Warning - Construction Zone.  Progress report - All log entries have not been flipped from newest first "reverse date order" to true date order.   In the process a couple of graphics have become dislodged from their blog entries, but just a few.  Of course now the formatting, primarily picture placement needs to be redone.  That is easiest, so I will do that next.  And last will be complete edit/slight rewrite of the whole years blog.  Should all be done in another few weeks.  Until then, please ignore the errors.  Of course, if you read my dribble you are already trained to ignore my numerous grammatical errors.

January 2006

January 1, 2006 - Happy New Years!  Maybe I will resolve again this year to do a week by week log for an entire year.  This would be a good year as by late spring I will finally be living at the gardens.  I did get a little gardening done yesterday.  I planted a Red Althea.  The plant was alive but the roots were quite dry.  Altheas are pretty tough critters so I have hopes that it will make it.  If we keep up with this mild winter it would help the Althea, but weeds and bugs will sure be an issue next summer.  They always are anyway, but it will be even worse.  A few early cool spells in early December looked like we would be cooler, but now we are in our second weeks of 70s for highs and another predicted for the week coming.  Also I planted the little green branched tree with the green reddish-trim leaves.  There I go with another highly scientific description.  These thing are either naturalized or native as the are every were.  Usually topping out around 5 or 6 feet and growing as an under-story tree on the edge of wooded area.  Their bright green evergreen leaves make for an attractive addition to the garden.  I chopped up a new area for the Iris I will move later today and put a generous amount of Osmokote on the ones I move a few weeks ago.   The Narcissus are beginning to bloom pretty well now, just two varieties.  A few of the bulbs were damaged during the dirt and concrete work, particularly around the old Mimosa, but the should do fine.  I also put Osmokote around the newly transplanted Alstromeria which are looking great.  Let's see, I also planted a third Mimosa along the driveway across from the barn.  After doing this it is now apparent that I need to move one that was planted last year.  It is young and this is the right time of year to move it so it should be fine.  I have a few things on the gardening list to do today, but since it is 10:30am, well, let's just say I won't be setting any productivity records in the garden.

Afternoon - It was one of those humid sub-tropical winter days.  High around 70, air as thick as soup, and clouds looming on the horizon.  Despite having energy level of rock, I did get a few things done in the garden.  Forgot to put in the log that yesterday I planted the two Loquats that were in pots in front of the barn.  I placed them in the front, one back and between the Figs and another forward of that.  I also planted a small Formosan Rain Tree (Koelreuteria elegans) seedling on the opposing side of the driveway from the first.  This should balance the four Loquats in The Twins.  I also dug the small Loquat from the Daylily bed and transplanted it towards the back from The Twins.  I had grown right up through the middle of a daylily.  Since there was no way to get it out without damaging the Loquat I moved both together.  I moved more Alstromeria.   I permanently planted the PawPaw which I had temporarily healed in.  It was developing some hair roots so maybe it will make it after all.  I moved 15 bulbs from the daylily bed also.  They were all Amaryllis, some modern, and some the old St. Joseph's Lily which naturalized here so well.  They were planted between the Twin Pines near the back tree.  I noticed that my Poinsettia was still blooming away.  Each year I grab a few throwaways after the holidays.  I keep them protected until last frost and place them out in the garden.  They are quite attractive.  I also popped up 4 Asiatic Lilies. while digging for Amaryllis, and placed them in pots.  Also, while in that area I noticed the Rangoon Creeper trying to put out a few new flowers.  I dug another 40 Iris today to add to the 13 I moved two or three weeks ago.  Apparently the driveway was blocking during the foundation work and a truck took a shortcut right through my initial Iris planting.  I would get mad but I am sure the driver did not notice the 4 inch tall Iris just starting to come up.  Due to a stroke of luck he only ran over 1 Iris and it seems it will be OK. I moved the largest Mimosa along the driveway, the one closet to the front about 6 feet closer to the driveway so that the 3 Mimosa are now consistent. Last note, the first Camellia bloom opened, a pink one with a yellow center.  OK, one last note, can you find the cat waiting to surprise attack something.

January 2, 2006 - Did a whole not of nothing today.  Well, I did do a little recycling.  As you can see from the picture on the right, there is more than one way to recycle.  This one get rid of grass and weeds from the planting site.  Also, I have noticed that sites where once there was a burn are more fertile than.  Perhaps it is the Ph, perhaps nutrients, or some change to the structure of the clay soil below.  This one is the future planting site of an Althea in a few days.    This is such an unusual and warm January, I took a few shots to show the almost spring like conditions out there.  Angel's Trumpets are still blooming as are the Cassia.  Christmas Berries alongside of Fatsia blooms. and roses still blooming in large clusters.  Other than the two light frosts, it looks very much like spring out and about.  My tropicals under the Oak tree are still making new leaves.

Well, there are some normal sights out there for January too.  Loquats are in bloom.  Here is my first Camellia bloom of the season starting to fade and another starting to open.  My Poinsettia planted in the garden in some years might have bitten the dust by now, but it still happy.  Next is one of the winter annual weeds that takes over the world.  It is not bad looking once you get up close.  Last is that winter sky.

And a few more pics.  First is my new Iris bed, along with red marker flags to keep any work trucks from getting the same idea as a workman got last week.  The next sad pic is some newly transplanted Canna.  This is one a few left of what was once many.  This one is very hardy and little enthusiastic, but has room to roam in its new home.  This will make a good before and after.  Next is my American Beauty Berry next to my Pigmy Date Palm (phoenix robellini).  Note the new fresh growth on the Beauty Berry.  Like many plants it thinks it is spring.  Next is my newly planted Alstromeria, and last, a few early blooms fire off on the Flowering Quince.  I have moved about 12 sq ft of this plant with another 12 to go.  I had hoped to move the Aspidistra today but didn't get around to it.  I did move the old pond which is to become the future herb bed and chose future location for small seed starting greenhouse.  I also cleaned off a couple of shelves so that I can actually start some seeds in the seed starting greenhouse.

January 3, 2006 - Another workday so nothing really on the gardening front.  It did become apparent today that two of my Japanese Maples needed to move.  I already knew the third needed to move.  Big issue is that they are not fully dormant with this mild winter, and that I don't have nursery pots of the necessary size.  Got to get it resolved by the weekend though, one way or the other.  I guess I could heal them in a temp spot if need be. 

January 5, 2006 - Just back from a day and a half in New Orleans.  In the lower 9th Ward most plants are dead, but a few are coming back.  The Live Oaks will be fine.  Most palms look like they will make it.  The Pigmy Date Palms (phoenix robellini) are absolutely thriving.  I saw what looked like a Gardenia that was alive among a mass of dead plants on the house on the left.  There was a cabbage looking plant that was thriving all over and another plant that at first (left pic on the right)  I thought was a Castor Bean, but they were flowing at less than two feet high.  Maybe some kind of Aralia.  Most other homes were not so lucky at the next couple of pics will show.  It is truly sad to see this and pictures do not justice to the real thing.   There are litterly blocks after blocks upon blocks that are the same scene over and over.  For every house like you see here, there are 10 that are simply no longer there.

Back at home, we will likely have a frost tomorrow night, but still no freeze.  I could wait no longer to move the Japanese Maples so up they came today to make room for lot re-grading that will have to be done.  I hated to move them again, a second year in a row, but their next home should be their last.  At least this time I will be living there so they will get some extra pampering.  I am heading out Sunday evening for a few days in San Diego so gardening duties will be light this weekend.  Mostly watering a few things and trimming a few branches from the Mimosa that would hit the brick facing on the home.  I will prune well outward of the final pruning spot as this is not the right time of year.  Later in the spring just before bud out, I will make a proper final prune on the branches.

January 6, 2006 - Well, there was no frost last night and we are still without a freeze for this winter.  Today, there was lots of work to do, but from the gardening perspective the most important thing I did was to put up red flags around all of the plantings.  Construction crews have an uncanny knack for going where you least expect them to.  The Hardy Glads are up about 6 inches.  They were no where to be found just a week ago. Another type of Jonquil opened in the last few days.  This one (pic on the left) is very similar to the standard Tazetta (pic on the right) except with the while petals are pointed, the yellow center is both smaller and paler.   Both are naturalized in old homesteads throughout  the area.  I planted 4 packs of 14 new narcissus today.Two packs were "Ice Follies" which look very similar to the Tazetta except that the yellow center is larger and more rippled on the edges.  One pack was "Dutch Masters" which is all yellow.  The final pack is "Mixed Colors" so who knows.  All were VanZyverden brand.  It will be interesting to see which ones naturalize as opposed to being one year wonders.

January 9, 2006 - Writing today from sunny, absolutely gorgeous San Diego.  But before I get into here, I need to make some journal notes from the weekend before I forget.  I planted the last Althea (for now, haha) and the Lilac that is supposed to tolerate our warm winters.  I know I will probably be disappointed, but you have to try just because its different.  There are still many Iris coming up in the backyard to be moved, so my initial fears that they were all gone appear to have been unfounded.   Moving them this late probably means not much bloom this year, but they should ultimately like their new home far better than their old.  All in all, I think this will be the most spectacular spring yet at the gardens.  For those who have been following this site for a while, les Jardins is what I previously referred to as New Dawn.  Soon New Dawn will be home.  There are still quite a few plants to move from the old home in Jeanerette.  A few spectacular which will not be moved and a few which will die in the process.  Is it better to make an honest attempt at moving a plant knowing full well it will likely die or to leave it where you know it is more than likely to be killed anyway over time.  We have more Iris for sure, an Orchid tree, a Jacaranda, a lot of Daylilies, and a few other misc plants.  All in all, the job of saving what was there is admirable.  So many plants have been moved.  A very small few were lost in the process.  A couple were precious, but I tried.  Such is the nature of living plants.  If we got no others it would be OK, but I want to try to get more.  Some moved with me from Gonzales, some were precious family heirlooms. 

Well, today the gardens are a thousand miles away, literally.  I am in San Diego.  Let's just say at this point this looks like a gardener's paradise.  It is ironic that on this day in January I am here in Zone 10/11 and it is more than 10 degrees colder than it is back home in Zone 9A.  Here in San Diego are plants that I only wish I could grow back home.  Traveler palms, Bougainvillea grown as hedges, things that I don't even recognize, and so many other beautiful tropical plants.  I have taken pictures here, but the time of year and haze make it difficult to capture the true beauty here at the Hyatt Islandia in San Diego.  I'll post some pics later.  Why is it that gardeners always want to grow what they should not be able to.  Perhaps that is the challenge.  The desire to do what should not be possible, what is different from the norm, or at least what would require a combination of luck and effort, like the producing Avocado in South Louisiana, that special environment, maybe that feature in Southern Living.  I will continue to strive for this, although at times perhaps I am not even sure what it is I am striving for.  It will take years upon years, but it is my dream.  OK , back to reality here for a second, it has been an exceptionally warm winter thus far.  That big freeze will come, if not this year, the next, or maybe the one after that.  Hey, but it only takes a couple of warm winters to get plants to a size where they can make a few freezes.   But wait, here is reality again.  A freeze as in the early or late 80s comes along to bring things back to natures norm.  Or maybe it will be that one in 500 year hurricane.  Well, all is temporary, even us.   It is not the destination, but the journey that is important.

Here are a few more pictures from my visit to San Diego.  Not only was this the down season from the gardens, the pictures do not justice to the beauty of this place.

January 13, 2006 - One day I am sure I will want to put some fancy little signs next to my plants with identification.  With so many things having been moved around, tags lost, and all, that is likely to be a real challenge.  I supposed I will read and re-read many of these entries.  Here is one to help me.  I pulled tags for a few plants today.  First on the barn arbor.  The rose closest the barn, the less vigorous one is a Climbing Iceberg.   The rose farthest from the barn, the extremely vigorous one is a Climbing Clotilde Soupert.  Both originated at the "Antique Rose Emporium" in Brenham Texas.   The first Pawpaw I purchased which is planted closest to the Iris is labeled Asimina Tribola 'Pawpaw' AKA custard apple.    The persimmon is labeled Ichikikei Jiro Persimmon.

Our exceptionally warm winter continues.  We have a few nights ahead project dip into the upper 30s but we are likely to not get even a frost for the next 10 days.     On most year winter here is over by the end of February so we may indeed get one of those occasional very mild winters.  On the other hand what is sometimes very damaging to our plants is a winter like this and then a sudden artic blast with a hard freeze catching the plants off guard.  This is why some plants die here in winter yet are hardy in colder weather further north.  It is kind of an anomaly we have to live with here in climate that is sometimes a contradiction.  A freeze like this killed many palms and other similar plants in the late 80s.  It also killed millions of fish in the marshlands of southern Louisiana as the temps dipped to low double and single digits for 3 days with preceding weather in the 80s.  We have had some cool weather so it would not be that bad this year, but it would still be bad.  Winter here, while only lasting a couple of months on average is definitely a time when gardeners who tend to try to cheat our horticultural zone hold their breath. 

January 14, 2006 - I moved another 20 or so Iris today, a handful of hardy glads, and another handful of bulbs.  I applied Osmoke to all.  A second Santa Rosa Plum was added across the driveway from the first.  Also I moved a few Aspidistra from home to the Live Oak centered between sector 1 and 2.   Two more days this weekend to ponder what else will be moved.  I finally have an idea as to what kind of bed to make between the Mimosa Trees on the left side of the driveway.   I will begin work on that this weekend.

January 16, 2006 - Well, two straight days with no gardening.  No that is unusual.  I guess I this warm winter has me a little off base.  Rain projected tonight and tomorrow AM. Today I continued burning the pine trees which has to be removed for the house.   Probably one more burn after tonight and it will be done.  Other than that it was just observation.  I still have Alstromeria, Aspidistra, and some other misc plants to move, but by far the hard work is done.  It will be easy to finish by spring.  What I really need is enough cold for a few things to go dormant so I can get them moved.  So far even the most tender stuff is still actively growing, like the Castor Bean.  The two light frost knocked them back a bit but they are now actively growing again.  We have a low tomorrow night of 35 predicted, but overcast which likely means no frost. We'll see.  After that it is back to the 60s and 70s for highs for another week.  For so many years I wanted this to help get a few semi-tropicals established, now this year that I would like for them to go dormant, here it is.  Well, that is life I guess.  Anyway the rain coming tonight will do well for the new plantings.  The ground is damp enough for established plantings.  So tomorrow night the plants go back into the sunroom and the heater goes back into the greenhouse for one night then out they come again. 

January 18, 2006 - Well, the two W's (work and weather) seem to be winning the balance of this week.   Monday night and all day Tuesday brought rain, and then a one day cold front brought a very light frost last night.  The low might have hit 35.  After working late I was too tired so I took my chances and left all of the plants out.  Looks like no harm done although a few of touchy tropicals might pout a little bit.  Guess I'll pull out a gardening book or a seed catalog. 

January 19, 2006 - High projected for tomorrow is 73 degrees, or 13 degrees above normal.  While cooler temperatures are predicted in the next few days after that, they will still be above normal with only one night to dip into the uppers 30s.   So far this is the winter that wasn't.  It hasn't even been wet which is almost always the norm for our winters.  That seems to be correcting itself as the rains are increasing.  I wish that the house had been a bit farther along before the rains, aka mud, came along, but this is Louisiana.  Could be worse, as my friends and family to the east (Hurricane Katrina) and to the west (Hurricane Rita) can attest.   We are fortunate in this area to be in a high part of Southern Louisiana known as the Teche Ridge.  Being approximately 17 feet above sea level and quite a few miles inland we are better off than most of South Louisiana and by comparison as well, Lafayette is mountainous at 30 to 35 feet above sea level.  Back to gardening.  I saw at least 5 more Iris in the backyard and quite a few more hardy glads (Gladiolus byzantinus) as well.   Since the term hardy glads is used for many glad species, I will start to use Byzantine Glads from here on out.  Hope to make another set of plant moves over the weekend.  I was just looking over the photo gallery at how beautiful my Iris once were.  I am looking forward to seeing which survived.  Moving them this late they may not bloom much or at all this year, but I remain hopeful.   Things aren't exactly photogenic at this time of year.  One of my Camellias is in bloom, but while the other two have buds they are not opening.  They are pouting because I move them earlier this year and may not bloom at all.  The everblooming type roses are blooming, but they are not really pretty as I suspect they know deep inside they should be dormant and not really blooming, haha.  Maybe I can take a few pics to add to the website this weekend.   Back to how warm this winter is, I noticed my Shrimp Plant is actually fixing to bloom.  Otherwise I am still hoping for enough of a winter to make a few plants go into dormancy that I want to move.  Right now all but a couple still have green leaves.  I am also waiting for some other kind of Narcissus to bloom.   To date only the the Tazetta types have opened with the standard with yellow center, one almost the same but with pointed petals, and a third which is kind of a double version.  I noticed one today with a much paler yellow center.  I am not sure it is a fourth type, but will put up a pic in case it is.  I should have some totally yellow, Daffodils, to come and of course the Snow Flakes.  Last year, I planted some other odd types and this year did the same as well.   As they bloom I will designate between those returning (ones that might naturalize) and those freshly planted this year. 

January 20 & 21, 2006 - OK, so just to stay in the habit of updating the website, what did I get done in the garden last couple of days? NOTHING.  Well, that's not completely true, but close.  On Friday afternoon I dug about 10 more Iris and moved them to the gardens.  Today, it rained nearly all day so about all I got done today was to spread the other half of the very large bag of rye grass seeds onto the large mud pile that is the pad of the new home.  Other than that I walked around, stood around, and tried to visualize things.  Did I mention I am visualization changed?  After seeing a few more bunches flowering I am sure that this is the 4th type of Narcissus blooming. 

January 22 -  After seeing a few more bunches flowering I am sure that this is the 4th type of Narcissus blooming.  It was way to wet today to do any gardening so I mostly cleaned up around the construction site.  At the end of the season I will put each here with approximate date of bloom. 

January 23 - Yep, can't sleep.  Its 2AM.  I was tossing and turning designing my garden again.  If you have some curiosity about Lunar Gardening, here is an interesting site that attempts to take a scientific look at possible validity, http://www.planetfusion.co.uk/~pignut/Lunar_gardening.html.

January 27 - Just back in from New Orleans again.  Every visit to the city reveals a city on the comeback.  Yes, there are still many things to resolve, but the city is recovering slowly.   I remember my first visit just over a week after Hurricane Katrina where I walked in a ghost town.   Today, in the CBD there are traffic jambs, searches for parking spots and lots of folks moving around in business suits.  This city will return to its former glory and then some, of that I am sure.

Obviously not much gardening going on.  Tomorrow I will get after a few new plantings and some other things.  The coming rains will determine how much I actually get done.  If they hold off till the evening it will be a productive day.  Mostly I am trying to minimize damage to beds and plants during construction.  Certainly the landscape will be changed with the height of the house pad.  Much of the natural flow of the rear acre is now changed.  Not sure yet if I will go with a retaining wall or a slope on the back of the house towards the bayou.  Right now I am trying to get some Annual Rye established to keep my "mud" in place.  With this mild and dry winter, even this is tough.  I noticed today that the Confederate Roses have started to sprout new growth.  We have no frost predicted well into the first week of February.  Usually by mid Feb, winter is over here.   Well, this was the year I wanted things to go dormant so I could move plants, so this is going to be interesting.  I may finally get to see my Bauhinia  and Jacaranda bloom. 

And by the way, the Narcissus below is definitely the the fourth bloomer of spring.  It is also the one with the healthiest, thickest foliage.  First went the double, then the standard Tazetta, then the one with the with star like petals, and now the one that looks like a standard Tazetta but with a pale yellow, almost white center.  Can't wait to see what comes next. 

January 28 - I got up this morning, loaded plants into the back of the truck and went off to finish cleaning up and then start building the new border.   Eight hours later I was still cleaning, but could see the light at the end of the tunnel and so thought I would begin on the border.  Then the concrete guy called.  He has an opening on Monday.  There went the gardening as work then turned to moving a large stash of wood out of the way for the work shop slab and taking tin off the sides of the barn.    Got the wood stash moved and started on the barn.  Needless to say no gardening got done, again.  And now I think I might want to concrete in the little greenhouse too.  BUT, I WILL PLANT SOME PLANTS TOMORROW, I WILL.

January 29 - Yes, I did put a plant in the ground today, actually five.   Of course I dug four of them up, aka transplant.  The barn wooped my behind today.   Now this is a small barn, but what a job.  I removed the tin from the outside, removed the plywood inner walls, large cross timbers, dirt.  I dug down to the old faucet connection so I can cap it off underground.  At a little over 2 feet down I found the bottom of a 14 inch by 14 inch obelisk and managed to move it a little bit.  I will need some help to get it out of the hole, but it had to go as it would have been in the way of the new front porch at the barn.  I also removed one post and put in another  to put in a doorway that will be one foot wider than the old to accommodate the 4 wheeler and big mower.  And then I had to empty the barn.  Amazing how much junk one can accumulate when one has a barn, even a small one.  Maybe I'll take a pick of the gutted barn for before, in progress, and complete.  The end result is gonna be cool, but it may take a while, aka money, to get there.

So about the plantings.  The four Cassia that I leaned again the barn last spring had rooted right through the hole in the bottom of the pot and were still flowering.  I tried to wait for a good cold snap to send them into dormancy, but it never came and the move could wait no longer as the barn needed to be done.  Cassia are tough as weeds.  They might drop all of their leaves, but will then quickly recover.   I planted a Chinese Fringe Tree today on the end of the 3 Mimosas at a about the same spacing as the Mimosas.  This will be a long border along the left side of driveway.  The pictures below demonstrate what a warm winter we are having.  The Flowering Quince seems to be normal flowering at this time of year, but what is unusual is that it has foliage too.  Normally it would bloom on bare stems.  The Brugmansia is going nuts.  It been putting our huge numbers of flowers as below every two weeks and has been doing so mid summer.  The last is one of many roses in bloom.   Other plants like my Confederate Roses are starting to bud out with new leaves.  

February 2006

Mystery day - I think the gardens went backwards a little today.   In the process of cementing the barn the new bed in back was trampled.  We will see just how tough crinums really are.  I moved the large Bordelon bananas which I never should have planted next to the barn anyway.  I put them on each side of, and between the Confederate Roses.   This should be a pretty striking contrast of both color and foliage shapes.  Or it could be a disaster.   Bananas are easy to move it is doesn't look as good in reality as it did in my mind.  I put the last clump down where I just planted the Cassia.   This large bed, or more accurately clump should have a very tropical look with a Umbrella Palm (Cyperus involucratus), 4 Cassia, and the Bordelon banana.   It just hit me, perfect place to add in some Upright Elephant Ears which are quite literally coming out of my ears I have so many.   Now, if I can just keep that thought till I get around to it.  And the Duranta would look good in there too.  Unfortunately the darned thing didn't go dormant so moving it will be a struggle.  And that Yellow Brugmansia pictured below.  It would have been a bear dormant, now it is going to be a life and death struggle, for me and the plant :-).  Here is a picture of the Bordelon Banana.  The fence behind it is 8 feet so I guess in this picture they are about 12 feet tall.  I suspect they could hit 16 feet in a good year. 

