about 10 hoses laid out with oscillating and pulsating sprinklers in various areas. One is a double with a nozzle leading into the orchid house. Without rain or dew, I have to water in there daily. It's okay, that sooths me.

I really will look at the drip kits when I go back to town. For watering, I have 3 outside faucets with splits on each one. I can send water down one hose or the other, or both. Shut the valve off one when needed.

Smoke isn't oo bad here today, but the gnats make me feel like that Snoopy character that has the dirt cloud around him all the time. I put "off on my neck and face and the gnats aren't bothered at all. So I am in the house cooling down til Billy brings my van back, then off to get more plants. Glutton for punishment ain't I?

Molly
:^)))

You can use Regular Cheap hose to for your drip System besides the black they sell Paul

Well, I already have the semi-cheap green hoses, Paul. And they aren't so bad. They've been laying around in the sun, rain, cold, freeze for 18 months now and still no leaks......knock, knock.

:^)))

Molly - I have also been known to dumpster dive for hoses - you wouldn't believe what people throw away !!!!

For a buck or two I can fix any leak or bent hose head in a jiffy :-)

Judy

I love this thread! Thanks for starting it Molly!
All I got done today is to go chasing around for some crete supplies and I did buy a Caladium.
Saw a sea grape I really wanted for the leaves, but didn't know much about them so decided to ck the plant files first...I'll think I'll get one soon. Love those leaves.
I must get out there in the am and do some gardening chores...I hope the smoke isn't bad. It was not so bad today, but a few days last week it was really bad here.
We have older windows and some don't shut so good. One day the smoke even came into the house!

I have a weird schedule now and I am trying to keep up with Gardening and Crete work ....not getting much sleep at night , so have to try to sleep in the afternoon. Didn't get much garden or crete work done either last week.Tough schedule to get used to. My making lots of money again has had to become priority #1. I am so sick of just squeaking by....but it means I can have more money for my addictive hobbies in the future LOL.....

I am up early. Coffee is ready and soon I'll go out to watch the sun rise and see if it's going to rain.

I didn't get the oaks and weeds pulled from the daylily field so I will work on that today. I also have some chinese lettuce to harvest and the new veggie seedlings to plant as well as plant some of my own seedlings.

Packing up 10 EE's to ship later on and that looks like about it, I don't know what the rest of the day holds. I hope the gnats stay away. A little more watering in a vouple places today, then I am done for a couple days........unless we are graced with rain.

Molly

This is a nice thread. I like the blue and yellow flower combination. I didn't get many new plants this year, but yesterday I planted the rest of them. I don't have any irrigation in the backyard, so I also have the hose stretched out to make watering easier. The weeds in the backyard have me discouraged, but I do have one bed with flowers that looks pretty.

The smoke is all the way down here, though probably not as bad as north of here. I am watering the front yard now, and hope it rains soon.

I didn't plant vegetables, but my daughter and son-in-law did, and they are enjoying eating them.

Good morning!!

Little clearer today, but just checked dopler and doesn't look good :-(
Hope the smoke stays down so I can get alittle work done today.

Will try to get out and water alittle - that should bring the rain.....

Judy

Shellabella -- pray do tell -- what do you do with the sea grape leaves ? Those leaves; they're like leather and never, ever disintegrate. I hate them; but that's because a "neighbor" (Ha !) behind me had one put in and it's grown and grown. It's now towering over the fence and puts too much shade on my orchid pergolas (I have my own shade set up for them thank you very much). Grrrrrr..... No good talking to her - she's a bunch of misery. I do talk to her tree however; I tell the bloody thing to die, die DIE !. It isn't looking too healthy right now either.....

Back from Mother's Day breakfast, the fog is still hanging in there and I am raring to get out while it's still cool.

Luckily, no smoke today. All the plants I put in yesterday have forgotten they were ticked at me for taking so long. They are all standing up nice and perky showing off their little flowers.

BBL
Molly
:^))))

Orchid....I want the leaves for concrete leaf casts and other concrete work. I have the perfect out of the way place in my yard for one. I don't think it will have a chance to get very tall...with my cutting branches and leaves off of it frequently...lol! But if it did it would still be ok.

Great thread, Molly!

