Pollen + Rain = Yellow Puddles

This past week has been nothing but pollen and rain.  It rained non-stop for three straight days and now the pollen picked right back up covering everything.

A positive from all the rain is that lots of my vegetable seeds have sprouted.  In this picture I have sugar snap peas, onions, and carrots.  I also have three varieties of tomatoes sprouting as well as the red potatoes and yellow squash growing strong in the gardens.

A couple weeks ago my neighbor "crape murdered" her crape myrtle tree and cut it back to the trunk.  I grabbed one large branch and made 20+ cuttings with 10 or more already sprouting.  I'm really impressed how quickly they started growing.  I hope they root well.  Google 'crape murder' if you want some entertainment.

My larger Angel Trumpets (Brugmansia) cuttings are growing real well.  Tonight I trimmed off the dead parts of the cuttings so that they have room to grow tall.  It's amazing how easy these things grow.

Here are more Angel Trumpets (Brugmansia) cuttings.  The softwood cuttings from last fall are in the middle and growing well.  All the bare sticks are hardwood cuttings from the winter.  Some are rooting but no leaves yet.


Seven Sisters Roses

The gutter is supplying plenty of water to the rose cuttings.

Two new cuttings starting to grow leaves.

The previous three pictures are from our front walkway garden.  Originally we had ratty looking boxwood bushes but I removed those by pulling them out with my truck and now I've been planting Seven Sister Roses.

The original rosebush came as a cutting started by my Grandmother.  I started a 2nd bush at my old house and then when I moved last summer, I dug up these two bushes to take with me to my new house.  The rosebushes went through an initial shock and dropped all their leaves, but have rebounded very well.  Since then I've made four more bushes from cuttings branches off the two bigger bushes.

I've learned that when trying to grow these roses from cuttings, all you need to do it remove the leaves, stick them in the ground, and keep them watered.  Mulching around them keeps the soil moist and once the roots grow you have a new rosebush.  The cuttings I ignore seem to grow the best.

Until next time....

Free Plants Are Always Great!

It's starting to feel like spring but I keep hearing that later in the week we will have another burst of cold down into the 30's.  I'm ready to leave all my sensitive plants out for good!

I got to work today and a co-worker gave me 3 'Little Gem' Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora).  I gave her 3 tomatoes yesterday so I think I made out better in the trade.

A free lawn mower ends up being $100 and a free dianthus plant???

Here's the story, right before I moved across town, my neighbor put his broken Troy-Bilt self-propelled push mower out by the street with a sign that said "Free". I rolled the mower over to my house and tried cranking it with no luck. After a couple weeks went by, I met a retired veteran on craigslist that fixes mowers and he had it running in no time! I used that mower for the last few months but stopped using it after getting my grandmother's 1960's International Cub Cadet riding mower. Anyways, I put the push mower on craiglist, met a buyer at Walmart, and he offered me below what I wanted; so he went inside to get cashback and brought back a 45 cent dianthus plant and the $100! I'll take any plant as a gift! When I was teaching, my favorite gift from a student was a Norfolk Pine!

Not the best picture but does anyone know what kind of weed this is?  I have them all over my yard and think they are nice looking.  

Other projects from around the yard:

Growing hydrangeas in soda and peanut bottle greenhouses.  The softwood cuttings are sprouting leaves but no roots yet.

Organic Gala Apple seeds we planted about a week ago.  Four of the five seeds sprouted!

Florida avocado, Hass avocado, and pineapple

Compost area of my yard.  I expanding away from the black bins and using pallets.

Planted a bunch of seeds for our garden.  Squash, zucchini, bush beans, green peppers.  We will see what grows.

My helpers!