Garden Blog 2007

January 1st - Happy New Years.   Although it is still soggy out, really soggy, we had a beautiful day of sunshine today.  The first order of business was to go get the truck unstuck from the mud.   Before I could do that however, some other things had to be put in order.  Thinking that I might have to use the 4 wheeler to help the truck out I first had to fuel it and get it started.  It has been in the out in the yard, in the weather for about 3 weeks.  With my back issues I was afraid to go kick start it to get it back into our small barn.  Today, with things steadily improving with the back was the day of reckoning.  Well, it went off without a hitch starting on the second kick.  After running it up to the truck I quickly realized that my tow strap would not be long enough.  That led to my second long overdue task.  My tow chain has been wrapped around a 5 foot diameter piece of concrete down near the bayou.  With the soggy ground, I thought that maybe the 4 wheeler could pull it out from under the concrete.  On the first try there was just a little movement, so I put it in reverse, backed up to give myself a running start and hit it again, this time with success.  OK, so far things are going good.  I run the 4 wheeler back up to the front to start assembling my strap/chain combination only to realize that my fancy smancy F150 has no hook or anything else to attach a chain or strap to under the front bumper.  I started to contemplate pulling from the back and backing out.  It was also on my mind that Cel would probably not be too excited about helping in this operation.  Just as I was starting to feel a little depressed about the situation, I remembered an old trick that beach fisherman use when they are running their vehicles in the sand, that being they let most of the air out of the tires.  I didn't have anything to lose, so out came most of the air, and unstuck came the truck.  So, if you ever get stuck, before you did a deep rut spinning the tires, don't forget to let most the air out and try again to get out. It worked for me.  Anytime you need a reminder look at the ruts in the picture to the upper left. 

With that exciting start of the new year out of the way I turned my attention to simple garden chores.   I still wanted to keep it light on the back, so the first thing I did was to get out the lopper and pruners.  First I took on the Dawn Redwood.   I took out the lower branches to give a clean trunk up to about the 4 foot mark.  The Bald Cypress in the back got the same exact treatment.  Then I got into the Althea, there taking out mostly crossing branches, but quite a few of them in the end.  The I tackled the Monkey Puzzle trees.  What a mess.  My loppers were not big enough to take out the numerous suckering trunks on each tree, some of which were over 2 inches in diameter and nearly as tall as the main trunk..   I'll get a new set of loppers tomorrow and finish the job this week.   So many things like this did not get done last year with the house construction taking up all of my available time.

There is always a new animal out here in the country.  This year brings us new kittens, as is usual.  Here we present Tai Tai, the third. 

January 2nd - I heard this morning that we could be facing another 6 inches of rain towards the end of the week.  Wasn't I the one who was saying just last month that we weren't having our normal wet winter.  Humph.

January 13th - The first 2 weeks of the years will be memorable for sure, or maybe, I actually won't remember some of  it at all.   After a two week bout with pneumonia, many days are just a blur.  I had no idea who painful pneumonia was.   What started with a bad cold just got worse and worse till I could not breath.  On Sunday night I threw in the towel and off the Emergency Room we went.  And it got even worse before it got better.  I don't think I even looked out of the window for over a week.. I coughed till I could not breath, then I coughed some more.  I walked outside today for about 15 minutes and was exhausted, but I did get to see my orchid finally blooming again.  Check out the picture at  left which does not do it justice.  Otherwise in the garden, the 20 inches of rain in less than 4 weeks has left things soggy but green.    All-in-all, that isn't a bad description of how I still feel after the pneumonia, soggy and a little green.

January 17 - Every day I feel a little better and thoughts return to the garden.  Of course my big thought is holy poop, it is only 8 weeks till spring.  It is gonna be a tough year, again.

January 19 - Every day I feel better.  Today, I got 3 Teddy Bear Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora 'Southern Charm') and a  Bismarck Palm.   Combined with the new plants I got for Christmas, this means some significant new plantings/beds for New Dawn.   It is still way to wet to plant, but I hope to complete the layouts this weekend.  Speaking of rain, we have logged over 25 inches of rain here in the last 7 weeks.  Things are way soggy,.   This weekend, that is tomorrow and the day after, I hope to get my spring pruning completed, but will have to do it around the rain.  The next 5 days have showers in the forecast.   Arghhhhhh.  

I have also switched the website from FrontPage to SharePoint Designer, so there is a good chance I am going to screw up the formatting on the site in the next few weeks.  Have patience please. 

January 20th - I spent the entire day outside today.  It was a pretty damp and dreary day with no sunshine to be found.  But I felt great physically, and after being ill for more than a month, I enjoyed every minute of it.  Mostly I just puttered around, designing beds for the future, but I did get a few things done.   I planted 2 of the 3 Teddy Bear Magnolias and repositioned the statue of the The Virgin Mary into the bed outside of the kitchen window.  I also moved 2 of the 4 small Hollyhocks to accommodate those plantings.  Other than some minor leveling and mulching, this bed is pretty much done.  Yahoo.

I noticed a few brave plants breaking out for spring.  The Celeste Fig has leaves breaking out already with the Texas Everbearing Fig right behind it.   In recent years, this would have been a safe bet, but this year has been a little cooler than recent years so we will see.

January 21st - Rain, rain, go away.   We are probably close to 30 inches of rain since December 1st, just 7 weeks ago.  And this week's forecast calls for another week of rain every day.   The picture at right kind of shows the average winter scene.  Still quite green, but plenty soggy, and one small lone Camellia just a blooming away.

The positive side of this winter has been the incredible bird life, both in number and variety.   Due to our moderate weather, but with raging winter storms just 2 or 3 hundreds miles north, at any given time it is not uncommon to see 500 or more birds at a time on New Dawn's 3 acres.  The larger flocks are usually varieties of black brids with intermixed flocks of Brown Headed Cowbirds, Red Winged Black Birds, and Grackles.   Jade Juncos have been seen in numbers of 30 or 40, as well as several varieties of Doves in numbers up to 50 at a time.  Blue Jays abound, even a Cardinal showed up the other days which is quite unusual.  I don't know my small sparrow and warblers well enough,, but I am sure that at least 15 or 20 different varieties are out there.   Of course, I can't forget the Robins.  With the last two mild winters, I am not sure we have seen any here for quite a while until this year.  Oh, and we have a Red-bellied Woodpecker who seems to have taken up regular residence.  And, my Bluebirds were back too.  I'll keep an eye out to see if I can identify some more of the small birds.

January 22nd - It is a Monday, it is mid winter and days are short.  Normally, there would be nothing gardening on a day like today.  But for lunch I ran over to the feed store to get a 30 bag of bird feed and 3 bags of Alfalfa pellets.  Now, technically, neither of those are gardening related about the first, but the Alfalfa pellets are to be used as a fertilizer, and while I was there I noticed a newly arrived shipment of roses.  We have always had good success here with Our Lady of Guadelupe and there it was, soooo, we now own it.    Our last one was too large to be moved safely, so it remains back in Jeanerette. 

And for some reason, all day, all I could think about was pruning the grapes.  As soon as I got in I grabbed the pruners and headed out.  It was dark when I finished, but I have some pretty grape vines all pruned up for spring.   With the exception of the Crape Myrtle my spring pruning is done.  Now don't worry, I am not going to Crape Murder them.  They are young and bushy so I need to choose the 3 or 4 most sturdy trunks and to cut back the rest so that they will assume a pretty tree form, never to be Crape Murdered.

Humh, now where might I slip off to for lunch tomorrow. :-)

January 26th (Friday Evening) - Workloads pretty much put an end to even gardening thoughts since Monday.  Worked through lunch everyday and got home beat.  I don't think I even looked at a seed catalog.  At least for the last few days the sun has come out.  Man, what an improvement in outlook that makes.  Unfortunately, rain is back 90 percent probability tomorrow.  I left work about 30 minutes early today so I could spend an hour or so just taking stock of things outside.  I got out the pruners and worked the Crape Myrtles into shape.  Now each has 4 main trunks.  The ones on the outside of each end were especially bushy.  I sure am enjoying getting things off to a proper start this year.  I have not had that luxury for the last few years due to a variety of reasons.  I sure hope to get a decent day in before the rain hits. 

Here is a pic to leave you with tonight.  In this area we have lots of Live Oaks.  Many have a small fern that grows on the them called Resurrection Fern.  It looks like a dried up crust, until it rains, when the ferns instantly come back to life and green up, hence the name.  There is a very old and large Live Oaks in New Iberia that I thought was dead, but recovered some what and has a few leaves.  What it does have is the  most incredible covering of Resurrection Fern I have ever seen.   With our abundant rains recently the ferns are incredibly vibrant giving quite a strange but beautiful look to the tree.  Here is a picture I took of it this morning.  Click it for a close-up.  Just a sample of the natural beauty in this area.   This is not the best time of the year to visit this part of the Gulf Coast, but the blooming of the Azaleas is close at hand.   Gardens on the Gulf Coast peak in beauty twice a year, spring and fall.   Summer can be pretty in some years, but it can also be so stifling hot, you would only want to look at it out of the window of a well air conditioned room. Winters are usually quite nice with the exception of a handful of really chilly days.  This winter is the constant rain, rather than the temps that are putting a real stifle on outdoor activities. 

January 27th (Saturday) - By the time I woke today, I could already here the sound of rain dripping from the roof.  Geez, when will things get back to normal.  At dinner with my father-in-law, he stated that in his 70 plus years, this was probably the wettest condensed period he remembered.  We will be well over 30 inches of rain, closer to 35 in an 8 week period with rain predicted all next week.  Ahh, but just as I moaned about drought just a couple years ago, and other things over the years, this too shall pass and spring is but a few weeks away.  Yahoo.

January 28th (Sunday Evening) - Sunshine all day, at last.   Had to take it easy due to the back, but I still managed to get a lot done.  First, I took a pile of landscape timbers, 27 in all and started to line out the circular drive that will pass in front of the house and meet back up with the driveway further up front.    All in all this segment will be between  100 and 150 feet, so it won't be happening any time soon.  But getting it outlined like this really helped me to get foundation plantings in place.  Remember, this is a lifetime project, and probably `10 years away before it starts to really gel. 

So, back to today.  I tackled the large sand pile left from construction.  It is no more, having been spread over several low spots and shallow holes.   This was right in front of the house, so it really looks a lot better already.  I planted the 3rd Teddy Bear Magnolia.  I also planted the flat of Dwarf Monkey Grass around the base of the Virgin Mary statue, and fertilized the entire bed with Osmokote while I was at it, after having spread out the last piles of compost and leveling the rest of the bed...  I found a home for the Bismarkia Palm and drug it there to sit for a while to make sure.   Gee, I worked hard out there,  but when you write it down it doesn't seem like much.  Oh, and I picked up all of the potted plants and put them up on the front porch as we have a light freeze predicted tonight, although I really don't expect it to freeze, especially in the microclimate on the front porch with faces south and is good for 3 or 4 degrees of extra warmth.  Not to many picturesque things this time of year, so I'll leave you with a picture of my front porch and a bunch of straggly plants really longing for spring even more than me.

February 1 (Thursday) - OK, I need to cry on your back.  It rains every day, I leave for work right after daybreak, I get back after dark.   Let's just say I am ready for the rain to stop, winter to be over, and daylight savings time to return.  At least the rains are supposed to stop for the weekend with partly cloudy weather and I have tomorrow, Friday, off to celebrate Cel's birthday.  We both need some cheering up, as she gets the winter blahs as much as I do, maybe even worse.  OK, its off my shoulders and on yours.  Hey, I feel better.  Well, not really, but with a little sunshine this weekend, maybe.

I am still progressing on cleaning up the 2006 blog.

February

February 3 (Saturday) - Finally, a break in the rains. And on a weekend no less.  It was a cool 35 this morning, but the sun even came out for a few hours, before it settled into light overcast sky for the rest of the day.  Cel and I both got out to work in the gardens this morning.  She handled mostly cleanup duties while I manned the shovel.  I dug the holes for the Live Oak and the 3 Leylands to about 80%.  The soil is still extremely wet, so no more rain in the forecast for a week, I will let things continue to dry for a bit before I finish out the holes and do the actually planting later in the week.  I did go ahead with the transplant of the Rain Tree in the front, since it tolerates poor wet soil anyway.  I am sure it will be fine.  I also moved a small volunteer Mimosa from under the Pine to a new bed.  Now, Mimosa is known to be a tough street tree, often seen growing up through cracks in sidewalks and such.  We will put this one to the test.  When we bought this property an old gravel road ran through it.  The bed where I planted the Mimosa lies literally right on of that old road bed.   It took me a half hour of hard digging to get a 12 inch diameter planting hole.  I did dig down to a litlle over a foot so I would at least punch though the bottom of the rocks and shells down to the heavily compacted clay base.  That is its planting site, so like I said, we will see just how tough a street tree this is.   So for some reason, I bet it will do just fine, but take a look to the left and tell me if that is not one pitiful looking tree. (Note - I added another 6 inches of dirt and ran the big tiller through the area too but the time this picture was taken)

Otherwise, cleaned up lots of dead tops of tropical stuff  Some of the Gingers are already starting to push new stalks out of the ground.   The Flowering Maple that I discovered wandering throughout out of the Oaks bed actually has a couple of flowers.   I continued to clean up around the Monkey Puzzle trees.  Due to that fact that right after the house was completed in late summer, a whole bunch of mini-crisis hit, everywhere I look outside, seems to be something to do.  Humh.  Like right now, I see a garden hose in the front to pick up.  I know there is another in the back in the same condition.  And my new Bismarckia Palm keeps looking at me too.  I think he and I are happy with where he sits in the pot, now he just wants to put down into more permanent conditions.  Now, of course if I need a reason to delay, they say it is better to plant palms down here in the summer after the soil warms, but I find it hard to believe it is worse to be in the ground, than in the pot.  And I have successfully broken that rules before successfully.  And he just keeps looking at me saying "plant me."  To which I reply, "don't rush me, I'm thinking about it."

Well, the evening and darkness is here.  Never did make it back outside, but I have a nice to-do list for tomorrow.  If I get it all done, we will hit another milestone in moving from construction cleanup  and into real spring preparation.  Update coming tomorrow.  Hope your Saturday was as good as mine.