I'm in Ft Lauderdale this weekend visiting my mom -- and worrying about my plants! I gave everythig a good soaking before I left, and foolishly relied on the "weather report," which at that time called for a good chance of rain. As you pointed out, though, they are liars.

When I drove down here Friday night I hit a good bit of rain around the Ft Pierce area. I'm glad for those folks, but I sure wish we'd get some up north, too. Even with that rain, it's been smoky here in S. Florida, too. Earlier this past week, I was in Tampa, where it was also smoky. Tonight I'm driving up to Jax to start a new semester at work, then back to G-ville Monday evening.

Last summer I used a soaker hose system, which was very convenient, but some of the hoses have become non-functional, so I got a couple of cheap sprinklers. it seems like I'm getting MUCH better results this season with the sprinklers. Do y'all think there's a reason for that? And can anyone tell me the difference between a soaker hose system and a drip system?

My fingers are crossed for rain for everyone!

M.

Good Morning, I am off to work but wanted to say we got rain last evening before dark. Not sure how long into the night it rained but it was a good healthy one, not so dangerous.

I got the 10 Mickey Mouse Taro packed up for my long waiting customer and stopping at the PO on my way to work.

All is well with the world today!!!!!!!

Molly

Hi, Molly. I'm certainly glad that you had enough Mickey Mouse Taro to send out. I felt bad after your roundup when several of us hit you up for this plant and when I learned you were barely scraping by with enough to fulfill your order. I feel so bad that I'll ship you a bunch of violet stemmed taros and a few 'Coffee Cups' and I think there is a 'Ruffles' from amongst my Alocasia/Colocasia collection -- but don't hold your breath til the package arrives -- you know I can't seem to ever get around to boxing and mailing plants and I usually use a surrogate mother mailer (if I can find one!) to send out plants that people want that I have. But, I will try to make a special effort to mail in this case.

I noticed in my recent era of having lots of plants to give away that it was always the one or two that were in least supply and that I sometimes wanted to keep for myself that garden savvy friends would make a dive for. I guess we all share the same taste for the unusual or rare. I never worried about it much because it seemed every time I would give away a plant, I would soon receive more of the same, so I hope you have Mickey Mouse Taro suddenly scurrying your way!! LOL

Jeremy

geting dark here hope it rains

Jeremy,

That tea cup EE sounds like one I would want. I got the Stingray from Corky's roundup. The big leaf died back and left 6 baby ears in it's place.

Sorry I seemed so stingy about the Mickey Mouse, I didn't really mean to seem so. Actually, I am having a great deal of pleasure going out there to the plantless pots and running my fingers through the rich black soil left in the pots. Oh how I miss real dirt!!!!!

I didn't finish my list yesterday. I still need to make a TeePee trellis down by the driveway for my grapevines (wild ones). It rained last night so I don't have to sprinkle today, but I still need to get out to harvest the rest of the shell peas and the chinese lettuce. Maybe I can use that lettuce in the chicken mushroom roll-ups I am making for dinner.

Well, let me get out of these painter whites and into the garden grungies. BBL.

Molly
:^))))

P.S. Paul, I hope it rained for you too.

Jeremy
I will be glad to "surrogate" again for you. It might cost you an EE and 2 more buckets of horse poop tho! lol!. D-mail me your schedule this wekk and I will try to get by there
Linda

Rain--I'm beginning to think its a dirty word!! All around us is being drenched and all we got was a misting.
Guess I gotta get out the water bucket again. One of the main reasons we bought here was it seemed to be in a pocket from the hurricanes. Well its in a pocket alright, no rain and frost. I will carry on, buckets of water, buckets--or rather wheelbarrows of mulch, buckets of fertilizer. Most of what the frost damaged is finally perking up. The plumbago blackened clear to the ground and is now 3 ft tall and 6 ft across looking absolutely gorgeous. I have 10 of them, the butterflies love them. Billie

rained for about 2 mins

So glad some of you all got rain - I heard it all around me last night and was out dancing ....maybe I scared it off!!!!

Got only 5mins of rain....but I had a really good day, got a big project done....transplanted the Kava Kava vine to a more suitable place, digging, shoveling, watering....what fun. A friend of mine cancelled our dinner date, so I just continued in the garden, fussed with the Orchids, haven't done that in at least a year! Too bad it's dark now and I can't survey my handiwork...well there is tomorrow, and I didn't get it all done. But does one ever?

