Almost Tropical in Texas

Stroll Through My Garden

2011-07-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

It's been almost 100 degrees every day for the past month in Houston. I don't worry about sunscreen, I just make sure I don't overheat. During the day, I make sure I wear a wide-brimmed hat, drink lots of water, and stay outside for frequent but short periods of time. If you haven't built up your heat tolerance like I have (any marathon runner will tell you it's a mental thing) then try to go outside after 7:30pm. The weather is actually beautiful. In my neighborhood there are people taking walks, riding their bikes, and hanging out with their kids at 7:30 until lights out, around 8:30pm. It's not much, but it's an entire hour of gorgeous weather every summer day in Houston.

Jacaranda Seedlings

Mini Arrangement. Roses Molineux, Earth Song, and Golden Princess. Cosmos Psyche White, and Evolvulus Blue Daze.

Mini Arrangement in a bed of Shasta Daisy Seedlings

Bumble Bee getting his back rubbed full of pollen. Passiflora Incarnata

The result of all the bumble bees playing around in my Passionflowers. These fruit are only 2 weeks old. There's another one that is 4 weeks old and it's the same size. I guess they grow fast in the beginning and stop to mature. Passionfruit are ripe once they begin to wrinkle.

My pumpkin patch. I've been picking pumpkin flowers almost every day for the past 3 months! It's not showing any signs of slowing down. I get a bumper crop of flowers on days that the sprinkler comes on.

A patch of Shasta Daisies: White Knight and Alaska. I sowed seeds last fall, and forgot to thin them. They look great though. I will divide them in the fall and plant them everywhere.

My self watering planters bought at Gardeners.com for my birthday. It's filled with Pro-Mix. I stick cuttings of herbs in here and they start to take over. . I throw down seeds and they come up w/in days. Anything grows here

Spacemaster Cucumbers from 7 year old seeds. Better late than never.

Dragon Fruit Cuttings, Is that a Flower bud?

2011-07-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

Here are my dragon fruit plants that I grew from cuttings last year. I posted previously on these plants, White, Red, and Purple. These pictures were taken today, I had a very pleasant surprise, see last picture. I'm not sure if it's a flower bud, I've never grown dragon fruit before. But it looks different from the other new growths.

Is that what I think it is?

Avocado Dense Planting

2011-07-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

If you look closely, you'll see I planted two small avocado trees about 18" from the center larger avocado tree. I just saw a youtube video by Dave Wilson Nursery on dense planting of fruit trees. They say that "all" fruit trees can be controlled by summer pruning. The idea is to get several varieties in a small space to increase pollination and to space out fruit harvest. All three are unknown varieties, one by seed, and the other two from rootsock where the top branches died in the winter. Once they are older, I will try my hand at grafting named cultivars on to them. For now my job is to nurture the roots and not worry about what's growing on top.

Crepe Myrtle Centerpiece and Flowers in the House

2011-07-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

Total noob here when it comes to flower arranging, although I've been doing it for years. I can't remember the last time I got an arrangement to look the way I want. Luckily for me, my crepe myrtle flowers are self arranging. The underappreciated, ubiquitous, and indestructible tree of the south is not commonly considered cut flower material, the flowers only last a day or two, but the centerpiece above is beautiful nonetheless. They remind me of Martha Stewart's enviable lilac arrangements. I can't grow lilacs here, at least not until they come up with a heat tolerant variety for us zone-pushers. It's probably easier to come up with a fragrant crepe myrtle.

although the crepe myrtle flowers don't last too long, the buds will last almost forever and make great airy filler material. The above mini arrangement was made totally from stuff I gathered from my little garden. I wrote down a goal/wish several years ago that I could arrange fresh flowers for the house everyday. I didn't know then how I could afford to buy that many flowers, but the universe had it's ways of opening one's mind. Things that normally were not considered arrangement material became apparent to me. I have since used dried flower heads, herbs, grasses, shrub leaves, etc. And most of the time my arrangements are small when I don't have enough material, or my flowers had short stems (like the roses and psyche cosmos above). The above arrangement has lasted me over three months!! (I replace the faded flowers and redo the arrangement everyday). My wish came true after all.

More annonas!

