Plants In The Ground!

b0rg9 · 2010-07-04, 9:33

...lookin' like a fool with no plants in the ground!

:Dthumb or

thumb? Whatever, I'm sure everyone's got something going on plant-wise. I've tried the garden thing down here in Fla. -- you'd think it'd be great, but it's really tough to combat the pests without going all nuke on their ass with chemicals. I've had luck getting some shrubs and tropicals going to add interest to my backyard and it's finally beginning to pay off, although some of my tropicals took a hit this past winter with the record low temperatures. It'll take this year and maybe next for some of them to fully recover :(

Here's some pics from the last several months of how things are coming along.

Azaleas in bloom from March...

Confederate jasmine (actually a member of the honeysuckle family) from April. This blooms usually April thru May here. The smell is awesome...

"Firecracker" plant (Happy 4th of July!) These are native to Mexico

...

My pitcher plant. It has no problem trapping all the bugs it needs to thrive. These carnivorous plants are way cool...

Random dog pic...

Damn squirrels figured out a work-around to my "squirrel-proof" feeder which slides down to close the holes when they jump on it. Since this pic I've added metal wrap around the pole to thwart their cunning plan...

Please post some pics of your plant stuff too.

Dinahmoehum · 2010-07-04, 18:22

Our azaleas were a month late this year. I posted a lot of pics of the cold damage, we got hammered up here. One of my nanas, I didn't think would make it, I hacked it off with a chainsaw about 6" from the ground, was nasty wet and slimy, damned if it didn't come back.

It had a few babies too!

Early on I planted some basil, didn't think it would come up, but it eventually did. And a few stray portulaca too!

Here is the only one blooming, these came up from last years crop

Our norfolk island pines didn't do so hot, they don't come back, just stay dead looking, but the tree is alive.

I don't know what this is, or if I planted it, it seems to be perennial and has interesting flowers that are very hard to keep in focus. Right now it is in berry mode.

The cactus garden did ok this year, this thing put out some nice flowers.

I got these things when I was in rehab, the therapist brought them in for us. Don't know what it is, but it's bright red and lives!

I'm just going to toss this in, I had to take this when I saw
http://www.ray.bt76.com/pics/bluewaffle.jpg
I had planned to clean up the side where the nana lives and put the whole urban garden in, but I didn't get too far. I did clean up a ton of junk. I wanted to fence it in, but it is so hard to grow anything here. The sun is brutal, you have to put water on every day. Then you have fungus, and nematodes to deal with. They took vapam off the market, and you can't buy bromide like the farmers use to sterilize the soil. Fuck organic farming here, you lose every time! Maybe some day....
This is what we have to deal with!
http://www.ray.bt76.com/pics/NiceWeather.jpg

b0rg9 · 2010-07-04, 23:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dinahmoehum

I don't know what this is, or if I planted it, it seems to be perennial and has interesting flowers...

Those are lantana. You can get home depot or lowes to sell you it but it's pretty much available wild down here anywhere you find it. I'd like to plant some up front around my mailbox. That seems to be a popular use of this plant/weed.

ash# · 2010-07-07, 7:58

The wife does all most of the flower work. We also have a pretty successful veggie garden going. Just harvested the first tomatoes yesterday. We had peas and lettuce, and now a bunch of cukes also. Couple of peppers as well. I will take some pics of that and post later.

RepoMan · 2010-07-07, 8:31

Nice pics, everyone!

I need to get an updated picture of the hops. I was forced to build a second stage onto the trellis due to their growth.

RepoMan · 2010-07-08, 9:54

Current hops growth:

ash# · 2010-07-31, 5:16

Here is our haul from yesterday. We are getting a pile of tomatoes every day. Peppers every couple of days, and cukes every couple of days. Had tons of peas and lettuce earlier in the summer.

Edit: Thats basil on the right... The wife made a vat of homemade pesto yesterday. Can't wait to have that.

b0rg9 · 2010-07-31, 5:39

Oh man those tomatoes look great! It's like you can just tell by looking at them how much more awesome they are than the store variety.

texasaurus · 2010-07-31, 5:43

PFC would go crazy with all those tomatoes. Yumm.

Dinahmoehum · 2010-07-31, 15:45

A truly wonderful thing, fruits n veggies that taste like they are supposed to!

b0rg9 · 2011-09-04, 16:43

Some of my cactus collection -- just starting out so most are still small.

This one has soft butterscotch colored spines and makes nice flowers.

A blue candle cactus.

One of the varieties of "old lady" cacti.

A rosy colored succulent.

"Living stones". These are particualarly cool and hard to keep. Native of South Africa.

Zanzibar Aloe. Not the same kind as what you use for when you burn yourself on the stove or oven.

Huernia, or "Stinky Toad Plant". The flowers are amazing, but they stink of carrion in order to attract flies.

Dinahmoehum · 2011-09-05, 12:52

Pod people!

The bloom

Flowers

This is what it started out like in 2004, it's a mess now.

This thing is like 4 feet tall now and they all live out year round

This isn't mine, but people down the street have them like 12 feet tall!

b0rg9 · 2011-09-05, 13:26

Cool pics, D-hum -- thanks for sharing!

That huernia flower pic is great, complete with the attracted fly.

RepoMan · 2011-09-06, 9:04

Whoa, nice cacti!

Dinahmoehum · 2012-03-18, 11:32

Kid posted our garden panorama over at reddit garden and everyone was all impressed had tons of questions, so I imgured up an album and got nothing, so fuck them, did a proper one and this is what I have been doing since new years day!
http://www.ray.bt76.com/pages/Garden3.14/index.html

It seems they have added ad's to the new version of jalbum, I guess you can just click to close them once.

b0rg9 · 2012-03-18, 14:19

Pretty impressive! Thanks for putting that gallery together.

The few times I've tried tomatoes here in Fla. they inevitably get attacked by herds of hornworms. They'll take a whole plant down in a day and there's nothing really you can spray to deter them that won't kill every type of caterpillar. Just pluck and squish. I wonder how the tomato farms in Ruskin down here deal with them?

Dinahmoehum · 2012-03-18, 15:11

I had problems with other types of annoyances, mostly water related and blossom rot. I have things eating away but not too bad as to apply insecticide yet. I have had to apply fungicide but that was just a perfect storm of conditions, 3 days of cloud cover. I don't have enough sun back there yet, huge oak tree blocking to the south. The whole thing is more for zen than real production, it feels good just to sit out there and look at stuff growing. I am going to release the worms soon and that should help out my shitty soil, wanted to wait till things are growing first. We have only had about 5" of rain in the last 5 months, hard to keep things wet! We've had plenty of 90 degree days already. (and a few freezes! fuckin retarded weather!)