Februaary 4th (Sunday) - Boy, it is amazing how fast you get out of shape as you get older.  Yesterday, I did about half of what I would have done out in the garden last year in the same amount of time and I was pooped.  Got back out there today, and got a little done, but yesterday was still weighing on me.  My energy level was low.  As I used to say, "my get up and go, got up and went."  I did get my primary objective accomplished.  We have one pile of fill dirt left from the construction.  It was right in front of the house and next to the driveway.  I guess the best way to describe it was an "eyesore" especially as it always have a nice pile of weeds on top.  I guess it was about a maybe 2 yards of dirt, and wet, which made it twice as heavy.  But it had to go so I strapped on the back brace, which is now standard gardening equipment, and got after it.  I took many breaks.  OK, it was an embarrassing numbers of breaks, but it is no more.  Several large holes were filled and I raised one of the new beds about 6 inches higher.  In the process, I had to dig up the Mimosa transplanted yesterday, and raise it 6 inches higher too.   I also moved about 20 of the 18" square pavers to reshaped the walkway from the font porch to the deck under the Live Oaks so that it would more closely follow the new driveway round about shape.  I can see how this area will come together  beautifully.

I just have to say again how amazing the birds are this year.  I read last years logs and I was talking about the birds last years at this time also, but this year we have maybe 10 times more birds than last year, of every type.  When out working, standing still for just a few minutes will result in small birds flitting around everywhere around you.  Warblers of al types, different kinds of sparrows, and larger birds, It is a shame I don't know my bird identification better.  A flock of several hundred Cowbirds has worked the property all day from to back to front and back again.  When they get startled, which is every 5 to 10 minutes, and go up into one of the deciduous Oaks it suddenly looks like it has sprouted a full set of leaves.   I am building this place to retire and expire here, should God give me that good fortune, and can truly say that I treasure every day here.

Books -  The New Dawn Library, aka my bookcases, have gotten quite large in recent years.  I have right around 200 gardening books now  More than half are specific to the lower and coastal south.  I particularly like the old gardening books.  The authors back then wrote in what is now described as an "over the back fence" style of writing.  They wrote of their gardens very personally and wrapped the stories of those gardens into their personal lives.  After reading many of these books you feel as you knew their gardens and their family.  The older books also tell tales of a world long since past too.  "Natives Preferred" by Caroline Dorman is one such book.  "The World Grows Round My Door: The Story of the Kampong, a Home on the Edge of the Tropics" by David Fairchild is another and definitely one of my favorites.  Books by Elizabeth Lawrence and "Southern Gardens, Southern Gardening" another.  There a few modern books to make it into this special realm as well.  One of my absolute favorite is "Cultivating Delight" by Diane Ackerman.  I recently found another on the sale rack at Barnes and Noble named "Paths of Desire" by Dominique Browning which would have earned a place on my bookcase even at full price.  So, you now see how I put those rainy days to use transporting myself through a book to another garden, sometimes in another time as well.  Who says there isn't time travel :-)

February 6 (Tuesday) - Got out of work on time for a change, which allowed me to get in the yard for a few minutes before dark.   I got the 3 Leyland Pines planted in the holes I had prepared the over the weekend.  The soil has dried enough to plant, barely, maybe, well its done.  There was a problem though.  The two holes I dug on the right side of the driveway were dry when I dug them, but had filled with water at about 8" below surface level by today.  Now, high water tables here in Louisiana is nothing new, and planting on mounds is certainly a recommendation anytime, but I have never experienced this problem at New Dawn with its 17 foot front to rear slope down towards this bayou, but these spots are about 25 feet from my neighbors pond, whose banks he built up by a couple of feet.  The saturated soils from all the rains, combined with his pond being at an all time high must be causing the seepage.   We have just had all time record rains so I am not all that worried, but it will cause me to mound up the planting a bit higher than I had planned.  I ran to Lowes this evening to get some extra topsoil (40 lb bags, 20 in all)  to accommodate.  Meant to get a couple of bags of gravel to put in the bottom of the planting hole too, to fill in the bottom 6 inches now filled with water, but forgot.  Humh, what can I do.  Got a couple of broken clay pots.  That'll help some.  Might have to sacrifice a few of those nice garden edge blocks too.  I have some of those to spare. One way or another, we'll get'r done.  Cel hates it when I say that :-)

February 7 (Wednesday) - I had to be a little late to work this morning to wait for a contractor, so I took advantage of the extra time to plant the "mostly dead" Live Oak in an area up in the front of New Dawn which has very few of anything planted at this time.  There are plans for the area, but there are also budgets to consider.  So now the "mostly dead" Live Oak has been planted in the planting hole with standing water in it :-).  Now tell me that is not a recipe for disaster.  And to make matters worse, once the 14 foot Live Oak was removed from the pot, a tight mass of circling roots was revealed.  Now this is a tree that truly has the deck stacked against it.  So, here is what I did to give it whatever chance it has now.  First I used some old bricks and fill soil to raise it and insure the root mass was positioned above the standing water table, which is unusually high.  Next I took out my special root knife (see last years logs for details on the knife) and did what I could do to cut through, and redirect the circling roots.  Due to the size and mass of the roots, this admittedly was not much.   Last, after putting the existing dirt from the hole back in the hole around the root mass I added 18 40-pound bags of top soil around it due to its increased height.  I will come back in the next few days as the weather allows and add that much again, maybe more, in compost.  Now bear in mind this tree's leaves are brown from a month sitting on my trailer while I was ill and the contractor who was supposed to plant it never showed up.  Two weeks of that the tree was nearly horizontal.  The only promise is that while considered evergreen, Live Oaks actually shed their leaves every year.  This time they just won't overlap as is normal.  So, in the end I give this tree at best a 50/50 chance of short term survival, and with the circling roots even less for long term.  But Live Oaks have a reputation for being really tough.  So this tree will be the testament and will be an interesting experiment over the years to come. But regardless of whether it dies or thrives in the coming years, it shall, from this point forward, always be known as the "mostly dead" Live Oak. :-)  By the way, the quote "mostly dead" is from Billy Crystal in the movie "The Princess Bride."

February 8 (Early Thursday Morning) - All previous year's Blogs are now single pages in date order.  Still a lot of grammatical cleanup to do on these old logs.  It has been really fun and nostalgic going back to these logs.  They are also more complete than I remembered too.  . So, if  you get really bored. 

So, for lunch, still having $50 on a gift certificate from Christmas ,I slipped away to Lowe's.  The first $100 of that gift certificate was spent on "house stuff", but I promised myself that the last $50 would buy a tree, or two.  And that is exactly what it did, and not just one tree but too.  I have been wanting an Elm on the property somewhere, so for the first one, I bought on Cedar Elm (http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ornamentals/natives/ulmuscrassifolia.htm).   The second one was a Live Oak which we will name "Cel's 40th Live Oak."  If you are curious about the name, well let's just give you a hint.  Cel did not have 39 Live Oaks before this one.   Got some planting to do this weekend.  Yee haa.

February 9 (Friday) - So, for lunch today I went to Lowes.  And I didn't buy a single plant.  What the heck is wrong with me?  But I did swing by the parish compost facility for a truck load of compost.  That kind of makes it  up, right?  Tomorrow the new trees go in the ground.  Only problem is it is going to be cold and windy with a high of only 55.  Now I know Yankees will be laughing, but hey, there is a reason I live down here.  I don't like cold weather, haha. 

Saturday 10 - (Saturday) - Well, it was cold.  I didn't get out until after noon, and then I didn't do much.  I did get the big tiller started, so I tilled where the new Azalea bed will go, and then I tilled the Pine pit, whose soil needs to go into the new Azalea bed.  I had two Pines that needed to be removed for the house, so I had them bulldozed into a pile which I burned a few times and let the rest to compost knowing it would build beautiful acid soil which Azaleas would love.  That is the Pine Pit, which was really more of a mound than a pit.

Sunday 11 (Sunday) - Oh my god, today we worked.  Cell and I are both totally exhausted. It was a cloudy day with a little sun earlier, but a bit warmer with highs in the low 60s.  First, I re-tilled the 20 foot bed for the new Azaleas.  Then I added in all of the soil from the Pine pit, 5 wheelbarrows in all.  Then I added another 5 wheelbarrows of compost.   The Azaleas are in.  The Pine pit (mound) is now beautiful and level.  Another mess from construction cleaned up.  Only 2 remains, yahoo.  

Cel cleaned up an old pile of tin that has been around here forever.  It was a big job, too.  So, with the Azalea bed done and the six new Azalea planted, and one Elephant Ear on the end, I turned my attention to the "almost dead" Live Oak.  I shoveled compost around it to create a really nice shaped mound.  I also brought one wheelbarrow each of compost to each of my new Leyland Cypress planted in the front too.  That should get them off to a good start.  As for the "almost dead" Live Oak what can I say, it is "almost dead"  When I prune a small stem there is some green there so I remain hopeful.  Then I helped Cel to finish cleaning up the last remaining wood pile.  OK, it the second to last, but the last one is really small.   

We brought some stuff up front for a new burn pile up yonder.    We cleaned out the burn pit, which we will no longer use.  It needs to be moved.  I planted the new Elm quite close to the old one, so no more burns will be happening there anyway.   That Elm may be the first tree in the history of New Dawn that actually planted right according the 2 old crotchety horticulture professors, but that is another story for another day.  At any rate we will keep close tabs on the new Elm tree to see if they were right.  

Then I took the remaining compost and spread it around the new Mimosa tree as it needs anything to help it as it is planted right smack in the middle of an old gravel road bed.  This bed is about 200 square feet.  I ran the big tiller through and through, and through some more.    I also planted the new Lady of Guadeloupe in the front corner of that bed too.  And,,,,I tilled the two areas that are to receive the 2 new Gardenia which will frame the front porch entrance someday.   So, there are 3 major plants around to plant still, the Bismarckia Palm, the Canary Island Date Palm, and the "Cel's 40th" Live Oak.  With a little luck and good weather that will be done next weekend.  Unless I buy some new plants between now and then. :-). 

February 13 (Tuesday) - The heavy rains turned out to be light rains, although there was rumor of a tornado or two last night.  There was no sign of even moderate winds last night a New Dawn.  Looks like the predicted 28 degrees will more likely be around 32 by the adjusted forecast.  Man I hate it when the weather service makes me panic like that.  They been consistently doing that all winter, predicting very low temps and then moderating the forecast in a day or two or three.  I wandered out before dawn today and snapped a picture of our garden statue.  She sits at the rear of a bed of Boston Fern, which are obviously in full spring mode, and also behind a good size Australian Tree Fern, which still shows minor freeze burns at the some of the frond tips, from the hard freeze we has back in December.  Enjoy your day and don't forget your Valentine tomorrow.

 

February 14 (Wednesday Evening) - Guess what, winter is not over yet.  Looks like it will make at least one more last stand.  Starts with 33 tonight, then 29 tomorrow night, followed by lows of 35, 37, and 38.  After that, spring comes back, and we slowly make it back to highs in the low 70s, and hopefully, that really was winter's last stand.  We will have good weather for Mardi Gras weekend and hopefully for Mardi Gras too.  Adding a day of vacation gives me a 4 day weekend, so we should be able to finish the spring cleanup and prep over the long weekend, and be done with that. 

On the right are 2 of the 6 new Azaleas in the new Azalea bed.  Yep, they are small.  Those are the ones I picked up on sale for $2.99 each.  What did I have to lose?  And making a cameo appearance is one of the 3 new kittens that showed up in late 2006.  This one Cel calls Perl.  Her siblings are Sapphire and Bella.  Of course all 3 are boys.  So much for naming cats before you know the sex.  No a problems for me, I give them all simple nicknames anyway.  To me, they are Gray, Gold, and Paint.  Of course Gray and Gold are obvious, but Paint.  Actually paint has several colors, but the coloring on his face looks for all the world like he ran into a freshly painted wall face first.  I'll see if I can get him to pose next to a plant soon so all of the new spring animals have been properly presented. 

I made another start at the links on the left.  It is a big job, to create a really good reference site for Gulf Coast Gardeners.  I spent an hour on it tonight.  To do it right I need to spend an hour every night for the next couple of months, and then at least an hour a week forever.  I will give it a shot.  No promises, but it is a good start when you are looking for something Gulf Coast specific.  It may not get you directly there, but from there you will be able to follow links to just about anything.  I'll keep at it.

February 16 (Friday, 3:00AM) - One of those nights when I woke up in the middle of the night and that was it for sleeping.  Those nights are more common than I would like, but good for updating the website.  It was also cool because I got to document a fairly rare occurrence.  It was supposed to reach 29 tonight so the first thing I did was check the temperature.  As a pleasant surprise it was only 35 when it should have been below freezing.  A quick hit on weather.com and looking at the satellite photo revealed what I suspected, some cloud cover had moved in.  But as I did not suspect it did not move in from the coast as is usual.  We were barely under a large cloud cover to our northwest and the entire coastline was clear.   So if it was indeed colder to the south of me nearer the coast would confirm the cloud cover effect.  Sure enough, 30 miles south Morgan City it was a chilly 32 degrees, 3 degrees cooler than us to the north.  And even more amazing was New Orleans weighing in at 33 degrees, 2 degrees cooler, and Houston at a really chilly 29 degrees and 6 degrees cooler.  On a typical freezing winter night, those temperature variations would have been the opposite.    Now, the bad news is that cloud is still moving away from us and we will lose its cover shortly and New Orleans will gain it.  It just dropped a degree to 34.  Now, if you are new to gardening take note that gardening make eventually make you obsessed with things like the weather, so walk away now, no, on second thought, don't walk, run. :-)

Gardening in the Humid South

Now, the second thing I did on this sleepless morning was to re-read a little bit of "Gardening in the Humid South."    Now, I have to tell you that I have often wondered if I missed my calling and should have taken the route of a horticulturalist.  But you only have to read a book like this to second guess that.  Before I explain that last remark let me say that this is an excellent book and really down to earth.  The nature of the book is also what you would expect from two professors, a little more in-depth than most casual gardeners might want to read, but worth it for those who do.  

Now, let me explain that first remark, about not wanting to be a horticulturalist.  Like many gardeners I most times revel in my surprises and quickly wash away my failures.  The unexpected is especially joyful.  What is that old saying, "ignorance is bliss?"   When you read a book like this, you realize that the horticulturist spend their lives focusing more on all of the bad things that can happen in a garden and how to deal with them, than the simple pleasures of seeing a volunteer plant sprout where you didn't expect it, or one you thought was dead all of a sudden reappear, or of success with a plant that they would have advised not to plant in the first place.  Simply put, they are in the business of being practical, while most crazed gardeners like me are in the business of being impractical. 

