With the Rains Come Life

summer sunflower giving thanks for the rainy season

For the past several weeks it’s been more like the typical Florida summer rainy months than it has been in years: late afternoon/evening torrential down-pours soaking the dry sandy earth. This is a good thing because this is when everything green bursts forth from their heat stunted stupors to reach leafy green tendrils out, greedily lapping up as much life giving rain fall as possible.

I haven’t been able to get out to do much of anything in the yard, although the weekend before last I was able to trim up some of the over grown trees–well, at least the ones not entwined with the electrical wires! After a call to Progress Energy we discovered the homeowner is responsible for clearing the trees from the wires if it’s from the house to the pole. Not to worry, PE will still come out to take the wires down FIRST so as not to have BBQ’d tree trimmers!

So here is where a little dilemma comes in as a renter. For the past three months I have been trying to get our property management company to communicate with the property owner about the condition of our dilapidated fence–I even offered to install it for them to reduce the cost of the repair. I just got the phone call today that they will be putting up the new fence in August–HOORAY! But now, do I also tell them we need to get a tree trimming company out here before the next big storm comes up and takes out power for the entire block?

I’m thinking, “best not to push our luck’ at the moment. So it looks like we’ll be on the search for a reputable Arborist to help us with our shocking tree predicament! Sorry, couldn’t resist.

looking healthy and happy!

Oh, the perennial peanuts I found at the summer USF Botanical Garden plant sale are bouncing back from weeks of blistering heat nicely with all this rain. I am looking forward to eventually having the entire front lawn covered with them, replacing what is passing for grass at the moment. They will hold the soil in place while offering a feathery green mat of tiny round leaves and bright yellow blossoms. The Sunshine Mimosa is looking great too and really beginning to spread!

For now I am happy to sit back and watch my garden grow while planning my next project which I think will be the garage/garden wall area. I’m looking for some nice ground cover plants that will flow over the wall to soften it and maybe something flashy for a focal point.

Today I discovered I am no David Carradine…

It’s been amazingly hot and humid, even for Florida, the past couple of weeks…so being the weenie that I am, I hid indoors. I sat and stared out the windows as the Florida fauna slowly quickly began undoing all of the work I had previously done. I sighed. I whined…a little. And yes, I even did some pouting….the weeds should understand that I must take a break from our epic battle when the climate doesn’t suit me and take a rest too. Dastardly little buggers, not the least bit Gentlemanly!

So, I was excited last night when I felt a cool and steady breeze whip around me as I carried my bag of groceries to the car…I knew the battle would commence henceforth!

This afternoon I put on my “grubby” clothes and my trusty Crocs, slipped on my new leather work gloves and grabbed a handful of tools. It was O so satisfying prying the nasty, creeping green weed fingers out of the dirt and hurling them into my Bucket of Doom! mwahaha! I am Woman, hear me ROAR!

Master of the Grasshopper...unlike me

The Universe has a way of keeping one cowed humbled  though, especially when it comes to Woman vs. Nature.

Today I was taken down a peg or two by a HUGE yellow and green grasshopper who was sitting blithely atop my shiny new (and very full!) rain barrel.

I stopped dead in my tracks and stared at him. He stared at me…then wiggled his antennae  tauntingly, daring me to make my move. I hesitated. I swallowed hard. I started to raise my gloved hand and he took a step forward. I swallowed hard again, imagining that THING flying at me and landing on my face or worse yet, the sickening CRUNCH of his body under my hand.

I knew I should kill him, he’s the one who has been chomping madly away at my baby Elephant Ears and where there is one, there are more to follow. But the horror of our imagined encounter was making my heart pound and my skin crawl.  I faltered and stepped back. “What kind of wuss are you anyway?” I thought to myself as my shame spread over me like a cold wet blanket.

I knew I had  already lost this stand-off but had to make some kind of move. So I gripped my watering can and, standing as far back as I could and still reach, smacked the top of the rain barrel with a “Ha! Take that!”, hoping he would jump in the opposite direction.