2011-07-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

I thought these were weeds, and then I remembered a Cherimoya fruit that I bought at the grocery store last year. It was decent tasting, considering it came from the grocery store, and probably born halfway around the world somewhere. I read that most grocery store Cherimoyas are probably Fino de Jete from Chile. I had no idea the seed was even viable. And after our heavy freeze, I completely forgot about it. Yet here they are in Mid June 2011. So I potted them up. I'll figure out what to do with all these seedlings later. I also finally potted a bunch of other tropical fruit seeds, like white sapote and more cherimoyas. I planted 9 seeds to a gallon pot. Guess what I used as my potting mix this year? Soil conditioner (Nature's Way I think) from Lowes mixed w/perlite for fun.

Makok Sapodilla Flowers in a Pot

2011-07-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

This is a Makok Sapodilla that I bought in 2010. It's flowering very heavily, but from what I hear it may not bear any fruit this year. It's about 4 ft tall in a 16" pot. I hurried and repotted it when I first saw the flowers back in February.

If people are getting a single tree to set fruit the second year it flowers and not the first year, then Sapodilla fruit set is not a self-incompatibility issue, right? It seems that it needs to have a high level of humidity. Even though the leaves are doing fine, my flowers are on a hot westfacing patio and they are drying up and not setting fruit. I will try placing it on the garden beds around other leafy trees to see if I can get fruit set this year.

This is my Alano from 2010. It's in a 12" pot without holes. I planted it as a houseplant when I first got it. I placed it next to a northwest window (not that bright, but at least I don't worry about frost). It did develop scales, I noticed sticky stuff on my floors, so I brought it outside and removed them all by hand, as much as I could. After doing nothing for several months, it began putting out new growth and started growing FAST around March 2011. The growth is a bit lanky since it's been sheltered, but the leaves are beautiful. I am now trying to harden it up a bit by placing it on my porch in the shade.

Sugar Apple, Annona Sqamosa Fruiting in a pot

2011-07-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

picture taken June 21, 2011

I bought this Sugar Apple (Seedling) in a 3 gal container just last year. It hasn't gotten any bigger, but it's now producing tons of flowers. The leaves turned yellow during the cold weather, but it held onto the leaves until around March 2011. The yellow leaves finally dropped in April and new leaves emerged, with tiny buds! I had to learn how to pollinate the flowers fast! It's simple really. Flowers start out female and become male as they get older. Find older, faded flowers and remove the pistils (pollen) into a small container, using a brush. Using a tiny brush, transfer the pollen to a newly opened flower. Mark the pollinated flowers by pinching off a petal. It's really that easy. If you're still confused, do a search on Youtube on how to hand pollinate a sugar apple.

Picture taken June 21, 2011

Success after the first try! I was so excited when I first saw this baby fruit. It's my first ever annona fruit!

Picture taken July 1, 2011

It has grown super fast! Now I see why some cultures call this the Buddha's Head Fruit. I now have 6 developing fruit on my tiny tree. I need to stop hand pollinating! Or maybe I should keeping doing it, it's so much fun. I'll let the tree decide if it wants to hold the fruit or not. Some people even pick their flowers, thinking their trees won't be able to handle the fruit. I say let the tree decide, it's smarter than you think.

Jakfruit Seedlings! Amazing

2011-07-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

Two Jakfruit seedlings I planted from a locally grown (Zone 8B) fruit. The fruit was deep yellow, almost orange, very sweet, not fibrous at all. Timeline:

seeds sprouted in October 2010

Brought indoors when temps dipped below 32F in November. Seems to be deciduous, lost all leaves.

Brought back out after the severe freeze of Jan 2011

The above pictures were taken in April of 2011. They are planted in drinking cups.

And here they are in June 2011. These are the exact two Jakfruit trees from before. I had nine but I gave them all away except these two. I potted them in 1 gallon containers just three weeks ago and they immediately started growing like crazy.

This is what they look like now! Avocado, Atemoya, P. Incarnata, June 2011

2011-07-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

Avocado from previous posts. It is even bigger than before!

See the healthy atemoya leaves? My tomatoes will stop bearing soon, I hope, so I can clear them out and make room for the atemoyas. Not that I don't appreciate my Romas, they were extremely abundant and tomatoes were fantastic! But my atemoyas are very dear to me.