This picture is from 4 years ago right before Hurrican Lili reshaped the gardens, and not in a good way.  The upright elephant ears are in there, so I guess what I thought was an idea that popped in my head was actually a memory.  The Papaya were the seeds from a grocery store fruit.  I literally threw them on the ground in the spring and this was the result by late summer.  Look at the Red Castor Bean in that picture.  It was around 16 feet tall.  That sheltered corner with a full west exposure had perfect conditions.  It got no sun till around 9 to 10AM and then it all sun till sunset.

I am trying an interesting experiment with the Cassia.  Here they grow faster than weeds and they get big really big.  The two here, which will remain due to their size are probably 12 by 15 feet and are growing in the corner of an 8 foot wood fence.  Same west facing exposure as described for the bed above.  So, back on the subject.  The Cassias were under the barn overhang where they had rooted right through the bottom of the pots.  Being under the overhang they were all growing at 45 degree angles with some branches parallel to the ground.  So, I planted the in a 6' x 6' square all pointing in at each other  the will become totally intertwined and with the broad 6 foot base, maybe they won't blow over as is common with single plants.  

Back to the barn, other than the trampled Crinums and a few small Picard bananas which need to be stood back up, all that remains is to stick some Ginger back in the ground to call it done.  Here are a few more pictures.  The dormers in the attic allowed some new garden views.   They don't look like much because, 1) it is winter, 2) construction muck, 3) I am preoccupied with getting the house built , and 4) I still got years to go before I get featured in Southern Living.   So left to right this is what we have.  Most of these are so I can do a before and after.  Pic 1 shows the large Mimosa right a the front of the house which I hope survives the construction.  Behind that is the still roofless outdoor room under the Live Oaks.  The little bit of red at the far left in the Red Firespike still in bloom.  The walkway to nowhere will eventually meet the front porch.  Most other things are too small  or too dormant to be noticed.  Next pic is the barn without the walls and a brand new concrete floor.  On the right is the Queen Palm.  Along that plane are the crushed crinums and the newly transplanted bananas.  In the middle of the facing side wall would have been a large clump of Bordelon bananas and along that plane are dormant Gingers.  In a few months both of those walls with be 6 to 8 feet of solid green with white flowers on the gingers and pink flowers on the bananas.  Right in front is a circle bed approx 6 to 8 feet in diameter and filled with Crinums, Narcissus, and Spider Lilis.  Right now the Crinum are dormant and the Narcissus/Spider Lilies are finished blooming with nothing but foliage.  Pic 3 is the newly planted Iris bed.  They are averaging about 9 inches tall right now.  Pic 4 is the house with the high fashion mud lawn.  Pic 5 and last is the newly planted Cassia, small Umbrella Palm planted last summer, and the two purplish green sticks are the Bordelon Banana I planted there today.

February 2 - Could winter really be over.  I do ever remember one as warm as this one.  Two very light frost and no freezes.  Take a look at the graph below and the highs in red.  Unbelievable.  We have some cooler weather due in next week with lows maybe reaching down to 39 on one night, but at this point not enough for even a frost.  The plants certainly think winter is over with several cautiously starting to do a little early leaf out.  My father-in-law is threatening to set out his tomatoes.  Can't say I am not thinking about it myself.  What we have to fear now is the dreaded late freeze.  I refuse to breath easily until March 15.  My Aprium is in to cross pollinate with my Blenheim Apricot.   Apricots are something you just don't see down here, but these varieties are supposed have possibilities in this low chill area, but then again, this year might just be a no-chill year.   I just ran the report from our local Ag Center weather station less than 5 miles from my house.  Chill hours so far this year are 288.   Even most low chill varieties need more than this.  We will probably break 300 by spring but not much more than that.

February 4 - Low day again.  I did manage to replant the banana and gingers that were either dug up or knocked over during the barn cement floor job.  Other than that I mostly tried to visualize the new planting and bed changes. 

February 5 - I continued on the left middle border today.   The early spring is calling my hand here.  It is going to difficult if not impossible to get everything in the ground or move before spring.  I thought I had another month.  I looked down today at the two potted Spireas and noticed flower buds on a few branches.  So, in the ground they went.   The Night Blooming Jasmine on the other hand were starting to look a little drabby.   As I planted them also, the reason presented itself.  They were pretty badly root bound.  Looks like Tuesday night, Feb 8 might give us another mild frost.  Now www. weather.com is even so bold as to predict a mild freeze (31) a week from now, next Saturday night.  I won't lose any sleep just yet.   A very mild freeze like that would put an end to the early bud out without doing any major damage.  Still in all, I hope they are wrong.  A light frost would be just as effective.   At any rate this cool week will give me another couple of weeks of badly needed planting time.  And also, it looks certain we will top 300 chilling hours also as this will be a cool week.  I also read message from someone in Florida who said they successfully grew apple by stripping the leaves from the trees to force dormancy.  Since my remaining healthy Apple still has leaves I will do that this week.  A couple of months too late for sure, but better late than never, I hope.  Next year I will put it  on my list to do earlier.

I added a few new links here and there under the various subtopics.  I also did a little housekeeping.

Almost forgot, I saw the first Azalea breaking into full bloom today.  Also, a couple of years ago I picked up this neat plant in Florida called a bat plant.   Now this is not the Bat Flower, it is a vining plant with dark green bat shaped leaves.  It started doing badly in the pot a couple of years ago, so I planted it in front of the barn next to the small concrete monolith.  It subsequently died.  I spray that area with Roundup at least a couple of times.  It is also the area that has been in total shade most of the summer due to the temporarily rooted Cassias.  Anyway, imagine my surprise as I was cleaning up the area to find the plant alive and coming back from the roots. with a single growing vine.  I put it into a pot to see if I could save it.  Thinking back on it, I remember great surprise at seeing one naturalized  near the base of a tree at Albania Plantation.  I assure you no plant there had received any attention for the last 10 or 20 years so it must be pretty tough once established.   I searched the web for a while looking to ID this thing with no luck.   Searching back on my own site, looks like I bought the plant in late spring in 2003 on a visit to Panama City Beach.  Unfortunately I did not record the name, if it had a tag at all.   Searching on the web while I write this.  Amazingly it very well might be Passiflora coriacea - Batwing Passionflower.  Now that would be even cooler.  I added the picture after first writing this and it seems that it is indeed the Passiflora.  Cool.  Well, I have rambled on enough for one night.

February 6 - On the right is my Poinsettia, still blooming away in the garden.  Maybe a frost or two in the week ahead but not freeze.  Being under Pine Trees this plant should not be bothered by frost, unless we get a really bad one.  Also, all of a sudden, it seems that all of the Japanese Magnolias are in full bloom everywhere.  I will try to snap a picture of one.  They are beautiful all over.

I have completed my spring planting in the orchard, save 1 fruit tree.  Alright, save the laughter.  I have been looking for a Pakistan Mulberry for a year now.  On the Internet they run about $80.  Over the weekend looking at the local sales paper I saw someone local offering them for sale in Abbeville, La.  I made Abbeville on the way home today.  OK, it was 30 miles out of the way but worth it.  This gentleman was cultivating cuttings and sold me a 4 foot high seedling for $16.  Even better, he was a storehouse of information on local fruit production, propagations, growing conditions, and had a great personality.  I will be back to see him and look forward to our future conversations.  On his 3 acre plot he has over 600 producing fruit trees.  He only lost 43 during Hurricane Rita and had water rise to his back porch.  The back of his property borders on the Vermillion River.   He started "The Fruit Ranch" to have something to do after retiring from 40 years of working in the oil field.   If you are ever in Abbeville, La make it a point to stop by his place at 420 Park Avenue.  You can't miss it.  If coming from Lafayette just get on Johnston Street and go straight there.  Johnston St and Park Avenue are the same street.  Just after passing Hwy 14 coming in on your left it will be maybe a half mile ahead.  If coming in on Hwy 14 take a left and it will be on your left shortly after you turn onto Park Ave.  

So, today I planted my new Pakistan Mulberry and my new Aprium.  I did not look closely at the Aprium label to see if there was other information, but will do so tomorrow.   My orchard is now complete except for a replacement Apple Tree.    I wonder weather to even continue trying with Apple, but maybe.   The two I have are pretty sad, but I could do a better job getting them started.  I stripped the leaves from the Apples and Pears to force dormancy as I had read about earlier this week from a Florida gardener.  I should have done this two months ago, but now will have to do.

Today I saw yet one more flock of ducks flying over.  Over the last three weeks I have seen countless ducks in incredibly large flocks.  They were all flying North to South until today.  The very small flock today was flying in the opposite direction, but they could have been just moving to another feeding ground. 

Here is what I tell myself to keep heart in the long path of getting good plants here.   We have an extra year from most, so here is the timeline.  Year one - survive.  Year two - establish.  Year three - thrive.  You'll notice there is an extra year in here from northern climes.  That has to to with our extreme summer heat.  But in year three thrive usually means really thrive.  As I have said in the past, plants that need pruning in other places many times need a chainsaw here, but that is assuming they survive year one.   All in all, this is a great place to grow things.  Great does not mean perfect, but great non-the-less.  I have quite a few plants entering year three this year, so I am excited. 

February 7 - Looks like winter will show its face after all. The weather sites are disagreeing at this point, but weather.com is predicting 28 and 32 for Saturday and Sunday night. I guess I will be hauling those plants back into the sunroom one more, and hopefully last, time. Even though we may have a heavy frost in the morning, I am not moving in the plants tonight since the low will only be 35. I will wake up and hose them off early which will prevent the frost formation. They are also on a concrete slab which will hold some heat.

The wind was sure whipping new and old planting alike roaring over 30 mph as this cold weather approached. My new staking system seems to be working fine. Even with the last minute arrival, winter is rapidly coming to a close. Even the conservative gardeners generally assume March 15 as safe date to put out tender plants. I haven't even planted my seed trays yet to get an early start on the plantings. I need to at least get some tomatoes and cucumbers started. Seedlings are so cheap at places like Wal-Mart it is tempting not to even bother with seeds, but to not do it would be to miss a big part of the fun. And there is always a much larger selection of seeds available than seedlings too. I still have literally tens of thousands of those expired seeds given to me by a friend whose dad has the job of swapping out seeds to put in fresh stock. Most of these seeds will be good for years. On that subject, I just got in my new copy of Park's Success with Seed book. It had been back ordered since before Christmas. Although I am just getting into it, it looks like they did an outstanding job.

As I was walking through the backyard surveying plants still to be moved to the new gardens, I noticed another batch of Iris that have emerged in the old Iris beds. At least another 10 are there, maybe more. The first two batches that I moved have established and are now actively growing and that even includes the 5 or 6 that were run over by one of the construction work trucks. I am going to start putting some Miracle Grow on them weekly for the next 6 weeks. I am going to do it on all my new plantings, which is quite a few plants by the way. At least 20 new items were added thus far. This was one of the recommendations of the gentleman at the "The Fruit Ranch." Two gallons of Miracle Grow per the mix instructions per plant per week for the first 6 weeks. As soon as I can scan them I will put his two hint sheets on the site.

February 8 - Weather sites are hedging already.  Last night brought an extremely light frost.  Didn't even both the Castor Bean which is one of the most frost sensitive plants I have.   Predictions for Saturday and Sunday have gone from 28/33 to 31/33.  Another couple of degrees and we will be back to no freezes for the year.  Today I started the Miracle Grow once a week for six weeks routine with the fruit orchard.   Still have many plants to do.  Wish I could find a way to expidite this.  By end of day Saturday I will get all plantings and continue once a week until April 1st. 

February 9 - Our freeze may be dying before it even arrived.  At least one weather site is up to 31/36 for its Sat/Sun predictions.  As I said the other day, the Japanese Magnolia are in full bloom all over town.  I stopped in the middle of the road to quickly snap the picture at left.  The large Japanese Magnolia is at least 30 feet tall with thousands of blooms.  The smaller one at its right is probably a Jane Magnolia.  I wish I had time to document all of the fantastic plants in our area.  Some are truly incredible as is our growing environment.  And there are heartbreaks too.  Earlier last year I saw two fabulous old Camellia that I have admired for years on an empty lot yanked up by a backhoe and discarded on the side of the road.  I would have gladly let them drop them into my truck and tried to save them.  Those trees were at least 40 years old.  The new apartment complex on the site has a half dozen two year old boxwoods which I am sure they are proud of as an example of landscaping.  If I planted a Camellia like that today I would not live long enough to see it reach the grandeur of those trees which were destroyed in 3 minutes by a backhoe and a developer who could not be bothered by even an attempt to find them a new home.

February 10 - Could it be that our winter run of luck is over.  Forecast did not get warmer today and stood their ground.  Local TV says 29 tomorrow night in Lafayette with 7 hours below freezing.  We can usually count on 1 to 2 degrees warmer down here.  Weather channel shows us at 31/33/34 over the next Sat/Sun/Mon night, so no matter whether we escape the freeze by a hair of not, early spring is definitely over.  I have several trees that be hit hard as they have much very tender spring growth.  Freeze of not, we will almost certainly have a hard killing frost as we have a full sun day predicted for Sunday.  I am still keeping my fingers crossed, but it does not look good.  On the bright side, it will give me a least 3 to 4 more weeks to move plants.   The radar picture at right shows the front arriving tonight.  It is going to be a rough weekend for plants.  Fierce winds from the south, then fierce winds from the north, then the big chill, then  by Wednesday back to a high of 74.   No wonder plants get confused here, and it occasionally why plants die from cold that actually survive harsher temperatures further north.  Here they let their guard down and then wham. 

February 11 - No gardening today, other than to put the plants back into the Sun Room.  The Sun Room group are all semi-hardy plants destined for planting into the garden after average last frost date.  Some are new and others were dug up in the old backyard and are destined for the new gardens.  There are several pots of Angel's Trumpets and some Gingers.  They would all make it even if left outside, but I am trying to give them just a little head start into the summer.  A few new plants are in there too, like the two new cold-hardy Avocado trees, Pineapple and Strawberry Guava, etc.  In a brief visit to K-Mart today I saw they were already selling tomatoes plants.  I also put the heater back into the greenhouse out at the gardens.  It is there that I have some true tropicals that need protecting.  Some actually thrive in the winter greenhouse conditions like the  Bougainvillea pictured above, while others just get by.  This evening I did what many gardeners do on cold days, that being stay in warm toasty quarters with a gardening magazine.   Cel and had boiled crawfish tonight and then completed out date at Books-a-Million for an hour or so of book perusing .  I actually resisted buying a book to add to my now pretty extensive gardening library.  I did fall victim to 3 magazines, though.  Well, tomorrow I need to work on the barn for a bit.  I would like to move a few plants, but with the cold nights I will resist doing so this weekend, maybe :-).  I did find the two small native Fringe Trees that I had completely forgotten about.  I do thinks like that, like a couple of weeks ago when I put some Poppy Seeds into a shoe box with some other junk papers that I as going to use to start a fire.  I did use the old shoe box and papers to start a fire and guess what I forgot.  So a couple of days ago I got my 16,000 Poppy Seeds to replace the first ones.  That set me back, with shipping, a whopping $6.00.  Now, also I'll confess I don't have a clue what I am going to do with that many Poppy Seeds.  The do grow well here as annuals.  One year they actually self seeded and came back a second year, but were not to be seen in year three.  I hope the seeds keep well as I could have a lifetime supply here.  In another crazy gardening idea, I was thinking the other day that the new wine refrigerator my wife got me for Christmas might just be the perfect seed storage cabinet.  Don't think Cel was particularly thrilled when I told her about it. 

February 12 - Long day and aching muscles today and didn't even do any gardening to speak of.  We did get our fist freeze of the winter last night with a low of 31.  The lack of damage was pretty amazing.  The Morning Glory Tree took the hardest hit with leaves and the last 6 inches of stems looking like the melted.  The Rangoon Creeper's leave looked freeze dried.  Other than that damage was no noticeable even on tender plants like the Confederate Roses whose tender new growth looked unfazed as did the new growth on the Cassia.  Both are known to be tender.  I was worried because when I woke up this morning the project low for tonight as 29.   Late this afternoon I made a small bonfire with the termite eaten wood I had removed from the barn.   I noticed the wind turning to the southeast as the fire burns which told me warming winds were on the way.  When I arrived home tonight the low forecast had been revised from 31 to 29.  Keeping my fingers crossed that they are accurate and that this is the last of winter.

Other than that I replaced some of the side runners on the barn with wood from the old Telotta's store.  It was kind of special to do that and to know that some part of the store would live on.  I will also use the old front doors and a window from the store in the barn redo.  Last touch will be an old sign from when Pa Joe ran for city council years ago.  The march to full time occupancy at the gardens moves on.

February 13 - Felt so bad today that I did not even stop at the gardens.  And other than this journal entry, I don't think I will even think about gardening today.  Here's to feeling better tomorrow, I hope.

Febrary 14 - Once again, we escaped winter for the most part.  A super light freeze for just a few hours the first night and then two super light frost over the next two nights.  The frost caused lots of leaf damage on tropicals like Angel's Trumpets, Elephant Ears, Firespike, and Variegated Ginger.  Nothing we killed back to the roots, just leaves and stem ends.  All will pop right back with a couple weeks of warm weather.  And we will get that warm weather with 76 tomorrow and 79 the day after.  A cool from will drop us back to the 60s and then we go right back to the 70s.  I am going to go ahead and step out with my prediction that winter, that being frosts and freezes, is over.

I just got my "Gardening by the Moon 2006" calendar from Devine Inspiration Publications (www.gardeningbythemoon.com).   Not totally convinced I buy into this stuff, but I will try it this year.  Kind of fun

February 15 - Another tough work day.  One of the few days where neither a garden nor plant crossed my mind the whole day.  But tonight, I am watching some old video recordings of HGTV to make up for it.  I also checked into my favorite message board, the Gulf Breeze Message Board at (http://www.iconx.com/forum/index.php).   Link is also on the left side menu.  This is a quality board.  I check it almost daily.

February 16 - Seeing more Azaleas here and there in bloom, but the main bloom is not in full swing.  We have only a few Azaleas in the gardens right now, but many more will come over the years.  It looks like Lady Banks planted on the barn will have a beautiful bloom this year.  They are just starting to open.  Looks like another rainy cool weekend this week will prevent major work from getting done, although I may have to try to get some things done anyway.  Spring is here.  The light freeze less than a week ago and the following light frost have not slowed spring for most plants.  Some the tropical plants got knocked back a little bit, but not much.  We will dip to 37 tomorrow night, but then right back to days in the 70s.

Here are a few more pictures from this early spring.  The first is the Camellia that has been blooming for a month.  Second is another Camellia that has just started to bloom.  I moved the second this year so it is difficult to say if this is the normal blooming sequence.  My third Camellia has yet to bloom but it too was moved.  Next is my Morning Glory Tree post freeze.  While the freeze had minimal effect on most plants, this obviously very tender plant had total leaf loss.  The stems appear healthy, and it last year's growth was an indicator this thing is going to be HUGE by the end of the summer.  Next, my Schefflera, normally a house plant for most was unfazed by the cold weather.  This branch is just an offshoot.  The entire plant today is approx. 4 feet tall and 6 feet wide.  Last up is the Climbing Iceberg rose with its gorgeous blooms.

The two pictures below show my excellent cabbage patch to the right.  The picture at left is a scene very reflective of winter here.  A light fog contributes to a dreamy look while low sun angles provides a soft glow to the tree trunks on deciduous trees.  In front are sugar cane fields, which in most years would be totally brown and dormant, but as you can see there is still much green in that brown this year.  Also in bright green are winter weeds and lots of clover.  The only thing missing are the wires at the top of that utility pole and a nice big hawk sitting on them.  It is hard to go more than a few miles without seeing a raptor sitting on these wires looking straight down in the ditches, waiting on a unsuspecting mouse to present a dinner opportunity.

I pulled some fruit tree tags from the orchard.  On the left front is the Blenheim Apricot and the right front is labeled Flavor Delight Aprium Interspecific.  Apricot-plum hybrid.  Resembles an apricot but with a distinctive flavor and texture all its own.  High taste-test scores - one of the most flavorful early season fruits.  Early June. 600 hours.  Self-fruitful, but biggest crops is pollinated by any apricot.  Pat. No. 7090. (Zaiger). Dave Wilson Nursery. Hickman * Reedley.  The rootstock carried this independent label.   Marianna 26-24 Rootstock.  For apricots, plums, most almonds.  Shallow root system tolerant of wet soils. Resist oak-root fungus and root-knot nematodes.  Mature trees of standard varieties comparatively small. 15-20ft if unpruned.  Trees on Marianna may be held to any desired height by summer pruning. Dave Wilson Nursery. Hickman * Reedley.  Now I have to admit I am disappointed.  This plant was sold as a plant that could work down to zone 9.  Nowhere in zone 9 does a normal year yield 600 chilling hours as noted above.  This year we will probably net just under 400 chill hours.  I just ran the report from the local weather station which shows this year currently at 357 and winter is just about done.  We might make 400 but it will be a stretch.  600 will truly be an odd year.

February 17 - Saw my first Redbud breaking into bloom today.  Our young Redbud should be nearing blooming age.  Last year it put out just one or two flowers.  I had hopes for this year, but I see no sign of flowers yet.  Also, today I saw several large Azaleas starting up, which means that in another two weeks and our most colorful plant show of the year will be underway.  A spot for Acidanthera has been identified on the back corners of the barn for over a month and today I got some at Lowes.   Each corner will have 60 bulbs which may be enough.  After I put them down, I will decide if more are needed.   After all of the work on the barn, those beds are going to need quite a bit of work to get them back into shape, particularly in the area on the back right where the Crinum were trampled.   Now, don't get me wrong, I am not too worried.  If the past holds, a Crinum trampled into 10 peices, will mean 10 Crinums in short order.

Cold and rainy tonight with a low 39 forecast for tonight, so it was a time to get some shopping done.  This little front just snuck in on us.  I am hoping to do some major planting tomorrow getting all plants being overwintered in the sun room into the ground.  I may wait on the Avocados.  I am brave, but not quite that brave.