February 17 (Saturday Eve) - It was one of those puttering days.  Got off to a late start because of the cold.  It drops below freezing for only a couple of hours, but it made it down to 30 degrees.  There was prettyy nice frost on the ground as well.  Picking up stuff that has been laying around since last fall.  A little wire here, some conduit there, a water hose somewhere else, stacked the last pile of wood, killed a bunch of termites.  Still plenty of stuff on these 3 acres to be picked up.   It was like everything just got dropped in place last September to get moved in the house.  And then a series of family emergencies and illnesses came about, next thing you know it is February and spring is looming.   I found some more landscape timbers that had been nailed together.  So I separated them with the help of  a couple of pry bars and continue framing out the new driveway.  Help me to decide on bed planting to see it framed out.   I went ahead and planted the Bismarckia Palm.   Also, I started digging the hole for the Canary Island Date palm, but unfortunately I started running brick pieces, and whole bricks, and more brick pieces.   There are lots of surprises lying underground on old properties sometimes.  I have dug up horseshoes, bolts, old nails, and all kinds of unidentified metal staff around here.   Anyway, I hope these bricks don't go too deep or this whole is going to be quite painful, to dig that is.  Regardless, the palm goes there, one way or the other.   Other than Cel's small "40th Live Oak" and an even smaller Flowering Maple, that is pretty much the spring planting.  Now there are a few smaller things, and of course I am not through buying plants for this spring.  But at least I will be caught up by the end of this weekend, for now.

February 18 (Sunday early morning) - Another cool morning weighing in at 35degrees, but no frost at all.  Just didn't feel that cold either, but thermometers don't usually lie.   The gardening shows come on early on Sunday morning, so that makes it a lot easier to get up.  And finally I get to hang the squirrel feeder, which we bought several months ago and have been looking for ever since.  Yesterday I went into the attic for the second time.  Nothing.  I went into the old mobile home, which is being used as a temporary storage area and which is finally going away in a couple of weeks, again nothing, no sign of it.  I looked in the closets, in the barn, everywhere, nothing.  I finally had to accept the fact that it was gone, and if I wanted a squirrel feeder, another one needed to be purchased as the first one had vanished into the ethernet.  We decided before heading into the garden a little house cleaning was in order, so we spent the first few hours of the morning, waiting for the great outdoors to warm up anyway, cleaning and organizing.  As we were going along, Cel asked me when I was finally going to pick up all of those CDs.  I vaguely remembered having 4 or 5 CDs in the kitchen area, so quickly decided there was some much larger, more significant thing I could do instead of just picking up 4 or 5 CDs on the other side of the house.  Men think like that, you know.  So, Cel took matters into her own hands and promptly dropped all of those CDs on the floor of my hobby room where I would surely notice them and handle the matter.  Sure enough, I walked into the hobby room and noticed something on the floor, something puzzling.  I called out to Cel from across the house, "Cel, what is this box you put in my room."  The return, "it is all of those CDs I have been asking you to pick up."  Sure enough, the 4 or 5 CDs are on top of the box, but wait, I don't have "box" of CDs, just the 4 or 5.  I removed them from the top and opened the mystery box.  After quite a bit of laughter, I brought the box to Cel and we both laughed at the discovery of the missing squirrel feeder we had spent months looking for.

(Sunday evening) - I finally cleaned up the last remaining woodpile on the ground.  Although there are still a few on the concrete, I now have everything out of the way to finish the new courtyard area.  The big task of the day was my last big planting of the season, literally.  I finally got my last Christmas present in the ground, which as a large Canary Island Data Palm.  This thing was in a 50 gallon pot. . So, by rough estimate, that was probably a 300 lb plant.  It took 3 sessions to dig the hole, one yesterday, and 2 today.  This afternoon is was finished.  The came the 4 wheeler which is my best friend, and  a 3 inch nylon tow strap.   First I dragged the plant near the hole, cut away the pot, reattached the strap around the root ball and pulled it in the hole.  A bit of rocking around here and there to get it level and there you go.  I said in a blog earlier, that I was disappointed that the two large plants I got for Christmas would be the only two plants at New Dawn that I did not plant myself.  Well, brother-in-law and the landscape crew never showed, but my 4 wheeler and I got the job done on both.  So, my record still stands.   The second big project we got done today was both small and large.  I got out all of the seed starting trays and the tons of seeds we have.  We planted 400 seed plugs.  We planted just about everything you can imagine, including some seeds I got from Russia.  We have Russian tomatoes, egg plants, and watermelon seeds planted.  That should be interesting all by itself.    We still have one tray of 80 plugs left to plant.

Also, I harvested all of the remaining Citrus fruit, a handful of Tangerines, a few Blood Orange, and quite a few Louisiana Sweet Oranges.  All in all I came close to filling up a 5 gallon bucket.  Brought them all in and pulled out the juicer.  We now have 2 gallons of fresh squeezed Orange juice and the Citrus crop is done till October.  When you think about it, we have fresh Citrus around 5 months of the year.  Not too bad.  And let me tell you, the stuff in the grocery store, even the best, pales in comparison to fresh squeezed just off of the tree.

February 19 (Monday) - I took a day of vacation to make a 4 day weekend.  Most folks down here, especially in Lafayette get Mardi Gras (tomorrow) off as a holiday.  That and beautiful weather made for an easy decision to take a little vacation.  It actually got down to 34 last night, but  the winds turned to the south in the early morning hours and it was not even chilly be 8:30AM.  I went straight out and went to work.  First I went to work tilling a large area that was a little high so that I could lower and level it, and move some of the dirt to an adjacent lower area.  Then I moved a small Althea, and a small Lilac to new homes in a new bed.   I also unloaded the pickup truck full of compost, dressing around the new plantings and spreading some in the new beds.   Then I got the big mower out so Cel could do the first mow of the year.  First I had to fix the flat tire.  After that was done, I noticed the deck was tilted.  A quick glance underneath revealed that the main bracket holding the deck has torn off.  Unfortunately, the guys down at the mower repair shop had the same idea I had about taking the day off.  So, the mower sits on the trailer waiting to be delivered to the mower repair shop on Wednesday. 

Here is a pic of the Russioa seeds that I am starting.  Should be interesting.  I also started working on a surprise for Cel.  Well, it is kind of hard to hide, so it won't be much of a surprise.  Now this one takes a little explaining.   Before moving here to New Dawn, we had purchased Cel's grandfather's house in Jeanerette.  In one section in the rear of the house near an old greenhouse was an old cypress fence.  It was around4 feet tall.  When hurricane Lily came crashing through, quite literally, the Pecan Tree that destroyed the greenhouse took out about half of that old fence too.  I was able to save about 40 feet of the fence boards, which are quite old 12 inch wide cypress planks.  They are quite thin, maybe a half inch, so they might have been some old siding or something.   They are pretty deteriorated on the ends, but with a little TLC and some protectant, I bet I can get another 10 years out of them.  They are also very special and sentimental for Cel, who wanted a cutting garden.  I moved some of my old 4x8 foot frames into small area with the dog kennels at the rear.  Next I will use those fence boards to make a small cottage looking fence around the area.  We can grow vines on the dog kennels.  We never have enough stuff to grown vines on around here.  Everything is in place, but the fence.  I hope to get that done within 2 weeks. 

Cel spent most of the day in the gardens too.  She weeded and cleaned out beds full of dead tropical foliage, and trimmed all of the bananas around the barn, and pruned the Lady Banks and "Perry''s Rose." 

Cel and I went into Baton Rouge today for family duties.  We had an interesting attempt to get back home, dodging Mardi Gras parades, but we finally got in around 3:00PM.   Just enough time to plant "Cel's 4oth Live Oak."  But wait, there is there's more.  I also planted the two (Clerodendrum speciosissimum) known as Giant Red Salvia, Java Plant, Jave Glorybower, or Pagoda Flower.  I think the most prevalent name is here is Java Plant, so from here on, that's it, Java Plant it is.     

February 22 (3:00AM) - One of those sleepless nights, so I am doing a little website updating.  Let's call it virtual  "puttering."  I was just thinking that with the next rain, I need to fertilize the fruit trees.  One thing that is always a pain is that folks always tell you the fertilizer rates with pounds.  It is a lot easier to measure in container size like "pints" than in "pounds."  Here is something I found on a horticultural site.  Wait, if you are an organic gardener, you might want to skip the next section.  And it is not that I don't use organic techniques, I do, almost exclusively, but not on my Citrus trees, here I combine.  So, with that disclaimer, here we go.

FERTILIZER

Citrus trees require annual fertilization for good growth and high yields. In late January or early February, apply 1 to 1-1/2 pound of 13-13-13, 8-8-8, 8-12-8 or 6-12-6 per year of tree age up to 12 years. A simple fact to remember is that 1 pint of 13-13-13 weighs about 1 pound and a quart weighs 2 pounds. ( Example: A one-year-old tree will require 1 pound or 1 pint of 13-13-13 while a 4-year-old tree will require four to 6 pounds or 3 quarts of 13-13-13.)

Broadcast the fertilizer beyond the spread of the limbs where most of the feeder roots occur. A good rule of thumb when fertilizing trees is to put your shoulder and hand near the outer branches and hold the can of fertilizer in the other hand. You can simply walk around the tree and evenly spread the fertilizer in a 12 to 18-inch band around the outer branches of the tree. This technique will ensure that the fertilizer is placed a safe distance from the tree.

So, with that out of the way, here is the makeshift seed starting operation.  Somewhere under all of that is the kitchen table.  This weekend I hope to get things setup on the rack I bought for this purpose.   In the meantime, I am lucky that Cel is having as much fun as I am starting all of these seeds.  I bought those fancy seed starting units, heat mats, and thermostats nearly 2 years ago.  I had had those light fixtures even longer..  All with a plant to build a seed starting rack.  I can't afford to build these gardens buying mature plants, but seeds and cuttings are quite cheap.  This weekend the rack will become reality.  One step closer.  Yahoo.  It all had to sit last year as getting the house built took priority.    But this year we are one.  Some seeds have already sprouted.  The new 2007 Zinnia seeds Cel bought last weekend are already up.  A couple of weeks ago, I bought some large Cherry type tomatoes at Sam's.  They were so good, I saved some seeds from them, and they are already up too.   There are quite a few other seeds that will be up in a few days.  I can see them starting to open.    Growing seeds is so cool.

By the way, I guess Spring might finally be here.  Today's projected high will be 79 degrees, and while it will get a few degrees cooler this weekend, the forecast for the next 10 days shows highs in the 70's every single day.  Things are gonna take off now, for sure.  Humh, it 4:30AM.  Decision time, try to grab a couple of hours of sleep, or just make a pot of coffee and make the day on the 4 hours of sleep I did get last night.  I'm thinking coffee and few more updates on the site.  By the way, the fancy seed starting units are Park Bio Domes.  I bought the large black double units a couple of years ago, which were unused till this year, I actually have owned the small green ones for a few years now.  I can heartily recommend these units.  They are awesome seed starting environments, I suspect maybe the best.  They have only one drawback as far as I can tell and that is you have to buy the inserts from Parks.  Not that they are terribly expensive with the large ones being about 15 cents each and the small ones being around 9 cents each, but it would be nice if you could fill them with something you could concoct locally.  I have though of a few experiments I could try to make my own inserts, but in the end, I guess it is just as well that I get them from Park's Seed Co.  They are a great company based on my past experience with them. 

February 23 (Friday night) - Man, I love spring, and it is not even spring really, but things are happening.  But first, on the mundane side of things.  I picked up the big 16 foot trailer from getting the lights fixed.  Lesson learned,, don't let family and friends know you have a trailer, and if they find out, still don't loan it to them.  Or at least make them pay for the repairs.  A friend broke one tail light and brother in law broke the other.  But it is now fixed, so when I bring the big Toro mower to the shop, and the Toro is always broken or at least is seems, I don't have to fear getting run into from the rear or getting a ticket.  I also got the small Mantis tiller out of the shop.  Now as opposed to the Toro, this Mantis tiller has been pushed way beyond its intended design and has held up beautifully.  What a great machine.  It is everything the ads say it is and more.  I heartily recommend it.  Don't get me wrong brother in law broke it too, but he is a brute and thought it was a tractor, haha.   So, onto the non-mundane.  Cel got us a new bird book today.  We ID'd one of the mystery birds.  It is a Ruby Crowed Kinglet.  I need to get more observant of some others.  Pretty sure they are some kind of Warbler, but there are so many.  This birding thing is tough.  Oh, and back to the mundane.  I brought home another load of compost.  I have to watch the rain closely.  Originally it was projected to start around noon tomorrow. which was no big deal.   That would leave plenty of time in the morning to unload the compost and spread the fertilizer, but as of a little while ago the rain chances went to 30% tonight.  Neither my truck, nor me, wants to deal with a truck load of wet compost which easily weights twice as much as dry compost.

On the specific plant side, my Texas Mountain Laurel is looking a bit sickly.  The leaves are green, but the veins are yellow and the leaves are starting to yellow as well.  Now, this could be a virus, but a quick web search reveals this plant likes strongly alkaline soils.  That is certainly not the case at New Dawn whose soil range from mildly acid to more acidy.  Many farmers and vegetable gardeners down here routinely add Lime to their soils.  So, we have had more than enough burn piles around New Dawn, which is my version of cheap Lime.  I will add some ashes tomorrow to see if it perks up a bit, and it will get some compost and Alfalfa too.  This is not a common plant in this area, probably due to the soils, so I would like to save it and have it thrive.   This is first on the to-do list for tomorrow.  I have a constant running to-do list.  I never get everything done and can't ever remember it being caught up, but it does keep things prioritized. 