Remember this 4" passionfruit? It's huge now and has a flower bud on every node on all parts of the vine. Look at that cute little fruit! This picture was taken AFTER it was accidentally mowed over about a month before. I had a huge 8 ft branch w/two fast growing fruit, and then my grass guy tried to trim the weeds around it with his trimmer....... I had to keep telling myself "don't worry, this plant will grow back even stronger". But it still hurt! I learned my lesson: do the weeding myself before the grass guy gets here.

It's Alive! Alive!!

2011-07-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Avocado coming back to life. This picture was taken April 2011. I knew it took some willpower to overcome the harshness of the previous winter. But this little guy came through. It was a grafted plant, and the plant that is coming back up is not the same.....but you know what, it doesn't matter to me. What some people fail to see is that the plant that is coming back is very frost hardy! So no matter what kind of avocado I do end up getting, at least it will survive at 22F. Besides, who says you can't get good fruit anyway. I love this little tree and I hope that it will try to please me with delicious and abundant fruit.

Atemoya also coming back from the root. I was so happy to see my atemoyas again. I bought these as grafted cultivars, so what's coming up is not the "Lisa" or the "Gefner". But the fact that the roots came back means I will have a frost-tolerant annona. Living in zone 8B, I am happy with that. Plus, I don't think I've had an annona fruit that I didn't like. I am an optimist, so if the fruits turn out to be rocks, I'll find something positive out of that too! But I hope my trees bear me fruit that is even better than expected.

This is my tiny passionflower that I bought in a 4" pot just 6 months before, around October 2010. I planted it in the ground around November. It did nothing, didn't grow, nothing and then in the winter it died to the ground. I almost gave up hope. This picture above was taken in April 2011, I didn't even realize it had come back! Passiflora incarnata, my "resurrection" plant. You should see what it looks like now.

2011-07-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

After the freeze inJan 2011 in my area (Houston) there was a lot of "destruction" that occurred in my new garden. It wasn't until March/April that I began going outside regularly again.....and to my surprise, all was not lost.

The above picture was my avocado that I just planted in the Fall of 2010. I was so proud of this little plant. I wrapped the bottom trunk with foam pipe insulation, that was it, the leaves were unprotected. I also mounded as much soil as I could around the base, it was only 8 inches or so. When the weather dipped one day to 22 F, it was unphased. But the freeze lasted a week. We had constant temps around 25-29F. Surprisingly, the leaves were still green after that first episode. But then one week later we had another freezing week. On the last day of freezing temps and harsh winds, this avocado's leaves began to turn brown. I was surprised it even lasted that long.

I didn't even want to photograph my two atemoyas I bought. It was downright depressing. I wrapped them in piping insulation, but they turned to dried sticks. Atemoyas are somewhat frost tolerant down to 26F. But this past winter was too much for it. So I decided to use these "sticks" as a tomato stake. That is a roma tomato I planted right next to it.

Uncommon Creatures living in my Garden

2010-09-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

I have seen some strange creatures in my life, but after moving to my current house, I see a rare one almost every couple days. I feel their presence is a gift, as if to thank me for not using chemicals in the garden.

This is the prettiest colored "wasp" I've ever seen. I couldn't capture the color correctly, but the body and wings is an iridescent royal blue. I've seen this same wasp several times over the past 2 weeks. I know it's the same because one of her wings is a little "off". She flies funny.

It wasn't until I saw this frog that I realized...I've never seen a frog in person before! I've seen lots of toads, but this guy even felt different....almost magical. I knew there was a giant frog living outside my bedroom window, I was so happy I finally have proof!

Praying Mantis....not a common sight at all. I found it perched on my new Sapote Tree, quietly looking at me as I watered my trees, as if it were studying something.

What is this? A cross between a dragonfly and a lacewing? I've only had one experience with a lacewing years ago. I was walking and decided to open my hands and in flew a lacewing. It was an iridescent seafoam green and it stayed there for awhile before flying off. It felt very friendly, as if just wanting to say "hi".