February 18  - It was another cold damp day.  Temperatures stayed in the lower 40s with humidity around 80%.  It was not very motivating weather and my motivation level was appropriate to the weather.  I walked over to the Aspidistra with the shovel.  After a moments hesitation, I decided to pass.  I loaded up a few more potted plants and headed to the gardens.  While there I mostly picked up around the job site, but I did get out the chainsaw for some long overdue work.   The Bradford Pear is no more.  It was overtaken by the Live Oak, added nothing to the site, and was not doing well.  Over on the other side of the gardens, I cut all of the toppled limbs of the Acacia.  Now it can regrow straight up again.  I also trimmed the Confederate Roses which were growing out as much as they were growing up.  Not only did this present a problem keeping them neat, but also the front tree had split right in the middle during Hurricane Rita.   Both are pretty neat at this point, although I should have taken on more branch out of the front tree.  I'll get it next week.  Both were starting out with spring growth.  I wanted to wait till they were fully dormant, but with this mild winter, they never went fully dormant.  Still both are tough plants so I think they will be fine.  I also took many cutting from the Confederate Rose to root in water.  In hindsight I should have tried some from the Acacia.  Maybe in the morning if I remember.

This evening I picked another dozen very large Grapefruit from our tree.  Cel and I each had a glass of fresh squeezed, all organic, nature chilled Grapefruit juice.  There is nothing like it.  I am going to miss that tree when we leave.  I brought it here from Gonzales, but it is far too large to move now.  I hope the new owners treasure it as we do.

I almost forgot to note that planted a pot of Crinum on the rear of the barn where the earlier Crinum were trampled so bad.  I bought this Crinum at The Rose Garden Center earlier this year on the way home from New Orleans.  I did not note which ones they were and only remember noting that I did not have the variety.  When they flower later I will attempt to identify.

February 19 - Well, I am still doing good at nearly daily updating of the journal.  I am going to try updating some other information besides just activities like weather, etc.  It was one of those hectic work days without much time to think about gardening.  I did mow a few stripes after work just for stress.  Tried to clean up around the trees in the orchard.  At least the mower seems to be running well.  I also scratch tested the two small Fringe Trees I got off of eBay.  They are alive and well, but should be planted NOW.  Just arranged to take a day of annual leave to turn Mardi Gras weekend into a 4 day weekend as the weather may cooperate.  The last 2 weekends have not been very productive do to sucky weather.  Weather services really missed the mark there for a few days, but maybe spring will return by mid-week.  

February 20, 21 - Not even sure where yesterday went, just work, work, work.  Mild weather has returned along with rain and fog.  The Azaleas continue to their short march to bloom explosion.  I noticed a few more Redbuds starting to fill out with blooms.  Welcome home again spring, there is no stopping it now.

Feburary 22 - Work, work, work, build a house, work, work, work.  OK, you get the point.   Really looking forward to my long weekend so I can do some real gardening.  Until then, it is working and wishing I was gardening.

February 23  - Spring unfolds more so every day, almost every hour.   My Bald Cypress has budded out with green leaves everywhere.  My Snow Flakes are blooming, but sparsley.  Some yellow Narcissus are fixing to open, which is really surprising due to the mild winter.  I noticed the Live Oaks are building up some really nice pollen.  One of the Fig trees got an early start over the others and is leafing out.  The Cassia I moved from the barn front are full of new leaf and stem growths.  The Weigela is almost fully leafed and the flower buds are starting to show color.  I hope to take quite a few pictures of the area in the next few weeks as we rapidly reach full spring color.

February 24,25 - This is one of those midday entries on a Saturday.  I did not do anything related to the garden yesterday other than think about what I might get done on this four day weekend.  Unfortunately it started raining in the early morning hours and there is more to come until the early evening hours today.  It is good light rain so I took the opportunity to do the spring fertilizing.  After running to local farm co-op to pick up two of the fifty pound bags of 13-13-13 fertilizer and spread all 100 pounds between showers.  Believe it or not I still did not get everything.  This will give everything a nice jump start for spring.   After the April drought when the summer rains begin around June I will apply a slow release to cover the rest of the growing season.   I must admit I am tempted to just do regular small doses of the 13-13-13 rather than the the slow release due to cost, but the slow release is so much easier.  Once the gardens are established in another couple of years I will move to a pure organic approach.  I apply compost every year now, but the harshness and heat of our long growing season, and the less than optional treatment of my soil in the past has shown this to be the best combination.  I have a whole new compaction issue as well this year due to the home construction.  The only tree that may be jeopardized is the old Mimosa.  It did well all by its own with little care before we arrived.  The constant activity since due to its location has no doubt compacted the soil around it.  It is also old for a Mimosa.  The last two years it has shown some decline particularly in its bloom.  On top of all of that, the new home construction has probably resulted in a minimum 25% root loss and probably closer to 40%.  It will be treated with ultimate care from here on out, but I am fearful.   The siders will be here next week and outside work on the house, shy of the driveway, will be done.  It will be so great stop the daily damage so I can then begin triage and ultimate final design and implementation. 

Well, it is late afternoon.  Not only did the rain continue till 6:00PM as promised, it will also continue well into the evening.  So that ruled out any gardening activity.  I did run over to Lowes to pick up my first 3 tomato plants.  Two are Better Bush and the third was labeled Husky Red.  Since this bed has been prepared for several months I will plant them in tomorrow.  I will keep the cages off for another 2 or 3 weeks just in case I have to do some late covering from frost.  My gut feeling is that I really don't have to worry about it.

Febrary 26- Well, it was still way too wet to do any gardening but man did I enjoy the outdoors today.  We have a week ahead with no rain in the forecast and I have the next two days off.  No Mardi Gras celebrations for me, but I do have some serious work, with some gardening, planned.  First priority is to close in the barn, hereafter to be known as the store.  This is the two horse barn that was on the property when we bought it.  I removed all of the side leaving only the roof and posts.  At that point I had a nice concrete floor poured.  This is where I plan to store the lawn equipment all the way from shovels to the four wheeler to the mowers.   As I removed some of the old cross pieces of the barn, the were replaced from a wood pile of scrap wood from the old Telotta store.  I was proud that some element of the the old store would live on.  Next, as I went looking for doors I realized that old front doors from the store would make perfect front doors.  Then I found a window.  Hey, it pays to be a packrat.  It was also at this point that I realized that the old Telotta store was finding its new reincarnation in the rebirth of the barn.  Cel and I decided at this point that we should refer to it from here going forward as "the store" and not "the barn."  Pa Joe and Ma Gladys, wherever you are, I hope you feel a little pride that we have found one more way for your legacy to move to a new generation.   So, over the next two days many plants will go into the ground.  Hopefully, everything that I have in a pot, eventually destined to be planted, will find its way to soil by Tuesday evening.  After that, I begin to haul what will no doubt seem like endless loads of compost from the parish compost facility.  It will take approximately 2 years of this to build the soil to where I want it, and then we will move to mulch only for maintenance.

I am writing this to the smell of steaming cabbage in the kitchen.  I harvested 4 large heads today.  I gave one to Norbert, my father in law.  Another went to our neighbor Dixie Slaughter.  The third went to Ms. Duhon.  This is a continuance of Pa Joe's tradition of giving a cabbage to each of his neighbors each year.  The fourth went into our pot and is cooking now.  Here we quarter the cabbage, add a liberal sprinkling of Tony Chachere's seasoning and cook down.  Yep, it is "slap yo mama" good.  And it doesn't get any simpler, assuming you have a big enough pot.  And in the deep south that would be an aluminum Magnalite pot, too.  Soon, I will have to break this off to go sample.  I have to say, that down here, even a total idiot can grow award winning cabbage.  The only secret is pretty much to leave it alone.  I laughed a couple of years back as I drove thought Breaux Bridge, La and saw one person who had lined about 100 feet of chainlink fence with cabbage as an ornamental planting.  Now, I am not talking about ornamental cabbage, I am talking the good old fashion eating kind of cabbage.  And it looked good too.  I bet it tasted just as good for them and quite a few neighbors.  No one can eat that much cabbage.  At least not without endangering the ozone layer :-).

February 27 - Even the best plans,,,  My great hopes for today were dashed.  I actually got out earlier than expected, but it was plain darned cold.  The thermometer bottomed out at 40, but we still had a very, very light frost.  I just couldn't get going.  I went over to the lumber yard to get the side material for the barn.  They were completely out.  Next mom called having issues with her cell phone so then went another 5 hours as I had to run to Baton Rouge.   I finally returned to find the other lumber yard had closed early for Mardi Gras.  In resignation, I decided just to do some mowing and of course the mower would not start.  Some days you just shouldn't get up.  I went home and decided to mow.  I reclaimed most of the yard from the clover.  The mild winter has created a clover epidemic.  Some of it is 12 to 18 inches high.  I needed to bring in the big mower from the gardens, if only the danged thing would start.  If you need a large mower I would NOT recommend Toro based on the failure rate of mine over the last 3 years.

So now that the frustration topic is done, let me get to the embarrassing.  We have an old mobile home at the gardens that we have used for a project shed till the house is done.  I was cleaning up and noticed two large envelopes.  Curious I opened them up.  One had 250 Crocosmia bulbs and the other had 12 Watsonia bulbs.  The Crocosmia has shoots nearly 6 inches long.   I planted the Crocosmia today.  I have much other planting to do, but am have not been able to find a suitable source of quality topsoil.  And I have just not been able to get motivated.  Life is throwing lots of hurdles right now.  Once the house is finished I some of the burden will no doubt be lifted, but by then spring will also be over.  Well, that's life.  We'll make the best of it.

February 28 - Finally a productive day.  I moved another few batches of Aspidistra to the oak in the front center of the gardens.  I am about half way done.  Next free afternoon I should be able to easily finish.  Come on daylight savings time.   While back in that area I found a couple of Ginger rhizomes lying about.  I planted them with the rest on the left side of the barn.   Most of that area is getting crowded so I need a spot to expand the tall white flowering ginger that smell so good.  Something to think about.  I also dug another sucker from the Bordelon Banana for the large border bed on the left side of the driveway.  I need only one more and did look for it.  This thing suckers readily but the suckers are so tight to the clump it is quite difficult to separate.  If it were a bamboo I would say definitely clumping and not running :-).  I also move another 30 Iris.  Then I went ahead and mowed the area.  The clover was so high I would not have been able to find any more Iris anyway.  I will be watching closely for any remaining Iris. I really hope that I got at least on of the small Red Iris.  I have almost completely emptied the greenhouse declaring winter over.  Now I can work on permanently locating the greenhouse.   Almost forgot, I moved the small Weigela.  Forgot to water all the moved plants.  They'll make it.  Last,,I finished mowing the yard and reclaiming it from the clover that ate Jeanerette.  Had to mow two and three passes in most places.

Also, just a note, there is a white flowering tree breaking out into bloom everywhere.  I am not sure what it is yet, but I suspect maybe a plum variety and not a pear.  The Spirea are starting to bloom in many places, but with this mild winter will likely come a mild bloom as well.  While driving through New Iberia on Main Street I was almost sure I saw a while flowering Bauhinia starting to flower.  It was in the intersection of a 6 foot tall brick wall.  With the mild winter, it might have never gone dormant.   Another to investigate. 

The bird life right now is truly incredible.  While at Mom's in Baton Rouge I noticed that noise of the flocks of Black Birds.  Back at the gardens today, I also saw large flocks of Boat-tailed Grackles.  Also, were many flocks of a smaller blackbird.  I couldn't get a close look, but I suspect they were Brown-headed Cowbirds.  I also saw a first today, a Brown Pelican swimming in Bayou Teche behind the house.   Never seen that before in my 4 years here.  It took off as soon as it saw me, but I hope it returns.  I went ahead and put out one of the bird feeders that was moved from the house.   One of those flocks of Grackles can clean it out in an hour.   Even so, it is fun to feed them.  I haven't seen any Dove yet, but I also look forward to their return.  Another small grey sparrow looking bird seemed to be everywhere, but again not close enough for an ID.  Guess I need to find those binoculars. 

I re-layed out the barn beds today and turned over the soil in the areas to receive the Acidanthera and Watsonias.   I also moved a truck load and a half of boxes as part of the home move.  I told you I was motivated today.   Now, there are no pictures because there is no camera.  I suspect it was stolen.  And last, I loaded the Toro back into the truck, actually pushed it in with the 4 wheeler.

March

March 3 - Busy week at work.  Barely had time to even get the still-potted plants watered.   Weather for the weekend is projected to be perfect, so a big spring gardening weekend is planned.  I hope to get many plants in the ground, and get most of the beds cleaned out.  A few new plants made their way into my possession in the last weeks or so.  I got a small Buddha Belly Bamboo and a Plumeria.  I'll have to wait for the Plumeria to bloom to try and identify it.  Today at Lowes, I picked up a nice Passion Vine  (Passiflora caerulea).  Although this is not one of the really fancy passiflora, I have not grown this one before and it was nice and healthy.  My Red Passion Vine (Passiflora coccinea) survived incredible abuse last year.  I put it in a pot for the winter and will replant this weekend.   I have two others that were barely alive when I transplanted them, but I am not at all sure they survived.  They could just be dormant, but I fear they are permanently dormant if you know what I mean.  Cel brought home the most healthy orchids I have ever seen.  I'll pull the tags tomorrow to put some details in the logs. 

March 5 - Got the two new Satsuma's in the ground along with the Anna Apple.  Looking from the house to the front the Anna is on the right.

March 8 - It is that time each spring when things get away from me.  My daily updates are slipping to every 3 days.  Yet, I am determined that this year will be different.  We will see.  This week has been all work starting as early as 5:30AM each day and ending as late as 9PM.  Today, Wednesday afternoon is the first time I have seen the house under construction since Sunday evening.  Gardening has not been on the agenda, yet it must be.  Spring is here, in force.  As I walked around, nearly every plant has started growth.  The lone exceptions are the Paw Paw from eBay which I am sure it dead.  The Flowering Maple, which I am sure is dead also.  And last is the Methley Plum.  It sprung early, and then the late freeze nipped it in the bud.  I hope it is not dead, but if it isn't, it is sure doing a good bluff.  Otherwise, things are really cool.  I love this time of year, each day brings new surprised as plants awaken for the summer.  There are even a handful of flowers on the Redbud, which I thought was still too young to flower.  Also, the Santa Rosa Plum is showing a few flowers this year.  Man, I love spring.

Cameras.  Good news, I found the digital camera.  Also, during its absence and in a state of nostalgia, I pulled out my excellent 35mm camera.  I took some pictures with it, and to my delight you can now get a CD with the digital pics when developing.  Shows how long I have been out of the film camera game.  The quality of my 35mm is far superior to my digital camera, even though the digital is a 5mp Nikon.  A high quality 35mm is equal to 25mp which I cannot afford.  But developing is more expensive.  I will try to blend to the two.  Meanwhile here a few pics. 

Picture 1 is my little greeenhouse, emptied out for summer.  Second is the rear of the partially completed new home, with the Hardy Glads in the foreground.  They are naturalized now, but yet to bloom.  We have to wait for next month for that.   Last is a lovely tree that is blooming in a yard in Jearerette.  Looks like a Wisteria, but it is not.  Can you identify it?  (Later identify as a Texas Mountain Laurel, which I had now added to the garden)

March 9 - The Pretty, the Ugly, and the Damned Weather - Don't think I have ever used that word on this site before, but the frustration levels are rising.  There was no hurricane today, but winds gusted over 60 mph in a vicious spring storm.  Below is the result, AGAIN.

At left is my small seed-starting greenhouse destroyed again.  On the right, racks and plants sit as if nothing happened.  Obviously, the wind lifted the greenhouse right over the top and landed it nearly 30 feet away.  I just got through reassembling it after Hurricane Rita did it even worse.   I will not reassemble it again.  Instead I will recycle the panels and other items into a much heavier duty replacement greenhouse.  OK, I take back the "damned" as I am very fortunate compared to many fellow Louisianans.  Many lost their houses, while I only lost my greenhouse.  Forgive my frustration, lord.

Ok, back to the pretty.  It is spring.  Everything is awakening.  My Redbud made a hand full of flowers.  Another year and maybe I will have a full bloom.  A large white narcissus with a yellow center opened up last week.  I was not able to get a picture.  This was a very unusual mild winter, so there is hope they will sustain.

With this weather comes an area with incredible beauty.  Here is a view of my backyard looking at the bayou and another looking at the sunset towards the front.  I double take back the "damned."  Thank you for the beauty you have provided and for my opportunity to share in it.

March 10-12 - It was a somewhat productive weekend, but could have been much better.  The southerly winds gusted all weekend, sometimes to nearly 40 mph.   Not quite as bad as the 69 mph gust to nailed the greenhouse, but it sure is hard to work in gale force winds.  It just takes it out of you.  Still I managed to get a lot done, and there were some frustrations too.

OK, lets get the frustrations out of the way first.   It looks like I may be able to salvage the greenhouse one more time, although the winds were too strong to work on it, or even move it.  All I was able to do was right it, and face the door toward the winds so it would blow right through it.   I also was not able to spray the fruit trees which are badly infested with a scale type critter.  We'll get it it though.  I can't let these small setbacks get to me.  I did move all of the plants that were in the greenhouse back to their summer habitat under the Live Oaks.

On the positive side, I moved St. Joe's Tower to it new site, which is not that far from its original site, haha.  I will plant the climbing roses on the tower.  My end vision is pretty cool.  I tilled the left side a bit to prepare for the roses, but did not get to the right side.   I also move the herb bed into its final position, although it still needs to be leveled.  I can't finish this area completely until the old mobile home is moved out, but I can get most of it done.   There is still no spring growth on the Champanel grapes, but no reason to believe anything is wrong.  I planted two Passion Vines on the post on the right side trellis, Passiflora caerulea (blue) in the front and Passiflora coccinea  (red) in the rear.  The Wisteria planted at the old tower site was dead.  Not sure what killed it other than just me ignoring it during the dry periods.

I got a load of mulch on Friday chose one bed to clean up.   The first one was obvious as it needed the most work, the Ginger Bed on the northeast side of the barn.  I replanted most of the Ginger uprooted by the concreting of the barn floor and the moving out of the Bordelon Bannana.  I also removed the Ginger that was encroaching on the sweet olive on the east side and made room for the Watsonia and Acidanthera newly planted on the north corner.   There are only a half dozen Watsonia, but over 100 Acidanthera.  Can't wait to see it this summer.  I have move Acidanthera for the northwestern corner to be planted next week. 

I planted the new Ruby Red Grapefruit and the Cinnamon Ginger on the south corner of the barn.  Both should do well there, although I had to drag over the PortaPotty that the workmen are using to shield it from the ferocious southern winds.    Out in the front on the driveway,  I put in the third small Raintree. 

On the large border bed on the driveway across from the barn, I planted two Brugmansia and a small butterfly attracting shrub for which I can't recall the name.  I also got my large Texas Star Hibiscus in the ground.   My large tiller failed just as I was  beginning this project.  It rain for a about 15 feet and just stopped.   In attempting to start it, I then broke the starter rope.  My small mower was running fine, but also on it the starter rope broke.   Am I that strong, nah.  Just old starter ropes, haha.  And old equipment, I get some sick satisfaction on keeping this old stuff going.   My 4-wheeler is so old, 20 years, that have to kick start it because no one can find the gear for the starter to engage.  That just makes it all the more fun for me. 

I ran back home to get the Mantis tiller.   With it I as able to knock down some small hills here and there around the house.  It also got put to use on two arms of the Cross Bed.   I had temporarily stored the tin from the barn lying over one of the arms.  When the horrendous southern winds send it flying it revealed a weed free great soil.    I moved the tin to a new section as this was a great technique that I will remember next year.   I also tilled the last section around the Live Oak that is the central border between acre 1 and acre 2.   Last thing, I added a new plant my collection, a  Magnolia x soulangiana cv. Rustica Rubra.  I don't know where it will live yet, but we will find it a home.

Oh, and last thing, the Mississippi Kite has returned to next one more year.  I best watch the small pets.

March 15 - The log entries are getting further apart as the workload of spring fires up.  I have several volunteerism things that take a great deal of time each spring.  Couldn't be worse timing for a gardener.  And then there is the house construction.  Man, this spring is gonna be one to remember.  I am just praying for rain, as I have many new plants/transplants and quite a few things in pots.  I can't keep up with the watering.  Last two days I have not even seen the gardens in daylight with early mornings and late nights. 

March 19 - Well, we sure got some work done today.  Made up for a very lax day on Saturday.  First, I took on St. Joeseph's Church of the Rose.  OK, a long name for sure.  I moved the old St. Joe's Tower up from the bayou about 100 feet.  Then I dug and planted the six remaining climbing roses.  Three of them were full of ants, of course.  And some, like New Dawn have spikes that could stop a bear.  So I am bitten, full of holes, and sore, but hey they are planted.  After removing them from the pots and seeing the roots, the very fact that they were alive at all is a testament to their fortitude.    They are not in well prepared planting holes.  It should be interested to see them take off now that they are in good soil and actually have something to grow on, for the first time in their lives.

Over at the barn, I planted the Guava.  This was a seedling brought back from Northern California by a co-worker.  Her parents brought the original seeds from Portugal when they moved to this country.  I will need to remember to put a frost cover on top each year.

Over at the house, I jumped the gun and planted one of the Wilma Avocado.  I thought the siders were finished, but then looked up to see a gable end not done.  I will have to beg them to be careful.    I also put in a few Ginger last weekend on one corner.  No worry there if they get trampled or don't make it.  Plenty more where that came from :-). 

Over on the southside of the tool shop that hasn't been built yet, I did start the bed.  Last weekend, I planted the Grapefruit and Cinnamon Ginger there.   Today, I add the Purple Leaved Castor Bean, a Ginger of some sort, the Arboquinea Olive, and the Orange Justica "Justicia spicigera".

And last I planted the remaining planted along the left border is the mid section.  Four Angel's Trumpets went in.  And that Red Leaved, red flowered thing, and those two tubular flowered things.  I'll find the name sooner or later.  Meanwhile I am hoping for a good rain tomorrow.

March 28 - The crunch of spring is here.  Time is now my enemy.  Work is at a feverous pitch, volunteer efforts are peaking, and it will not rain.  House construction is still ongoing.  Whew!  So, there have been a very, very few gardening activities slipped in.  First I went to a conference in Many, La which meant a brief stop at Forest Hill, La on the way.  New acquisitions including a purple Wisteria, a white Wisteria, a White Lady Banks Rose, and a native Dogwood.  Of these, the only one which I am sure where to plant is the Dogwood.  Hope to get it in the ground this weekend.  A couple of the Amaryllis bulbs that I moved this spring are blooming, but the blooms are not pretty due to the mini-drought.   The only plants yet to spring to live is the Paw Paw.  Even the Pecans, always last, have begun to sprout new leaves.   I planted my first plants for the home landscaping.  A Wilma Avocado went into my most protected spot in the front between the front porch and the bump out for the the 2nd bedroom.   I am sure I have missed a few items, but will get them in over the weekend.  Got a few pics also, but they too will have to wait for the weekend.  Hope you are enjoying your spring.