He didn’t move.  I could feel his beady eyes upon me, mocking my faux bravado. I think he winked at me and I swear I could almost hear him chuckle as he casually turned around and hopped to the ground where he sat and watched me as I went bravely furtively about my watering, keeping my eye on him. It was official…I was his bitch.

I don’t think this will be our last meeting, me and my new Arch-Nemesis. No. We will meet again but NEXT time I will prevail…or I will run away screaming like a little girl. Anyone want to take any bets on the outcome?

time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping….into the future

First sunflower bloom this year

Wow, where does the time go!? Obviously not into my garden this last month! Although, to be fair it was freaking hot and I am so totally naturalized by now that anything above 78° and 80% humidity is enough to send me scurrying back indoors to enjoy my icy AC!

I haven’t totally neglected things though. After attending the USF Spring Plant sale in April I came home with a handful of lovelies: 2 butterfly bushes, some blue daze, lantana, a night blooming jasmine and a pile of sunshine mimosa. Those were plopped lovingly into the ground and tucked in with a generous layer of mulch. They are happily nestling themselves into their new homes and spreading their little limbs skyward to embrace that sun that I would rather not.

Other than that it’s been the “collecting phase” that I seem to go through every so often. It’s a time when I gather ideas, bits and pieces as I formulate plans for future development. Some might call it plotting and scheming but it’s really not anything that sinister, I swear!  I found some nice blue/grey pavers when I went and helped the Juggalo Cleanup Crew haul trash out of the woods a few weeks back and then I managed to obtain a few slabs of rock that I want to use for a planned path in the front yard.

So maintenance, planning and collecting is the current trend. Very much looking forward to USF Botanical Gardens Summer Plant sale next month-butterfly, bees and native plants! I’ll be looking for perennial peanut, fire bush and flame or trumpet vine…but who knows what other fun stuff I might stumble across!

….are you crazy!?

This is the usual reaction I get when explaining my latest garden escapades. For some reason the idea of investing time, effort and a small bit of money into a property that is not yours is a completely foreign idea to most. This seems, to me, to be the underlying problem we face with the lack of community and sense of personal responsibility for our impact on the planet and those we share it with.

If we say, “I don’t own it, it’s not my problem”, aren’t we just using money/ownership as an excuse to avoid taking any personal responsibility for the world we live in? Don’t we then short-change ourselves along with those around us?

If you own a business and rent the space, no one asks if you’re crazy for painting the store front in eye-catching colors, putting out a pot of fresh flowers and a nice sign to attract customers. You would be crazy not to!  So why is it viewed differently for those who rent homes?

I’m not advocating renters spend a fortune to bring in professional landscapers or sink a bunch of money into permanent landscape elements that can’t be taken with them. But I do think caring for your rented garden, keeping it neat and clean at the very least,  is an essential first step to building a sense of community. Especially in a City like New Port Richey where 40% of the housing is rental property.

Our sunflowers, almost a foot tall already!

The City sees this as a detriment rather than an asset. I have heard the sentiment, ‘if only we didn’t have so many rental properties here, we could have a nice town’, from many people involved with our City government. My response to that is to remind them that we’re renters and have been actively involved in our community for many years; renters aren’t necessarily the problem.  The issue isn’t about renting or owning, it’s about creating a sense of OWNERSHIP. If our City would focus on that rather than treating renters like the scourge of NPR, we could have that really great town everybody seems to want.

In the mean time, I will continue putting a few plants into the ground; tearing up dead grass to replace it with mulch and flowers for the butterflies, birds and bees. It’s okay if people ask me if I’m crazy, it’s just another opportunity to share my point of view with them and who knows, maybe eventually, the idea will begin to grow…just like our rented garden.

more fun than a (rain) barrel full of monkeys!

the new rain barrel waiting to be put together & installed

It’s been a while since my last post but that’s because much has happened between then and now. I’ll start off with……ta da! The new rain barrel! I know it doesn’t really look much like the traditional rain barrel we’ve become familiar with but because this was going in the front of the house (and plainly visible by all who drive by at the moment until the Elephant Ears get going), I decided to go with a commercially made version that is a dull beige, but aesthetically pleasing.