Now THIS is a special butterfly. A while before, I had rescued an Orange Dog from my dying orange tree, and placed it on my lime tree. (An orange dog is the name of the swallowtail caterpillar, if you've seen one, the name just seems very fitting). The lime tree was in bloom and full of buzzing insects. I said a little prayer for my orange dog to be safe among the bees/wasps, etc. I also thought to myself, wouldn't it be nice if I could see him again once he becomes a butterfly. One day I was out in my garden during a slight drizzle....lifted up a zucchini leaf and got a little startle when I saw bright yellow spots on the ground. I hoped it would stay put while I ran inside the house to grab my camera. I took one pic, but the colors didn't come out so well, so as I fumbled with my camera....he flew away. I knew this was the same caterpillar that I had rescued from before, just don't ask me how I know.

I have also seen a 1 inch bright green frog meditating on top of my Rollinia tree during a rain. I can't wait to see him again for a quick portrait.

I'm also waiting for some hummingbirds to come visit me. Hummingbirds are always special to me.

My Inexpensive Soil Mix

2010-09-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

For years I've been buying Pro-Mix, really excellent, commercial grade stuff for my potted plants. But it's expensive, and I have to travel to a certain nursery just to get it.

I finally get it, I've been doing it all wrong. People who really know what they're doing, mix their own potting mix using stuff they have readily available. With experience you begin to get the feel of what is good and what's not good for your plants, so there's really no excuse for paying big bucks to have a "pro" bag your mix.

To me, "readily available" means something I can get at my local hardware store. Something not pre-mixed and marked up. And then I ran into this...........

It's a bag of inexpensive topsoil from Lowe's. It's really pretty and fluffy, mostly decomposed pine bark and some sand. For my smaller containers I mix 5 parts of this stuff to 1 part perlite. Perlite breaks down eventually, so for large containers I add an additional 1 part expanded shale (this stuff never breaks down and it makes sure your roots have available oxygen, especially when the organic portion of your soil begins to break down.) It's an investment, so I try to buy a lot of this. The biggest drawback is the heaviness of the shale, and the fact that I have to go to one certain nursery to buy it. So now I"m on the lookout for another product that will do what expanded shale will do.

So far I'm having great success with this mix!

Dragon Fruit Updates

2010-09-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

I bought 6 dragonfruit cuttings on ebay. 2 each of purple, red, and white fleshed.

Dragon Fruit 9/10/10

Dragon Fruit 9/24/10. First signs of growth on the red fruited cutting.

Avocado Updates

2010-09-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

un named grafted Avocado. Planted in the ground on 8/29/10

un named grafted Avocado. 9/10/10

Mexicola 9/10/10

to be continued...

Rollinia Updates

2010-09-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

8/29 Took my Rollinia home. 3 gal pot (10") about 5 ft tall.

9/10 new growth shortly after I repotted into a 7 gal pot.

9/24 lots of new growth. The huge bright green leaf in the center was not there when I first bought this tree.

to be continued.

brand new Atemoyas "Gefner" and "Lisa"

2010-09-12T10:31:00.001-07:00

I'm almost done with my tropical fruit tree purchases. Below are my new Atemoyas "Gefner" and "Lisa". They are almost 7 ft tall in a 3 gallon pot. Miraculously, i was able to transport them home in my Honda Accord.The leaves are a foot long. Sadly, I may have to top these off to encourage side branching....ie. fruiting branches. The owner of the nursery tells me these are more hardy than the sugar apples. They will take down to 26 F.

Instructions for transporting a tree home:

1. Place pot in a plastic bag.

2. Place newspaper or other material on top of the soil to prevent it from falling out.

3. Tape the newspaper down to the pot or plastic bag.

If you have a truckbed, place the tree laying down, with the pot toward the front of the truck and the top of the tree towards the rear. .

I just had a great idea while admiring my trees. I noticed a tiny bud (I think it may be a flower) on top of the Lisa. I can't chop it off now. Instead, I will try to air layer the top portion of the trees. I also noticed that the tree that bent downwards is sending out new growth at the bend. Maybe I can bend the other tree downward to encourage it to branch. This way I don't have to cut off the top at all and waste all those giant leaves and spent energy.

See the two flower buds? Unfortunately one of them fell off a week later.

Sugar Cane in the Garden, but not How you Think

2010-09-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

Sugar Cane 4 ft $2.99 @ the supermarket. I was curious so I bought one.