April

April 8 - Next year spring will be different, I hope.  We are now in a full drought, officially, with less than 1/4 inch of rain over the last two months.  It really doesn't look much like spring, that beautiful spring green is just not here due to water stress on lawns and plants.  Spring blooms were not full and are not lasting.  With normal work, home constructions, the big spring event, and the drought this has been one of my most stressful springs yet.  Since so many of my plants are young, many planted this year, each day is rush home to see what needs watering the worst.  At least daylight savings time has kicked in and I have a fighting chance.  Of course I don't want to see the water bill.  I am continuing to put plants in the ground as they need less maintenance that way.  I planted the second Wilma Avocado and two of the three Japanese Maples.  I did get the Dogwood planted.  Also got a the White Dawn planted on the west side of the barn and the Butterfly Bush planted near the future shop site, near the Castor Bean and where the Hass Avocado seedling will go in tomorrow.  Today, my step mother gave me about 20 Peruvian Lilies.  I will find a spot for them tomorrow.  Biggest issue with some plants is I am still not quite sure where they need to go.  I will likely just plant them in one of the new beds and move them next year if need be.  Everyday they remain in pots is a day their lives are in danger.  The Amaryllis and St. Joseph's Lilies are blooming now.  A little late, but moved them during late winter which set them back.  Also, the hardy glads are starting to bloom, but with a pretty pathetic showing due to water stress.  Well, that's all for now.  Maybe I will update again tomorrow after I get back to town and get a little gardening in.  

April 12 - Hey, I got a little gardening done today.  Put in the 3 Strawberry Guava and 2 Pineapple Guava today.  God know how they were still alive.  They are obviously some very tough plants.  I am still desperately trying to get my remaining plants out of pots and into the ground.  Even in a drought they need less watering in the ground than in a pot.  With the house still under construction, the toughest thing is figuring out where to actually plants things.  Some will definitely need to be moved again next fall, but at least they will be alive.  The lack of winter and drought are making for one crazy spring.  The Amaryllis are blooming beautifully a little late, but the Confederate Rose, which would normally not bloom till fall has started to bloom.  I tried to take a few pics, but they came out so bad, I will try again this long Easter weekend.  Hardy glads are still blooming as are most of the roses, but due to lack of water, the bloom is far less than optimal.  I also have a nice first crop of Mulberries.  Hard to believe my beautiful, full 8 foot tall Mulberry making fruit was just a cutting 3 years ago.  I also notice small grapes on the larger of my two Champanel Grape Vines.  I might add it has taken quite a bit of watering this spring to get my trees to hold their fruit.  The Citrus are still flowering, but have dropped quite a bit of fruit.  All in all, things aren't that bad, other than maybe the my next water bill, haha.

April 13 - I potted some Elderberry seedling that I had gotten on eBay sometime back.  The stayed in the envelope over a month because I had forgotten about them.  The fact that they are alive at all is a testament to both their packing and to the hardiness of an Elderberry seedling.  Amazing I think all 10 will survive.  Now I had no idea where I will put them other than the pots they are in now.  I also had somewhere between 5 and 10 cuttings from my Confederate Roses that will survive.  Noticed today that one of my Crinum has started to bloom in this crazy year.  Well, at least gardening here on the gulf coast is never boring.  I have a truck bed full of compost to put down tomorrow around my new plantings.  Hopefully this will help to hold the soil moisture constant until the rains start.  Tomorrow, I know where my Chinese Hibiscus will go, my MayHaw, and my remaining Acidanthera bulbs.   At least two more potted plants for sure will make it in the ground.  Oh, and those two understory, Magnolia looking whatever they are plants.  I know where they go to.  They looked like poop all winter and I was about to write them off when I noticed new growth today.  Well, that will be a good day of work for Good Friday.

April 14 - Good Friday is a good day indeed.  I have dispensed the truck load of compost, mostly around the new plantings to help conserve soil moisture in this drought.  So far today I have planted the Flowering Japanese Magnolia, a native Fringe Tree, and 75 Acidanthera bulbs.  With the Acidanthera I also planted the Babiana Fortuniana bulbs that I had bought on eBay, which came from Australia.  They had come up in the pot, but weren't looking to good at all.  Here they will have a fighting chance along with the Acidanthera.  Tried to plant the Mayhaw, but in that section the ground was like concrete.  I watered the area and will attempt to plant tomorrow.  Today, I am again moving the sprinkler around just trying to keep the new plantings alive.  It is working, marginally, but I got a bad feeling about that water bill.    Taking a break, before I get back to it this afternoon.  Anyone know how to do a rain dance.  Send me the instructions.  Anything is worth a try at this point.

April 16 - Mostly Easter Weekend family activities for last couple of days.  I did get the Mayhaw planted.  About the only other thing I did was to water.  I still go and stare at the remaining plants in pots once a day.  Sooner or later they will tell me where they want to be planted, but for now they are mum.  For now, I am going to go to work on closing in the barn and building the new workshop.  Today, I drove the nails back out of many boards as I recycle old lumber.  

April 17 - It continues to be a brutal spring.  Still no rain and dreadfully dry.  We are 3 straight weeks of 20 - 30 mph hour winds from the south.  Some of my trees are looking quite horizontal and there are a few broken branches here and there.  Thinks to my relentless watering, and the water bill I haven't seen yet, there are a few high spots.  I ate fresh Mulberries today.  They were small and super sweet, but it was a real treat knowing this was just a cutting 3 years ago and given to me by Mr. Picard who has now passed away.  I will think of him every year as I eat from the tree which was his gift to me.  There are small bunches of grapes on the Champanel grape vines.   Several of the roses now on St. Joseph's tower have put forth a bloom or two and are sporting new growth to let me know they approve of their new spot.    The Amaryllis bloomed beautifully as well this year, in spite of being moved in early spring, a very good sign.  The Peach tree from last year has several fruit on it and most of the Citrus are holding their fruit.  If we could just get a good rain or two, all would be well.  Haven't learned a rain dance yet, but I pray.   More to come.

April 18 - Same old, same old, no rain.  Well it is bad, but there are a few things to celebrate.  I harvested and cooked cabbage and Bok Choi yesterday.  I went from pot to pot trying to decide which was the best. It was a tie, but I sure had to eat a lot to come to that conclusion :-)  I also harvested the last of the Grapefruit picking the final 23 from the tree.  The crop was not as heavy as last year, but still over 200 from that one tree.  The Acanthus, even the young ones are flowering like crazy.   And the smell from the Jasmine, which is completely full of flowers, permeates at least a half an acre with the most wonderful scent.  For the last two mornings and evenings a flock of around 12 egret type birds has flown up and down the bayou just over water level in as the light was just beginning to fade.  Their gracefulness and the contrast of the pure white against the falling light was terrific.   So yes, even in a brutal spring there is beauty and things to enjoy.   Sometimes as I am dragging around water hoses and pondering the water bill I don't want to see I forget those things.  It is always important to stop and smell the roses as they say.  Stopping to smell them and then writing about it later that evening is almost like smelling them all over again.  Don't have a garden journal, start one.  Worth the effort for sure.

April 21 - Not a lot of rain, not even enough rain, but finally rain.  I know everything is breathing a slight sigh of relief, not the least of with is me.  At least I get a weekend of not worrying.  And a perfect weekend.  My big non-profit even is Wed and Thu of next week.  My wife has been forgiving and understanding as my time management has been a nightmare.  I am out of midnight oil.  I needed a break and mother nature gave it to me.  I will work mosts of this weekend, not in the garden or on personal things, but on work work.   Knowing my hard earned investments in plants and that my wife is happy allows me to do that with a clear conscious.  I will make on last conversation with my few plants still in pots to see if they want to go in the ground.  It would be easy work after these rains.

April 30 - Well, the big non-profit gig is over and the rains have arrived.  It is Sunday today.  We got good light rains last Thursday morning and then heavy rains on Friday night.  It is quite wet out and soils are not fully saturated.   The weeds are in full swing, but so are the plants.  Native and established plants now have that beautiful spring green color.  Many drought stressed newly planted specimens have not yet recovered, but are showing signs of recovery too.  

May

May 4 - I have to smile as I write this, and would if it was not for other darkness in my days.  While I complained about lack of rain, at least it kept the weeds at bay.  The drought has been contained by several rains over the last week of half both to my relief and to the relief of the weeds.  Due to the rain I was not able to mow last weekend and now the weeds have taken over.  Johnson Grass, a popular weed here, has grown over 24 inches in a week and a half.  That is right, two inches a day.  At least it is easy to pull as compared to other weeds.  

May 6 - Good rains again on yesterday (Friday) washed any thoughts of mowing on Saturday, which was good.  Although the grass is high I am spending the weekend in New Orleans with Cel and could not mow anyway.  At least now it is guilt free knowing I could not have mowed anyway.  I am writing this on a cloudy, but great day in New Orleans.  Heavy rains passed to the north, but weather stayed nice here.  Saw some great garden statuary which was a little over my budget at this point in time, but someday.  Like Rome, multi-acre gardens are not built in a day.  There are years to come.  I only pray that God gives me the health and wealth to complete my task.   The dove outside the window this afternoon "cooing" reminds me of the simple pleasures in life.   Sitting here, in an area that saw such devastation only months ago, yet life slowly returns to normal.  Normal is no doubt, closer for some, than others.  But this is life.  Most of the time, nature lets us believe that we are in control, but cannot resist the temptation every now and then to remind us that it is nature, not mankind, that has the "say so" at the end of the day.   Gardeners and fisherman are probably more in tuned to that than most.  I read a great quote earlier today in a magazine by Henry David Thoreau where he says "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."  Well, I am not ready to run off into the woods, but in dealing with the aspects of nature while gardening, certainly one gets a small taste of what he was referring to.   Nature brings beauty and serenity,  and, violence and destruction, but afterwards comes renewal.     And after witnessing it each time, there is no better description than "awe."  It is a cycle that began long before we arrived and will continue long after we are gone.  We are blessed to be part of it for a second of time in the total of eternity.  And to find love in that second is the greatest treasure of the moment.  I was feeling a bit philosophical today.  We'll talk gardening tomorrow, with some new pictures to also.

May 11 - Every time I update my log it amazes me at how much time has passed since the last update.  Every day has gone to every week on average.  Good weather and a lower workload means a hard but fun day of work ahead on Saturday as we tame the weed jungle the rains have left.  The Johnson Grass and other weeds I can't identify have grown to over 3 feet in less than 3 weeks.  But this is the immediate gratification kind of stuff.  Show up early, work hard all day and the transformation is dramatic.  Can't wait to get into it.  Snapped a few pics today.  The first are back in the old gardens.  Pic one shows the Castor Bean which survived the mild winter and will no doubt be tremendous by the end of this summer.  In the middle is the Bottlebrush which has almost finished blooming for the year, but I did capture a few fleeting blooms.  The last is the Mimosa blooms against the sky.  Many regard this as a trash tree,  but is has so many redeeming qualities I have no idea why other than absolute laziness.  Great blooms, great smells.  It can cast out quite a few seedlings, so plant it with in open lawn so you can mow around it.   In my mind this is a tree worth growing.

Here are a few more pics.  One positive thing from the drought is that all of the Daylilies are going to flower at once, which should be a magnificent site starting up in about another week.  Still one has to show off and go first.  This is Scarmouche.  It goes first nearly every year.  The next scene is a real hodge podge of stuff, variegated ginger, banana, sweet olive, a Bridle Wreath being consumed by a Morning Glory, with a Loquat in the background and several other plants in the mix.  Last is Lucky.  Lucky is a stray who adopted us.  When he first showed up in the area, on three different occasions we heard tires squeal and actually heard the collision as the car hit him, yet each time he survived.  We call him Lucky as he is lucky to be alive.  He is past that now and for the most part, now domesticated too.  He now has several owners whom he has adopted, but on some level clearly belongs to no one and has a very independent life.  We all love him, and he is totally and unarguably credited with preventing at least two burglaries as he watches the homes.  Doesn't have a  mean bone in his body, but barks like someone is pouring scalding water on him any time a stranger enters any of the properties he protects.   Only in a small rural town could Lucky exists in his life style.  No doubt our area, like many, has its downsides, but there are upsides as well.  Lucky is one.

May 14 - Spent the day mowing yesterday.  Cel was on the big zero turn and I was on the push mower inside of the beds.  Yes, it was that bad.  After a prolonged drought we had nearly three straight weeks of rain.  Weeds had gone from nonexistent to 30 inches tall.  It is mostly under control, but it would have taken the full 2 days to get it done, and Sunday was Mother's Day.  Still got a little gardening in.  Mom's Rose Bed had not been cleaned out since she hurt her shoulder over a year ago.  Here the weeds were 4 feet tall and very well established.  The bed was small at least.  It took me and my new Felco pruner well over an hour.  The weeds were way to established to pull, so I cut them off at ground level.  As they start to return I will need to let Roundup finish the job.  After that, a couple bags of compost and maybe 4 bags of Mulch should make things manageable.  The good news was that we found two of the roses still alive, that were though to have long been dead.   The roses should rebound nicely.  Later, I definitely needs cuttings of the two that were still doing well as they are not doubt, super hardy in this climate.  I noticed today that all of the Gardenia were completely full of flowers everywhere.  Also the Vitex were filling out nicely.   The early drought has made us more like the temperate areas where everything blooms at once.  Here in normal years, spring blooms start in January and stretch out through June.  This year even all of the Daylilies look like they will bloom at once.  Never been able to see that before.  And add to that our super mild winter which means that our normal summer and fall bloomers are already blooming.  Incredible.  My Rangoon Creeper and Morning Glory Tree are 5 feet across and completely covered in blooms.  Most years they would just coming back from the roots.  Below, the cool thing about living on the bayou is you never know what will appear when you first hear something coming.  It was taken before the rains and right after I moved the tower and the roses.  Next pic was taken on Mother's Day.  Featured are mom and Lucy along with the the newly cleaned out rose bed.  It is a wonder anything was alive in there.  Mom was obviously happy with the newly rediscovered rose bed.  Last, shows a Vitex just coming into full bloom, but the best part of this pic is that it shows the super lush ultra green look we get here with the rains of spring.  Its very essence is one of life.

May 17 - I wandered around the gardens pruning and perfecting.  What a wonderful therapy.  My new Felco pruners are a joy too.  Recommend them to anyone.  Here are a few more pics of things going on.  First is the heirloom Alstromeria.  I dug a small bit of this from an abandoned home site in Gonzales years ago, not knowing what is was at the time.  I gave the click on a little larger resolution than normal as this is beautiful flower when you get up close.  It is a wonderful evergreen groundcover here.  It spreads just right.  Overcomes weeds, but not invasive.  Next is an heirloom Morning Glory which has grown on Joe's property for a long as Cel can remember.  Next is a Shrimp Plant  which cannot be defeated.  I have dug it up twice, yet some root piece lives and it continues to grow back.  Pardon the abandoned Mardi Gras beads beside it.  Last is my Shell Ginger which is blooming for the first time since it was given to me by a local gardeners.

May 18 - Well, life is always challenging for a gardener.  I have a couple days off and then 6 days of travel.  This is panic time.  With many new plantings, if there is no rain in that 6 day period, survival may be an issue for some of those plants.  This weekend I will need to water like crazy and then pray.  Also, I have many plants still in pots that will need to be planted.  For sure, in a pot, six days of southern summer with no water can kill a plant.  They have a better chance of survival in the ground.  But hey, I fly to San Jose on Sunday and then across the country to Orlando on Wednesday and back home on Friday.  Will get some great ideas and maybe a seed or two.  Took a few more pics today.  On the first picture.  You know, I have no idea on the scientific or common name of this plant.  It has a green trunk.  You can see the leaf shape in the picture.  It is deciduous here.  This is the first time it has flowered, no doubt due to its size, over 12 feet, and the very mild winter we had.  Next is a cluster of roses.  This miniature rose was nearly killed when I applied a herbicide "Image" without reading the instructions.  This year is seems to have recovered quite well with some incredible new growth.  Next is a nice little Hibiscus I picked up on sale for $6 bucks.  It will no doubt perform well all summer till the frost takes it out.  But for the price, well worth it as an annual.  Now, last winter it would have made it through quite nicely, as did the Rangoon Creeper and Morning Glory Tree.  The next picture is of an Althea.  It was given to me as a cutting back in 2000 by a co-worker.  Today it is around 7 feet tall and gorgeous.  

May 27 - Happy Anniversary, Cel.  Thanks for putting up with me and the gardens.  And wait till you see what she got us.  Truly I don't deserve her.  This is a life size garden statue.   Cel spotted her in a garden center in New Orleans.  They had a couple of full sized statues and wanted to get them sold, so had priced them very low.  She took me to see it on a visit there, but we still couldn't quite justify the expense.  With a little addition negotiation Cel got her and surprised me to say the least.  When I first saw the statue and realized she was ours I said "oh, my god" out loud in shock.  Incredible.  What a gift. 

I am just back from a week of crossing the country.  On Sunday I flew from Lafayette, La. to San Jose, Ca.  On Wednesday I flew from San Jose, Ca. to Orlando, Fl.  On Friday I flew from Orlando, Fl. back to Lafayette, La.  Talk about jet lagged.  Woke up late today, then Cel and I headed out to the gardens.  Winds, dust, heat, and humidity beat us down in just a couple of hours so we headed in till late afternoon.  I was relieved to see that the plants I put in the ground just before leaving had made it just fine.  With no rain, temps in the 90's, and dry winds I feared the worst.  On top of everything they were really root bound so I had to take the root balls to task with my new root cutting knife from Lee Valley Tools.   It was quite inexpensive and worth every penny.  I also got a Japanese SS Farmers Knife and some Felco Pruners.  My what a difference good tools are in making a job more pleasurable.

June

June 3 - Got a mini-show of pics here you can click on.  First is a Castor Bean that has self seeded here for several years now.  This seedling was moved to the new gardens to continue the tradition.  The next plant has a common name here of Evergreen Wisteria.  It is a very hardy and vigorous plant.  Next is one of our four cats, the only female.  Her name is TaiTai.  The Morning Glory Tree is next with a fresh bloom cluster.  With the mild winter if suffered next to no die back and will be outrageous by the end of the summer.  The next scene is just up the road from the gardens.  A great Live Oak and an old chimney from something, old sugar mill maybe.  I have watched the vine that climbs it attempt to reach the top every year.  With the mild winter I am curious as to how high it will get this year.  Last is our original little statue named Jasmin Wabohh and the plants surrounding her.  You will see an Acanthus blooming in the foreground and a small sea of Alstromeria blooming to her right.   Well that's it for now.  Got some more planting to do tomorrow.  Have a great day.

June 4 -Did a lot of mowing today and some tilling to knock down high point around foundation.  Planted the Buddha  Belly Bamboo at the rear of the dog run.  Also planted the unknown rose in the center of the rear fence of the dog run.   A couple of weeks ago I planted the white and purple Wisteria to run along the the rear fence of the dog run also, but I had to move one today as it was not aligned right with the rear fence.  I only had to move it about 12 inches, so it should not affect it much.  Wow, I am dirty from head to toe.   Not much to take pictures of today.  Other than the once again broken Toro mower.  Take my advice, when you need a mower, spend your money on any brand but Toro, or risk spending your money forever on keeping your Toro running.  In my opinion, it is a piece of junk with the name Toro attached.   

June 11 - Tomorrow is the big 50.  Yep, I am half a century old.  Almost bought a plant yesterday, but decided not to.  I spent last two days in New Orleans.  Back in Jeanerette today.  Temps are at a near record high of 95 degrees.  It is brutal and all plants are suffering from heat and a lack of rainfall.  But, the Acidanthera have started to bloom as noticed at left.  They have a fabulous scent.  Can't wait till they are in full bloom.  On the right my Crinums are blooming.  They are in a pot in the shade so I was surprised when they bloomed thinking they would have need full sun.  Whose complaining.  The other day, while at Walmart I picked up some near throwaway quality super sale items.  Got a couple of varieties of Canna, probably 50+ Crososmia, and some Horseradish roots.  Only about 1 of each three Canna rhizomes was good.  I potted them for now till I nurse them to enough strength to transplant well.  I put the Croscosmia straight into the ground and planted a couple of straggling Hibiscus right behind them.  I have moving the sprinkler around to the most damaged areas.  I think I lost my beautiful variegate Japanese Maple and my new Dogwood.  Just couldn't take the intense heat and lack of rain.  The new Anna Apple looks pretty sad too, and the Japaense Maple.  OK, you get the picture.   New plantings are hanging on for their lives.  We need some rain.  The first Tropical Storm Alberto in the gulf already.  Let me just say it right now, we need rain, but we don't need rain that way.   

Here a few pictures of a water feature at an apartment complex that I saw and really liked.  There are matching water features at each end with some shrubs on an island a couple of walk over bridges.  Some variation of this would be perfect for the low area that run between my first and second acre.  Here are a few shots of it.  Can't wait to do my own version  some day. 

June 12 - Well, 50 came and went with little fanfare, just a lot of watering.  The sprinkler ran 24 hours yesterday and will do so overnight as well.  With so many folks watering pressure is low so I can only run one sprinkler at a time instead of the usual two.  Sure makes it tough.  This is only because I have so many new plantings.  Established plants are complaining but not in danger, yet.  Plants that are less than 2 years in the ground are looking rough.  We could really use a good rain.  Some thunderstorms built along the coast to our east this evening, so at least someone got some relief.  I even heard thunder earlier.  In the summer along the gulf there is almost always some chance of later afternoon/early evening rain so maybe ours will be in the next day or two.  Got to hope.  To heck with all that.  Its my birthday.  Here's to the future.  May God give us all "enough."

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess."

I left off the last sentence of this well known prose.  I haven't had nearly enough "hello's" yet.  And Cel, if you read this, I love ya.  Thanks for shaping me into who I am.  You're the best.