February 24 (Saturday morning) - Woke up bright and early for a Saturday.  At 6:30AM I had the coffee made and started surveying the work for the day.  Now I know for some that is no big deal, but I am definitely not a morning person.  So, it is 11:00AM and I have completed most of what I wanted to get done today.  Well, let me rephrase that, I have completed most of what "had" to be done today.  There is a lot more in the "want to do today" category.  When I awoke the chance of rain had increased to 70% complete with thunderstorms.  Great, perfect day to spread fertilizer for all all of the fruit trees, which I did, for all 20+.  But, there has been no rain yet, only wind, nasty mean wind gusting to over 40Mph winds.  I had to run out and stake the "mostly dead" Live Oak which was starting to rock in its new planting hole despite having a 50 gallon root ball.    Everything else will make it, but a few things are getting torn up a bit, like the leaves on my new Bismarckia.    Well, there is still hope for the rain.  Later.

Saturday afternoon - Still waiting on that rain, so this afternoon was mostly dedicated to cleanup type operations.    I did move the Fringe Tree.  Actually I thought this tiny tree seedling was dead as it was quite small and very near the construction of the driveway.  It was not until last weekend that Cel said "what is this?"  It actually took me a few seconds to remember that I had planted a native Fringe Tree seedling there just  before the construction began on New Dawn.  I bought it on eBay.  There were two bare root plants in the purchase, but the other died before ever breaking dormancy.  As things have laid out the Fringe Tree was in entirely to wrong place, but luckily it is still quite dormant.  I took a really large root ball for such a small transplant so I doubt it will even know it has been moved.  By the way, the last cat to be introduced is Paint, or Bella to Cel.  Here she is on the right. 

Saturday early evening - Still waiting on that rain.  But hey, guess what.  The Purple and Brown Russian Eggplant seeds are up.  Now is that cool or what. 

February 25 - Yes, the rains did finally come last night, just before midnight.  I slept well knowing the fertilizer was being rinsed down into the root zone, and there was enough rain that my trees would not be burned from excessive nitrogen.   According to my rain gage, we got about 1/4 inch of rain, not an abundance, but enough.  I had to go in for a work event this morning, so there was no work this morning.  Now, the work thing on a Sunday was a rare event, but the day was beautiful so when I got home around 2:45PM, I was raring to go. 

At left is a new bed taking shape, I think.  This area was construction central for a while.  All of the tilled up dirt is actually the remains of a large mound of fill dirt.  Not the best stuff in the world, mostly fine silt, so I am trying to decide whether to leave it, amend it, and till it in further, or just scoop up the rest and go use it to fill holes or something.  Anyway the Concrete Planter was the only original thing there, along with Crinums, Narcissus, and Lycoris bulbs.  Just to the right of it is the new Canary Island Date Palm.  The two smaller, darker mounds near the landscape timbers are the newly transplanted Althea and Southern Lilac.   The landscape timbers outline the shape of the eventual circular drive.  The orange paint outlines my potential bed outline.  Just out of the picture on the right is the barn.  So, I can see the potential for this bed.  Now, what else, ground cover, small shrubs.  We figure it out as the year goes on, but it will not be finished for another year, I am sure.

Today was the day to reclaim the porch and patio.  With the loss of the greenhouse to Hurricane Rita, the front porch (facing south) had become the makeshift overwintering spot for the sensitive plants, and it did an acceptable job too.  We did not lose a single plant.  Now some of them are looking awfully rough, so don't get me wrong, but they will recover.  In the greenhouse they would have flowered all winter.  Maybe for next year we will have another greenhouse, but it may take another year after that, really.  There are other priorities at the moment.  So, most of the tropicals are now in their home on the deck under the Live Oaks where they will spend the summer.  That took care of the front porch.  Now the back patio was another matter all together.   Since moving in, my table saw has been right outside the door.  With no shop  built yet, and still a ways out the only place left to put it was the barn, which was already a mess.  So, for the rest of the day, I took on the barn.  Now don't picture some large big red barn in your mind.  This was a small two horse barn that I inherited when I bought the property.  I only concreted the floor just a few months ago, and it still only had one wall, with plants handling the wall chores on the other sides.  Regardless, I wanted the back porch and patio, so the barn has to handle the surplus to the shop is built.  And a few things have to go in the attic too.  Well, 3 hours in the barn did wonders.  Now don't get me wrong, I am long from finished, and there are a few things out in the yard, but 80% of the work is done.  And the table saw is gone form the back porch.  Slowly, we are getting it done.  The front porch is now ready for summer, and the back porch, well let's say we are 80% there.    Here is a new bed in progress.  Not the

February 26 - I got a nice pot of Black Bamboo at a local nursery today.  Hope to get it in the ground tomorrow.  Unfortunately, they did not know the exact name other than "Black Bamboo" but I will figure it out sooner or later.   Now, where am I going to put this.  Humh.  I do like that this black bamboo is really black, as opposed to dark green.  Many of the black bamboos are not really black at all.  Here is a picture of it, just after being unloaded from the truck.

March 2 (Friday) - Got in a few minutes early today and planted the Black Bamboo where is lots of room to roam.

March 10 (Saturday) - Just back from a week in the Florida panhandle, this time in Sandestin, a resort just east of Destin, Fl.   What a marvelous time.  I was there for a conference, but added a couple of day on the front end, and made a leisurely trip home stopping be several nurseries.  We brought back quite a few plants.  We got a couple of Jelly Palms in the small to medium size range; and a two Pigmy Date Palms and one Washingtonia palm in the small range.  Also in the truck coming back was a Eastern Red Cedar.  These vary quite a bit, and I really liked this one.  Also, I got a Horsetail Rush.  Now either of these last two are easily dug locally, but in one case it was a matter of convenience and in the other, a matter of variation.   And last, but not least, Cel got to Elephant Garlic plants.   Her grandfather Joe used to like to grow them, so they were a "must have" addition to the garden.

Of course there is lot more to tell, and show of this trip, but that will have to wait for the next log entry.  Today, we spent the day outside mostly doing clean up, mowing and that sort of thing.  Till tomorrow, and yahoo, it's Daylight Savings Time.

Destin - The pictures below show the beauty of the Sandestin Resort.  While I hesitate to recommend the place due to exorbitant prices and poor service, it beauty cannot be ignored.  The first picture is from our 12th floor window.  The 2nd shows the lake just our from the heated pool.  And last shows the sunset on our last evening.  Temperatures at this time of the year were cool, but the pool was heated, eventually.  Enjoy.

March 11 (Sunday evening) - A long weekend in the garden and not nearly enough done, but it was a start, again.  A lot of tilling got done, although it was a bit drier than optimum.    A new vegetable bed got an initial tilling, a really large vegetable bed, probably 50 feet by 50 feet.   And I got 3 arms of the Cross bed tilled too.  All of the new plantings had to be watered, as we have had no rain in over a week.   Cel's 40th Live Oak and the the Cedar Elm have awakened for the spring.  Many other things are ready to burst.  We have a good chance of rain tomorrow, so if it comes that may be the catalyst for the next burst of growth, especially since it will be our first warm rain with the high being around 80 degrees.  Although I didn't get anything planted, I did locate a few into potential homes.  I like to leave the pots in place for a few days before planting just to be sure. 

March 12 (Monday) -  First day of the new daylight savings time.  The fact that I am not much of a morning person and was tired all day, along with a light rain meant that I didn't get the enjoyment I thought I would, but both will pass.  We needed the rain, so I am not complaining.    While in Florida, I fell in love with the True Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera).    The picture at left reveals its beauty.  I really came back thinking I must have one, but subsequent reading has not been encouraging. 

http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/Programs/commorn/publications/growing-true-dates-in-south-florida.PDF, reveals some of the issues and not a great outlook for these palms in Louisiana.

March 14th (Wednesday) - Rain, lots of good wholesome warm rain.   With only a few exceptions, everything has awakened this spring.  Of course, the always lagging Pecans are still dormant, as is the "almost dead" Live Oak, but on a "scratch test'" the "almost dead Live Oak" stems are bright green so there is much hope.   I had to be out of town all last week, and again this weekend, so I can't tell you what a relief this rain is.  No pressure to get out and water.  And when I do, it will be with "blue water."  More on the "blue water" later.

March 19th (Monday) - Had to attend a work conference over the 3-day weekend, so there was no gardening at home, but thanks to a good travel mate I did get in some gardening related activities.  The conference was in Many, La which sits next to Toledo Bend Resorvoir.  Other great places right near are Hodges Gardens and Kisatchie National Forest.  We didn't have time to stop at either, but on the way we did stop briefly in Forest Hill, La  for a few minutes.  Forest Hill is the nursery capital of Louisiana with over 60 nurseries within just a few miles of each other.  We only stopped at one so I could check the prices for a future trip.  Let me just say it is worth a pretty good length trip if you buying a quantity of something.  And everyone should go there at least once just to see that many nurseries in a town with a population of only approx. 500 people.  Now, I suspect that does not include migrant workers :-)   Just by following the links to the different links above all in this fairly small geographic area you will see that it would be hard to take it all in with even a little quality time in a single weekend.

So even better, when we got to our destination, Cypress Bend Resort, which is always beautiful, I was delighted to see they had planted a nice little woodland Garden too as a memorial.  I'll cover that with a few pictures in a future blog entry.  And then I went wandering through some nearby woods as well with my travel mate Doug, who is not an avid gardener, but is a really greate "go along with the gardening nut" travel mate.  There was a nice little plant, pictured at left, which was spreading with abandon all over the place via runners.  I thought about using the butter knife and plastic grocery bag I was carrying to dig up the tiniest little start, but of course I didn't, hehe.   Caroline Dorman, wherever you are up there, don't worry, I wasn't one of your "digging women" :-)

Last notes for the day.   A couple of years ago, I bought a little dogwood at the grocery store in Many.  Well it died in the drought that year.  I stopped at the same little store this year hoping to replace it.  They had pink instead of white, but the mission was accomplished.  Now, Dogwoods aren't known to do all that well this far south, but I am going to kill at least 2 of them before I give up. 

March 21 (Tuesday) - Capete - I am not sure if somewhere back in the logs I have told the story of Capete, but it bears repeating even if I did.   My father-in-law's great grandparents, the Clarks, lived there.  Norbert inherited it from his father.   This traditional Cajun home still stands on the 7 acres he uses as a small farm.  He has 7 head of cattle, chickens, turkeys, guineas, and his vegetable garden there.  It is about 4 miles from the families proper home.  Each morning and again each afternoon he heads to Capete to do the chores of the day.   Now that he has retired, the visits are longer, but even in his working years he maintained this routine.  It helped that he worked only a mile or two away back then, running the local farm co-op.  Certainly, I understand his attraction to the place.  Once arriving there it is like being transported back in time a hundred years and all of the cares of the modern world seem to simply disappear.   Indeed Capete gives a unique picture of how life would have been back then as Norbert has a nostalgic dent in many parts of his life.  A man who lives a simple life and happy life. 

The last two weeks he and Cel started working on a new barn.  Now, there are several barns already on the property, but there was some wood and tin left over when we tore down Cel's grandparents store, on her mother's side that is.  Out at New Dawn, we had been holding on to the long 2x6 boards and tin from the roof of that store .  I have a bit of packrat in me you know.  So, in an attempt to clean up New Dawn, now that we live here, we offered him the boards and tin.  Norbert is not one to turn down building supplies, as he is constantly doing something out at Capete.  Let's say he is a man of many projects.  So, with all of these recycled materials in hand, and some nice treated pilings he recovered when he removed an old bridge over the small bayou that runs behind Capete, it was time for a new hay barn.  Cel has had a ball working with her dad on the project.  Here they are with the newly completed framework.   This is a grand replacement for the old chicken coop noted just to the right of the structure.  My only regret is that I didn't have time to get out there with them.

March 21 - Temps are making it into the 80's now and the migratory birds are starting to head out.  Only a single Robin or two left now.  Juncos seem to have hit the road along with many of the warbler type birds.  And the Cardinal are arriving en masse along with the Hawks.  On the plant side of the house, it is looking more and more like for the second year in a row our normal April drought will be joined by a March drought.  I had to water all of the new plantings today.  I really wanted to hit them with some Miracle Gro, but you can't do that on a dry plant, so today I watered, tomorrow comes the Miracle Gro.  OK organic fans, I don't advocate this as normal procedure, but I had an old pro tell me that after planting, for the first 3 waterings to hit them with Miracle Gro, then leave them to regular water for the first year.  After losing too many new plantings to lack luster performance or death in my tough environment I decided to take his advice.  The results have spoken for themselves.   I am sold.

March 22 - They weren't there yesterday, today they are everywhere, the Yellow Flag Iris and also the Wisteria blooms, that is.  That is the magical part of this time of year.  One day you wake up, look around, and there are new blooms everywhere.  The Citrus trees are all blooming healthily.  We will have a large quantity of Mulberries this year also on our original tree, but the new Pakistani Mulberry is still to young.  The Pakistani is growing fast, so maybe we will get a few to taste next year.  The Azaleas are also peaking right now all over town as are the Bridal Wreaths (Spireas), which is a combination that Cel finds particularly appealing.  She passed by Lowes today and picked up another Azalea and two more Spireas.   She was so excited with the new plants we went back again this evening.  We didn't get anything, but I did "kick the tires" on a 2nd Cedar Elm.  I am "thinking on it." :-) At this point the only plants that have not awakened for spring are the Crape Myrtles and the Pecan Trees.   Good temps, adequate rain have this shaping up to be a fine year, horticulturally speaking. 

March 24 (Saturday) - It was almost a great day in the garden.  Well, call it global warming, call it a trend, call it what ever you want, it was warm today.  Got into the low 80's and temps as running 10 degrees above norms for this time of the year.  I got off to a good start this morning, as did Cel, but we both pooped before noon.  I started the morning by emptying the pick truck load of compost.  Some went in the new veggie bed, some went around the Cedar Elm, and most went into one of Cel's 3 new cutting garden frames.  This one is 7' x 7' and used to be the old pond frame in Jeanerette.   It is made of 4" x 4" treated post, stacked 3 high.  At roughly 12" high it is a great frame for a new bed of flowers for cutting.    It is still not quite ready for planting, since I still have to add a little top soil and mix it all up.  That should be done, and it be ready for planting tomorrow.  Yesterday, while on a business trip to Baton Rouge, I stopped in a nursery that I passed by and got the last ingredient for the veggie beds, a bag of dolomitic lime.    This afternoon, I spread that out and tilled it yet one more time.    I was already whooped, but I made it through.  Afterwards, I used the steel rake to make one row where I planted the single Creole Tomato I bought and the single tomato I grew from a seed of the Sam' tomato I liked so much.  There was a 2nd seedling of the Sam's tomato, but I gave it to my father-in-law just to hedge the bet.  One of will likely find success.   Tomorrow, I will plant in a few of the Russian Tomatoes and Russian Eggplants.  I may even rake up a second row.