This was a learning experience for me. I was determined to use all parts of the sugar cane for something, don't know what.

I pulled out my Breville Juicer, thinking I can get this thing juiced in no time.

Well first I had to peel the sugarcane. Then I realized I had to chop the sugarcane into 1 inch chunks. The problem with the juicer is that the fibers clogged up the little grater holes:

So every few seconds,I had to open up the machine, scrape out the fibers, turn the thing on, repeat. Did you notice the fibrous leftovers? It is so pretty! The texture kind of reminds me of coconut coir. I bet I can use this as some type of soil amendment. I will try rooting some cuttings in it.

From that one stalk I juiced about 3 cups, which had to be watered down because it's very sweet. Poured over ice, it was very refreshing! In vietnam, vendors would often add tangerine peel to add depth to the flavor.

And here is my "harvest" of natural materials to be used in the garden. The tough internodes between the stalks, I will pot up and see if I can't get new sugarcane. (They look like bamboo in the garden). I can only imagine what fresh home grown sugarcane tastes like. I believe they are semi frost tender, but I"m willing to give it a try. The fibrous frass will be used to start seeds or root some cuttings. And the peeled bark?

This is what I ended doing with the bark. I love the green color. I have seen wooden labels sold, so my reasoning is that the bark is more rot resistant than inner wood so this might work even better. Saved myself $5 for unattractive plastic labels, which I've been searching for.

It took me 45 minutes to get that one stalk juiced. Next time I will use my high speed blender instead (hopefully there IS a next time). My H commented that I could just pay $5 for a big cup of sugar cane drink at the store and save all that time and energy.....but there is a problem with simplifying every experience down to a dollar amount. These are the things I gained from this experience:

sugar cane juice $5

plant labels $5

sugar cane fiber $??

new sugar cane starts: $???

hand eye coordination (from chopping!): priceless

the feeling of discovery: priceless

See, I came away with way more than just a cup of juice!

I bought these trees Today

2010-09-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

Here is my much sought after Cogshall Mango. It is a condo mango, and quite prolific, or so I hear. $30 for 3 gal

Here is my Alano Sapodilla. It is a midget compared to my other sapodilla. It's about 3 feet including the pot. I am about to repot it in this pic. When I slid it out of it's pot, the roots barely filled in the soil. I accidentally dropped it and a huge chunk of rootless soil fell off. I may have damaged the roots a little. It is ok, since I am placing this indoors as a houseplant, no water stress. The soil is a mix of fine pine bark (topsoil), expanded shale ($6.99 on sale for 40lb @Cornelius), and perlite. There is no peat in this mix to bog it down (pun intended).

And here it is in its final spot. It'll have west and northern window light.... if my H will stop closing the blinds all the time. I cleaned each water-spotted leaf with a paper towel dipped in olive oil. This is a trick I use to clean all houseplant leaves, they like it better than commercial leaf shiners. Olive oil is good for cleaning water spots or salt crust on the pots too....makes them look shiny and new.

I also potted up a mango seed a few days ago:

My recent spending spree at the local nurseries!

2010-08-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

I usually get gardening fever early in the spring. But this year is a little different. In the middle of 95 degree summer days, I am absolutely hooked on being out in the garden almost every day. Here are just some pictures of plants that I have purchased recently.

two lemonquat trees "Lemon Drops". these are a cross between a lemon and a kumquat. They will have both small and full sized lemons. look carefully for the three fruit on the tree. I bought this at HDepot of all places. A rare find. I was thrilled when I saw these, I had been looking all over for a lemonquat.

another great find. This is from Lowe's. It's a tough evergreen gardenia called "Heaven Scent". The single blooms are very fragrant, and the leaves resemble boxwood, which I plan to use it for a boxwood-like hedge. the flowers can be steeped in hot water to make a tea resembling jasmine tea, but with a much fresher taste. The label on the plant says it makes a great cut flower.

And here are the tropicals. I just bought this Rollinia at JRN's nursery two days ago. It's about 5 ft, including height of the 3 gal pot. It bears an alien looking fruit, but many people say it has a fantastic taste. We shall see! It's related to the annona's, which I love. It was the last tree left at the nursery, which signalled that it was waiting just for me. I'm still debating whether or not to plant my tropicals in the ground or keep them in pots for at least one winter.