June 14 - Well, the fountain has water, but there is still no rain in sight.  Looks like another one of the $100+ water bills is on the way.   The brutal heat of last week has dropped a bit.  The temps of 99 are down to the low 90s.  Believe it or not, that makes all the difference of the world.  Most plants are looking a little better.  I am trying hard to make sure that no plants slip too far, I am pretty sure that I have lost one Pineapple Guava and one Strawberry Guava.    But you never know what will snap back when the rains start, if they ever start, this summer.  Going on vacation next week, but I do have a few good pictures for the log.  It is interesting to see which plants, and there are quite a few that are not only surviving, but thriving in the heat and drought.  The Liriope around the fountain is steadily filling in.  Hopefully soon it will overlap the edge so that the bright blue ledge is no longer noticeable.  I think another year and we will be there.  It has only been about 12 months since original planting and already they are getting there.  They even flowered this year.  Now, keeping the water clear is another matter.  One of my two Koi mysteriously died, but the other is getting big fast and is quite healthy.  I'll find a sole mate for it this summer.    On to the other pictures.  First is a Shrimp Plant planted at the base of one of the twin pines in the front.  The Shrimp Plants must be quite drought hardy and the 3 I have all look great.  Next is a Daylily which made its way to the new gardens.  Most are still back in the old gardens.  This double spider has really brilliant reds and oranges.  It is almost like they are thriving in the heat and intensifying because of it.  Next is the plant sold to me as a Blue Butterfly Bush.  While in New Orleans last week I found it labeled Blue Clerodendrun or "Clerodendrun myricoides "ugandense" which is the proper name.  It is also known as a Blue Glorybower.  Those who read my journals know I am not too specific :-).  Well, it seems we have this one correctly and formally identified now.  Bad news is that this plant is from South Africa and most rate it Zone 10, which means it may not survive most of our winters, although last year it would have done OK.  We'll see, but to be safe I will try to propagate a cutting prior to winter.   Last is the house under construction at New Dawn.  It is only 75% complete in this photo, but coming along.  Looks like the Mimosa on the right front side has survived.  I moved the house site over 15 feet to give it a fighting chance.  After everything is complete I really wanted it to look like the house had been there for many years so preserving that tree was a big part of that.  All in all, with some good plantings and landscaping I may find that "been there for year" look, but there is still some work to do.  Once we get the house finished, I can work on the finishing touches landscape wise.

June 15 - Well not much to update.  It is really hot, I am really tired, and my vacation has been postponed again, for at least few days.  I know it sounds a little negative, but this is a log, not a motivational speech.  It will get better. 

June 19 - First, I almost this Blood Lily b2looming at the base of a Ginger patch.  I have 4 of these, but the funny thing is I only remember getting one and have no idea at all where the other 3 came from.  This is the second year that they have bloomed and maybe the second, at the base of the Mimosa is multiplying so they is where the other two came from.  The ones at the base of the Mimosa did a half way bloom, but with all of the construction at that site it is amazing it even survived.   I think they will flourish next year when all the work is done and I get the beds shaped up and treated right.  Still got a whole lot of work to do with compost, manure, and mulch.  The end results are always worth it, but it takes a couple or three years to see the true results.  Cel high jacked my Paraquay Nightshade plant.  She like the flower and has it in New Orleans.  Maybe I can slip it out when she isn't looking when we get back from Florida on Sunday.  Then again, the car may be so full of new plants it won't fit, hehe.

June 16 - I woke last night to the sound of thunder. How far off, I sat and wondered  I did not start humming a song from 1962, but the sound of rain drops made a music all it own.  And it is raining again this morning.  Hey, now halleluiah.  Sorry, John Mellencamp.  I just couldn't help myself.   Off and on rain is in the forecast for the next few days.  I hope this is the end of our drought and the start of regular rains for the next couple of months. On the right is my mother-in-law in front of her flower-laden Crape Myrtle.   I am always amazed at her plant growth.  She definitely feeds the soil, not the plants, using manure each spring to enhance her beds.  I can definitely attest to the results.  Not to just this Crape Myrtle which is a 4 year old seedling, but also to the rest of her  flower beds. 

June 22 - Tonight I updating the log from Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  This is the first official night of my shortened, but much needed vacation.  And since we have had some rains back at New Dawn, I do not have the anxiety that normally accompanies our vacations of thinking some plant is dying of thirst back home.  Recent years have thrown us some tough weather, hurricanes and droughts most notably.  But there have been some high spots too, like the very mild winter last year.  I will also not worry about the new home at New Dawn which continues to draw near to completion.  I guess we are about 4 weeks away.  Nothing happens this week as we are waiting on the permanent power to be run.  This switch to permanent power to the new home will also mark the disconnect of power to the old mobile home with has served as our "camp." for the past few years and will lead to its permanent departure.  I cannot tell you how I look foward to living in one place and only having one landscape to keep up, which is a pleasure I have not enjoyed for over 5 years.  To go to sleep and wake up in my gardens will no doubt be both a pleasure and a treasure. 

But enough of back home, how about here.  The weather and water are beautiful.   We are just a few miles west of the famous and beautiful East Pass in Destin.  If you have not stayed here in this area, you have missed one of the treasures of the Gulf Coast.  Sugar white sand beaches and crystal clear water.  Around noon the winds start to build until early evening driving away the heat and making long sessions on the beach very inviting.  Generally I am under the umbrella with my whitish skin, while Cel with her part Sicilian blood just soaks it up in the sun.  Her skin turns brown and beautiful, while mine turns red and falls off (peeling).   Still I love it.  I always enjoy the nurseries in this areas, from Pensacola to Panama City.  There are some good ones in the Alabama between Foley and the coast too.  Here, there is one on the road between I-10 and Navarre that always has a good selection and good prices.   I got my Variegated Leaf Japanese Maple here years ago.  Unfortunately, I have transplanted it this year and the early heat wave and drought did it in, I am afraid.  It certainly looks quite dead.  Maybe I will find a replacement on the way home.

I am reading a great book by David Fairchild, for whom Fairchild Gardens in Miami, Fl is named, entitled "The World Grows Round My Door."  I is quite old, published in 1947.  This is one of many of his books as he was a very prolific writer.   I would recommend this book to any gardener who enjoys reading about the way things were as it entails his world travels as a plant collector and the establishment of his home named "The Kampong" on the shores of Biscayne Bay.  I am finding it quite interesting and inspirations in the way he accepts his gardening failures as well as his successes.   I plan to add others books by David Fairchild to my library.  I am fairly sure at this point that I have all modern books related to gardening along the Gulf Coast in my library in addition to quite a few antique books such as this one.  It seems I am always discovering a new treasure in an old gardening book about gardening on the Gulf Coast.  Now, mind you this book is not about Gulf Coast gardening which I define as Zones 8 and 9 S.  Perhaps to be fair to the folks on the Gulf Coast in higher zones like South Texas and South Florida in Zone 10 and 11, I should say Northern Gulf Coast gardening.  One day I would like for this site to become a definitive resource for the Northern Gulf Coast Gardeners.  I have seen other sites come and go, some far better than mine, but maybe by longevity and partnership, I can get there. At least this year I am well on the way to documenting a complete year in the gardens with some detail.  This is my third attempt.  One year a busy spring got me off track and last year hurricanes did the number on us.   This year in spite of a very busy spring, a really tough spring drought, and the construction of a home at New Dawn, I am still hanging in there.   Good night from Fort Walton Beach, Fl.

June 25 - Our second to last night tonight here in Fort Walton Beach.  It has been an incredible week's vacation.  Cel and I are having a great time, mostly on the beach, but today we made an excursion eastward to Point Washington.  There we went to Eden Gardens.  Click the sign pics to enlarge and read the story.  This was a small, but beautiful place as the pictures below will reveal.  Not only did we get lots of great ideas for our garden, we also bought 3 new Camellias.  As you will see in one of the pictures below they are constantly air-layering from the Camellias in their gardens.  They are quite reasonably priced.  We got two Camellia Japonica name Tomorrow's Dawn and Purple Tomorrow, and one Camellia Sasanqua named Shiro-eqqo.  Not sure where on New Dawn they will go, but that it the fun part.  No doubt they will stay in pots until early fall.  We also took scenic Highway 30A back to Destin.   The trip was well worth the time away from the beach.  Here are the pictures from Eden Gardens.  I tried to capture the beauty even though this was not the optimal time of year, time of day, and they are in the middle of drought. 

Here are the landscape veiws

Here are some of the water features, statuary, and other structures on the grounds.  Of course, I could not think of a more fitting picture than the one at the end of this set, and I am proud to say, we did both.

June 26 - Well, this is the last night in Florida.  Tomorrow morning we pack up and head back home to New Dawn.  It was a very special time for us.  And of course, in the way of plants, we are bringing some of our vacation back with us where it will live for many years, hopefully outliving us.  I finished the book by David Fairchild.  It was worth reading if not for the last two chapters alone, which helped me to transcend one more level of gardening.  I won't spoil it for sometime you may have the opportunity to read it yourself.  I cannot wait to read some of his other books.  Here are some departing pictures of our vacation.  We got a few more plants today, but I will leave that for tomorrow's update.  Here are a few more pictures from the beach including just a little plant life too.  Sugar white sands and emerald green water are no exaggeration in the Ft Walton/Destin area as noted in the first shot.  Shot 2 is at the end of the first day.  And this weather stayed like this for a whole week with the exception of one early evening when some thunder clouds moved in creating a beauty all it own, but the rains only lasted about 15 minutes much to the dismay of the locals who need some rain for the plants.  Last is the classic Sea Oats that inhabit the sand dunes.  I wonder if they are good to eat.  Probably not as I have never heard of anyone eating them, not that anyone would nowadays as they are very protected.  The help to hold the dunes together which give the little bit of hurricane protection that there is here.  The dead vegetation in the back ground is probably due to the hurricanes of the last two years.

This Brown Pelican came by to visit late Sunday evening.  I ventured into the surf to get a close-up.  A little two close for comfort.

We have had some very memorable vacations here on the Florida/Alabama Gulf Coast.    We spent most of our days on the beach soaking up the sun, the sound of the waves, and the peacefulness.  This area is so incredibly wonderful, it is no doubt that in spite of hurricanes, people flock here year around.  I once considered moving to the Florida Gulf Coast when I was much younger.  Sadly, it increasingly is becoming a place that requires more and move money to visit.  Hotel rates have risen alarmingly over the last few years and took what seems to be a really big leap over the last couple.  No doubt this is due to hurricane damage and the need to recoup expenses incurred in repairing damage and rebuilding.   Even more comes with the high cost of fuel and living nowadays.  It is still a good deal, but not a cheap one anymore as it used to be.

June 27 - Made it home today, but not without adding a few more plants to the bounty.  I stopped by the "Garden Gate" nursery in Pensacola.  If you are ever in the area, this is a "must stop" nursery.  It is not one of those multi-acre nursery with lots and lots of the same thing.  It is quite small, but with some real treasures.  Like the Cry Baby Plant (Erythrina crista-galli).  I got a small one at this same nursery several years ago, but it did not make it due to my own abuse.  I looked for this plant at many nurseries over the last few years, even had one try to hoodwink me by selling me a Mamou Tree (Erythrina herbacea) telling me it was the same thing.  Of course, I knew it was not, but since I wanted  one of those also, I bought it.  I also bought a Flame Vine (Senecio confusus) and a  variegated Morning glory.  I hope I don't regret getting this one.  They border on invasive here.  I have another of these as well from Cel's grandmother's plant in Jeanerette.  I still have a problem with a lack of vertical structures for vines which I have to figure out.  There are several other vines I would like to grow next year for which I already have seeds.  The fence around the dog yard will provide several good opportunities, but not nearly enough.  I am adding a few new sights to the reference links on the left.  The first is http://www.floridagardening.blogspot.com/, a nice blog oriented to Florida Gardening.  http://hometown.aol.com/jyex2/garden_louisiana.htm, I have seen this once before but not sure if it was on the site.  The picture of the road kill on the home page is classic.  This site has not been updated in some time, and being from Chalmette, I wonder how they fared in the hurricane.  http://glosgarden.tripod.com/ - Had this one before, but she moved.  We found her again.  This one too has not been updated in a while.  As a side note, at this point, other than www.floridata.com this may be one of the longest running Gulf Coast Gardening Websites and Blogs out there.  Lots more sites to add, but enough for now.  Every time I find a site, I add it to a Favorites groups named "a site to add to website."  There are at least 20 sites still in there.  Alas, it is for another day.  Goodnight. 

June 29 - Earlier this year I showed a few pictures from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc there.  One the way home from our vacation in Ft. Walton Beach, Fl we went a little out of the way to see the destruction of Hurricane Katrina ,and how recovery was progressing, on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the Biloxi/Gulfport area.  I will only leave you with 4 pictures which say it all.  In the last picture, spray painted on the what remains of the house was a note saying "3 women and one cat survived here."  My heart aches for my beloved Gulf Coast.  But, we will recover.

Also, take a look at the effects of the drought below.  That is my size 11 shoe next to that crack in the earth.  The water bill is going to be high and the new plantings are really struggling.  And I have quite a few plants that need to be planted, like last month need to be planted.  And I just bought new ones.  Can't complain though.  I do this to myself and love it.  But let's not leave on a down note  I checked out the new home today to find that someone had moved in before me.  Pretty cool looking spider, and big too, about 4 inches end to end.  Not sure what to make of that little weave he has going out the back.  Actually spider creep me out a little, bit this guy was really cool looking up close.  Click the picture to see him a little closer.   Also, not sure if it is a he or a her.

July

July 1 - Finally got some rain today, and just minutes after I spent $200+ renting a trencher to run water and electric lines around the property from the new house.  Trenching clay soil in the mud is not a task anyone wants to undertake.  If we have not needed the rain so bad, I would be really disgusted right now, but I am taking it with my chin up.  And I am very happy about the rain. 

Just found some satellite photos of the New Dawn Property.  Take a look. In the middle of the picture you will see the old mobile home coming off the rear of a large Live Oak (actually 3 Live Oaks) pointed towards Bayou Teche.  Just in front of that and slightly to the left is the barn.  Just below that and ever so slightly to the right of the barn you will see what looks like a shadow of an upside down cross.  This is the beginning of the Cross Bed.  I am amazed it could be seen via satellite.   Across the highway at the bottom are brown Sugar Cane fields as this picture was obviously shot in the winter.  The mobile home on the property to the left of ours is no more and has been replaced with a home, as will ours in just a few more weeks.    This satellite photo is between 3 and 4 years old.  Can't wait to see an updated one as there are many new trees and beds at New Dawn.

And yes, I did get more new plants.  As I was coming home, I saw a sign "Plant Sale" on the highway from one of my favorite little nurseries.  I got a beautiful Lace Flowered Duranta, a couple of really nice Crocosmia, a medium Malva Zebrina, and a red leaved red flowering plant whose name escapes me right this moment.  I also saw a plant that I have been looking for quite a while to find, a Clerodendrum speciosissimum.  He was selling it as a Giant Red Salvia, which it is not.  I have also seen it referred to as a Java Plant.  It also goes by the name Flaming Glory Bower and, as the New Orleans Botanical Garden refers to it, as a Pagoda Flower.  I guess that is why I should start using scientific names instead of common ones.  I first saw this plant lining the front porch of a home in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.   I had no idea what it was, but it was thriving and beautiful.  Brilliant red flowers held high above deep green foliage.  It is somewhat tender for our Zone, but had obviously been in from of that home for many years, on the East Side as I recall.  I looked around the Internet for quite a few hours after I first saw if trying to figure out what it was and finally honed in on the Java Plant, but as you know there is a big difference between the way a plant looks in a jpeg file on the Internet and the way it looks in real life.  Still, looks like I hit it right and this was the first time I had seen the plant in a nursery.  They only had one, which the owner had acquired to plant at their home.  He said there were 8 more back at his supplier and that he was going back there to get them this week.  I asked him to hold me two.  These are the plants that are special to me.  I had only seen it once, had to research to find out what it was, and then wait a few years before it came my way.  I have many plants with stories behind them at New Dawn.

July 2 - I started trenching again this morning and again the rains arrived before I was finished.  This is what many summer afternoons look like here on the Northern Gulf Coast.  This has truly been an unusual year.  Our normal wet soggy winter was relatively dry.  April is always drought time, but then the rain never came, until yesterday that is.  Now the 10 day forecast shows the same thing every day.  This is normal May, June, July weather.  And when it isn't raining, the heat and humidity can be pretty brutal, particularly right after a rain.  Actually we have been in pretty much of a drought since the hurricanes, Katrina and Rita came through.   I think everyone but the contractors, who are still working non-stop to repair hurricane damaged structures, are breathing a sigh of relief with the coming of the rains.  For me, it is a mixed blessing.  The remaining outside plumbing would have been much easier without the mud, but many of my plants probably would not have lived through another 2 or 3 weeks of drought.  It had reached the critical stage to be sure.  Even with the inch of so of rain of the last couple of days the soil is barely moist below the surface   

July 4 - Happy Independence Day.  I spent the weekend in New Orleans and took a walk through the French Quarter checking out old book stores with Cel.  I added a few books to my gardening library.   It is so much fun to find a relevant book from the past.  There are quite a few books oriented towards deep south gardening out there.   I did not get a single plant, but I did grab a couple of seed pods off of the neat yellowing flowering tree in the courtyard garden on the right.  Once I am finally living on New Dawn, which is hopefully only a month away, I will be able to concentrate on propagation.  This is much needed if I am going to get the 3 acres planted out, since I don't have the budget to buy everything I will need.  It is also the secret to surviving hard winters here.  Having cuttings of tender plants in propagation means being able to replace plants that don't make it through a hard winter.    Of course among all of the other things I have to do, replacing the green house which was destroyed twice in one year, is one that I need to do badly.   I just don't see how I will get to it before this winter.

Well, on the plant side of things, I did bring home the Paraguay Nightshade.  Cel finally let go of it :-).  I spotted it on the $5 sale rack in front of the K-Mart next to Cel's apartment in New Orleans.  It had just about been finished off from a lack of watering, but was hanging on.  I forgot to get it on the way home and told Cel about it a few days later feeling sure it was dead by then.  A week later she called from the front of the K-Mart after seeing it one little bloom on a neat looking plant.  I guess somebody finally watered the poor thing.  It bloomed a few times for her and she didn't want me to take it, but it finally started to complain from a lack of light in the apartment, so she relented to my consistent requests to "take it home."  She loves plants nearly as much as I do.

I got home Tuesday evening to find out another 2 inches of rain had fallen.   And there is more rain in the forecast for the next 10 days.  There is a chance of rain nearly every day with 70 percent for the next couple of days, then backing down to 30% to 40% for the next week.  I am not going to complain though.  We sure need it.   Hey, that is south Louisiana, from drought to rainforest in a week.  Open laughter on this end. 

I just saw a news special saying that genetic plant engineering will soon bring us a no-mow lawn.   That would be nice if you can get some no-mow weeds to go along with that no-mow grass.  Now I am laughing again.  But maybe we need to look at this the other way around.  If we could isolate the growth gene from Johnson Grass and give it to tropical and ornamental plants, then we would have something.  You could put in seedlings this week and next week, walla, full grown plants.  Not sure if that is cool or scary, haha.    Well, it is back to work tomorrow.   It will probably too muddy to plant for a week or two, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. 

I have to confess.  I have one plant but I am having trouble planting it.  I have some Elderberry plants.  They make a nice little flower and fruit and it a useful plant.  It is just that they are so common down here I associated them with the look of a weed.  Now that is scary.  Am I starting  to border on snobbishness.  I have never been a snobbish gardener and enjoy many plants that others think of as trashy.  No, I cannot fall.  I will plant them.  I must.  Oh, the trials of a common gardener.  More laughter.  I am in a good mood.  Must be the rain. 

July 7 - Well Supertramp said it best "Oh no, it's raining again."  What is a gardener to do but complain?  Not enough this week, too much the next.  Can't afford to get rained out two weeks in a row.  Yesterday it rained in the evening, again late night, again this morning, and it is raining now (Friday evening early).  Tomorrow I head for the mud to run water and electrical lines, rain or not.  Deadlines loom so there is no more delay.  The picture to the left shows just one of the many trenches waiting.  This one is bringing electricity over to the barn and, water and electricity, to the fountain in the middle of the cross bed.  It will sure be a whole lot more pleasant without any more rain, so do an anti-rain dance for me tonight.  Don't worry.  Your won't look any more ridiculous doing it than I will, haha.  

As a side note, one of Louisiana's premier public gardens was just warded to the state from the private foundation that has been running it.  Having seen our state's prior record of managing things like this, let's just say I am not to excited about this transfer of ownership.  With the old saying, "if you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all" here is the link with no further dialog from me.  This is the Advocate newspaper article http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/3284246.html  and the link directly to Hodges Gardens http://www.toledo-bend.com/hodges-gardens/index.asp. 

July 8 - Today was one hard day of work, but not gardening.  The new home has water.  It was a much harder job than I thought, but this small part is done.  Of course there is lot of water and wire to run still, but this one had a hard deadline.  Today, Cel and I enjoyed fresh figs and Champanel grapes.  I had 3 Peaches on my tree yesterday.  They mysteriously disappeared.  Two yesterday and one today between 3pm and 7pm.  This smells more like a person than a critter.  It really is frustrating that I did not get to taste any of my first 3 peaches, but I hope they were good.   

July 9 - I actually got a few plants in the ground before being rained out at noon.  I remember many summer when we would fall into the afternoon rain pattern.  One year we actually counted 43 days with rain every single afternoon.  Guess it figures since we have spring and fall droughts each year, yet still average 60 inches of rain a year.  That is why our plants have to be so adaptable here.   We actually went plant shopping here this morning also.  New additions total 5 plants, but hey, we planted 7 this morning so we are slowly making headway.  Planting today included the new Duranta, Abutilon x hybridum "Orange and Yellow."   It replaced one in the bed under the oaks that had been damaged by all of our wind events last year.  I also planted the two little Aluminum plants at the base of the large Phoenix robellini and just to the left of that I planted the Zebrina Malva.  On the back side I planted the little variegated English Ivy.  I almost forgot, I also planted the Gingko Tree.  Unfortunately, the Gingko was apparently recently transplanted into its new pot and the root ball fell apart during the planting process.  There was not indication in the pot, not did the nursery reveal to me that is a recent repot.  Pour thing is almost going in as a bare root at this time of the year.   All this rain and cloudiness will definitely help it get is feet in the ground, but I still fear for it.  It is supposed to be a very tough street tree that tolerates all kind of abuse.  I am hopeful.

The plants we bought today were two of the Clerodendrum speciosissimum, another Paraguay Nightshade aka Potato Bush, a blue flowering plants that he did not have a name for, and finally a dark blue Vitex.  I have been looking for that last plant for quite some time.  Humh, now where am I going to put all this stuff.  This week 5 new plants and 7 planted.  I am making headway, haha.  

Last, I added a couple of old pictures I ran across that I should have put on the site.  The first is three of our four kittens born after Hurricane Katrina and just before Hurricane Rita.  We named the five Priscilla, Katrina, Rita, Frances, and Farley.  Rita did not make it.  In order left to right above are Frances, Katrina and Farley (renamed Tai Tai in honor of her mother) are drinking from the newly installed fountain.  Who knows where Priscilla was playing.  The four a pretty much full grown now with a perfect blend between independence and affectionate.  If you stand still within minutes they will be either at your ankle or close by, but you can leave two weeks and not worry about them at all.  They have a bayou to drink from and 3 acres of critters to catch.   And of course, my neighbor leaves a continuous supply of cat food and fresh water out too.  On the right is a picture of a white rose on leafless branches taken in January.   It was a very mild winter.