Animals - We have lots of animals all the time, cats, dogs, frogs, etc.  Today, a couple of new ones interjected themselves into our lives, one active and one passive.  One the active side, we have always liked squirrels.  There were none to be seen when we bought New Dawn.  Down here, rather than the common Gray Squirrel, we have Red Squirrels, also known as Fox Squirrels.  Most gardeners with smaller plots, like my father-in-law Norbert's city home in Jeanerette, have too many squirrels, but out here in the country we have plenty of room for us and them.  He has trapped and relocated 3 so far from his city home to ours.   We have enjoyed seeing them out in the trees.  So, where am I going with this?  Today, while we sat on the porch we could here the cats making an unusual growl.  Upon investigating Cel found one of them with a young squirrel in its mouth.  So, the rescue operations have begun.  More to come. 

On the passive side, after the days work was done I sat outside sipping a glass of wine watching the end of the day.  I saw a duck making its way down the bayou flying low.  Now, that is not an unusual site, but the erratic flying caught my attention.  As I following it with my eye, it made a few more erratic turns and then flew right into my neighbor's wood duck house.   Awesome.  I have seen his houses out there for a couple of years, but never seen a Wood Duck use them, so I was hesitant to spend the $50 a piece to get a couple of them.  Now that I know, they will be a must addition for next year. 

Almost forgot to mention that we did a little harvesting today.  The snow peas succumbed to the heat so we harvested them.  Also, the bugs were starting to get the Cabbage, we harvested about 10 of those.  We pulled the Radish as well as they were getting quite large.   We have no idea what to do with the radish, by the way.  We still have Swiss Chard and onions in the old beds.  They can go a while longer.

March 25 (Sunday) - Today is the day to do some of that long procrastinated misc. planting.  First was a new little Bear's Breech (Acanthus mollis) that we put at the base of the large Live Oak.   That is one of the toughest growing conditions we have here at New Dawn due to its dryness.  That big Live Oak can really suck it out.  Now, the Acanthus is one tough plant once established, almost as tough as Aspidistra.   I think it can handle it if we can just get it established.  Down near the bayou on the east side I planted a small Washingtonia Palm we got on our recent trip to Florida.  It is quite small, but I am quite patient.   When I say this is a 10 year project, I am not kidding.  Not so much from the work, although there is certainly several years of that, but more from letting plants grow in to decent sizes.  I do not have the budget to buy large plants, so many things need to grow to their proportionate size.  So, plan now for a visit in 2017.  Oh, and pray we don't wind up bull's-eye for a hurricane between now and then.  That could set the timeline back a bit further.   I will leave you with a picture of our Lady Banks rose.  It got off to a slow start this year and I was worried about it, but boy did it prove me wrong.  It measures about 18 feet wide and 10 feet tall, completely hiding the side of the old 2 horse barn.   On the before picture at right, at the bottom of the 2x4 V next to the barn is this rose just 4 years ago right after being planted.  Also, not the size of the rose on the Arbor too.  Actually if I don't do something soon the arbor will collapse under the weight of it.  It is just starting its show, but looks to be about 3 weeks out from its spring show.   is early afternoon, and after that flurry of activity, planting a whole two plants, I decided to do something less strenuous.  I hooked up the trailer and headed to Lowe's to buy a pallet of top soil.   Still a lot of work, but that comes later.  They can use a forklift for the initial load of 3000+ pounds of Top Soil.  I can distribute later one 40 pound bag at a time, haha.   Worth every penny

The squirrel rescue was short lived.  Seemed all he needed was a good meal and a good nights sleep to recover from the trauma of being captured by a cat.  He was rearing to go this morning, so we sent him home to mama in a nearby tree.  And last, but not least on the animal side, we have a Blue Bird hanging around for the last couple of days.  They are not common sites here.  I suspect he just dropped in on his journey back to the north.  Well, the evening is here.  I sold my boat to raise capital to buy new dawn, so I haven't been fishing in a few years now.  Dad passed his boat along to me just before the first of the year, but I have yet to take it on a maiden voyage.  I just went out to hook it up to bring it to the shop in the morning to get the trolling motor wired up properly and am looking forward to taking it for a run, not this week, but the next.  I am taking a week of vacation that week and going nowhere but here.  Gonna get that shop built, or at least get it well under way as well as complete the spring cleanup and planting here.  Well, it is 10+PM, so I guess that is a wrap for this weekend.  I hope you enjoyed yours as much as I did mine.  What a magical life God has given me.

March 26 (Monday) -  Got the gardening off to an early start this week.  After dropping off the boat, I got a truck load of finished compost.  I unloaded it this evening in to the last 2 of the 3 new raised beds for Cel's flowers.  She now has a 7x7 and 2 - 4x8 beds.   I am going to do a bit of experimenting here.  The first bed is 3/4ths compost, 1/4th topsoil, and with a very very generous amount of Alfalfa pellets.  One bed will just be pure compost and alfalfa.  The other compost and top soil.  Let's see what happens. It is getting a bit dry out, but we have a 40% chance of rain tomorrow.  I will keep my fingers crossed.

March 31 (Saturday, Vacation begins) - I got home yesterday and went to bed at 6:30PM and slept 13 straight hours.  It was a rough week at work with several major projects all coming together at one time.  But, forget all that for now, it is vacation and springtime.  As I drove off to work yesterday, there were a few special moments.   Walking out the door right off the bat something caught my eye from above.  I looked up, and motioned to Cel to look up to see a flock of geese in a perfect V formation heading back north from the wetlands to our south.   Just a minute later, about 50 feet up the driveway in the Iris beds, new color caught my eye.  I dug many Iris from the old Jeanerette gardens, but with no way to identify which was which.  I remarked to Cel many times since that I hoped that I had gotten the red Iris, actually it is s rust color. 
We only had a couple of them that we rescued from a ditch that was being filled in after a culvert was installed.   So, you guessed it, that color as my Red Iris.  What a great start to the day?  Since I came home and went right to bed the evening wasn't quite so dramatic, but again, a new color caught my eye, a bright fuchsia, as I noticed the first Gladiolus byzantinus opening for the season.  We have these naturalized here at New Dawn in several places.  These too were rescued.  The bulk of them came from the site of a new subdivision before the bulldozers rolled in.  Today, where there were once thousands, maybe 10 thousands, are neatly laid our roads and graded new clay, with not a single bulb to be seen.  Heavy rains are due this afternoon which should finish off the early blooms and kick a home new round into action.

Noon - The rains aren't here, but the radar reveals their slow approach, and they are intense.  I got the two Jelly palms in the ground early  this morning.  Now, after a delay to go to the grocery store (or as the old cajuns put it we went to "go make groceries."), I went out and planted the two new rain trees (Koelreuteria bipinnata, I think, the could be elegans) my father-in-law Norbert gave me, and the new Eastern Red Cedar.  The rain trees complete a small grove of 4 rain trees and one Mayhaw. 

April 1 (Sunday) - The rains came, not a lot, but enough.  We got a half inch on the gage.  We put a few more plants in the raised beds, I put in two Chrysanthemums and one Ornamental Pepper that I nursed along all winter.  Other than that I spend more of the day cleaning up under the carport and back porches.  This is the first time I have done that since we moved in and it took quite a while to do it right.  Here is another of many Iris that I rescued from the lawn and brought with me to New Dawn.

April 2 (Monday) - The first day of vacation was awesome. We went down Hwy 90 through Morgan City and on to a couple of nurseries we like down on the West Bank.  The Rose Garden Center and Bantings were both worth the trip alone.  Since we were on the way to West Baton Rouge to pick up Mom to come spend the week with us, we left Bantings Nursery, which is on the River Road and just stayed on that road heading north.  We have traveled the River Road on the east side of the Mississippi River many times, but never taking the west route before.  We stopped at an old house in Vacherie to inquire as to whether an Aviary that was unused might be for sale and made a new friend, Don.  The home was actually an old school house where his parents met. 

April 4 (My Friend Moe) - My father-in-law's dog is named Moe.  He is a great companion for Norbert and a pretty good friend of mine too.  So, here is a little tribute to Moe.

April 5 - There is so much happening in the garden, it is hard to describe it all, and it would probably be boring too, so I'll do it a little bit at a time.  Here is one for the readers to help me with.  The other day, I saw this little red leaf clover with light blue flowers for sale at a nursery.  I didn't pay it much attention, other than I had not seen it before, so it caught my eye.  Well, the other day, I looked down in one of the beds and saw a patch of the same stuff.  Problem was the nursery I saw it at was over 50 miles away and I didn't note what it was.  So, can you identify it for me.  Click the picture for a close-up.

I did lots of miscellaneous planting today, including some oddballs, at least for this area.  A couple of rooted Pineapples tops on from last years, one from this winter.  A pot of Asparagus and a couple of Artichoke plants.  In the same bed, I put a Jatropha that has defied all odds by even being still alive.  So enough for today.  G'night.

April 6- Winter is returning for a day or two.  Lows will hit 36 tomorrow night, which is quite unusual for this time of year.  Thankfully, however cloudy skies are predicted that night as well, so there should be no danger of frost, which would really put a damper on spring, but this little cool off should actually do the plants some good as they were clearly stressing form the early heat.  It is also time for a good rain also, which should come with the cold front.  Now, not everything minded the heat, the tropical plants, like my Bougainvillea in the picture on the right was clearly enjoying the heat, as we my cat, Priscilla.  Although the Amaryllis in the pot right there aren't blooming, the ones that spent the winter in the ground are all about to open any day.   The Paraguay Nightshade has fully leafed out and is making a few sparse flowers as well.  I finally got my two large Red Crinums (Crinum asiasticum var. procerum)  in the ground.  They are a pair of real beauties.  I got this large bulb from Bob Beyer It was a real beauty.  After about 6 months something really strange started happening to it.  It literally split right down the middle to make 2 identical twins.  This is not to be confused with a sucker, which it made also.  I am talking the 2+ foot tall bulb from leaf tip to bottom under the soil dividing in the middle like a cell splitting to make 2 plants.  Oddest thing I have ever seen.   I also put in two slightly smaller Red Sensation Cordyline australis along with the original plant from last year to make a trio.   

The ginger are breaking ground in several places too, no doubt thanks to the 2 weeks in the low 80s.  Also note the weed, clover with the pink flowers.   I kind of like it so it can stay, too much trouble to pull up anyway.  Let's see, all of the bananas are actively growing too.  One of Picard's bananas even put out a new pink flower straight out of the top of the flower stalk, before it put  out new leaves.  Strange sight indeed.   One of our original plants, sold to me as an Acacia Tree, but later turning out the be a plain old Cassia bit the bullet this winter.  It has been blown over twice by Hurricanes, first Lili and then Rita, so I guess it gave up.   It was in a bad spot for a Cassia anyway, with no protection from the wind, which is something Cassia definitely need.  Not sure quite yet what we will replace it with, but Cel has a new all white flower Althea,,,,  The Dolomitic Lime I put down seems to have perked up my Texas Mountain Laurel.  It looks like a new plant.  Now, my new Azaleas, which looked so great, are looking a little anemic, but they were really dry.  Hopefully that one is only a watering and weed problem.  The weeds were about to carry them away, so I did a little weeding also.  OK, enough dribble for tonight.  Bye.

April 7 - Well, Easter weekend is never much gardening here in South Louisiana, being a traditional weekend for family get-togethers.   This one was no exception with the traditional crawfish boil at Capete on Holy Saturday.   Although it was cold and windy, fortunately the rain held off till mid afternoon after the festivities were pretty much done.   Amazing, here in early April we had reports of sleet in Lafayette, just 30 miles north, and snow in Shreveport, which is only a hundred miles or so north.  Tonight it is rainy here and cold.  Weather.com says it is right at 40 degrees, but it seems warmer when I go out, so I just put the external sensor for my weather station back out to check it out for sure.  I just couldn't decide what picture to put with this log entry, but I decided to settle for this simple picture of a branch from Mulberry tree showing fruit at each of the 3 colors of ripening.  And by the way, here is a word of advice.  As you will see, some of this fruit it black, but it is early.  Don't eat the early black fruit from a Mulberry.  I did, and all I can say is, yuck.  Let them get bigger and let them all start to ripen.  Well, if you are like me, you are going to taste anyway.  All I can say is I warned you, haha.

April 9 - With good springs rains this year, it is amazing how completely lush everything is.  In the past few springs we had droughts and most of my plants were not well established in those years either, but I had not realized how different it was from normal until this year.   This year, you can tell what "humid sub-tropical" is all about.   Everything looks great.  On the flowering front, the left is a naturalized patch of Amaryllis blooming, with the heirloom Saint Joseph's Lily (Hippeastrum x johnsonii) and one the right is the native Flame Azalea (Rhododendron austrinum).

 

April 11 - We got a really good rain a couple of days ago, about 2.5 inches.  And the heat bolted back up to temps in the mid-80s.  That is great for the plants, although they are sagging just a tad with the early heat, but it also means a great start for the weeds too.  Yuck.  When I went out just a few minutes ago to check the rain gage for this blog, I smelled a skunk, and he was close, too.  Another yuck.  Well, I bought a new Echo weed eater today after having spent a few years nursing along hand me downs, so I am looking forward to using a new one, but I will try not to use it too much :-).   OK, back to the rain.  I have been saying for a couple or 3 weeks now that after a rain, or a watering, I was going to come back the next days and fertilize a few things using the new Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed system.  You know, it isn't good to fertilize dry plants.  Well, it rained a few times, and I watered a few times, but I never got back to the fertilizing part, until today that is.  As advertised, it was pretty handy and easy to use.  It will be a while before I can make any testament, or lack of, to its effectiveness.  On the plus side, I can already tell you I like the lack of visible salts sometimes left on the leaves by the old system and the lack of color, which although leaving no permanent stains, was temporarily disconcerting on certain surfaces.   My first concern was cost, as compared to their other products and competitive ones.  Maybe I will do that comparison in a blog entry in a few days.  So, I'll leave with a picture of the rapidly ripening Loquat crop.   These were seedlings from the Jeanerette trees 4 years ago.  Today they are 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide, and bearing their first crop.  Got to love this plant.