Now for those of you who know me, you are quite aware of my almost pathological distaste for beige, thanks to our “1001 Shades of Beige!” color palette chosen by the oh-so-exciting building owners in our historic downtown district and area gated communities. However, in this case, I thought it would be the right choice because I want it to disappear behind the plantings and become invisible….much like our downtown businesses. But I digress.

Rather than round, this container is square and shorter than the average rain barrel, but yes, it does hold 50 gallons of water. It also has a nice big screened opening at the top that will allow it to capture a good amount of the rain that waterfalls off the roof line.

The other nice thing about it was that it came with all the parts needed, the holes pre-fabbed and step by step instructions for putting it together. Rest assured my mechanically dis-interested ones…this was super simple to put together and took me less than 10 minutes to complete. Oh, and despite the price listed on-line…we got this baby for a mere $56 at Sam’s Club!

Habitat for Humanity Re-Store opened last month on Grand Blvd.

The instructions recommended placing the barrel atop a platform made of cinder block to allow gravity to help the water pressure along. So I went to hunt down some blocks. Initially I thought of going to Lowe’s or Home Depot, but as Fate would have it, just that week I noticed the new Habitat for Humanity Re-Store that recently opened on Madison in the old Sun Groves market building across the street from Dr. Ken Martin’s….and I happened to spy a pile of concrete cinder blocks on a pallet as I drove by. So I stopped in to see what kind of deal I could get.

It’s fun digging through piles of STUFF! Although the items available for sale there are more utilitarian; less kitschy, antique or interesting….there is still plenty to dig through that could be used in various projects around the house.

One great bit of news is that they are starting a paint recycling program: you bring in your old house paint, they mix like colors & finishes, strain it, repackage and sell back to the public at a discounted price. Now there is no need to leave a zillion cans of paint rusting away in the garage!

'Gus' loaded up with cinder blocks

So the nice guys at the Re-Store sold me the blocks for .75/piece…a good bit of savings over the $1.25/piece I would have paid retail! They were even kind enough to load up the truck for me (girl tip for the day: wear sandals and claim to have forgotten your gloves, works every time!). Unloading was a different story…definitely got a nice workout for the arms!

I took some time to level the ground and then each block to ensure the foundation was solid and level for the barrel. It was a simple project overall that anyone could do in an afternoon….which I highly recommend you do! Now I wait for the next big storm…

Fading into the background--our new rain barrel!

After the rain barrel came the USF Botanical Garden Spring Plant Sale excursion….

orange blossoms and honey bees, spring has arrived

bee scouts ready to call in the troops

The weather has been gradually improving over the past several weeks. The sunflower seedlings have taken off and are climbing happily toward the sky; but the real proof Spring is finally here was the explosion of orange blossoms that seemed to appear overnight on the little tree out back.

Right now there are just a few flowers that have shyly opened their petals, but oh, what a heavenly scent they leave hanging about the tree. I can’t wait until the entire tree bursts open in a cloud of honey-scented white….imagine the happy bees!

I have always loved this time of year no matter which side of the country I lived on. The energy and excitement of the Earth awakening from her rest is contagious. It is a hopeful season with wisdom to share.

“In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.” -Albert Einstein

rotted, hacked down and left for dead this little tree struggles to survive

The orange tree I mentioned before is an apt teacher. It’s a sad, scraggly looking thing that was neglected, cut down and left for dead. Despite all of that, it has the audacity to sprout forth from a hollowed stump with exuberance. No baggage, no resentment, no sense of victimization…just alive and moving forward.

Life emerges from death and the cycle continues. With a little care and nurturing maybe the little guy will grow into a big healthy tree once again.