July 11 - I guess everyone on the Gulf Coast has a love hate relationship with the weather.  Great spring and fall, mild winters, but that summer part can be tough.  It is still raining.  At least once a day and somedays several times a day.  Today, it looked like I would finally be able to get that plumbing tie in finished.  Sunny with blue skies.  At least that is what I thought.  I drove the 22 miles from work to New Dawn to find that 3" of rain had just finished falling creating a tremendous mudhole where the day before had been big mudhole.  The trenching, all $250 dollars worth, had literally gone down the drain, sort of.   At least down the trench.   Once things dry out it will all have to be retrenched again.  The plants on the other hand are loving all of this moisture after so many months of struggling to stay live in the drought.  Now, we have to watch for the other problem, root rot.   Always something, and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

July 16 - This is a time of highs and lows at New Dawn.  I know in the end all will work out.  Rains continue to plague the job site. We made the whole weekend rain free till Sunday night.  Heavy thunderstorms move in and seemed to encircle New Dawn.  I had to leave for home as the rain started.  After looking at the radar it might have been light.  If so, the driveway pour will be on tomorrow.  If it came down heavy we may be off for a few days.  I started to fill in the trenches the rest of the way, as mother nature had already filled them in half way with the heavy rains.    I will just retrench again this fall when the dry cool weather moves in.  Right now it is 90 degrees, 90 percent humidity by 9 in the morning.  Stifling would be a good word.    I will redirect my energy to the essentials at the house and getting moved in for now.    I seem to have found an acceptable solution for the shop that I will pursue this week.  We lost a few plants this week.  The topsy-turvy weather was just too much.   Fortunately, I have not lost anything valuable or irreplaceable, but I am sad nonetheless.  I also took out a couple of plants that it was time to give up on and I have a few more to take out.  The Confederate Roses are not going to recover from the hurricane damage from last year.  Fortunately I have some cuttings from them that have taken root.   But, as always, there were so high spots too.  I finally trimmed out some errant limbs under the Live Oaks.  The whole area the deck under there looks awesome.  I also cleaned up the Mimosa which is miraculously hanging in there even with all the construction.  Soon the construction will be done and can start hauling in some compost to straighten up the health of the soil.  If you have followed the blog you will recognize the plant above you will recognize it.  Last summer it was georgeous.   Then Hurricane Rita tore out the top and blew it over.  In the picture you will see the two tee posts I used to stand it back up.  It is beautiful and full of blooms again, although I doubt it will ever stand on its own without help again.  There are several seedlings around it to take its place someday.  Such is the cycle of life.

July 17 - Still raining, but Paco seems to be OK with it.  Think he cares.  He is my little buddy and the official mascot of New Dawn.  He is also the reluctant alpha male shown here snuggled into a blanket so that only his eyes and nose are exposed.  Super sweet if he knows you, if not look out for the back of your calves.  But he warms up to everyone fast.  I swear the dog knows how to hug.  My in-laws actually love it when we go out of town and they get to keep him.   He, and the other dogs, make the time pent up inside tolerable.  Paco's world is not right unless the whole pack is home including Mom and Dad.  Well, about the outside.  It still feels like a rain forest in monsoon season and has rained nearly every day for the last 2 weeks, save for two days.   We were able to get the place mowed, but no weeding or close trimming.  So far, every thing seems OK plant wise, most are enjoying the abundant moisture, and some are loving it.   Here are a few pictures.   All of the Crinums are blooming away in spite of all being moved this spring.   Next is the new Clerodendrum speciosissimums.  Still don't know where they go, but they would look great in a number of places being super tolerant of soil types, moisture, and light levels.  Some might even consider it a less than ideal plant, but look at the beautiful green of the leaves and the contrast of the bright red flowers.   This plant is an all star in my book.   Last is the new blue flowering plant that was not labeled.  If you know its proper name drop me a note.  It is always neat to get a note from a visitor to the site.  The first thing I do each day when I get home is check the email.   I only get about 1 comment a week, but I do enjoy them.  I was hoping to get the whole year on a single page, but I have done so much better with the blog and pictures this year it is getting large.  Maybe I will break it into seasons, 4 pages.  I am also thinking of writing an online garden book specific the northern gulf coast, zones 8B/9A.  Might be fun.

July 23 - The summer is melting away, quite literally.   We actually had 3 days without rain, but that ended in early morning hours last night.   I would estimate another 2 or 3 inches of rain fell over a 12 hour period amid some absolutely spectacular lightening.   Hard to believe it is only 5 weeks till September.  We have been 3 weeks away from moving into the home at New Dawn for 5 weeks now, and we are still 2 weeks away.  Must be the new contractor math.    It seems like we will never get a driveway poured.  Next week is no better with 40 to 60 percent rain chances everyday.     

July 25 - Two more days, 4 more thunderstorms, 5 more inches of rain, and its raining now.  But hey, I ain't complaining, yet.  Nuf said. 

July 26 - No rain today, yet.  It is early evening and there are many storms around so we will be lucky to make the night.   Tomorrow was supposed to be better, but rain forecast is back to 40%.  Oh, well.   We have reached the point where the mud stinks bad.   About once a year we get so much rain that the organic matter in the soil starts to go anaerobic so the mud starts to take on a smell just slightly better than sewage.  They don't call us "humid, sub-tropical" for nothing.  Fortunately, the smell goes away in a day or two after the rains finally subside.   Ce la vie. 

In getting ready for the move to New Dawn I have decided to catalog the entire New Dawn gardening library which is over 150 books.  Over half of these books are specific to our area and quite a few are vintage classics that are very hard to find.    Most of the books are excellent.  I hope to complete the online database here is a few weeks with book reviews.  As I am cataloging and taking a rare opportunity to touch them all in a short period of time I realize that 3 new trends are happening right now, and I suppose it is not specific to gardening books, but it certainly is causing the book buyer to beware.  Do note, these are my personal opinions

Trend 1 - The cookie cutter book.  This is represented by the Louisiana Gardener Guide type of book.  You can find this in a Mississippi version, and Alabama version, etc.   The content is very similar if not downright identical in many cases, except for inserting the local gardening experts name and the state in the title.   They are good books, but in my opinion a little bit of a misrepresentation.  Instead of "author" it should say more like "endorse by."

Trend 2 - Instead of putting out a book as a reprint or revised edition the content is changed up, reworded, and then released as a new book.  Not so bad, but the intellectual content, and in some cases the actual text, may be 90% the same as another book by the author of a few years earlier.

Trend 3 - The vanity press.  Here quality is all over the page, pun intended.  A few of these books are excellent.  Some are almost ridiculous in their lack of anything substantial at all.  Two of the best books I have are vanity press books, and several of the worst too.  Here more than the other trends mentioned above it is buyer beware.  Even worse, many of these books are not carried by book stores so you have to order online before you know what you have. 

July 27 - Two days without rain.  It is amazing how well New Dawn dries out once it stops raining every day, and now that I have a drainage trench dug to drain the front of the house.  And the trench is only one half of the depth of the finished product once the real drain goes in.  I have new hope for the front area.  The contractor built the house 6 inches below spec and I feared a soggy mess where I would be able to grow nothing but maybe some Louisiana Iris.  Not that the Iris would have been that bad, but I had a different look in mind.   So well, if we can ever get the construction finished things will work out just fine.  Everything is quite lush right now.  With a little drying out, that doesn't go straight into a drought that is, plants should grow strongly till the fall which is traditionally a dry period leading into a wet soggy winter.

July 28  - Again no rain.  You have no idea how something so simple can mean so much.  Our beautiful New Dawn has been such a messy and chaotic situation.  For every step forward, it seems there are two backwards.  If we can hold till Monday evening with minimal rain, we will have a driveway.  The home will be complete, and finally we will begin moving forward toward some resolution to the madness that has become my life for the last few months.  I have found a few times of relief here and there.  For instance, when I packed the gardening books into boxes for the move, I took the opportunity to catalog them into a spreadsheet.    It is quite a nice library with 143 books of which 85 are specific to the Gulf Coast Region with quite a few being vintage collectibles.  What is truly amazing is to read a book from 75 years ago and realize how little true knowledge has been developed outside of chemical things like herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides.  Or maybe it is that at its core gardening is still a pretty basic and natural endeavor.

July 30 - Well, here we are.  Tomorrow is the 9th month.  So here, we should be complete with a new home at New Dawn.  And we are close.  I thought our luck with the rain had run out yesterday and again today.  Yes there was rain at New Dawn, but it was extremely light.   I worked hard from mid morning till dawn with rain, but only light rain.  It was not enough to stop the driveway pour that marks the end of construction at New Dawn.   I leave for Alabama's Gulf Coast tomorrow after the driveway pour.  Celeste left this morning.   I prayed for the rain to spare us today and it did.  Actually, I prayed for it to spare us yesterday and today and it dd.  So, tomorrow morning I hope to witness the new driveway being poured and then to drive to the Alabama Gulf  Gulf Coast for our last vacation of this summer, and then to return to begin moving into New Dawn.  To say that I am looking forward to this would be the understatement of the century.

August 

August 3 - It is Thursday night as I write this.  I had to delay my impromptu vacation for a day, but the home at New Dawn has a driveway.  I could not miss the pour to insure that the drainage was right.  All I can say is that it was a good thing I was there.   I finally did get off to Florida and Alabama.  While we were gone the brick steps were completed.  And the biggest thing, the very ugly, extremely large, extremely orange commercial dumpster is gone from the front of the house.   After a little clean up and mowing, we will finally be able to see what our front view looks like.   I did  go to a couple of nurseries in Gulf Shores but uncharacteristically bought no plants other than one little ornamental pepper.    I even knew exactly where I was going to put it before I bought it.  That is a first, haha.   On the natural front in Gulf Shores there was lots of lush green growth everywhere due to the rains.  Not much on the flowering front other than a pink native Hibiscus and one plant with bright red flowers that I did not get to investigate.  It's flowers were delicate and born on tall scapes.  With only two days on the Gulf Shores beaches there was not much time.  On the animal rescue front today, as I was on the way to New Dawn I saw a juvenile Snapping Turtle on the highway.  He was about 5 inches long and maybe 4 inches across shell wise.  I carefully scooped him from the middle of the highway.  He is now swimming carefree in Bayou Teche at New Dawn.  I wanted to snap a picture before I set him out but forgot to.   Maybe I will see him again one day.

Also in the current news spectrum is Tropical Storm Chris.  Here on the Gulf Coast, we have always been on alert anytime a storm appears.  When it becomes apparent that they will enter the Gulf of Mexico the alert heightens.    We we find ourselves in the cone it is Defcon 5.   With the storms of the past 3 years it reaches near pandemonium when you wind up in the cone.   No, if you don't live here on the Gulf Coast, you may not be familiar with the "cone."  The cone is a 5 day ahead best guess of where a hurricane or tropical storm is heading.  There is much uncertainty as the cone is based on many models that don't always agree and sometimes hurricanes befuddle everyone including experts and do something totally unexpected which is why no one rest peacefully here on the Gulf Coast anytime anything from a tropical disturbance to a hurricane enters the Gulf whose warm waters are sure to fuel it up.   Now, don't get me wrong.  I love the Gulf Coast.  Hurricanes are damaging for sure, but as far as disasters go at least you can see them coming ahead of time and take some precautions.

August 5 - Lots of hard work getting the home site ready.  Not gardening per se, things like moving large pieces of cement, pallets of bricks, that kind of stuff.  Cel did repot a few plants that were really suffering.   They won't be planted for till fall and the days are really tough right now with highs in the mid to upper 90s.  Yesterday, I dug the trench for the drainage deeper, placed in the pipes and drain grate boxes, tilled the soil and covered them up.  I also tilled, at least enough to level, the bed on the west side of the house.  This bed will have two Bald Cypress and a ground cover.  Maybe another specimen plant, but I am not sure what it should be.   I still need to put a load of compost in this bed.  It is 15 feet by 27 feet so it is not small by any means.   Two pickup truck loads of compost would not be overkill. 

Here is a neat little site I stumbled across.   http://www.creoletomato.com/ 

August 6 - Man, am I tired.  I have done more manual labor in the last few days, than I have probably done cumulative over the last few months.  And the gardens are "gardens of neglect."  But, their time will come.  Right now I am cleaning up the job site and focusing on that.  We should be able to close on the new house this week.  Almost did it last week, but there were too many items on the punch list, mostly paint stuff.   Today I used the tiller to close in quite a few trenches.  I restored the vista to the bayou by cleaning up the last burn site and closing in the rear trench.  I worked a little on the east side but much work remains there.  Mostly I concentrated on the front gardens.   I did close in some of the trenching, but the abundant rains since the original trenching work has turned the clay quite hard.  It will likely take an excavator with a blade to do it right.  But I will try the larger tiller anyway. 

August  8  - It is back to work during the week so no gardening or home activity over the last couple of days.   As I was leaving today, I noticed this beauty in great form.   Everyone on the Gulf Coast should have a Rangoon Creeper (Quisqualis indica) in the garden.  Each of the flower clusters you see is about 12 inches in diameter and this is just one quarter of the bush.  It is about 6 feet in diameter and 4 feet tall.  It has been moved 3 times.  This is its second year in this spot in nearly fun sun.  And the best thing is that each spot where it was moved from still has a Rangoon Creeper that has grown in form some part of the root that was left.  It is a tender tropical though so it is not likely to become invasive.  Even though rated for Zone 9B, one zone higher then mine it has come back each year from the roots even though unprotected.  The plant on the right with the larger leaf is the Morning Glory Tree (Ipomoea carnea), also a Zone 9B plant .  Last year we had a very mild winter so this summer both are tremendous.  It was blooming too, but its blooms are held much higher.  The two have grown together and it is a neat combination if you don't mind the very colorful, out of control color combination.  I certainly don't.  I like a very natural looking garden with plants growing into one another as they would in nature which neither cares about clean lines between plants or of coordinated color combinations.   

August 13 - Busy week at work, so not much gardening or even thinking about the garden.  Yesterday, Saturday, was a rain out.  We needed the rain and relief from the heat that the cloudiness brings so no complaints.  It is cloudy today as well so I may just settle back for and do some website updates.  I am going to make some changes over on the left side which is dedicated to becoming a resource for Gulf Coast Gardeners.  Consider it under construction for now.  No rain today, but no energy either.  I did finally straighten up the two Loquats that were still leaning from Hurricane Rita.  And I threw a shovel full of dirt here and there.  Cel got on the big mower, but then it broke again.  I load it in the morning and send it back to the shop where they are old friends.

August 14 - Today I worked at the bottom.  Even before the bones of the garden comes the bottom, the soil that is.  At left you can see a the back half of the bed composted in.  The plastic is covering a load of potting soil for other uses, but it was a good place to put it for now.  I hauled in what will be one of many truck loads of compost  I can't say the first because I hauled in quite a few truck loads a few years ago when I first started the gardens.  Everywhere I have plants, with the exception of the border bed on the west side of the rear driveway I planted this year, I always began with compost.  This is the very core of the garden, the soul of the garden you might say, the soil.  In a few years when admiring the beautiful plants no will notice the soil, but without this foundation those healthy plants would not be possible.  In a perfect world everyone would spend 2 or 3 years building the soil before planting anything.  Now this is not a perfect world.  I am way to impatient to wait that long, but I will not skip the work.  I will just do both concurrently.  My results will not be optional, but they will work.  Back at the old house I put 4 to 6 inches of compost over very large beds, but only tilled it where I planted.  In a couple of the texture of the soil had changed to a wonderful texture even where I had only placed the compost on top.  After doing some research I came to the conclusion that this was correct, something about the gums, leachates, and humates penetrating into the soils causing the clay particles to stick together.  And the earthworm things too.  In the end, soils that grow great plants and that area  pleasure to work with.   Now, at the old home I put compost over soils that weren't too bad to start, heavy clay loam.  This is almost the same soil that makes up some of New Dawn.  Over the 3 acres there is considerable difference in soils, but now I will put this technique to the ultimate test.   The home at New Dawn was built up 18 inches in the front and nearly 3 feet in the back on what is called the "pad."  This pad is what is known locally as "A4" clay.  Stuff so dense not much of anything will grow in it.  And then it is compacted over and over with bulldozers.  Our "pad" tested at 95% compaction.  Hit this stuff dry with a shovel and it will bounce back.  When wet you might get down an inch with the pointy tip.  And I mean hitting it hard and I am a fairly strong fellow.   So now this clay is getting 4 to 6 inches of compost on top.  Every 3 months I will test for penetration and effect from the compost and document here on the site.  Today, the first truck load covered half of the westside bed between the house and driveway.  I did half towards the back with the worst soils first.    The second half has more of the native soils.  Each half will have a Cypress Tree planted in it.   It will also be interesting to watch the progress of these trees, which will be nearly identical when planted, in these vastly different soils.  But isn't that the magic of gardening, there are are no absolutes, no guarantees.  Every day we get to learn about the uniqueness of our individual gardens.  Wouldn't have it any other way. 

August 15 - Here is the truck load of compost coming in for the 2nd half of the bed.  After a quick and dirty survey I estimate I will need to bring in between 15 and 20 of these truck loads.  A lot of work, but made a little easier with my LoadHandler.  It is not installed properly in the photo, but I'll try to shoot a better photo tomorrow when I do the actual unloading.  It is a product which I heartily endorse. 

Here are some observations for the log.  I did make a few observations to note.  The Althea are in a second full bloom.  The Red Firespikes (Odontonema strictum) are starting to bloom, while the Purple Firespikes (Odontonema callistachyum) show no sign.  This could be a difference in the plants are due to the fact that the red ones get more sunlight than the purple ones.   The Blue Glorybower (Clerodendrum ugandense) is sending out some new blooms while the Orange Justica (Justicia spicigera) has a couple and seems to be thinking about it.  The Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana) also are starting to bloom again.  The Rangoon Creeper (Quisqualis indica) is still full of blooms while the Morning Glory Tree (Ipomoea carnea ) seems to be just starting a new round, which it has been doing constantly since spring.  The tropical plants always shine in the fall, but this is a little early, I think.  I will need to check the past journals to compare, which is why I keep the thing in the first place, haha.

August 17 - The compost is unloaded, spread, and it even received an inch of rain to settle it in.  Take a look at the right, isn't it beautiful.  Well, I guess only to a gardener :-).  Let the soil improvement begin.  Now, if I can just find two really nice Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) for planting next month.  And, I need a bushy mounding shrub for the center.  Not quite sure what that plant will be.  If this was not on the north side, there would be many choices from plants I already have in pots, but our here on the northwest corner it will have to be something more on the cold hardy side than is traditionally my taste. 

Here are a few sample pictures of the tropicals plants starting to show off for the fall.  First up is a Tropical Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) with an outrageous pink color.  Next, is a Spider Lily (Lycoris ??).  This is a passalong, so who knows precisely what it is.  If anyone has any idea on its identification please let me know.  Last on the first row is a flower on the bananas I got from Mr. Picard that are now planted along the back of the barn.  Awesome flower on the 6 to 7 foot tall bananas.  I may identify it one day, but passalong plants can be tough.  Again, if anyone has any idea on its identification please let me know.  First on the second row is a little hardy Hibiscus.  Same notes as above, it is not a passalong, but I bought it unlabeled.  Help me ID these.  It is intermixed with a Cypress Vine (http://www.floridata.com/ref/i/ipom_qua.cfm), Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana) , and God knows what else.  I lover dense plant combinations.  In the middle bottom is the Potato Bush (Lycianthes rantonnetii) that I got earlier this year.  It is still in the pot.  Last, on the bottom right is the American Beauty Berry whose berries are starting to color up nicely.  Knock on wood to keep those hurricanes away, and this will be an outstanding fall at New Dawn Gardens.

August 19 - Today, I walked outside at 10am.  It was already 91 degrees.  Combining the temperature with the  humidity of yesterday's rains evaporating off, was more than I wanted to handle.  There aren't many day when I do that, but right now when you open the front door it is like opening the oven door to get out something recently cooked.  You know the feeling, the heat hits you in the face and your glasses fog.  I don't mind the more intense heat of the afternoons in the mid to upper 90s as much as I despise the slightly lower heat and increased humidity of the mornings.   At least September and some relief is around the corner.  I'll end with a picture of the new house at New Dawn.  At right is the new house at New Dawn, near completion, although it seems like we will never get it finished.  The quality of contractors has decreased dramatically since the hurricanes.  It seems as if our final punch list will take forever. 

I try to look forward to the fall planting, which this year should make up the remaining bones of the garden.  Unlike most areas of the country where spring is the optimum planting time, down here it is the fall.  The rest of the country tries to give plants a head start on the cold of winter.  Here we need to give plants a head start on the heat of the summers.  Again, it will be at least 5 years, but oh, how glorious the gardens will be, at least in my mind, haha.

August 20 - The heat was the same as yesterday, but no rain meant it was at least tolerable outside for moderate periods.  I did mostly cleanup detail.  Seems like I'll be cleaning up for the rest of my life, haha.  On the garden side, things are happening.  I don't dare plant anything for another 6 weeks till the intense heat begins to subside, but the telltale signs of fall are already beginning to show to the observant.  The water birds, egrets and herons are more active moving about the bayou.  The angle of the sun has begun to change leaving the back of New Dawn in noticeably less sun already.  Lovebugs are out and everywhere.  I saw a Bluejay chasing bugs today.  They were a common sight in Baton Rouge, but far less common here.

For the first time this year we are seeing grass in the bayou.  Now we have a rich crop of Duckweed along the edges, another first.  If you click the picture to the right, the Duckweed is the light green along the edges of the bayou.  It is a very tiny plant, but there are millions of them.  Wow, went to look for a link on Duckweed and learned a few things.  Here are 3 links on Duckweed, 1, 2, and 3.  As I stared down at the that Duckweed I could not help but to wonder the fate of the little Snapping Turtle I rescued from the highway and placed there a couple of weeks ago.  I hope he has found his place on the planet and lives a long life.  Hey, another surprise when I went to find a link about the Alligator Snapping Turtle.  Seems like this little guy has gotten some new protections due to concern of overfishing.  I feel even better about rescuing him.  Now, the little guy I rescued was quite small, but take a peak at the link to see how large they can get, and learn about some folks trying to protect them. 