No rain here.......maybe tomorrow. We have the "Hokey" gutter downspout arrangement directed into the pool again...lol!
Hope everyone gets the rain they need.

We got some nice rain Sunday evening as well. Just wish the folks further north (Lake City, etc.) had gotten some on the fires!

Saw my first hummingbird (since moving to the new place) the other morning! He was right outside the living room window feeding from a salvia.

Had about 15 min of light rain here. Cloudy today but nothing else.

Pice i got from Shellabella

It rained heavily around one p.m. afor twenty minutes. And we've just had a half hour more. Got three barrels full. With a beautiful very dark grey sky all around us. Lucky day.

Hi, Linda. You are always welcome to surrogate post for me! Though I am running short on plants to provide now that the Lowe's deal is no longer occurring. I do have extras of the EEs though and the horse poo remains a mountain in my driveway, not yet spread into the area of the vegetable garden (another unfinished project left hanging by more immediate demands -- I got most of the 2 year growth of weeds pulled out of the vegetable garden, some of my dumpster diving trophy weed barrier cloth placed between the rows, but haven't been able to get back to that area to spread the manure and till it in).

I have an appointment Thursday afternoon after work this week, I should be here this weekend unless I return to a paid garden job in Ortega, and I have only one appointment next week on Tuesday after work, so send me a D-mail and we'll arrange a day and time. I'm home most days from the zoo around 2 PM.

Jeremy

phicks, Aren't those leaves pretty? I got one from her at the RU, and I love it. I think she makes all kinds of neat things. : )

hey lucy if you give me yours ill have a pair

Uh huh.......and if you give me yours,.......I'll have a pair. : )

I've been outside all day. Planted some herbs, and a few flowers.

I saw a county truck putting some crushed shell on the corner of my lot where everyone flies around the stop sign, and conveniently positioned myself to be watering close to where they were. Thanked them for filling in those holes, and then asked if they had any left could they throw it in my drive where we come off the road. They did. : )

Well, I still have an hour or so left of daylight, so I might as well go back out and plant something else. : )

I see I'm not the only sneaky one. A few years ago. the city put in sidewalks on my side of the street. At the time, I only had a single wide driveway that used to be asphalt but had deteriorated away. I went out and asked them how long it was going to take to put it in as I wanted to get a double wide driveway put in and wanted to coordinate it with the sidewalk digging as they had to go across my driveway area. They said no problem, they could do it as long as they were doing the rest (cash, of course). Cost me $1200 from the garage to the sidewalk as they said the city was responsible for the sidewalk and the "driveway skirt replacement" from the sidewalk to the street. I called a couple companies for estimates and they were at least twice that plus I didn't need a permit.

Wow! those are beautiful! What are they made of????

Jeremy-how is Fri for you?? I think I can get all my work done by 1 pm if that is convenient for me to come by after 2
Linda

mistressg....maybe Shellabella will be on sometime soon, she can tell you what they are made of. : )

Good morning! At least it's morning for me now...lol!
I didn't even go outside today, was sleeping ...Bad me, lol!
Worked all night last night.
I watered all my plants real good yesterday, I'll venture out there tomorrow am.

Mistress, they are made of concrete.
Thanks for the compliments on my leaves, you guys are so great!

BTW I am looking for plants with med to large leaves, I will be happy to trade more concrete or other concrete goodies for said plants .
I've got some new leaves to try...Molly's crocodile fern I got at Corky's RU should make an interesting sculpture of some kind....might make a mirror using a couple of those leaves.
I have some big callas, and a begonia I am waiting to grow larger.
Still no sprouts from the begonia leaves I got from Monchi......has yours sprouted yet Jan?
I have to put that castor bean you gave me in the ground too, so it gets bigger leaves.

I have all my EE's in the ground, they range from really big ones to smaller ones, but I could always use more.lol!

Would love some kind of agapanthus, sea grape and gunnera ( there is one that will grow here I think and it's not the monster one.)
Oh heck I had a list around here somewhere...lol! D-Mail me if anyone is interested....I'll locate my list.

Jan and Blue, you guys ARE sneaky!.....I would do the same thing absolutely.

Hope you guys have a great day tomorrow.