April 12 - Another beautiful Amaryllis shows its beauty to the world at New Dawn.  It looks like this mid 80s weather has the green tree frogs out again tonight, only the second time I have seen them since winter set in.  They love the front porch and carport areas where they climb the post to eat the insects new the lights.  Amazingly, we still have no biting mosquitoes, but I know they are coming.  We did have a brief stretch of biting gnats (noseeums).   I seem to be immune to them, but they sure tore up Cel when she mowed. 

I also took a quick swipe at enhancing the reference pages on the left, but I just couldn't get into it.  Maybe over the weekend.   Maybe its the pollen, maybe I am still recovering from my pneumonia, maybe it is my back, or maybe it is just that I am as overweight as I have ever been, but this spring the energy level has been low for gardening activities. 

April (Friday the) 13th - Succumbed to the nursery yesterday.  Went to Iberia Gardens where Gus always has something interesting.  I left with a small Pride of Barbados, a large Purple Orchid Tree (maybe Bauhinia purpera), a large Clerodendrum, and 6 Caladium bulbs, which were incredibly healthy .   Gus could not remember the name of the Clerodendrum, but it looks to be a large shrub with leaves dark green on top and dark purple undersides.  It reportedly makes large white flowers in the fall.  A quick look on the web reveals it may be Clerodendrum quadriloculare.    No much else to write about today, so let me close with a few pictures. First up is another of the naturalized Amaryllis, next is a Shrimp plant, then a false indigo, and finally, the twin bulbs mentioned in my blog a few days ago. It is about 10:30PM right now.  I just walked outside and it is a wonderful evening, nice and breezy with temps about 75 degrees.   I am continuing to work adding links, but I really need to figure a new way to organize the site.

April 14 - Rains started in the early morning, but cleared up by noon.  I doubt we got more than a quarter inch.  Some more coolish weather is coming, but not as cool as last week.  We may get a couple of nights down in the upper 40s and that it.  Day are down in the lower 70s, great temps for the plants.  The winds are a bit tough on the plants right now blowing steadily around 21mph with gusts to 31mph.  I noticed on of my Amaryllis bloom scapes  had snapped off.  It was a white one, one of the first that bloomed, but it was about done, so no big deal.  Anyway, I got out this afternoon and planted a flat of Yellow Wedelia  as a ground cover in the northwest bed next to house.  This stuff can be invasive, but this bed is entirely encapsulated by concrete, so I am not worried. 

I also took the next step in formalizing the circular drive in front of the house.    I had it laid out informally with "eyeballed" landscape timbers.   Today, I measured things out more precisely and starting laying in some edging blocks in the curves.    Surprisingly I had only one minor replanting that will be required.  The twin Purple Crinum pictures above need to move a couple of feet.  Fortunately, I just planted them a week or so ago.  Hopefully I will get that done tomorrow, so they can go ahead and get established this summer.   The Louisiana Iris blooms are starting to fade for the season, but they did quite well for their first year.  Most were small and undernourished when they got here, too.  So I was particularly happy they did as well as they did.   I had quite a few of the ones pictured on the left.    Definitely worth having in the garden.

A few other observations included the first flower shoots rising from the heirloom Alstroemeria  and from the Acanthus.  Also, there is bunch of fruit on the Arbequina Olive .  I surprised at this tree is still quite small, don't even think it is 3 feet tall.  Nevertheless, it would be cool to get an olive.   This African Iris (Dietes grandiflora) that I pulled from the dumpster in New Orleans last year are slowly establishing.  They have even put a out a few flowers this spring.   We have a few bloom buds swelling on a couple of the new Magnolia.  The Gladiolus byzantinus are at peak bloom right now.  I am amazed at how hardy and easy it is to naturalize this plant.  I put a small group of them up front essentially in straight gravel in a spot that gets over hot and dry in the summer.  In this, their 3rd year, they are blooming and multiplying.  The only thing happening on the bad side is that something appears to be attacking the Celeste Fig.  It started on my neighbors tree which has lost about a third of its branches, and is evident on mine.  My plant is about 30 feet from his.  I have lost about 10 percent of the branches on mine so far.  About 30 feet from my Celeste Fig, I have a Texas Everbearing Fig.  It is too early to be sure, but I think I see some effects on a couple of branches on it too.  I may have to invite my county extension agent out for some advice.   As I was out looking for a site for my new Purple Orchid tree (bauhinia purpura) , I notice that my White Orchid tree (Bauhinia lunarioides) has turned itself into a thicket.  I will try to save some in pots, but I want to get that cleaned up right away.  OK, back to the good stuff.  The Champanel grapes look awesome.  We have tons of bunches of grapes.  I snipped back a little of the new vine growth.  With the abundant rains they were taking off in numerous places.   The "mostly dead" Live Oak is still mostly dead, but the scrape test still reveals green tissue.  I put some of the new Miracle Gro on it to see if I could snap it back to life.  Nothing yet.  I guess the next month will push it one way of the other.  Hey, the June bugs are here too, albeit a bit early this year.  Still no mosquitoes, yahoo.

As I sit here listening to the winds rustling things around outside that reminds me about two products and a company I ran across.   Cel bought me some large plants for Christmas.  When I got them the branches were tied up with something that looked like a large flat shoelace.  I was about a half inch wide and had a breaking strength of 900 pounds.   Now, the breaking strength is impressive, but the most attractive features was the wide flat shape.   It did not dig into the bark like rope.  I have never seen it in stores.  So, a couple of weeks ago, I got a catalog in the mail from Forestry Suppliers.  Talk about a neat catalog.  And guess what, they had the material, called Arbor Tie, that I was looking for.  And speaking of staking and tying things up, especially temporarily, nothing beats a regular old t-post.  With the right driver, it is the ultimate in convenience.  Of course the problem is always getting them back up.  What a bear?  With a good back it is a chore, with my current condition it impossible, until now.  They have a neat little tool called a t-post popper.  I ordered one without hesitation.  Things are looking up on my very windy site.

April 15 - Planted white Althea.  Moved bricks and blocks.  So far, I have moved, by hand, about 1500 pounds of garden edge blocks.  These blocks are defining the front landscape beds adjoining the house, all across the front, and the circular drive to come some time in the future.  I tried to take a picture of the rose in the old horse trailer.   I wanted to show the size of the thing as it is incredible.  None came out well to that end, but I did get a great picture with a little backlighting,

April 16 - After a hoorah of a morning, I did manage to get out for a couple of hours late this afternoon.    As I was checking the various plants, I noticed a little movement in the Eastern Red Cedar.   Here is a picture of what I found.

I also cleaned up the thicket that had become of my White Orchid Tree.  I had scratches all over me as this thing has lots of small thorns, but the original tree was still in there.  Not as vicious as a rose, but painful enough.    My new t-post popper came in today.  Paid for itself in 15 minutes.  It is incredibly well made and definitely industrial strength.  They must know me, haha.     I also got the net structure in place in the vegetable garden for the tomatoes.  They are growing, but not very well.   I planted a few more seedling and other misc tasks.  And then it was dark.  I wait for another day of spring.

April 21 - This is one of the longest stretches this year without a log entry.  Just too much work this week getting in the way of gardening :-).   It is still a very nice spring.  It is starting to spread out between rains which is putting a slight damper on some things.  Remember that many of my plants are not fully established, which takes about 3 years, so when things get a bit dry they complain.   All of the new plantings are doing well, but I have to water them every 2 or 3 days right now because the heat has come early this year with temps in the mid and low 80s.  Today was just cleaning up.  I christened the new weed  whacker and watered and pruned a branch here and there, just that kind of stuff.    I couldn't decide between the 2 pictures here, so I put them both up.  On the left are the naturalized Gladiolus byzantinus and on the right is an Apple Blossom Amaryllis.  This one is similar to the one pictured early except for the red instead of pink coloring and the fact that this one is a good 8 inches wide.  It is a magnificent flower that automatically captures one's attention.    This has been an outstanding year for all of the Amaryllis. 

April 22 - What a glorious day in the garden.  It is going to be hard to remember all of the details of the activities.  I think the first thing I did was to move one of the Wilma Avocados from the nook between the bedroom and the porch over to the east side of the house.  The other Wilma Avocado on the Southeast corner is doing awesome, but for some reason this one has done poorly.  I suspect it wanted you a bit more sunlight, which it will not get on the east side.  This is pretty late for a transplant, but it was dying slowly where it was, at least now it has a chance.  I replaced it in the nook with a nice Flowering Maple (Abutilon) which is a little less demanding for hard sun light.  I have another in bright filtered sun that does well. 

While I was working on bed in the front of the house, I planted 2 Japanese Aucuba (Acuba japonica) and a nice Azalea indica 'Formosa' that Cel brought home a couple of weeks ago.  Over in the Twin Oaks bed, I finished positioning the remaining blocks, which brought a few more things into perspective.  I planted the new  Clerodendrum quadriloculare on the east tip.  I found a pot with a small Poinsettia that was all but dead.  Since the Clerodendrum was kind of sparse at the bottom I planted it at the base.  I also found what remained of two dwarf  variegated Ginger and planted them at the base of the plant also.  The Ginger corms had suffered greatly through the overly wet winter, but they were still alive.   I brought the pots with the two small Phoenix robellini over there to plant also, but I just couldn't get a good vision so they are still sitting there. 

Over towards the deck I put in the ground a pot of Begonia and a pot of Jacobinia that Helen gave us.  Something else goes in this spot, but I am not quite sure what yet.. 

In a good size area that was expanded in another area of the bed next to where the new driveway will pass, I put in the size new super large Caladium tubers.  Here I put in another collage.  We had this great little dwarf multi-color Poinsettia which I planted next to the two large Purple Crinum bulbs and behind that I planted the plant sold as a variegated Tapioca.    Also, next to the large twin purple Crinum I planted a fairly small Giant Crinum which I got as small pup on email.  This is its 3rd year and it is finally starting to look like something.  All the way on the other end of this new area I planted a small variegated Crinum.  It is pretty pathetic as crinums go, but maybe it will like this spot and take off like it should.

Further out along the southeast side, I planted the new Bauhinia purpera.   I have lots of development to go on these beds, but the foundation plantings are now all in place.  Just need a good ground cover and a few minor additions from here. 

We went a long way toward planting all of the plants in pots that are hanging around here.  Another day like today, and they will all be in the ground, but speaking of the ground, it is really dry out.  We need a rain pretty bad about now.    After seeing the incredible show the Amaryllis put on this year, both the need and the design for the Amaryllis bed expansion became perfectly clear.  We have 18 Amaryllis in pots, so next weekend I will take that project on if the ground is workable. So, parting on the subject of Amaryllis I will leave you with the fantastic picture Cel took today.    Actually she took the one above too.  She has a better artistic eye than I. 

April 26 - Finally, the rains did come.  We got 3 inches last night.  That means I can wait till Saturday to follow-up with some fertilizer enhanced watering on both new plants and old.  It is truly amazing how great everything looks.  We have been several years in a drought, but this year we have great regular rains for the last year.  Everything looks different.  All of the plantings, both old and new look so much healthier.   We are having a few minor issues.  The die back on the figs was diagnosed as root rot caused by the abnormally high rains and water table.  While I suspect that is true, I also think that my neighbors pond with its abnormally high sides has also caused and abnormally high water table in its vicinity too.  Not so coincidentally, those plants having the problems are also those nearest the pond.   Not enough to start a neighbor feud over, but I think that is it.  One of my new Loquat seedlings planted last year, and my closest plant to his pond, bit the bullet.  When I pulled it up, it was quite dead at the roots.  I replaced it with a Mulberry that Cel brought home.   Loquats are pretty tough, but Mulberries are even tougher, so I am betting it will be fine.   Tomorrow, I will dedicate to fertilizing existing plantings and planting the remainder of our potted plants.  There are quite a few things that need to go in, including two new small Phoenix Roebelenii, 4 Confederate Rose, 2 Paraguay Nightshade, 1 Dogwood, etc.  

April 28 - I can already tell it is gonna be one of those days.  It is a full sun, hot and humid day, but don"t get me wrong, everything is gorgeous.  I started out by sending my 20 gallon aerated compost tea maker on its maiden voyage.  I got it for Christmas year before last, but house building eliminated any possibility of use last year.  But, by tomorrow afternoon I should have my first brew of tea.   The other day, I noticed a little sprout coming out on the "mostly dead Live Oak", so I knew it was alive, but I feared a seriously malformed tree.  Today, just 4 days since I see those sprouts the tree has awakened from top to bottom with new growth everywhere.  Mostly dead, after 4 months of dormancy is very much alive.  I really am shocked, can't believe it.  Yahoooo.   The picture is the bed I finished planting last weekend.   How many different plants can you identify in this picture.  Look close. 

Late morning.  Hard work today.  I just worked the new veggie plot with the big tiller.  It has become a very fertile bed of nut sedge, the curse of this part of the Gulf Coast.  Since I have yet to find any control, chemical or organic I am going to till it over and over till the nuts use all of their energy.  Supposedly that will work, but I tend to doubt it, really.   I also finalized the placement of the plants in the new south side tropical bed.  I am heading their with the tiller next.   I have 2 new beds to prepare today, and two individual planting holes.  It is going to be a busy one.  I am in the house cooling off again right now.  On the way in I noticed another recovery going on.  The Grapefruit that was burned a few weeks ago, which had lost almost all of its foliage is coming back.  New branches are forming all along the tree.  Things are looking up this spring at New Dawn.  Here is another section of the Twin Oaks bed.  So, how many different plants can you count in identify in this one.  It is tough.

Well, I finished the South Side Tropical Bed.  The picture at left is just so I can compare the before and after.  It sure doesn't look like much right now, but wait till late summer and fall.  I added 2 Phoenix Roebelenii (Pigmy Date Palm), 2 Lycianthes rantonnetii (Paraguay Nightshade), 1 Tabernaemontana coronaria (Carnation of India), and 1  Caesalpinia pulcherrima (Pride of Barbados).   I watered this bed and most of the new plantings from last weekend with the Miracle Gro Liqua Feed. I am pretty impressed with the ease of use of this system.   I have already discovered a few secrets about it too, but you will have to keep reading to find them out.  That is for another day.  The bed  for the 19 Amaryllis is tilled and prepped, as are the spots in the back for the Dogwood and Many Plant, but that will have to wait for tomorrow.  I am pooped for today.  On the way for the day, I stopped at the Mulberry tree to each a few handfuls of fresh Mulberries.  The Peaches and Citrus crop look great.  Tomorrow morning I am going to address the issue with fig trees.  I will cut them back and then apply some Triple Action 20.  I still suspect a fungus problem.  If that is what it is, then this will take care of it.  Nature is awesome, isn't it.