August 21 - Recuperating from yesterday, but doing some minor maintenance on the site.  Here is a great organic link from Howard Garrett.  I had a link to his site already, but put a deeper link to his organic advice.  A lot of really high quality content is available here, Organic Gardening Information.  While on the organic gardening subject, here is another great link with all kind of interesting info, http://www.urbanharvest.org/index.html.   If you are into fruit trees, check out this group, http://www.nafex.org/library.htm.  A bit more specific here is the Louisiana Mayhaw Association, http://www.mayhaw.org/.  This promoted the creation of a new link at left entitled "Fruit Trees" that I will continue to populate.  OK, last one.  Check out http://www.mariesgarden.com/.  This is from Marie Harrison who has written a few books specific to southern gardening.  On her site, the archive of Horticultural Hints newsletters is worth an hour or two of perusing.  I add book reviews for her books this winter when I update my site with reviews of my entire library.   Well, that's enough for tonight.  For those folks that sent me notes this week, thanks.  Makes my day to open my email and see a note from one of the website readers.  Got a site I should add to the reference section.  Send it to me and help New Dawn to become "the" resource for Gulf Coast gardeners. 

August 25 - Tough week at work ended successfully.  And today we closed on the new home at New Dawn.  We won't get to sleep there tonight, but it is ours, and the banks, of course, haha.  Got the mower out of the shop and tried to do a little clean up between rains, but ran out of luck.  More showers predicted, but maybe we'll get enough of a break to move the essentials and in spend tomorrow night in the new home.  It will be close. 

But on a more serious note, there is little doubt that Tropical Storm Ernesto will enter the very warm Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane and seems to have Louisiana in its sights.  We are all on alert.  If you look at that picture to the left, you see the cone we talked about earlier.  Just in the north part of that cone is a red dot in Louisiana.  That is the location of New Dawn.  Tonight Cel and I are going over our emergency preparedness plans.  We are going to feel this one.  The only question is to what extent.  With a little luck it will be some tolerable winds and thunderstorms.  Say a prayer for us.

August 27- Things change fast on the gulf coast during hurricane season.   On Friday we were in the 5 day cone of hurricane Ernesto.   We had just closed on the house at New Dawn, but all thoughts were towards emergency preparations.  I was glad that we would have two house to choose from as a potentially powerful hurricane was slated to come ashore a week later. Just two days later,  the hurricane was headed off to cause its misery in the mid gulf coast of Florida and life was back to normal.   Well, almost back to normal.  It has been extremely rainy.  We moved some items to the new home dodging rain showers and thunderstorms.  Today, it rained at least 6 times with sun showing its smiling face only early in the morning.   The tropical plants are looking just fine, although the closest I have come to them is looking out of the window.  The spring drought, then the intense heat of this summer, followed by periods on continuous rains have brought out leaf diseases which are plaguing many plants like roses and others. Can't wait for the cooler temps and dryer weather of fall.  Then I can get the gardens back in shape and continue my work.

September   

September 1 - Tonight, for the first time, New Dawn's website is actually being updated from New Dawn.  What a wonderful feeling.  Five years in the making.  We are not nearly moved in all the way.  Actually this is my 3rd night here, but I only got cablevision and Internet connected today.  Each day I bring a few more items.  I went out a few minutes ago as darkness was approaching to take a couple of pictures for the website.   At the beginning of the this paragraph is a plant I bought at Stokes Tropicals called the Siam Tulip.  Not sure exactly what it is but I suspect it is Curcuma petiolata 'Hidden Lily'.

 At the end if of the paragraph is a Crinum blooming.  Actually, as I walked out, I thought at first that the bloom was somehow ruined with all the rain, but as I got close I realized a very large moth was feeding on the bloom.  Please pardon the fact that I have no idea which Crinum this is, or the moth for that matter.  I will put photos with and without the moth.  If you know the identification of either please let me know.   There is still way too much cleanup to do to think about the gardens, but this Labor Day weekend we got just a tiny glimpse of the spring to come.  Lows made it down to 66 degrees and high did not quite make 90 stopping at 89.  Humidity took a dip down also.  Now, down here on the Gulf Coast, that is reason to celebrate on Labor Day which can traditionally be quite hot and humid.  Real fall is still a couple of months away.  Still, there is always that day that you look outside and something, a something that you cannot quite put your finger own, triggers in your mind that the seasons are changing.  That happened for me today, even before I walked outside to feel the cooler air.  Maybe it was the morning shadows just slightly longer.  I don't know, but it was there.  I could feel it.  There is something about this house.  I sit here tonight, at New Dawn, feeling as if I have always been here.  And I don't need to tell you what an incredible feeling that is.  Here's to a lifetime of finishing New Dawn.  Cheers.

September 4 - All attention is being paid to moving so there is little time for gardening.  We did do a little weeding.  When your weeds are Johnson Grass (Sorghum halepense), you do find a few treasures because Johnson Grass can grow to 3 to 6 feet tall in just 2 to 4 weeks when we get a rainy period.  There are many links on the internet on the species with most being "how to you kill it."  About the only thing good about it is that it is very easy to pull up even when very large.  The bad thing is that is impossible to get rid of.  OK, back to the biggest surprise, which is two flower spikes and one opening flower on my Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae).  It has been several years that I have tried this plant.  This is the second plant and the third spot.  Look like I found the right conditions, finally.  This one is on the west side of a bed, slightly under a queen palm, with bananas in the background.  Bottom line, it gets no sun in the morning and full sun from lunch till dark.  It have been in the ground going on two years and has doubled in size.  I have given it no specific additional care other than just the smallest amount of supplemental water during the spring drought.   This plant is a cold sensitive, so the very mild winter last year probably had a big impact as well.  I'll proudly post a picture when the bloom is open. 

September 5 - New Dawn got the rest of its driveway today, lots of nice fresh limestone.  I moved all of the concrete debris to the low spots in the 500 foot driveway.  Now with a fresh load of limestone over the top, I think the low spots may be gone forever, or at least I hope.  I am tired of tracking mud onto the concrete portion.  Cool.  OK, so here is why I did an update today.  It is not open yet, but I just can't stand it.  Call me silly, but here is a picture of the Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) first peaking out of the bloom stalk.  I will post another picture when it is fully open.

September 9  - Its Saturday evening here at New Dawn.  While we are living in the house, it is still not yet home, but getting closer.  Today, off and on drizzly rains kept any outdoor work from happening.   We hung pictures on the inside and also put together the new bookcases to house the gardening book collection of 158 gardening books with nearly 100 of them being specific to our gardening region/conditions.   Some of these books have original printing dating back  well over 100 years.  One thing I have discovered is that there is not much new in gardening in the last century other than the continual discovery of, and breeding of, new species and hybrids.  Still it is fun to read both new books that come out, and the old books that I continue to find, as they pop up here and there.  And the Internet is loads of fun too.  While surfing the other day I found a 16 year old aerial photograph of New Dawn and a 25 year old topographical survey, which gave me a history lesson on the property.   Pretty cool.   

September 10 -  Again, another day of moving and recuperating.  I cannot wait for life to return to normal.  Right now it seems that that is never, but I have faith that it will come.  The bug invasion that has come with the rains has been brutal on some plants.  I could not decide whether the figs or the grapes looked the worse.  After closer inspection is seems that the grapes look the worst.  I broke down and dusted them today with some Sevin dust to give them a break.  I use a duster that blows the dust greatly conserving the amount of Sevin dust required.  I do not like pesticides, so I do this as conservatively as possible, but I accept the reality that being completely pesticide free is impossible here in the Gulf South.  This does make me sad, but too, I do it as sparingly as is possible. 

September 15  - We actually went 4 days without rain, but its back having rained two of the last 3 days.  We got a good one this morning, at least a half inch.  All week we had forecast for a clear sunny weekend, but on this Friday evening the weather service has us back to the afternoon/evening rain pattern.  Still I am looking forward to finishing the move from Jeanerette this weekend.  At least I can get one thing out of the way.  By fall, I hope to have all of this kind of stuff out of the way to enjoy the great fall outdoor weather and to really shape up the gardens.  Here is a great picture for you.  New Dawn is in a fairly rural setting.  On each corner of the house we have flood lights and out here they attract huge numbers of insects.  When I walked out the other night, against the glare, I saw this large mass on the column.  Curious to see what kind of insect it was I walked up closer to see this Green Tree Frog, who obviously thought he had died and gone to heaven, gorging himself.  I had to snap a picture.  I did not even notice a second smaller frog until I went to upload the picture to the site just now.  Now bear in mind, these frogs climbs up the slick white aluminum pole to a height of 9 feet but the reward for them was worth it :-)

September 17 - After a couple of early scares, we still have no hurricanes, but we do have some Hurricane Lilies (Lycoris radiata) popping up in a couple of places.  These bulbs were moved here last year and are notoriously finicky rarely blooming the first year after being moved, and depending on weather sometimes just skipping a year of blooming for the heck of it, but we have a few starting to pop up.  This one is in a bed interplanted with Crinum, Paperwhite Narcissus, and Hurricane Lilies. 

All in all, this was not a bad weekend, but it was a wet one.  We got four loads of moving done before being raining out around 2:30PM on Saturday.  We had a good hard rain of close to an inch.  Sunday started off with rain in the morning.  The soggy ground and air shut down any further real activity on Sunday.  Late in the afternoon we did get a little mowing down.  I went out and cut water sprout on the fruit and citrus trees before getting stung on the shoulder by a wasp or hornet.  Never saw the culprit, but the red whelp was on of the largest I have had from a sting like that, and one of the most painful too.   The picture at left shows a 5 gallon pail of Limes picked from the tree today by Cel.   Probably 3 or 5 more 5 gallon pails of Limes still on the tree.  Limes are not traditionally hardy here, but this Persian Lime is in its third year.  With the very mild winter last year it has grown quite large and has a nice bumper crop of Limes this year.  Cel and I have enjoyed fresh Bloody Mary's at the end of the day on the weekends with fresh Lime.  Check out the antique metal chair too.  We have four single chairs like that one and a matching Love Seat.  Celeste Aunt Nadra and Uncle O'Neal had these tucked away in an old family home and gave them to us as a house warming gift.  Despite being at least 75 years old they are in pretty good shape.  Soon, I hope to have them stripped and powder coated so they can last another 75 years. 

All of the Citrus trees have enjoyed the abundant rainfall this summer, however some other fruit trees have not been so pleased.  I have lost one of the new Pear trees to disease, and the second Pear look pretty bad.    It appears that my Apricot and one of the new Plums may be the next to be lost.  Also, on of the Champanelle Grape vines continues to look bad.  Sometimes trees here just go into early dormancy and bounce back the next spring, but most times they are lost.  But here in South Louisiana, with years that vary so greatly in weather, this is just the way it goes with young trees.  Usually when they get a few years behind them they can stand up to this stuff, but when young it is tough. 

September 18 - We awakened to rain, again.  The forecast this morning was for "flooding rains."  Cel and I are experiencing weather depression.  Happens every time we get one of these stuck inside for a couple of weeks weather patterns.  But a cool front is due tomorrow night.  Low of 59.  That, and the 3 or 4 days of "no rain" that are supposed to accompany it, will spark some new life into some sagging plants.

September 23 - It is a warm and balmy Saturday morning here.  I spent the night in New Orleans and arrived home early morning.  When I opened the door this morning, it was like walking into a sauna.  Another cool front is due on Sunday, but till then the Gulf of Mexico southerly is rushing up to the middle of the US where it is causing much trouble.  Down here it is just wind and humidity.  I guess weather.com says it best "89 degrees, feels like 101 degrees."  I picked up another truckload of "stuff" in Jeanerette on the way home this morning.  Should finish up this weekend.  Yahoo!

September 24 - Well, I awakened to thunder and rain again, but maybe, just maybe,,,.  There was no more rain during the day and the weatherman says a week of fabulous fall weather, for the coastal south, that is, is on the way.  Lows in the upper 50s and highs in the low 80s.   This afternoon winds changed from the south to the north so relief may really be on the way.  Maybe I can finally till the veggie beds and get the fall planting done, and the cross bed, and the new bed on the side of the house.  Holy cow.  I have some work to do.  And man am I looking forward to it.

And the moving is just about done.  We made the last moves of large items today.  Just a few odds and ends to move from here.  We'll get it done after work this week and do the final cleaning over the weekend.  It will be so nice to get back to garden projects.  I did get to one kinda garden project.  I have been saving the old cupboard back from when we remodeled the old house.  It belonged to Cel's grandparents, Joe and Gladys so I knew it was special to her.  I turned it upside down and made a base of treated wood, and then fashioned a back for it from other recycled wood.  We will use it outside under the carport to store the outdoor items we want to keep handy like outdoor shoes, bug spray, garden tools, etc.   

In the garden, the tropical plants continue to shine, while the others fight to survive the rain and humid sauna-like conditions, but like I said earlier that is all fixing to change, to the benefit of both.  After a week it was time for a picture.  I was struggling till I remembered a bright Hibiscus sticking out from under a banana plant.  Take a peak and see if it brightens your day like it did mine.  If you are a reader, don't forget to drop me a note every now and then. 

September 30 - Today, there was gardening.  Yes, gardening.  It has been so long.  As I was having my coffee this morning gazing out of the window a Hummingbird was working over the red Firespikes.   Since the old house in Jeanerette will be sold on Monday, we made some last minute rounds through the old gardens.   We dug samples of four different gingers.  A few more of Picard's medium size bananas and another large Bordelon banana.  We dug up a  ton of the large upright elephant ears, and there are still tons left.  We also dug up a small Rangoon Creeper and a seedling Loquat.  There were many little things too, like the Indian Shot Canna that sprung up in the middle of the yard where there had never been Cannas before and the small batch of Crinums.  We have a new Crinum blooming under the large Mimosa that has an awesome scent, just like Honey Suckle.

October    

October 2  - Well, it is done.  The home and old gardens in Jeanerette are sold.  We took a few more Elephant Ears and left some great plants.  I think the new owner will appreciate them.   The gardens there has been mostly neglected there this summer, yet the Grapefruit tree has a nice crop.  And the little Satsuma, that has never made more than a handful of fruit, has 20 or 30 fruits this year.  They are 4 or 5 types of Ginger in looking great with beautiful blooms on the Shampoo Ginger.  The Yellow Angel's Trump is at least 12 feet high and the Duranta made it to 10 feet with the non-winter last year.  Those plants all moved with us from Gonzales.  I had intended to bring them with us her as well, but with the super light winter they were too large and never went dormant.  It was better to leave them, than kill them in a move, so we bid them farewell.  Due to the interesting the interesting variations in life, this is the first time in nearly a decade that I have a single property to take care of.  I am SOOOOO happy, yahoo.  The only major chore left at New Dawn is building my shop.  That will take a few weekends, and then it is gardening, gardening, gardening.

On the today front, I moved some of the plants that have been surviving under the Oaks to full sun for the fall.   Most are seedlings, but we should get some nice blooms from the more mature plants this fall.   I can't wait to see what plants we actually have under there.  Those too sat all summer with minimal care, as attention went to home construction and the ensuing move.   I even did a dumpster raid.  In moving Cel home from New Orleans I saw that the gardener at the complex had thrown a large section of Peacock Iris in the dumpster that were salvageable.  I separated into two large division and planted in the two corners were the front walkway meets the driveway.  I would say three quarters of the plants here have some kind of crazy story like that about them.  Some I have forgotten, but most I remember.  That is a big part of the personal fun of the gardens.

October 5 - Life continues to throw unique challenges at us.  Where is that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  Still alluding us, but getting closer I hope.  OK, enough of what you don't care about, let's talk gardening.  The first Bird of Paradise bloom rotted away in our non-stop rains of September, but fortunately two more were waiting in the wings.  Bloom 2, pictured to the right came our nice and pretty.  Yahoooo!.  Another first for New Dawn.  Here is my beauty.   Photo tip - Have you liked some of my recent photos such at this one of the Bird of Paradise.  I take the pictures at night with a flash.  I have found that this presents many flowers in their best form.  Not all, but definitely some.  Anyway, have a great evening and don't forget to drop a note if you like the website.

Also, I am adding a nice link to the site "http://citrus.forumup.org/ "

October 9  - So close, yet so far.away.  Too personal to write more, yet sums up my feelings today.  Most of the Gingers have been replanted here and there.  No doubt some will be moved again before they find their final homes.  There are still Elephant Ears all over the place, but they are so hardy we could leave them on the ground as they lay and most would root and make it just fine.   But we won't do that to them.  I hope.  Up in the front of the house, near the Mimosa I also replanted the Lace Leaf Japanese Maple.  Poor thing has been in a pot since having to be uprooted for the house construction.  The fact that it is even alive is a testament to its hardiness.    I checked out the plants on the south side of the soon to be shop.  The Ginger there are really struggling still receiving full sun.  The shop will give them much needed shade for at least half a day.  The Blue Glorybower there is rally shining having tripled in size and full of blooms.  Also there is an Orange Justica which has flowered off and on.  It is growing well.  The Tibochina granulosa is also showing a little growth, but has not shown any sign of flowering.  All of these plants are quite tropical in nature, but overwinter most winters, sometimes freezing back to the ground, but returning in the spring.  They will be on the South side of the shop when it is built.  The slab is there but nothing else at this time.  Well, off to bed.  It has been a long and stressful week on all fronts.  Here's to a better one next week.      

October 15 - Well, mother nature is finally giving us a real break.  Didn't rain for over a week until today, so things got to dry out a bit.  Temps have been out of the 90s too most days, and for a couple, it didn't even get to 80.  It has been reinvigorating.  Most garden chores have been on the cleanup side of things, although I am still planting Elephant Ears and Gingers.  I have few things potted up too.  We have been rescuing and repotting indoor plants that have spent the summer under the Twin Live Oaks.  They pretty much had to fend for themselves over the summer, although I kept them watered, for the most part, when things got really dry.  Some of the bulbs are starting to pop up foliage, mostly the Hurricane Lilies, but I think some of the Narcissus are starting to show also.  I fertilized all spots I could remember, or where I was beginning to see foliage with several fertilizers that I found here and there during the move.  Some got Scott's Bulb Food, some Bone Meal, and others a no-name-brand flower fertilizer.  All were also sprinkled with Ironite.  I plant to move to organic fertilizers in the future, but I was not going to waste these packages that were found here and there during the move.  Other than a few packages of Miracle Grow, this just about finishes off the misc. packages.   For the spring, I will set up my Soil Soup 20 gallon compost tea maker that I got for Christmas last year.  It is still in the box. 

October 22 - Rains came back.  Things are pretty soggy out this weekend.  Didn't get to till for the winter vegetable and flower gardens, but I get over to Lowes for a few veggie six-packs.  Got two different kinds of cabbage, 18 in all.  Yeah, I know that is a lot of cabbage, but I like to give them away.  I got 18 Georgia Sweet Onions and 9 Broccoli Plants.  There will be many more plants from seed.  Beets, carrots, and a first for this year, Snow Peas.  I am a little late on them, but I will make haste and get them in this week. 

On the flower side, I finally have a place to plant some Sweet Peas, along the new dog kennel.  And the Cross Bed will get Poppies, but I have to get busy, and now.  The picture on the left honors the Firespikes which are blooming with abandon.  On the right is one of the Gingers.  This one has a smell that can rival the finest perfumes.  You immediately know when you are downwind which will then be followed with raising the nose and taking a good long sniff.   The Gingers had a tough year this year with the spring and summer drought.  They are definitely not showing in their best form, but not too bad either. 

Our winter bulbs continue to awaken.  Almost all of the Hurricane Lilies (Lycoris Radiata) are showing foliage.  It is early for the Narcissus, but a few of the clumps are starting to show foliage.  As usual, I bought some bulbs to add to the collection and attempted naturalization.  I try new bulbs each year.   Most Daffodils come back a year or two, but slowly fade away.  I enjoy them the first year and hate to see most not make it, but it is worth the occasional surprise, when one type naturalizes.

Last note.  In 8 days I will have finally done it.  One continuous year of non-stop entries in the online blog here.  I have been keeping this blog for nearly 7 years, but with some pretty big gaps in the different years.  This year, god giving me one more week, we will make a complete year.  Life is great.

October 23 - Just doing misc. link updates on the left columns. 

October 29 - Well, after all these years, I finally did it.  A whole year of contiguous logs.  Yesterday, we went to Rose Garden and Bantings Nursery on the West Bank of New Orleans.  We brought back a truck load of plants and a new cement bench to go under the large Live Oak overlooking the bayou.  I will list the plants next week, but on was a Texas Mountain Laurel.   We have seen a magnificent one this spring.  It is the only one I have seen in these parts, but it was doing wonderful.  I put the picture on this website and one of the readers identified it for me.  It has been on my wanted list ever since, and Bantings delivered the goods.  Today, Cel planted the bulbs Helen gave us, and repotted the old Bougainvillea from her grandparents.  It is about 20 years old.  I put the dark blue Vitex Agnus Castus in the ground finally.  And also the last small Loquat that I took from Jeanerette.  It looks pretty rough, but it might make it.  Other than that I did my first pass tilling up the Vegetable Bed.   It will take at least two more to get it ready for planting next weekend.    There is lots more, but I am pooped.

November

November 5 - I started out the week in Oklahoma City.  While there I went to Myriad Gardens pictured at left.  The tube contains a tropical environment, is 7 stories tall and has a sunken lake running underneath.  It was very nice and reminded me of the Moody Gardens conservatory in Galveston.  All in all, I would not make a special trip to Oklahoma City just to see this garden, but if I was there for other reasons, I would definitely make time to see them.

On the home front today we got a few more plants into the ground.  The Crybaby Tree (Erythrina crista-galli) got a nice home on the southeast corner which should provide it with the protected environment is needs.   That is one of the newer beds and everything in the area seems to be doing nicely already. Over on the Northwest corner I put in two small matching beds on the corner of the house and at the corner of the driveway.  Each has a Red Abyssinian Banana, a few upright elephant ears and a some Ginger of varying types.  I moved several wheelbarrows full of dirt around here and there fixing low spots and closing in trenches.  I also planted a Variegated Pandora Vine on a steel obelisk outside the dining room window.  Last week we planted 4 Hollyhocks in this area as well.  The compost is beginning to have the right affect on the hard clay soil.  It was very easy digging indeed.  

Now that the warm weather has returned after a few days of cold, so have the green tree frogs also.   I have really learned to like the little fellows.   On the wildlife side, the raptors are growing in numbers each day as they migrate in for the winter.  I haven't seen any flocks of ducks or geese yet, but that usually starts with the arrival of colder weather to our north.  A couple of weeks ago we started throwing Sunflower Seeds into the back yard in hopes of attracting a few Dove.  Let's just say this has been wildly successful.  One day last week Cel counted 42 Ring Neck Doves in the yard at one time.  The yard has been full of Yellow Sulfur Butterflies also.  They seem to favor the Red Firespikes above all other plants.  I did finally find and put up a Hummingbird Feeder, but the Hummingbirds have yet to find it.  I have seen them in the yard so I know they are around and it is only a matter of time.