This is my new sugar apple. The label says "Na" vietnam. I don't know whether or not that's the name of the variety, I just found out that in vietnam some people call all annona's "Na". So this is what my mom named me after! (it's my family nickname). I noticed the older leaves are a bit sensitive to hot sun (west exposure), but the new growth seems to adapt very well.

This is a grafted, unnamed Avocado I "ran into" at Home Depot recently. Those new leaves were just little buds when I bought it just 2 weeks ago. Very hot afternoon sun, we're talking 100+ degree heat indexes, no damage whatsoever.

Sapote "Makok" 3gal. There were some 7 gallon trees with buds and FRUIT, but unfortunately for me, they were twice the price of the 3 gallons. I plan to buy 2 more varities of sapotes, so I had to settle for the smaller pot. By spring next year, this one should be loaded with blooms. On my wishlist is the Hasya and Alano.

Wax Jambu, "shrinark red". ("Man" in vietnamese with various accent marks, pronounced "mung"). I LOVE the taste of this fruit, though some people say it is bland. It is very subtle, but very distinct. Some say it can take some frost, others say it is ultra-tropical. I had a 7 foot seedling that died earlier this year. I will play it safe this time around and keep it indoors in the winter. The leaves of this wax jambu smells just like the fruit. I tried making a tea from some fresh leaves, and the taste was definitely there.

Longan seedlings update

2010-08-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

Here's that tiny longan plant, with newly developed leaves. It has grown fast. I now have 8 shoots coming up.

day 3 (from potting up)

week 1 (day 7). leaves on the largest seedling

week 1. I now have 14 seedling shoots, 4 more to go.

9/24/10

My order is here! from Edible Landscapes.com

2010-08-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

Here is a small order from ediblelandscapes.com. They are a very interesting nursery, a selection of all kinds of random edible plants, even a few tropicals.

Left to right: 4" Jaboticaba, 4" passion fruit incarnata, Japanese flowering Ume Apricot 4", and 3 x asparagus Jersey Knight 2.5"

Overall I am extremely pleased with my order. It was well packed, and shipping cost is the cheapest I have ever seen online. The 4" pots are more like 5".

Passiflora incarnata is one of the hardiest fruiting passifloras. This one cost like $8, it will grow rampant. Jersey Knight asparagus will be used in the flowering border, cost was like a dollar! I bought them in small pots on purpose. Have you tried digging holes large enough for 2 year roots? And the Ume, i'm not sure what i'll do with that.....it's a zone 7 plant, and I am in zone 8-9. Ume plums (apricots) are used for pickling. The jaboticaba....bonsai maybe....or jaboticaba hedge? I'll be making a second order soon, this place ships year round.

Beginning of a longan forest!

2010-08-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

I planted about 25 longan seeds. About 22 of them sprouted within a week. The temperature was around 95 F, and the area where i planted them was under the water hose, so the soil was more moist than other areas.

I don't know if Longans will grow true from seed, but even if they didn't, they will still be good. And with 25 trees, one of them is bound to be a great one. You can always graft a known variety, such as Kohala, on your other 24 trees if you don't like them. Or maybe I'll start a bonsai forest of Longan trees. So many ideas! Most likely though, I will end up giving these away.

I dug the seeds up after a week, and this is what they looked like:

I planted them in 3 inch pots on top of a self watering tray. (that's what I had, I wish I had bigger pots, notice the long taproot). I also used regular bagged topsoil from Lowe's. It's made mostly of pine bark and sand, I hope they do well. If they do, that would be all I use from now on. I had a bag of Pro-Mix, but I'll save that for smaller seedlings. Here is a tiny longan shoot, isn't it cute?:

I installed a bright 6400K T-5 lightbulb under my kitchen cabinet last year. All my plants thrive under these lights. I have more installed in my office on a book shelf. One pot holds a tumbling tom tomato cutting, and another is an avocado pit, which has started putting out a root, purely for decorative purposes, since I already recently bought two named Avocado trees. Cost for one T-5 bulb and fixture: $35 from saviolighting.com. Watering tray at gardeners.com $15. Pots @ Veseys.com $13. 1 quart watering can, plastic $2 at Walmart.