April 29 - Another hot one today, and humid too.  Yesterday hit 87, today may even top that.  I got out early and pruned back the dead and dying branches on the fig trees.  I then gave them a good spraying with Triple Action 20.  I hope this will correct whatever is wrong with the trees.   I planted the Dogwood and Many plant this morning, too.  I am still pretty tired from yesterday, so I had to take off the middle of the day.  This afternoon I planted the 17 Amaryllis bulbs that were all around in pots into the new 2nd half of the old Amaryllis bed. 

It is 7:10PM.  The day is finishing with an hour or so of daylight left.  Four Dove just flew in for a late afternoon snack at the bird feeders.  A Blue Jay stopped for his last drink of the day on the edge of the old sugar kettle, while a Mullet is happily jumping his way up the Teche.  The tranquility is temporarily interrupted by a boater making his way downstream.  The pair of Wood Ducks were coming in to one of my neighbored Wood Duck houses at the same time.  There is a Mockingbird standing watch on a fence post.  We have had a couple of pairs around this spring with nest nearby.  A couple of Cardinals were around earlier down by the bayou.  They prefer to hand around down there by the waters edge.  Going out to start a small bonfire to burn the branches trimmed over the last week and especially the dead and likely diseased fig branches.  My Soil Soup compost tea maker is happily brewing its first batch of tea right now.  I wans't particularly scientific about the ingredients, but it should be better than water, haha.

Well, I am calling the day a wrap. 

 

May 1 - Hard to believe April is over already.  The spring is flying by.  All is still well in the gardens, but the new plants are showing the water stress.  I guess I will have to do a rain dance or something.  Worked late  with a business meeting today, so all I had time to do when I got home was minimal watering.  I did get out late and watered some stuff with the inaugural batch of compost tea.   I used the ingredients that came with the tea maker.  Since the compost had been in a sealed bag for about a year and a half, I had my doubt about any real microbial life, so I grabbed an additional handful of compost from the garden and added it too.   And, just to be safe, I added in a dose of Spray-n-Gro too.  I had been curious about that combination, compost tea and Spray-n-Gro, that is.  I didn't brew with the Spray-n-Gro, I added that in about an hour before application as consistent with its directions.  So anyway, I'll let you know how it comes out.  I treated a combination of plants, so of which were healthy, some of which were struggling for known reasons and some of which were struggling for unknown reasons. 

April 30 - Got the almost always broken Toro from the shop today.  Other than a little watering, the only gardening I got done today was to plant the Ponderosa Lemon, which was starting to flower.  Been so busy, I hadn't noticed. 

May 2 - Halleluiah, the rains have come.  We got a half inch or more this morning and another half inch of so early this evening with a 60% chance for tomorrow.  Every day for the next 4 days has a good chance.  Exactly what we needed.  As I was driving out I noticed the Mulberry I had just planted looking really bad.  With so many new plantings, I had forgotten about it.  Mother Nature had me covered.  With a little luck, I will awaken early enough to put out a little fertilizer tomorrow morning.  I just started a new batch of Compost Tea for Saturday as well.  This time I added a couple of cupfuls of Alfalfa pellets to the mix too.    About the picture.  This is a Jasmine Vine Planted on the old temporary power pole from the house construction.  This thing is 14 feet tall and as you can see blooming immensely from top to bottom.  But it is not the bloom that is impressive, but the smell.  It is about 150 feet away from the front porch, but when I got home today, the scent, which is heavenly, filled the entire middle acre.  I intentionally planted it so that our prevailing southerly winds would bring its scent to the front porch, but I must confess, I had no idea how heavenly that would be in reality.  For my first few years of gardening, I did not appreciate the smell aspect, especially the nighttime smell aspect.  Whether it is Jasmine, Moonflower, Angel's Trumpet, or whatever, don't miss that part.  It is one of the best and most special aspects of the garden, both romantic and intimate.  I no longer walk past a flower that after admiring its beauty, I stick my nose into to admire its fragrance as well.  To miss either is to miss the full beauty of the garden.  To be appreciated a garden must be viewed, and smelled, and touched.  Don't miss any of it.  Nature is awesome.  It is a shame that it took me 40 years to realize that, but better to be late than never, right?. 

May 5 - Lazy day today.  Most Saturdays I at least get out by 10am.    Today, I didn't even walk out of the front door till 4pm.  Of course that still gave me 4 hours of daylight.  First thing out I mowed about an acre.  I then rapidly moved into "piddling" state, haha.   Believe it or not, we still have Amaryllis blooming in the garden, along side the shrimp plants which are enjoying a great year so far.   The Alstroemeria (Parrot Lilies) are starting to open in mass, while the Tecomaria capensis 'Aurea' (Yellow Cape Honeysuckle) is getting ready to fire up.   Some of the Crinum are starting to bloom as well.  We have another 3 inches of rain, but things are well caught up on hydration front.  Even the Mulberry, which got quite parched because I forgot to water it, for a week after I planted it,  looks just fine save for some brown leaf edges.  I think the Triple Action 20 has arrested the fig problem.  They all look much better.  I have only one more branch that will need to be pruned, but I think that is it.   Looks my Champanelle Grape vines, which are in their 3rd year. are finally in form for a good crop.  I must have pruned the right way, although I was kind of guessing, to be honest.  I'll leave you with a picture of the young crop. 

May 6 - Forgot to mention the lone crow yesterday.  I had about 2/3rds of a loaf of stale bread.  Since, I am low carbing right now to try to lose some weight, so I tore up the bread into pieces and tossed it out around the bird feeder.    As I was cooling off inside, I saw a really, really big Crow fly into the top of the big Live Oak.  A few minutes later he was on the ground.   First he would pick up a single piece and fly off.  The he would pick up a couple of pieces.  The number increased on each trip till he was picking up 5 pieces of bread at a time.  I think that single Crow hauled all of that bread off.   I would not be surprised if he fell out of the tree last night.  I also saw a single Fireflies last night.  It would be cool if they show up in numbers this year.   This the old pond frame reincarnated as a small annual bed.   The wire frame is for a Tomato plant that is starting to take off.

Today, I planted the 4 Casabanana vines up against the old dog kennel.  Then I planted Moonflower and Morning Glory on separate legs of St. Joe's Tower on the opposite side from the roses.  I also tilled up the remaining raised bed in prep for some mystery seedlings and some Edamame Soybeans.  Taking another break for this very hot and humid day.  It is 87 out there today on the way to 90 as a high for the day, and quite muggy in spite of a good breeze, too.. 

OK, went out and planted the last raised bed as noted above.   Man, is it hot.  I have to come in every 30 minutes to cool off for a minute and to hydrate.  Doing that now. 

Well, I went out one more time, but decided to just mow for a while.  Too hot, but I am slowly knocking it out.  The only things left to plant are two Confederate Rose, two Spirea, and 4 Needle Point Holly. 

May 16 - It has been a few days.  Things got real busy at work and lack of rain had a counter effect in the garden essentially freezing things in place.  Work is slowing up and a couple or rains finally arrived.  Just in time too, because the watering was starting to be a real chore.  A couple of days ago we got one of those keep it alive rains.  Today, we got a good rain.   I am waiting to see things start to look alive again, the plants were starting to look a bit strained.  On the blooming side I am starting to see the Altheas around town, and one of mine, come into bloom.  The Parkinsonia (Parkinsonia aculeata) is starting to too.   Maybe in the next few days I will have enough energy after work to get out there and check things out, maybe even snap a picture or two. The picture of the day is my Clerodendrum speciosissimum  Java Plant.  It needs some water, so pardon the wilting my day leaves  in the picture.

 
May 19 - Life has been busy.  Too busy to enjoy much of the garden even, except for a few choice moments.  I walked out on the front on the way to work.  As I opened the door that fragrance hit me.  I stopped in my tracks for just a moment to enjoy it, but something was wrong.  First that Jasmine stopped blooming last week and second was that the fragrance was slightly different.  I look around and saw nothing, until I looked up slightly.  The old Mimosa was in full bloom and full scent.  How we didn't kill it during construction surprises me really.  When we first bought New Dawn, it was literally out in the field by itself near the old gravel road that now passed under home, or what is left of it, that is.   Between the slay foundation pad and the utility trenching I think we probably took our half of its root system.  It is about 20' by 20' wide.  While I can't say it does not look worse for the wear, it is not dead either,, and today it is full of great smelling blooms.  Now that the activity has stopped and things can stabilize again, I will treat it with lots of TLC.  Mimosa are not long lived trees to start with, but I hope to nurse another decade out of it.  

It is hard to talk about blooming trees without talking about the Parkinsonia (Parkinsonia aculeata) .  This little tree has had a rough lot in life too.  It had been blown over twice by nearby hurricanes since planting.  I still have a support giving it additional support from our prevailing southerly winds.   This year, I trimmed back about a third of the tree to lessen the wind load.  It seems no worse for the wear, but I do worry for its long term welfare.   They have a habit of going down easily in high winds in this locale.  Here is a close up of the blooms. 

 

I took a few more pictures out today.  Actually the pictures look better than the real thing, but who is complaining.  First up is something new in the garden.  These (Justicia carnea) Jacobinia came from my stepmother Helen.   They naturalized readily for her in  Baton Rouge, which is a slightly colder climate than here, so I am sure they will do quite well.  So, on the older side, the real older side, is our second Bougainvillea blooming.  This plant was inherited by Celeste from her grandfather Joe.   No one know just hold old this plant is, but it is easily traced back to a minimum of 20 years.  This year, we repotted as the old pot had literally disintegrated.  The pieces were being held together with duct tape. 

So, here are another pair of one old and one new.  Our patch of heirloom Alstroemeria are blooming.  We dug up a small start of this plant at an old abandoned home site.   This is a great plant, put it in the right place and ignore it.  It will spread, but I have not found it overly aggressive.   The plus side is that it is ever green and can outcompete most semi-shade weeds.  One the right is a new Zebrina Malvus intertwined with an African Mallow whose blooms are noticeable on the left side of the picture.   I guess both of hese will be annuals here.  I had a Zebra a few years ago, grown from seed that got really beautiful, but it succumbed to root rot in a really rainy period.  I planting this in a place very well drained.   

May 20 - Things are starting to dry out again.  It is getting tough on the new plantings and starting to show even on established plantings.  I am actually having to run the sprinklers today.   We have some rain potential later in the week, which is good, or the fruit crops will start to suffer.  The Rangoon Creeper and Tulip Tree have started to bloom, as has the Vitex that I thought was something else altogether.   

May 23 - We all reach out for the sun at some time in our lives.  These heirloom Alstroemeria, pictured at left, are worshipping the sun.  Well, two days of rain and life is all good again.   Everything looks great.  You know there are days, when work gets busy, the rains stop and I water everyday, and the whole deal here just overwhelms me.  I wonder about have a simple city lot, close to work, and a yard man to handle things.  All I would have to do is come home and relax on the back patio.  Sounds so good in my mind.  And then there are days like today.  I came home late, but took a nice stroll across the gardens.  After 2 days of rain everything looked awesome.  I looked at the bayou and remembered the magic that it represented.  I looked at the massive Live Oak and thought of all the things it represented in its lifetime which already spans 3 times mine and in the end may span another 10 times that.  I remembered that bareness that was here when we bought the place and the hundreds of plants that now grow here that we planted.  I look at our beautiful home.  And I remember that we created this out of sheer will.  And then I know it was worth it and remember what is important in life.  Thank you God for this opportunity.  So with a little humility and reverence, here are a few pictures to leave you with.  First, up on the upper right is Joycie.  Not sure if we ever featured her on the website..  I found Joycie on the side of the highway.  Her companion had already been run over.  I was sure her life was to be measured in hours if not minutes.  Unlike most road side rescues, when I stopped she ran right to me glad to have some loving.  No doubt, she is a super sweet dog.  Not long after moving here she came to the door having been shot through the nose by an idiot neighbor who thought she was killing their chickens.  She was not the killer, but a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  After an emergency trip to the vet all was well except for the sneezing which I guess will never go away with her being shot through the nostrils.  She still lives a happy go lucky life non-the-less and will steal your heart in a minute.

So, the pictures below, all added this year, are in order, the two Jelly Palms picked up on our Florida vacation, the Caladiums brought locally from Iberia Gardesn, and the Jacobinia and Begonia both contributed from my mother-in-law Helen. 

May 31 - Just got back from a week in South Florida.  Normally, the area makes me quite envious, but this year, with the drought, the Palm Beach area looks like it was run through a microwave oven.  Miami looked a bit better, with the highlight of the trip being visits to Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden and The Kampong Tropical Botanical Garden.   I took so many pictures that I will have to dole them out slowly so as not to overwhelm the site.  To say that I left in awe would be an understatement.    Just arrived this morning so this will be a short log entry other than some photos.  Rains back home have become regular, so the home gardens are starting to recover from our spring drought.  As a high point, I discovered a 2" long Avocado on our Wilma Avocado planted last year.  Who says you can't grow an Avocado in Louisiana, haha.  So, let me leave you with a few of the plainer photos from Fairchild.

June 1 - Have you ever heard of plant explorer David Fairchild?  Odds are you haven't.  Cel found his book "The World Grows Round My Door" at a used book store, so she bought it for me.  There I read about the creation of his home garden, 8 acres he named "The Kampong", that he created from the seeds and plants he brought home from exploring the world just after the turn of the century.  As I read the book, I did not know that his home and gardens had been preserved.   So, when I found out on the web that The Kampong did indeed still exist, it became my mission to visit there.  I certainly was not disappointed.    So many things were still there, just as David Fairchild described them in his book written over 60 years ago.   My only regret is that I did not re-read the book right before I visited there.   I have my fantasies with this 3 acre garden I am building, so David Fairchild, both through his accomplishment and the fact that his garden has survived all these years, has inspired me even more.  Here are a few shots of The Kampong, but don't let me lame photography, visit there, but only after you read the book.

June 2 - Today, I started getting back into the routine from my trip to South Florida, but still let me start you with a scene from Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami, including a Chihuly art piece.  