I am looking forward to the meditative gardening time that stretches ahead of me as I transform this sand box, bit by bit, into the beautiful garden I see in my head.

make your own compostable seed starting pots

Well this weekend was a wash for any kind of outdoor activity. I ended up working all weekend and yesterday a large line of thunder storms rolled through most of the day anyway. So I thought I’d post this little gem for those of you fortunate enough to get dirty this week. I picked this up at the March for Parks a few weekends ago. The friendly folks from the Phoenix Community Projects were there demonstrating how to make these cool little pots for starting your seeds.

I would think you could make a bunch of these at once and let them dry to have on hand any time you need to start some seeds. If you make any send me the photos and I’ll post them here!

materials needed

• Newspapers
• A small plastic seedling pot (should be fairly flexible, not totally rigid plastic)
• Water

directions

1. Cut the newspaper into several squares that are wider than the top of the pot.
2. Wrap one piece of newspaper around the plastic pot and fold it closed over the bottom of the pot.
3. Soak the paper covered pot in a bucket of water.
4. Squeeze all of the excess air and water out of it so that the paper lies flat against the plastic pot.
5. Repeat with a second piece of newspaper.
6. Gently pull the plastic pot template out of the newspaper planting pot. You may need to pull the sides inward a bit to release the paper from the plastic.
7. Fill pot halfway with soil.
8. Add seeds,  a small amount of water and more soil to cover the seeds.
9. Keep watering until seedlings are large enough to plant.
10. Place seedling in pot in the ground. The newspaper will naturally decompose and make way for the roots.

caution, swales ahead!

This week I have run the gamut from wanting to stomp my feet and throw a fit because I’m not getting enough accomplished as fast as I would like (damn HGTV and their 30 minute makeovers!) to squeaking with joy as I peered out the kitchen window to discover the sunflower seeds have sprouted! Who knew gardening could be so dramatic? But again I am taking my lessons in patience and perseverance and trying to remind myself to enjoy the journey.

phase 1 of the first experimental swale

It is sooo nice having more daylight hours, I now have a few hours after I get home to putter around and work on small projects here and there. This week I began phase 1 of the first experimental swale!

I figured I would start with one of the worst areas first and go from there. When the rain storms swing through, they dump several inches of water on the ground within minutes causing mini flash floods of run-off that begin on the neighbor’s side of the yard, run down behind the garage, around the side to the retaining wall where the water pours down and has eaten away a good chunk of the foundation of the wall, across the patio, down the side yard, into the street and into the Pithlachascotee, or Cotee as the locals call it, river.

which way the rain goes

Until we get gutters up, my hope is this swale will help divert at least some of the run-off and hold it so it’s not washing everything way into the river. I just had time to grade the swale and build up the sides. I plucked spider wort plants out of the yard and planted them en masse along the bottom. I am now researching the best kind of plant for the sides and top of the dirt to weave a stabilizing network of roots across the surface. With the pounding rains it seems any time I have tried to build up an area, within a few months it’s flat as a pancake again. Hopefully some plants will keep that from happening or at least minimize it.

hooray, the babies have arrived!

I mentioned before the sunflowers had sprouted–that made my day! The coral honeysuckle is doing great too…new vines are twining their way upwards and onward and little fireworks sprays of the red flowers are bursting forth all over. It took off faster than I anticipated so I had to put up a makeshift trellis until we can get the bamboo fence installed. It’s just some old bamboo stakes I had handy, pounded into the ground and woven across to stabilize…it is stronger than I had thought it would be and doesn’t look so bad either.

our house becomes niagra falls during rain storms

One other bit of exciting news, this weekend we’re getting our first rain barrel! Some nice looking 50 gal barrels are now being carried commercially with all the necessary drainage already done for you at about the same price as the traditional barrels. This one will be for the front of the house–as you can see in the picture, when it rains this corner is a torrential waterfall. The nice thing about the barrel we’ve chosen is that it has a nice wide screened opening that will allow it to capture a good deal of the rain run-off even without gutters.