Bouquet of bay leaves, for cooking AND for keeping the kitchen bug free. I discovered by accident when I picked these branches and placed them in my kitchen for culinary as well as decorative purposes, that the gnats virtually disappeared overnight. It's been a year and they still have not come back. Fresh or dried bay leaves work very well.

Also on my counter is a pot that I stick small garlic cloves into, the ones too small to even bother chopping. Notice the small shoot coming from one of the bulbs! Garlic shoots can be eaten raw in salads.

You won't find this at your local hardware store! A Pink Wheelbarrow!

2010-08-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

I bought this at Amazon.com. It was $80 with free shipping. It has two wheels instead of one, which makes it very easy to use. It took me 15 minutes to assemble. Oh, and did you notice it was PINK!! I HAD to get it.

Carambola, Star Fruit

2010-08-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

Carambola, Star Fruit.

This tree was 5ft tall in a pot when it was given to me. It seems to be deciduous in our zone (8b-9a). The only problem was that it's flowers bloomed in February, and was often killed by late freezes. In 2009, the last year that I lived at my old house, I came to check on my star fruit tree and discovered loads of fruit. They were huge, but hidden. Look carefully at the pictures and you will see them. I wish I knew what to use them for, a lot of them dropped to the ground, the birds didn't even eat them. They were the sour kind, so many people don't value these fruits. If only I was into the raw foodie recipes back then or had a Vitamix, I would have been able to make smoothies or something. I buy lemons constantly, these would have been a great substitute.

A Fantastic idea for using water drainoff from potted plants

2010-08-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

I love ideas that find ways to change waste into usable stuff.

Problem: when watering potted plants, the water comes out of the drain hole and stains your patio. That water is full of nutrients and it's being wasted.

Solution:

the gardener in this post places 1/4" tubing in his pots and diverts the water into the ground where a citrus tree drinks it up!

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0823191120542.html?24656

Cut Flowers, Arrangements

2010-08-15T06:32:00.000-07:00

I need to take a class on flower arrangement. I can never get them to look the way I want them to. What's the secret?

These are my arrangements, the plants that stand out the most for me are the ones I get from my garden.

My magic petunias mixed with store bought bouquet. I call them magic because they bloomed constantly from October through May of the next year. My then 2 year old daughter chose them from Home Depot, she refused to get any other flat of flowers but these petunias. It HAD to be these. These turned out to be fragrant and last a long time as cut flowers too. I even had a pleasant visit from a hummingbird one night as I stepped out to get groceries. Yes, these are "magic" petunias. I wish I had taken a picture of them growing in my front yard, it was a MASS of pink.

the grassy leaf, i took from my garden. the arrangement didn't look complete without it.

grassy leaves and Asparagus Meyerii, foxtail fern are mine. the rest was from Central Market.

I grew everything in this arrangement, except for the green chrysanthemum.

the leaf in the glass is from my wax jambu tree

The orchid is called Princess...something. For some reason, everything with Princess in the name grows amazingly well for me. This orchid bloomed from Valentine's day until June, when the last flower dried up. 4 months, is that normal? It was already in full bloom when I received it.

Purple Caimito

2010-08-15T06:07:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I love this tree so much. It's given me so much grief! This one died shortly after I bought it, from ebay.

So I bought another one. It's the pot in the middle. That one's not doing too well right now either. But it's still alive!

Indoor Lights

2010-08-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

This is a room in my old house. I thought I could squeeze in an growing light setup AND paint.

These were mostly plants I bought at the Maui airport and brought home.

Frangipani cuttings

Bird of Paradise from seed. It took awhile to get to this point.

Macadamian nut seedling

Planted Aquarium

2010-08-15T05:54:00.000-07:00

initial setup

the plants didn't last long as the goldfish got bigger...and bigger. They uprooted everything.

Potted Longan

2010-08-15T05:48:00.000-07:00

This longan tree was in a 16" pot. It had almost seedless fruit. I remember it being very sweet!

Banana Tree

2010-08-15T05:46:00.000-07:00

Banana tree at my mom's house. This plant also comes back year after year to flower and fruit.

Guava Trees

2010-08-15T05:43:00.000-07:00

My sister had a guava "plantation" in her back yard. Most trees were grown from seed. These are the white-fleshed kind.