November 8 - Finally got some planting done.  We have about half of the winter vegetable bed planted in with cabbage, yellow onions, sweet onions, broccoli, and Snow Peas..  In the gardens we finally planted quite a few new Gingers including Red Emperor Curcuma aeruginosa , Red Cone Ginger Alpinia purpurata, and two low growing ground cover type Gingers.  One of the low growing was a tri-color and the other looked almost exactly like a Prayer Plant.   We also moved a Shampoo Ginger in the same area as the Red Cone Ginger.  We also put in a Red Sensation Cordyline australis and a nice clump of Variegated Aspidistra.  .  At left are the two low growing ground cover type Gingers.  Pretty cool looking aren't they.  The first one looks like some type of Peacock Ginger (Kaempferia).  The second looks more like a Stromanthe, maybe Stromanthe sanguinea 'Tri-Color', but it was labeled as a Tri-color Ginger.  If you can identify either one I would appreciate it so I can refer to them properly.   Just use the link above to me a note.  I always enjoy hearing from folks.

This weekend, I hope to get the rest of the plants still in pots into the ground before winter sets in.  Later in the week I hope to get around to a revamping the site and splitting up the Blog below.  The pages has gotten way to long to load, even on broadband.  Sure was fun finally getting a solid year blogged.  This year my goal will be to polish my writing skills and to add a little bit more entertainment value, or at least make the reading a little more interesting.   

November 12  - It was a laid back Sunday.  Not quite as cool as yesterday.  Today Cel left for Orlando, so the morning was hers.  Gardening just had to wait.  Well, after Cel left the gardening still waited, haha.  I did water in the rest of the new Plantings with the mixture I mentioned in the last log.  I also potted the two Variegated Tapioca Plants, seen at left.  I had on of these a couple of years ago.  When I bought it from Iberia Gardens, Gus did not know if it would come back.  It was totally gorgeous by the time fall arrived, but winter did it in.  I would consider this a pot plant in Zone 9, but in the right microclimate, who knows?   I walked around and looked at sites for some other plants.  The Elderberries still have not told me exactly where they want to be planted.  I do have a spot for the Mamou Plant (Erythrina herbacea) but I didn't even have the will to plant this sole plant.   I'll get to it.  This fall has certainly not been my best, physically speaking. 

The back yard has a new look.    We enjoyed the wilderness and cow pasture across the bayou, but progress cannot be stopped.  The 3 lots immediately across from us have sold.   You can see the freshly cleared and graded lot across from us.  They did a great job of keeping the trees so that gives us some faith of their commitment to nature.  The neighbor to the right erect a new white ranch style fence.  I love the look of the their lot, which I could never see before through the woods that have now been cleared out. 

November 14 - Well, with the weather service history of accuracy, I can't say much for the supposed coming cold winter, but I can say we are having what seems to be a cooler than normal fall.  Another front is fixing to blow through here in a few hour bringing lows back into the low 40s.  At first the weather guys were saying gale force winds and hail coming with it.  My mind immediately pictured the damage to the gardens.  In the last few updates they haven't predicted doom and gloom, so I am hoping for our normal winter front arrival with a hard but short burst of rain and winds at 20 to 30 mph.  We'll see soon enough.   Oh, and I hate daylight savings time.  During the week I get a glimpse of gardens on the way out of the door in the morning and its dark by the time I get home.  So, I have to leave you with a picture.  At right is my new Variegated False Agave.  Still not sure where to plant it, so it is still in the pot.  Just behind it in the rear is an Avocado Seedling.  This year, for the first time I bought two Avocado Trees (Wilma) that are supposed to be hardy here, but I will keep doing seedlings here and there.  Who knows, but since I eat Avocado's anyway the seeds are free.  Avocados are another Blog entry all to themselves.

November 18 - Can't remember the last time I woke up on a Saturday morning with nothing that "has to be done today."  Now don't get me wrong, the "to-do" list is long here, but there was nothing that couldn't wait if it needed to.  And I have to tell you the day was a perfect day to enjoy it.  Overnight lows were around 43 degrees, but it warmed up quickly, or at least by the time I woke up.  I took the opportunity to sleep late, didn't even get out of the house till around 9:30AM.  While I was drinking a cup of coffee, a couple of Herons came flying down the bayou.  If you have never seen a Heron fly down a bayou on a cool morning, you have really missed something special.  The bayou, being a little warmer than the air had a slight mist coming off of it.   Herons fly very slowly about a foot or two above the water.  The mist swirls ever so slightly as they past.   They fly south to north in the morning and then later in the evening they can be seen returning to wherever the came from that morning, flying a little higher on the return trip.  Every time I see this I realize I am seeing the same scene that has taken place on this bayou for hundreds of years, long before civilization showed up on the doorstep, which makes it all the more special, and makes me feel a connection with this place that is surreal.  It also set the stage for a great day of being aware of the wildlife around me.

I mostly piddled around today doing small tasks and trying to be super aware of my surroundings.  My niece is spending the weekend, so I started building a campfire for her.  In the process I heard a Red Squirrel barking in the trees and a Mocking Bird yakking in return.  Not sure who started it, haha.  The squirrel's weren't here when we arrived.   My father-in-law was trapping and relocating them because they were messing up his garden, so I told him to just start dropping them off here at New Dawn.  With 3 acres there was room to share with them, and I have always shared my garden with the wildlife.  I even bought a squirrel feeder a couple of weeks ago, but haven't gotten around to putting it up.  They seem to do just fine here without it anyway.  This will just give me an opportunity to see them more.   I planted the last of the Uppie Elephant Ears and continue the never ending task of filling in holes and trenches.  As I took a short break, and sat on the front porch with Cel the crows arrived.  Never saw them in the tops of the Twin Oaks, but their call is hard to miss.  Later in the evening they could be heard seemingly everywhere with their calls echoing up and down the bayou.  

 I laid out new vegetable bed, checked on recent plantings, cleaned up little messes, like I said, piddling.  Then came my next surprise.  I had noticed a lot of small bird activity in the oak near the fire pit, and upon closer investigation it was full of Bluebirds.  I had seen a couple of them last weekend, but this is not a usual site down here, much less a tree full of them, at least 20.  They were passing through on a migration to somewhere, since they do not over winter here.  I saw a few Hawks in the area too, although they have not arrived in force.  Our Mississippi Kite is back again, but I don't know if he will nest in the giant Live Oak in the back as he did year before last.  Last year, with all of the house activity he chose another place.  With the house being finished now, he may or may not opt for less occupied territory, but he it checking it out.  Al least, I hope it will be close by.  I always know he is around by his screech, long before I see him.   Every time I hear it, it reminds me of New Dawn the way it was when we first found it.  The one thing I have not seen since I have owned this property are Wood Ducks.  I want to put up some Wood Duck houses.  That may help to draw them, although my neighbor a few lots down has one up near the bayou, and it hasn't seemed to help.  I know they are in this part of the state. 

It is almost 10PM as I am recounting the day to you here.  Almost forgot the make this log entry until I walked outside a few minutes ago and experienced another first.  I smelled my first skunk here at New Dawn.  By the strength of the odor, he was not very far away.   Now there is one member of  our indigenous wildlife that I hope to enjoy from a distance.  Time to sign off tonight.  Hope anyone who reads this had as great a day as I had today.   

November 19 - Sorry, no pictures again.  Camera is MIA right now.  Today was another light day, productive, but can best be described as a lot of piddling and pondering.  I continue to fill in trenches.  Seems like that will never end.  I planted the Mamou tree on the Southeast side of the house.   The Elderberries (Sambucus nigra), all 6 of them, were planted into their new home on the South side of the 4 Cassias.  I tilled the remaining part of the vegetable bed and there seeded with Swiss Chard and Radish.  The new Side Yard on the far side of the driveway continues to come into shape in my mind.  I planted the Bottle Brush (Callistemon rigidus) and the Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora) in their respective spots in that bed in that Courtyard which only exist in my mind right now.  Temps are predicted for 34 tomorrow night, so was wanted to get the non-tropical plants in the ground before cold weather sets in.  It seems to be here much earlier this year.  This is something I am happy about as many times we loose cold hardy plants here, not because of low temps, but because a severe cold front will show up after months of balmy weather catching the plants off guard and not hardened off..  

Happily I found a label on my Bamboo which I had given up identifying.  It is (Bambusa multiplex,  Alphonse Karr).  Not only that, guess what?  I bought this from Bantings Nursery across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, but it came from Live Oaks Gardens which is right down the road from me at Rip Van Winkle Gardens.   This is a small botanical garden on a salt dome nearby.  I was there just a couple of weeks ago for a retreat.  I always admire the bamboos there and now I have one.  Awesome. 

November 20 - The years first freeze is predicted for tonight.  It will only dip below the mark for a few minutes right as sunrise, but compare this with last year when it only dipped like this one time during the entire winter, and this year we get it on November 20th.  That is what can only be termed as a marked contrast.   I think we have the most likely items to be damaged safely in, particularly for such a light freeze. 

November 24 - No freezes, but 4 nights of frost in a row. Unusual for the last few years for sure, at least this early.  This weekend I cleaned up, and watered, and cleaned up some more.  Other than the frost and heavy dew, it has been dry for the last week.  The soil is plenty moist for established plantings, but the new planting need a little TLC.   Most of my energy has been spent getting the new Courtyard ready.   New plantings in that area are looking good other than the Bamboo, but I think it will be fine.  Both of my Avocado seedlings seemed to have gone through the frost unfazed.   This is great.  I keep seeding these Hass seedlings in the hope that I will get that "one" that will thrive in this environment.   Of course I also have the two Wilma, from San Antonio, as backup.

November 25 - Well, 4 days of my 5 day weekend are over this evening.  Tremendous inroads were achieved in the post construction cleanup, but at the sacrifice of my back.  Lower back pain has me and it hurts to stand or sit.  Once I have reached either it is OK.  Guess that means nothing constructive will happen tomorrow, other than piddling.  So what's new, haha.  Aside from the humor the back is toast for real, so it will be very light piddling tomorrow, if any at all.  Watching the weather this evening, the projected low for next Friday is 26.  Not that the weather service is all that accurate, but if they are correct, the landscape around here will not doubt be permanently changed.  I made a decision that the only plant I will try to protect are the Avocados, and say goodbye to others like the Persian Limes.  I always knew they were a risk and should not have made it this long.  Well, at least I made another Key (Persian) Lime Pie yesterday.   Odd thing is they taste so Limey the first day, and then just taste like Lemon from the second day on.  Oh well, for now let's just hope the rumor of my marginal plants deaths has been greatly exaggerated. 

November 30 - Log entries are starting to spread out again.  Cane harvest is coming to a close, so I thought I would start you off with what that looks like today.  The old tractors hauling cane have been replaced by 18 wheel trucks.  The are loaded right in the field as you see in the picture.  It has transformed into a fairly high tech operation during my few short years here.  Most of the small processing mills have closed as the sugar cane can now be transported easily in ever longer distances.  One of the 3 local mills is gone forever.  The remaining 2 are quite large, so I expect they will be here quite a while longer, but who knows as the harvest get more and more high tech and more and more efficient. 

So, it is late fall, daylight savings time is gone, and work is busy, so what can I say.  I am sure you can identify.  Still love my garden.  The 26 degrees for tonight predicted last week is now around 34 tonight with 32 predicted for tomorrow night and 31 predicted for Sunday night.  Not so bad as first thought, but still really cool and really early compared to the last 2 or 3 years.  At least this year, the plants have had the opportunity to harden off as compared with 80's when decades old plants got toasted for life when we went instantly from the 70s to single digits.  I am optimistic even with a cooler than normal fall, that plants will over winter quite well.  The house, bathrooms, bedrooms, etc. are all full of plants in for the winter since the greenhouse is still fully destructed.  Hey, I love it.  I may get the greenhouse rebuilt during the winter, but I am not counting on it.  Back problems has plagued me this fall limiting my fallacy of indestructibility.  Late middle age sucks you know. 

We have most of the plants in tonight.  I just tool a run out to grab a few more.  Winds are at least 30 knots for the north.  Just went out to bring in a few more plants.  Most are in with some notable exceptions like the Variegated Monstera which was full of ants and the regular Monstera which had extended substantial aerial roots and needed to be pruned our of the ground even though it was on a deck..  Man, that wind chilled me to the bone.  I was happy to see that one of the plants I brought in was an Avocado seedling which had just broken ground and was about 2 inches tall.  The fact that it germinated at all was a testament to its potential cold hardiness.  Cel is off to bed and I have not located the other seedling, but I am optimistic as it will make tonight and I have tomorrow to polish up the getting the rest of the plants inside for the next week.

So, I will leave you with one last picture that will be gone it those temps do make it to 31 on Sunday night.  The flower and leave of the Castor Bean are fantastic.  It will sell seed and come back next year with no issues as it has done for the last 5 years.  I will collect a few seeds just in case it does not, but so far it is a self seeding winner.  I love this plant.  This is the purple leaf variety and there is another all green leaf variety.  I find this one much prettier, but one day I will add the other just to have the variety.  Good night to all.

December 

December 3 - Well, here we are in the last month of 2006.  Although that 26 degrees never did arrive, it has certainly been cold with several nights trying to reach freezing, but not quite getting there.  We have already had just about as many frost nights in the last 30 days as we had the entire winter last year.  The Gingers are in full retreat, dieing back to the ground.  Elephant Ears and Banana are fighting back, but losing the battle.  We again have a hard low, 28 degrees this time, predicted for Monday night.  Based on the week so far I have every reason to believe we get there this time.  At least with all of this advanced cold everything will be sufficiently hardened off.   What is unusual about this winter is that it is so dry.  Our winters are normally wet, with heavy rains arriving in advance of each front, and many times after its retreat too.  This year we have had only a few sprinkles with one exception.   Even with the frost the antique roses at left have been putting forth a very nice fall bloom with the scent to go with it.  One more reason to plant the old roses, in addition to giving up the constant spraying, you get heavenly smells.

With the greenhouse still in a state of destruction, all of the potted tropical plants are inside.  Boy, we have a lot plants.  It is actually a little crowded in here, but it is pretty cool too. I have a feeling we will get some nicer pots and leave many, if not most, in the house permanently.

About the future of this website - Having made the 12 consecutive months a little while back, it looks like the next goal is certain too, that being a full calendar year with regular entries.  So what's next.  I would like to begin the new year with a complete website redo.  Considering the fact that I have not even started on it, who knows.  But having gotten regular updates as habit, I would now like to work on my writing skills to make this still function as a journal, but reading more like a book.  It was just such a book, "Cultivating Delight" by Diane Ackerman that motivated me to achieve the two goals mentioned above.  And with my new found back problems, this may all I can get done this winter anyway.  So, if you are a reader of the site, drop a note of encouragement if you think this is way to go.  Feel free to recommend any improvements, or sites you really like that I might draw ideas from.  One I especially like is simple but graceful look of is UL Lafayette's horticulture site.  I always look forward to encouraging notes from readers.  I average 1 or 2 a week, and each time it makes my day.  There will be no reply, other than a simple "thanks" unless your email has a question.  I want folks to feel free to just drop a note and not get into an unwanted conversation.

December 4 - Here are the headlines from the local TV station "Freeze warnings are in effect for all of Acadiana, Monday night. The coldest air the area has seen in over two years will be settling in overnight, as lows are expected to be in the upper 20s."  Right now, we have as many plants as possible in the house.  The rest are under the front porch with a blanket on top and a seed heating mat underneath.  Not much, but it is all I could do with a hurt back and a destroyed greenhouse.    I have a remote temperature sensor under there in the pot of a large and beautiful Bougainvillea.  Right now at 10:23pm it says 38.5 degrees.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.  I think they will make it fine.  What scares me is that we are getting this weather this early.  Normally, we don't see our first freeze until sometime after the first of the year.   There is little chance the greenhouse will be rebuilt any time soon, so hopefully Cel won't run out of patience with a house that feels more like a greenhouse than a house :-).   Well, in the few minutes it has taken me to write this (with several interruptions) it has dropped first to 38.5 and then the 37.9, so hold on to your hats, its coming.  I thought that predicted 27 degrees might actually be more like 30, but now I am not so sure.   

December 10 - Took a good walk around the gardens.  Lots of damage, but not nearly as bad as I thought, particularly in the microclimate on the south side of the house under the twin Live Oaks.  First and foremost, it looks like my investment in the Wilma Avocados was money well spent.  After 29 the other night, then a night at 30 and another at 27 with at least 6 hours below freezing they are still unfazed.  The young Hass seedling, which was covered by a 5 gallon bucket seems to be quite dead.  But hey, I'll keep trying with the seedlings.  Either way, I have more faith than ever that the Wilma's will give me an Avocado. 

Out in the open, the Tibouchina urvilleana is down hard, as is the Clerodendrum ugandense.  On the other hand, the Justica Spicigera  is damaged, but still quite alive.  All of the citrus show some damage, but nothing life threatening.   Under the cover on the front porch the Bougainvillea seems to actually have enjoyed the conditions as evidenced by the flowers.

December 16 - From the depths of the freeze and back to an Indian Summer.  We have had temps in the low 70's all week and fog so thick that it looks as if it has rained during the night.  Now that all of the freeze damage is fully revealed, it is not bad at all.  Of course, it is only December and our normal winter does not usually start until January.  But hey, December was all backwards, so January and February might be too.  Now, of course it also might be that these abnormally warm winters of the last decade are over and we will back to our statistical norms, which are still quite warm compared to northern norms, but quite a bit cooler than in my gardening life of a decade.  Doggonit, I am spoiled.  I don't want it to go back, or get warmer for that matter.  I guess it will be decided by a higher force, haha.  Oh, almost forgot.  Our first Camellia blossom opened.  Nothing fancy, it was a seedling we picked up a few years ago on an old abandoned property.  Check it out on the left.

December 22 - Our first narcissus bloomed yesterday, just two or three blooms of white with dark yellow center, but blooms nonetheless. Heavy rains yesterday and overnight filled my rain gage at 5 inches.  My father-in-law said his gage registered 5 and a half inches, others reported in at 6 inches.  Whomever is right, let me tell you, it is plenty soggy out.   Today ended with a simply glorious sunset just a few minutes ago.   It was a stretch to capture it with my little digital camera, but I gave it a shot with the results at left.   The picture pales in comparison to the real thing.  Speaking of my father-in-law, he dropped off another beautiful Fox Squirrel that he trapped in his yard.  That makes 3 now in the New Dawn family all courtesy of Norbert.

So far the observations.  I was delighted to see good looking new growth on 2 of my 3 new Camellias.  The center one, which is variegated is still in question.  As you remember I treated them quite badly so it is a wonder they are even alive.

December 25 - Merry Christmas

December 26- Santa brought me a 15 foot tall Live Oak, and 8 foot tall Canary Island Date Palm, and 3 four foot tall Leyland Cypress.  And best of all, a crew to plant them.  Well, that is a bittersweet thing actually.  Up until now every hole dug at New Dawn and every plant planted has been at my own hand.  My back is still on the fritz so,,,,.   Actually two of them are way too big for one man to handle anyway, so I can keep a little pride :-) 

On the journal side, we got another 2.5 inches of rain after the initial 5.  Man, is it soggy out there. 

December 27 - The birds, have I talked about the birds.  One benefit of our cooler winter is new birds, and old birds.  The other morning we have a yard full of Robins.  I don't think we saw any at all year at all.  Massive flocks of Brown Headed Cowbirds have been arriving for the last week.  Blue Jays are still out and about seen every so often and our first woodpecker, a small Hairy Woodpecker showed up a couple of weeks ago.  Oddly I have seen very few woodpeckers in this area, while they abound in Baton Rouge. 

December 30  - Looks like this year is going to end just about as strangely as it started.  We have exceeded 15 inches of rain here at New Dawn in less than 2 weeks, over 7 inches of it having fallen in the last 24 hours on already waterlogged soils.  The bayou is as high as I have seen it with the exception of Hurricanes Lily and Rita.  I have witnessed all manner of things flowing down it today all the way from plastic cups to full grown trees. 

While it is hard to find blooms right now, there are some Camellia that are starting.  The Abyssinian Hardy Gladiolas are coming up, as ae most of the Narcissus, with a few more of the bright yellow centered variety having opened.  Also, the flowering Quince is opening a few sparse flowers.

December 31 - First, should you read this tonight, New Year's Eve night, I have had a few glasses of wine, so forgive the typos, like you haven't already, haha.  What a year!  Challenges as always, but an incredible year.  Let's start with today.  We put lots of birdseed in the back yard, so there is always life fluttering around, mostly birds, but some squirrels too.  And with cats and dogs around there is also the constant immediate launch that comes with a startling of the masses.  Sometimes, there are as many as 50 or more birds.  So today, when it happened, I am not sure why I looked up, but as I did a large flash of brown and orangish feathers caught my eye.  As I followed the movement in to a large deciduous Oak, a large hawk revealed himself as the raider.  Although he was unsuccessful, I think this is the closest I have even been to seeing this magnificent bird in action. 

Later as Cel and I were walking through the gardens, she saw the familiar leaf of a Flowering Maple.  The funny thing is that is has been well over a year since we have had a flowering maple in that bed.  After further investigation we found the leaves in many places all emanating from the stump of a flowering maple that died nearly two years ago.  It has come back to life and in quite a strange way.  As we continued investigating this bed we found the same thing with the Cape Honeysuckle.  It too seems to be sending runners/stems along the ground and popping up everywhere.  And next we found a rose long lost and presumed gone.  And after that was a purple flowering Crinum.   Indeed, the hard freeze might have knocked some plants back enough to let others shine.  Isn't that always the case.

As we retire tonight the truck is stuck in the mud up towards the front of New Dawn.  I had an idea to make the drive flow in a large circle and wanted to drive it while it was a little wet so the tracks would show clearly.    And I did.  It clearly was evident that I needed to move the location of the new Canary Island Date Palm.  Since it was not yet planted, that was a good idea too.  I have move its prospective planting location as result.  I decided to drive it again today with Cel to share my vision.  That was not a good idea, haha.  I was so excited to share my vision that I was driving a bit too slowly, and well, if you haven't yet tried to drive a vehicle through a low spot, let me give you a tip, go as fast as you safely can and don't slow down.  Of course, if you knew me you would not be surprised that I was laughing.  Let's just say that Cel laughed later. :-)  Hey, a little mud never hurt anyone, right?

So, to close this year.  First, I made it, a whole contiguous year of garden logs.   Second, I am truly convinced that I never knew what life was about until I grew a garden.   And my god, life is wonderful.  Happy New Years everyone.