I have, to many things going on

Here's my story: My little green estate has pleased me so much since the warmth of the past "winter" that I haven't had "worry questions" or the need to import more plants. (Exception being the black mulberry that Glenn is starting for me after I let my cat (feline) get to the first seedling he sent.) This week: 6-year-old potted plumeria blooming for first time ever; fat cats on dutchman's pipe vine; successful for first time raising zinnias from seed (seeds from Eva) but wondering why they collapse - should I have pinched them early-on?). I'm preparing for a short vacation - planting all seedlings and moving potted plants to shade (retired, I've become a water-daily person); spiderwort are STILL blooming so it's not time yet to weed-whack that half of my front yard; and, no storms lately so no hundreds of oak branchletts to pick up. The no-see-ums are ravenous even at mid-day. I often feel exhausted and wonder if it is from my constant cycling between 90 degree heat w/high humidity and 73 degree air conditioning, for my frequent 10-minute spurts tending my wonderful, verdent little world.

I've noticed too - and been writing less. I read all the posts though.

I've been catching up on all the projects I thought up or left half done over the winter and spring. Made a border out of the coral rocks I've been digging out of my garden for the last four years. Spread a dozen bags of pine bark. Built a compost bin. Harvested bananas, pineapples. Planted sugar cane (really hope that works). Cleaned out tons of garden debris. Tons. And hid from the blast furnace outside. Is it my imagination or is this a particularly hot summer?

I just got in from picking weeds, still so much to do. It's just too hot to live out there. We went on a 2-week trip and I was aghast at all the weeds. I had kept it up so well and had put down Preen, evidently it rained too much and washed the chemical out. Especially the chamberbitter. I know I could spray everywhere with Roundup but I hate to use so many chemicals. I did finally find a place to get some Sedgehammer for the sedge that I have battled for months with everything I could find. I hope this works, we still have to put down some sod or grass seed in the area where this sedge is at. We had to change the landscaping in front of the house because of problems with the septic tank, I used to have a huge butterfly garden there but this caused a problem when work had to be done there, mostly due to the spreading juniper I had there as a foundation planting right in front of the house. Man, that stuff is hard to remove. And the heat has slowed down the veggie garden so not much out there to do except get the weeds out. So nothing to post except for whining and crying, sorry. I do read posts when there are new ones.

It appears that when GardenWeb was taken over by Houzz the activity dropped off. I also read all the posts, but there's often little I feel I can contribute, especially when they're about growing veggies.

Fawnridge, please keep posting, we all appreciate your knowledge. I wish I could grow and then post about all the tropicals but I don't live where it's feasible and I'm not moving further South. I grew more of it when I lived in Tampa but even there I lost a lot of beautiful stuff, especially the crotons that had gotten so big and then we were slammed by an especially rough Winter. I miss all that but I don't have a greenhouse and can't afford plants that aren't suited to my area. So I deal with what does, and although we try to keep a small veggie garden going, we also love flowers and landscaping plants, too.

Just like Rita I appreciate all knowledge especially if it is something I don't know or I am not familiar with, there is always room to learn in my gardening life, so the more posters the more we benefit...

And no matter what is the heat outside, every day I water, clean and take care of the garden. Of course I try to limit the time outdoors and prefer the morning hours.

Silvia

Last summer was a record breaker, and this year I have been looking every day and we are usually about 4-6 degrees above last year, and the lack of any substantial amount of rain is alarming. This heat is a bad omen for hurricane season. The warmer the water, the worse the storms.

I have very few veggies growing, except for the ones I'm trying to raise in my permaculture beds (my new passion because I hate to water and fertilize). Most of what I have planted is ornamental, even some of the edibles. I much prefer flowers to veggies, but feel I must at least try to grow a few.

I'm out early every day watering and weeding too. It's about all you can do in this heat. Of course, August is the time to plant new things, so I'm excited about putting out new flowers. I need to attract pollinators, and since I've discovered that my courtyard is not too conducive to growing full-sun veggies, I'm planning on lots of greens this winter. I have a lot of work to do to be able to grow those, though, so I have to start.

We need a WBITG thread! I'd like to see everyone's pretty flowers. PLANT PORN! Gotta love it.

Just too dad-blasted busy this time of year. Plus, as you alls knows, I don't live in Florida anyway! But I still think about the place often.

The heat, bugs, and lack of money are keeping me out of the garden. I did check on some of the Mexican Petunias that are in the garden area that has the soil/root mealybugs and I put the heavy duty chemicals in the ground. well some still had some mealys but much reduced! small progress, but progress none the less.

I did noticed on the complete other side of the house I was pulling some weeds in the area that has the Lobster claw plants and a Spanish Needles weed had TONS of root mealybugs ... ugh so I guess the whole dang yard has them! I'll be chasing plants all around the yard with the chemicals for a long while, it is just a pain b/c I cant have anything bloom for 6 weeks when I treat them and with this heat I cant seem to stay out to get too much done at once so areas are just going to be treated in stages... the upside is I get to keep blooms in the non-treated areas a little while longer. Plus it is forcing me to prune things more than I normally would and it is teaching me that the plants really do some back .At this point I am not scared to lose the plants, if I don't prune and treat they are gonna die anyways and it just lets the infestation in the soil grow stronger.

Im here but not doing too much in the garden but the necessary watering, farm chores etc. Its been in the upper 90's here and bouncing around almost 100 this week. Too hot! Im thinking about going to WY or CO to get out of this heat for awhile lol. Flyfishing, camping, and horseback riding in the mountains under shady pines sounds so much better right now lol !! Of course if I left everything would die lol, still is tempting.