Wax Jambu, seed grown

2010-08-15T05:41:00.000-07:00

My mom grew this from a seed, bought at an asian supermarket. I placed it this nook to protect it from the cold and winds.

Dragon Fruit Climbing a brick wall

2010-08-15T05:39:00.002-07:00

Ambarella, Dwarf June Plum

2010-08-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

My dwarf ambarella tree. This was taken right after I planted it in the ground. It took off, even in rock hard clay soil.

this is the same plant a year later. It's almost as tall as the wall.

Caesalpinia Pulcherima (sp?), Pride of Barbados

2010-08-15T05:34:00.000-07:00

This plant dies to the ground every year in the winter here in Houston (z9). It survived our last 2010 freeze (20 F) and returns around May and looks like this. We've had this plant for 15 years, it's about 15 ft tall.

Weeds in the Garden.

2010-08-15T05:29:00.001-07:00

Weeds are plants too!

The yellow flowers were almost 4 ft tall.

Crazy melon looking weed @ my old house.

and it's fruits...

they smelled like melons

Waterlilies

2010-08-15T05:27:00.001-07:00

Waterlilies that were growing at my mom's house.

More lilies

2010-08-15T05:15:00.000-07:00

I believe these are Orienpet lilies. Some of them even returned the next year although I'm in zone 9.

Oriental Lilies from my garden

2010-08-15T05:08:00.000-07:00

These are oriental lilies, from John Scheepers

Oriental lilies fresh from the garden

Avocado Don Gillogly

2010-08-15T05:03:00.000-07:00

Something I've learned from growing my first avocado is that they sunburn easily. They need some shade when they are young. Some people whitewash the trunks. This Don Gillogly Avocado didn't make it through our intense Houston summer...or my rock hard clay soil, or our occasional frosty winters.

I have since bought a much hardier avocado called Mexicola, we'll see how that one does. I don't plan to protect it whatsoever. I did however, give it much better soil.

Don Gillogly Avocado, from Park Seed. It grew quickly to this stage, but I think it got too much sun too soon

this was how it looked after 1 year in a pot. Those are flower buds. I planted it in the ground in early spring, but I prob should have kept it in the pot. The hot summer got to it.

Avocado Mexicola, tallest plant towards the back. I know it's hard to see, but it's not much to see anyway, just a 4 ft scraggly tree, but I have high hopes for it. It supposedly is the hardiest avocado, taking temps down to 20 temporarily.

Tulips in Houston!

2010-08-15T04:49:00.000-07:00

My tulip cutting garden @ my old house. This is the double early "Magic Carpet" mix from John Scheepers. The early tulips do well in Houston, they bloom before the weather gets hot.

I believe this is Monsella

I think this is Monsella

Another cutting garden at the side of the house

Great Garden Design Software!

2010-08-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is my "new" backyard garden. It's very much still in process. It's a lot smaller than my previous garden, but I will garden more intensively this time around.

I looked everywhere for a good design program, but couldn't find one that I really liked. How crazy that the program I needed was right under my nose. I used Adobe Photoshop to cut and paste and created these before and after shots. I'm already familiar with the program so there was no learning curve :)

You can also use paint shop pro, painter, etc. You can use any program that will let you make a selection, cut and paste.

before

after

before

after

Solar Oven

2010-03-27T00:35:00.000-07:00

I only skimmed over the site but I think this is really fun idea: A solar-powered oven?

its portable, and they say it cooks up to 400 degrees. I can think of so many advantages of this over a conventional oven! There's just something so cool about cooking outdoors.

http://www.solarovens.org/

My Garden Blog

2010-02-25T16:45:00.001-08:00

who i am:

My garden is in zone 8b - 9a.I love growing tropical fruit, weird vegetables, some not so weird vegetables, and purple flowers.

Lately, I've been really into the idea of using what you have, instead of going out to buy something you think you need. I've been bit by the "sustainability" bug and it seems permanent. It started when I developed an intolerance for plastic, preferring to surround myself with natural materials. So this blog will help me share all my crazy ideas, like smart ways to reuse and repurpose things, mostly for garden use. I hope you enjoy and at least come away with a few great ideas!