well, i'm happy to say i finally have my garden beds and plants the way i want them! it only took 3 years. In the next week or so i'm going to build a 6' tall bamboo teepee for a young pipevine i have. then, i'm going to build a bamboo trellis along the fence probably for a maypop vine.

over the last several months, i've build 3 bamboo trellis's. they look so much nicer than the plastic ones and they are easy to build.

-chris

Catch up on the weeds. ;)

Nah, finish taking down the tomato cages and get ready for the Fall tomato season.

Wonderful topic.

Well, as some of you may know, I just installed a berry patch, consisting of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. All are varieties that are supposed to do well down here. Hope so :)

I put a section of wildflowers underneath and around my Plumeria... Indian Blanket, Blackeyed Susans, Echinacea, and Beach Sunflower.

Planted several fruit trees recently... Sugar Apple, Surinam Cherry, and Strawberry Guava.

I'm cutting ground for a fall/winter/spring vegetable garden. That will be a first for me. Plans to grow carrots, amaranth, squash, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, and maybe some others.

I'm really starting to realize that my garden should be far more than ornamental or aesthetically pleasing. Of late, I have mostly been putting plants in my garden that are either edible in some way, or medicinal in some way. The usefulness of plants has always fascinated me, and I am starting to use the land I have in a more sustainable and productive way.

Lets see just tonight we finally finished re-planting and weeding our driveway butterfly bed thats about 4 ft wide by 90 feet long. Need to get some mulch but its gonna be a truck full probably 3 yards so that will have to wait a few days as well as picking up some cardboard (im tired of fighting off the weeds. ...

Tomarrow We will be re-working the oposite side of the driveway bed and rearranging the plantings in it to make better use of the space as well as adding a few more pretty plants..

Adding some more coleus and a coral honeysuckle tee-pee made of bamboo as long as I can figure it out.. Chris would you be willing to share your trellis plans? I have acess to really big tall shoots that I would love to make something out of..

I could go on and on but that is the immediate plan for tomorrow If I can pull it all off..

Happy Gardening all and stay cool !
Donna

Veronica ~ You sound ambitious. Your new bed is going to be nice. What is this about imminent domain? Do you live on this property? Is it a blighted area, road widening area or what? We've gone through imminent domain, with road widening, but sometimes we wonder if it won't happen again because of the area that we live in and greedy land developers.

I'd have to say my latest garden project, is keeping our jungle trimmed back, planting rooted cuttings and seedlings and just trying to do what I can since the summer is here with all it's heat and humidity.

Happy gardening everyone. Don't work too hard, take plenty of breaks and drink plenty of fluids.

FlowerLady

Weeding, trimming some more weeding and more trimming! Cleaning up the tomato planters for fall. Then some weeding and trimming!

Enlarging a bed. I put in a good sized crinum and I thought it would look nice surrounded by muhly grass. Weeding. Planning to get more mulch and rock for gardens by the house.
I do most of my gardening early evening since I'm not a morning person YUCK!!

The very best thing about this list is the inspiration and encouragement that it gifts me with.

I, too, garden in the evenings and not too early...Lol. If I go out late enough, the dark happens and I don't kill myself out there. Finally learning about little bites of work and gradual progress being made.

FlowerLady; Our plot has Progress Energy high tension wire easement. We are on Knights Griffin Rd. PE is putting in another wire to feed the energy hungry in North Pinellas and West Pasco. If they do this on our side of the existing towers, they will take an additional easement of 150 feet. That will put the line right at the back of our house and take the foot-print of our outbuildings, including my workshop.

There has been so much confusion and rumor with our neighbors (and lawyer mailings!) that we are taking a peaceful wait and see attitude and affirming that all will unfold in Divine Order.

Chris; I am also interested in your bamboo construction. Please let us know how things go.

Thanks, Everyone for the inspiration and letting me know I am not alone in the weeding department. Lol... (Got to get a scuffle hoe... TODAY!)

Great topic! I love hearing what everyone is doing in their gardens! My latest project involves scrape timbers from a prefab log home being built by some friends of ours. They were getting ready to burn the timbers when I saw then and asked if I could have them. They said sure so I brought them home. The timbers are a foot tall and 4 inches wide with "tongue and groove" edges. I plan on building planter boxes since the wood is treated against rot. Here is a picture of some stacked up to show what the project will look like -

nova

Nova, those will make some really great planter boxes. You must share pictures when your project is done!

Veronica
I love my scuffle hoe, the organic answer to Round-up.

My latest project: getting as many plants OUT of pots and INTO the ground as possible,1/3 completed.

Denise

I'm also repotting my African violets which is a huge job considering the number I have but they look so good afterward and it's cool inside.
I use my pointed shovel to help with weeds. I got a hoe but I couldn't get the hang of it.
This is a great topic.

Well after we cemented around our larger shed (for hurricane protection) as well as "tie downs", I finally planted our "basket plant" along with all of it's "9" young ones in our front yard garden..so hopefully they will do well there, then tomorrow we make another garden out back along the lattice fence seperating our patio and yard, and put some more lattice w/pvc, (homemade version of a trellis) for the mandevilla's. Then hubby had a very nice fishing rack, which unfortunately he can's use, so I had him brush it with polyurethane and that will be anchored to the wall out back near our patio table where I can put small flower pots on the shelf..But before we put it up, I will put a lattice backing on it and paint it hunter green, so it gives it a nicer look...de

Here is a link that might be useful:

We have been having some erosion problems from the rain so DH has been working on a terrace project with landscape timbers. I have been making some flower beds deeper and have been taking the grass from the front of the beds and moving it to spots within the terraces where the rain has been washing away the areas that were just dirt. I just take a shovel and cut the grass out in squares and move them. With the ground fairly damp it works pretty well.

I've also been weeding and trimming a bit and just replaced two plants that did not make it for whatever reason. An azalea along the fence and a anise by the house.

In a few weeks gatormomx2 and I are going to find a few citrus trees to plant. Those should be the last two plants I buy for a while. I have some seeds started and will work on some cuttings here soon.

Enjoying the work I have already done. Working mostly on what to do in the fall, weeding, enjoying the last of the toms, still have some flowers blooming, and this morning I found my thrown away dead green beans growing in the compost pile!! I am nursing some left over seedlings thru the heat...so far so good. Might have a jump start on the early fall. DH bought me a 10X10 canvas canopy for the back yard (crappy shed is coming out) and under that we moved an old table from next door to make a potting table for me! He is wonderful!

Still working on amys from seed. (Apologies to cindeea--I just found the envelope of seeds that I didn't get mailed to you before vacation...so going in mail tomorrow and has new seeds as well.)

Have black krim and red lightning tomato seedlings for the fall ready to re pot.

Have a great day!

Kim