Like all of you I'm outside every morning to water, deadhead, etc and then back in the A/C. Yesterday I had to spray my eggplants for mealybugs - they magically appear on the plants every year about now. My zinnias are starting to look ratty. My everglades tomato plants started from seeds from DG are growing and my cubaneras are still looking great and producing. Other than that I too look forward to fall planting.

Hi Deb!

Well, you want flowers? I got a couple, so I went out in the 100 degree heat and took some pics for you. I'm usually out doing some sort of yard work, mostly in customer's gardens, but I took an extra long lunch today and saw this post when I checked in.

I hope to inspire more posts with pics.

This one shows my once-dead brug, always my reason for bragging.

In the same border, a shot of the calico flower and a new brood of Pipevine cats

Seaforthia with pentas on the arbor

Going into the woods I have bleeding heart and firebush and cestrum and orange justicia along with bananas

Plumeria and dwarf poinciana - both trees I grew from seed when I lived in Chokoloskee

A gulf fritillary on a red pentas

And I'm amazed that I still have any impatiens left alive, and blooming

Some kinda begonia - anyone know what it's called?

And the crepe myrtle,of course. This is the beginning of a new garden full of roses, gardenias and a sweetalmond for fragrance outside the windows plus a couple of fig trees, another aristolochia for swallowtails and the Asian rainbells wallisadi gave me (sorry no pics of all of them)

Crepe myrtle picture coming later

Susie

I took the picture, so I might as well post it, right? I have lots of crepe myrtles I grew from seeds and cuttings and the purple are my favorite.

I just noticed thisNatchitoches rose blooming and he's a baby cutting from April! And the Desert Rose is not to be outdone.....

Well, there's more but I got an appointment with my shovel and soon I need to start the rain dance once my laundry dries........

So WBIYG today?

I am new to Florida gardening. As my name suggests, I am from Oklahoma. Yes, it is hot there too, but usually not as early as it is here. I am out weeding early in the morning, when I am not out riding my bicycle. Then hibernate in air conditioning. :)

Really, fall gardening starts in August? Sounds like it would still be H O T.

Moni

Okla it is still 90+ in my area in August but I plant seeds then and by the time the plants have any size it has started to cool down and they do fine.

Susie - wow! I wish my garden looked like that. I do love flowers, and am trying to plant as many as my tiny little space will allow. I can hardly wait until the blooms burst forth in the fall!

Susie, beautiful! Do you have any pulled back pictures on your various edging? I m trying to get some ideas

Hi, Helen!

Sure, I will get some more pics of my cheap-n+free edgings, but I warn ya, they only look good from a distance!

Why don't you start a new thread and invite everyone to post their garden borders? That way you'll get lots of good ideas. I can sure use some better ideas myself!

And maybe Ricky will show some shots of his awesome yard!

Susie

Summer Hibernation...yes- I'm trying. This is one brutal July!! I'm leaving my garden to its own devices, minus some help from a sprinkler. Can't even depend on a daily thunderstorm this year! What gives?

This is the 1st year I've had the tiniest bit of shade to shelter my garden. What a world of difference that has made! Below is a sample of what's growing:

First time trying goji berries!

and more in the next post!

Burgundy okra (expected more growth by now).

Heirloom lima beans

Massive dill!

Ginger- first time for me!

Plenty of peppers!

Liz, is that ginger in sun or shade? They need to be in shade. Otherwise, gorgeous!

Great gardening, Liz, especially for one left to its own devices!

Maybe there's hope for my poor mater plants.

What kind of ginger is that? It looks like one I have that has really fragrant foliage. Mine is in the woods and it's leaning as though it wants more sunshine. It blooms, so I guess it's happy!

Thanks

Susie

I don't know what variety of ginger I've got, purchased it a few months back at a local farm. I also planted a few cut pieces of ginger that sprouted and they're slowing growing. They are under as much shade as possible. The turmeric roots (rhizomes?) that I planted two years ago took so long to grow that I forgot what they were. They turned into such beautiful plants though!

Liz, my Meyers looks like yours.

I tried growing turmeric twice, and both times, the roots rotted, so I give up for now. I'll try again in the spring.

Just wanted to pop in and say, no, I am not in hibernation. I actually check the forum at least every other day, there just hasn't been anything in which I could add my two cents. That and since around February my back has been giving me more fits than usual, so I haven't been able to spend as much time working the beds as I would have liked, but I do get out there when I can. It has been more or less dry around here with the storms going by us more than passing over us. When we do get rain, it is a quick downpour that doesn't do a lot in the way of hydrating the ground. On one hand, many of my plants were chosen to handle this type of weather and they are doing fine. On the other hand, some plants that could stand a bit more rain, bananas, tomatoes and other 'crop' plants, aren't performing as well as they could. The issues with my back means I haven't been lugging around the water cans like I have in the past and I sometimes wish I had set up automagic drip systems... though our water has had unusually high amounts of chlorine in it. I lost all the fish in my pond from a light topping off (that never before bothered them) and we even lost one of our cockatiels. We have a new park manager and I think he is overdoing the chlorine, but a recent water survey from the park owner says the chlorine is 'within norms'. We've installed water filters to remove the chlorine from our drinking water and I am thinking about adding a whole-house filter.

So there you go, a quickish update from Waypoint.

I agree about the rain. I'm very disappointed in how little rain we have gotten up here this year. Of course, we're coming into high hurricane season soon, so maybe that will make up for it. In the meantime, I'm still watering most days. I'm so sorry about your pond and cockatiel! I used to raise cockatiels. They are lovely little birds.