Now I am actually looking forward to the next big rain storm to test out the new swale. Let’s hope it holds!

Sunnyside Up!

Despite the lovely weather this week I was only able to spend one good quality day outdoors grubbing in the dirt. I spent several hours raking up oak tree leaves that seem to have not been disturbed in several seasons. Great filler for flower beds and topping for my impromptu compost pit though!

Sunflower seeds tucked away in their new bed of organic garden soil

I did get the sunflowers planted–hooray! I added a layer of organic garden soil to enhance the uh…..sand. Hopefully that will inspire the little seeds nestled within to burst forth and reach their baby rootlets into the earth.

The mystery tree is “snowing” little white blossoms everywhere. Have found a couple of trees it could be but so far none of them seems to be an exact match. Who knew there was such an abundance of trees in Florida that have clumps of small white flowers!? Unfortunately ours isn’t sweet-smelling like the other’s I’ve run across in my research–that would have just been too perfect. Am waiting to see what kind of berries appear after the flowers are gone.

This week I’m researching drainage solutions to our downward sloping and tiered yard. That problem must be addressed before much else can be planned or implemented. Swales are the word of the week!

A Sunny Weekend With Chances of Honeysuckle, Scattered Spider Worts Ahead

Wow, the weather has been amazing the past week or so, well, if you don’t count the monsoons that swept through the last few days. But even that was appreciated–there is nothing better than falling asleep to cool breezes, the rumble of thunder and the rhythmic pattering of pouring rain.

I don’t have my “official” rain barrels set up yet, but I did have an empty garbage can and a few buckets placed directly under the drip-line of the roof (the house doesn’t have any gutters!). Amazingly, in one day the 32 gallon can was FULL of water, so that definitely underscored the benefits of installing those rain barrels and soon! Free water for my entire yard, hooray!

Yesterday I ventured over to Starkey Park to take advantage of the native plant society’s plant sale. It started at 12, I got there at 12:45 and I had already missed out on the Sunshine Mimosa, apparently they had 2 dozen plants they got snapped up in a hurry! I was fortunate to get the last of the large coral honeysuckle plants though, so I was happy. It was a beautiful day at the park, lots of vendors sharing info on green ideas and services, I think I heard there was free ice cream available somewhere and there were some folkies nearby singing and playing–they added a nice ambiance to the event.

Can anyone tell me what this tree is?

I was hoping someone from the NPS would be able to help me identify the Mystery Trees in our yard, but no luck yet. So it’s back to searching the web to see if I can figure it out. Whatever it is, the bees LOVE it!

I did discover that the purple flowers that are popping up all around the yard are not weeds but rather, they are Tradescantia Andersoniana or Spider Wort plants, a native wildflower.

I met a nice guy by the name of Bill from the Native Plant Society who helped me drag my plants back to the car in his little red wagon. We had a nice chat about his plans to create a native landscape hideaway in his yard and I shared some of my plans for our garden. He invited me to join, I think I’ll try to make it to a few meetings first-sounds like they have a lot of educational speakers. We parted ways and I headed home with my bundles of coral happiness.

Lonicera sempervirens - Coral Honeysuckle

I decided to plant the honeysuckle in front of the derelict fence to hide it until we can get the landlord to replace it. At least the view out the kitchen window will be a little more pleasant until then. I still need to pick up some mulch to cover the bed but it is prepared for the addition of sunflowers now, I suppose. I also dug up some of the random Spider Wort plants that seem to grow EVERYWHERE in our yard and grouped them near the honeysuckle. I thought the violet and coral combination would be smashing.

Want List: metal fence posts, 6′ tall bamboo cane fencing

Shopping List: compost, sunflower seeds

To Do List: plant Sunflower seeds, pick up a load of mulch for new beds, move baby elephant ear plants by garage to a spot with more shade