GGG ~ Glad to hear you are getting some much needed rain. Chilly and wet weather though are miserable. Have missed you Glynnis. How are things going with your house? Diana ~ We like our mild winters but really wouldn't mind more days of temps in the 50's or so. Having maybe 5 at the most is not enough. :-) Last night we were talking about how we really wouldn't want to move somewhere where it gets really cold, we've lived in these tropical climes way too long. The humidity is AWFUL down here, and we wish we didn't have so much of it. It makes you feel sick during the summer months. Not as bad now. ~ I bet you looked sweet with your pony tail and escaping curls. ~ Your weather sounds cold. I was sorry to hear about yet more fires in CA and sorry for those who lost everything. I hope you all get some rain out there soon. Yesterday morning and after lunch I wore myself out laying 'found' shingles as flooring in my potting area. Even though it is NOT a perfect job, I like how it turned out. I used up the stack of shingles. I'm getting ready to plant seeds and to make cuttings from roses and other plants around the property. I was sweating as it was around 85 and the humidity was up there, so I sat and took breaks and drank water. That's it from Plum Cottage for now. FlowerLady

Hi puglvr. Thanks for posting the pic. Does look like there is some nutritional deficiency going on. I've been trying to work out a good fertilizer schedule. I found that increasing to a larger amount of fertilizing less times a year like the commercial strategies recommend doesn't work very well for me. It is too easy to burn nearby plants, and the soil is so sandy that the trees still run out of fertilizer before the next time. Last year my fertilizer schedule was granular balanced fertilizer in Feb, April, June, August, 1-2lb each time. No ferts of any kind from Sept-Jan so they don't flush tender growth in winter. They do naturally keep shedding leaves. So this is the roughest looking time of year for them - shedding leaves since Sept, but not growing any new ones yet. Last year I intended to spray nutrient spray in March, May, June, July, August mostly that works out to fertilizing monthly, alternating granular and spray with a bit extra in June. What I learned is that for maximum efficiency the timing of the nutrient sprays is important. So instead of going on a calandar timetable, the best time to spray is each time a new growth flush is 3/4 of the way expanded. That still worked out to alternate with the granular fertilizer. It seemed that the granular fertilizer would trigger a growth flush, but not provide enough nutrients for the growth flush to expand to full capacity, so doing the spray at 3/4 leaf expansion helped the new leaves form well. So I definitely sprayed less than once a week. More on the order of monthly, for all my citrus, healthy & not. For the ponkan, which had the biggest problem, I think I gave it a head start and sprayed it every 2 weeks in March/April last year. So hopefully you'll see a good improvement this year! Your tree is nice sized if you could get it to leaf out fully this season.

Vdels_1 I could see your pic in the link you posted! Thanks! nice palms! HTML is just one of many computer languages used on the internet. think of it as a programming language I guess. Its fairly simple once you learn to recognise the tags. the HTML part of the displaying the image is just the <.img. src.='."'> part, again, MINUS the periods. You put your URL of your photo in between the quotes in what I just typed, and your pic will show up here in the thread... like this EDIT: I think its just webshots. I used to use them YEARS ago when I first started posting here in like 2002, but have since found that photobucket is far better, especially for this purpose. It seems to me that webshots makes it hard to find the right URL for uploaded photos. The only one I could find for your pic that would work here was the thumbnail. (thats why its so small) The URLs i found for the large size photo just did not work at all, even when I added the .jpg file extension to the file name, which is pretty standard in the URL of a photo/ image. Since Ive become pretty good at this stuff, im going with that it has something to do with webshots, and not any real error on my part or yours. Good luck! Its not hard to learn like the poster above me pointed out.

Hello everyone, i have been so busy have not had time to write. I finally finished the second bed,and spent the weekend looking for different types of compost. I only found three,all the rest are basically the same in Florida at least around here. I did find one Blueberry bush ,YEAH ,seems healthy... I changed the soil and transplanted to a bigger pot I have it in the morning sun and afternoon shade we will see. I planted some watermelon in 2 of the block cells as an experiment they are growing quick and seem happy.. I planted some tomatoes in containers and have them next to the blueberries.I also planted an herb garden in 2 containers i had for awhile they contain, Rosemary,basil,parsley,thyme,oregano,also some spearmint and peppermint. Within 2 days the Bugs have located and began thier attack,whiteflies and mites i belive..... i have been holding them off with palmolive and water. A friend told me ivory soap 2 tblespoons mixed in 1 quart warm water or liquid castile soap same mix,works well I'll try it.... I have to get the soil in the beds this weekend and finish mulching around the beds...I kickin around with idea of micro sprinkler sytem on a timer.They are fairly inexpensive and would work well with my goofy schedule. I have not recieved my worms yet but the compost pile seems to be doing well.Guess i'll have to call uncle Jim's and see what the delay is.. Almost forgot i ordered my muscadine grapes they will be here in Oct,along time to wait but i need to prepare the soil anyway so it worrks out well.. Glad i got the time to share and be part of your gardens Good luck to all and Happy Gardening...