Back here at New Dawn, I spent a few hours working on the mower. First, I had to deal with one flat tire and another tire with a leak.  Then, after some slight modifications, I put on a different kind of blade from the factory issue.  The factory blades stink, but these new blades are awesome.  Best looking cut we have ever had from this mower.    Some of my Edamame came up, but the germination rate was pretty bad.  I planted the rest of the seeds today  I have 100 seeds planted in this 4x8 raised bed.  These seeds are Butterbean Edamame which I got from Baker Heirloom Seeds.  By the way, I do not fault them with the low germination.  I have been having a bit of a problem with these two raised beds.  I think I got some bad bags of top soil, but I am not sure.

Here is another group of pictures from Fairchild Tropical Gardens, but this time all of the pictures include the Chihuly Glass Art.  The Chihuly exhibit ended on May 31st, so we caught it out of pure luck.  I have to admit, that when I read about the exhibit, I was less than thrilled.  I thought it would be more of a distraction.  Boy, was I wrong.  The best description of his work is organic.  Most of his pieces just look like the grew their.  OK, maybe the just look like they grew there on another planet, but hey, how much fun is this?  For more about Dale Chihuly check out this link.    Enjoy the photos and thank you Mr. Chihuly.

June 4 - OK, here is one last picture from Fairchild Gardens.  Now, we will get back to the reality of day to day life at New Dawn.  More rains today.  This time we got a decent amount, about an inch altogether.  We have the possibility of more tomorrow, too.  My tomatoes seem to have a problem with blossom end rot.  For some reason, I have not had good success with tomatoes here.   This year I took more than extra care in the bed preparations.  Also, my Lilac for the south bit the dust.  It looked good this spring, and then with the rains last week pepping everything else up, it just wilted all at once.  It was planted on a nice mound, so it was too much water.  We didn't have that much rain anyway.  Well, that is one, I have to kill two more before I give up. :-).   With the rains last week and this week, all of the rest of the news is good.   Things everywhere are lush and beautiful.   Bloom activity is starting to pick up.  Last week the orange heirloom daylilies started blooming.  Our seedling Datura, planted 7 weeks ago is blooming as well.   While I have seen both Althea and Crape Myrtles blooming in other places, ours don't even look like they are warming up.  Cel's cutting bed has literally exploded.  There are so many kinds of flowers in this 7x7 raised bed, I wouldn't know where to start, but the Zinnia alone are pretty hard to ignore.  It is still early for many of the tropicals. 

June 3 - Hard day out in the gardens.  I took 3 showers today, both for a break from the heat, and to get off the dirt.  It was starting to get pretty dry out there, but just now mother nature sent in some relief.   When I came in for my last shower about 3, the weather channel was flashing a red severe thunderstorm alert.   Even though I had planned to be done, that meant one more trip out today.  I had one bag of 13-13-13 fertilizer left over from the spring.  I through it one the front deck of the mower then went out throwing.   Now I said I am mostly organic and that is true, but I did put some fertilizer on the fruit trees this year.   So when I went out to spread this 40 pound bag of fertilizer, I did it over 3 acres, so the effect will be minimal. Which I guess is good anyway as this severe thunderstorm only amounted to about an 1/8th inch of rain.  I am in the middle of brewing my 4th 25 gallon batch of compost tea right now too. 

I'll leave you with a picture of me sitting under a Seagrape at The Kampong.   That smile on my face is quite genuine.  Funny thing is when I woke up that morning I really didn't want to drive down to Miami.   I had wanted to go, but for some reason that morning, I didn't feel like it.  Cel talked me into getting out and on the road.  Boy, do I owe her.  The trip was awesome. Much better even than I had imagined it would be.  Way to go Cel.

June 5 - OK, I am a little humbled by what I have seen in South Florida, but give me 10 years or so, then judge me.  So, back to New Dawn.  First on the left is our Evergreen Wisteria beginning to burst into full bloom and on the right is our heirloom Crinum a little ahead of the game.  The Evergreen Wisteria is one of the very few of hundreds of New Dawn plants that I honestly have no recollection of its origin.  I do know we purchased it from a nursery somewhere.   I do remember where we first saw it, which was on an arbor at the front entrance to a house on Main Street in Jeanerette.    Now, the Crinum, and we have a bunch, came from all over.  Some from ditches in cane fields, dumps, abandoned homesteads, neighbors.  All in all we have probably a hundred of these bulbs, and we treasure each one.   The special part of gardening in the way we do is a story for almost every plant.  We didn't just hire a landscaper and whalla.  All of these plants have stories, family ties, history, etc.  Makes it special.   

June 6 - Today's picture is the Coneflowers in Cel's cutting bed.  Notice the bright red things under them.  They completely swallowed up the Cayenne pepper plant.  I took a good long walk through the gardens today just observing.   Last year, I had no web worms on my Mulberry, but this year I do.  Not to bad so far.  My new Mulberry which got quite stressed this spring with the droughts was the first to get them.  Since the tree is small I cleaned them all off by hand.  They had already defoliated about 1/3 of the tree, but it was already growing new leaves where they had done the deed and then moved on to greener pastures, pun intended.  Unless they get worse on the big Mulberry, I will just leave them be.  The Pakistani Mulberry shows no signs of infestation at all.   We have a nice Citrus crop on all trees.  The Blood Orange, which hardly had any fruit last year is packed.  The Lime which went insane last year has a much lighter crop.  So far it looks like the trees are doing an alternate year thing, heavy yields one year, light the next, and so on.  We have a nice Peach crop this year on the older tree, and the new one looks healthy.  The Paw Paw, now 3 years old, tried to fruit, but then dropped them.  It looks great, so I have good expectations for a first crop next year.   My oriental Persimmon, also in its third year, didn't even think about fruiting, but looks like it too is finally becoming well established.  Maybe next year we will see a fruit.  The new Ponderosa Lemon has a few fruit in its first year.  The Pink Grapefruit that was burned, did drop its remaining fruit but has fully recovered foliage and branch wise, so next year should be no problem for it.  Of course the big news is the Avocado.  The fruit is about 2 inches long and looks good.  I actually had a second Avocado on the second Wilma tree, but I learned it was there when I knocked it off the tree whipping the water hose around.  We have 3 African Blood Lilies in the garden.  I saw the first beginning to open today.   The Pigmy Date Palms are in full bloom. 

On an interesting side note, while we got around 1 inch of rain a few days ago, the little town of Maurice, which is about 20 miles away as the crow flies, got over 12 inches of rain with localized flooding.  That's the Louisiana humid-subtropics for you. 

June 9 - Week ended pretty busy at work so there was not much gardening.  This morning, a nice Saturday, I slept late since I had worked till 1:00am last night.  I woke up and ate my first egg and tomato sandwich of the season.  At least it was the first one with a tomato from my garden.  After that, having an abundance of no ambition for the day, I sat down for a few hours of reading of "The World Was My Garden" by David Fairchild.   Not only is it a great story of his travels as an early plant explorer, it is a fascinating picture of life at the turn of the century.    It is my second book to read by David Fairchild, my interest being spurred by my visit to his home in Miami named "The Kampong."  I looked outside, noticed the potted plants badly needing water, then I decide that an afternoon nap, nearly all afternoon, was going to take top priority.  So, awake and refreshed for the day, at 5:12 pm that is, I decided to read again.    About 7:30 I  looked outside and it was dead still, no wind, I thought about spraying a little Roundup to start a new bed.  I do that only when absolutely necessary and when I do I insure no errant spray, aka no wind.   I decided to check for rain first as I had heard thunder earlier, and at this time of the year afternoon and thunderstorms are frequent occurrences.   As luck would be, an intense band of thunderstorms was indeed bearing down upon us.  Actually it should be here any minutes as I sit here writing this.  I just ran out to empty the rain gage, which still showed the inch from a earlier in the week.  Winds were beginning to pick up and must have been 15-20 already.  No thunder yet, but the intense clouds just brought darkness in a little early.  There went the first lightening and a role of thunder much later quite a bit later.  It must still be over the basin to our east.   Bean growled a little bit.   Of all my dogs, only Joyce seems to be bothered by the weather and mostly thunder.  It is probably because on of the dumb&(*& neighbors shot her once.    Sorry about that, but the memory of holding her in my arms heading to the vet, both she and I full of bloods still brings emotions to the surface.  A few more minutes has passed, lots of lightening to the northeast, but I am wondering if the rains will again pass us by as has been the case so many times this spring. 

June 10 - More clouds and a fabulous lightening storm, but no rain.  I was able to steal away during the day to visit my father and stepmother.  I found them back in there old routine of arguing over maintenance of the landscaping.  Dad likes everything neat and clean.  I am sure he would rather a perfectly manicured St. Augustine lawn without a single plant if given the choice.   My stepmother, on the other hand, is like me.  One plant growing right into the next, just like mother nature would do it, is fine with her.  In the compromise, I was able to dig up several hundred Crocosmia bulbs, about 20 ginger corms, a large potted Asparagus fern and a large potted ?? as well. 

June 11- Same as the day before. I'll try to add some pictures later.

June 12 - Worked late, again.  But we did get a little over an inch of rain while I was at work.  Perfect timing.

June 13 - No late work, but no gardening either other than putting some Japanese Raisin Tree seeds to soak 24 hours in hot water as directed on the pack.  Part of the reason for the slacking off on the outside gardening has been reading my new book by David Fairchild, The World Was My Garden.  Written in 1938, it is an utterly fascinating tale of plant exploration at the turn of the century.   After reading, you will never look at the US food supply the same way again.  More about that later, but whatever you think you know, if probably wrong.  That is the one hint I will give you.  It is almost June 14th, and I have to get up early, so have a good night.

June 14 - More rain today.

June 15 - Well, it is Louisiana, now that it is raining, it is raining every day.  It was raining when I woke up, it was light but no appreciable volume.  It also rained most of the day with more than an inch failing before I got home from work.  This is the point when where plants are starting to sag over from the weight of the constant rain as noted by my Bottlebrush Tree in the photo.  It stood nice and upright with its flowers in the spring, now it weeps more than the weeping variety, haha.   Now, as I said this is Louisiana.  When the rains halt they will perk back up, but after several days of shade that mid-90s hot sun will hit them next and they will struggle again to adapt to the intense change in environment.  Of course the tropical natured plants will absolutely love it, it the temperate natured plants that will cry "ouch."   Still reading Fairchild's book, and will finish it this weekend.  My sentiments about the book can be summed up in one word "wow."  Till tomorrow my friends.

 

June 16 - I have a new slogan for Louisiana, Drought to Drown and Back Again, from a gardener's point of view that is, haha.  It is entirely too wet to do anything outside, except for a little imagining.  I am continuously moving those landscape timbers around working on the final path of the very large circular drive.  I thought we had missed the rain today, as the forecast said only a 10% chance.   It seems that was all the chance we needed, for while I was out moving the driveway again, a quick run inside was necessary in mid move as the skies unloaded their pent up moisture.  Leaf diseases are starting to show up, as they do every time we have these extended raining periods when it is warm.  Nothing serious so far.  The web worms, previously not noted here, have shown up in force also.  I don't feel the need to get personally involved yet, other than cleaning them out of my new small Mulberry by hand, but I am alarmed.  It is just about dark outside, 8:30pm.  I went out to put out a seedling that I just potted.  The noise from the frogs, insects, and other creatures was so loud as to be almost unbelievable.  I am not sure that even the true tropics would have so much noise.  I have not seen the green tree frogs around that I enjoyed so much last year, but I think the 4 cats who have now matured have something to do with that.

In the boredom of the afternoon, I ran over to Abbeville, Louisiana to visit the Roy Young Nursery, aka. Fruit Ranch.  I go there about once a year.  Roy always intrigues me.  He is well past retirement age and uses a golf cart to get around his nursery.  I am guessing it is about 8 acres, about 2/3rds of which is planted with permanent fruit trees, and their home/office right in the middle.   I only hope that Cel and I age to have the kind of relationship Roy and his wife seem to have.  They seem quite content with their nursery home.    I ask him what he had out of the ordinary, then I got the big smile I got last time when I bought my Pakistani Mulberry from him.   He told me the story of looking all over for one, and then finding one by chance when visiting a friend.   He has propagated plants generated by his original cutting to create ones for sale ever since.  I followed his instructions for planting fruit trees, which are non-conventional to current thinking, ever since with good success.  I am going to post his instruction next week.  So today, I got a Peach Tree (my third), a Jujube Tree, a Fruiting Quince, and a Pomegranate.   As usual, I did the opposite of conventional advice.  I bought the plants first, and now I will figure out where to put it.   I am a plant collector, so my garden reflects that aspect of me. 

I went over to my father-in-law to with him happy Father's Day.  While I was there she gave my a handful of Purple Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum).  She had just cleaned up her beds and removed about half of the plant.  I already have it potted up, while I contemplate its final home.  After soaking as per the directions that came with the seeds, I planted the Japanese Raisin Tree seeds.   Of the seedlings I planted last week, 4 of the Golden Wattle Seeds came right up.  Only the one that was still green did not germinate, and another one damped off on day 3.  The 3 remaining look good and are already about 4 inches high.  I noticed the Anacacho Orchid Tree (Bauhinia lunarioides 'congesta') is starting its annual bloom.  

As a late note, the rose arbor at the barn, which has been with us through the homes and host to a magnificent Souv del la Malmaison Rose has collapsed.  This was nota surprise as it has been in jeopardy since Hurricane Rita, but there was little that could be done.    I will simply cut the roses back and deal with it in the fall.

June 17 - All of the rain has everything looking droopy, but today we got a break, no rain at all.    This Web Worm thing is getting out of hand.  I swear the doubled over night.  I have begun reading about controls.     I finally finished "The World Was My Garden" by David Fairchild.  At 481 pages, it is a big one, but so much worth the read. 

June 19 -  Tried to mow the insanely tall grass yesterday, but it was still too wet.  It was find today, but just after I got home the sky fell again.  For some reason, instead of being aggravated, which I had every right to be, I thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of the event along with the fabulous lightening to go with the rain. 

June 22 - Two days with no rain, but it has not slowed down the Webworms.  Tomorrow I mow and weed eat all day.  I picked a few tomatoes today.  Maybe I can get a few more now before the bugs get them, now that the rains have subsided.  I also ate my first Champanelle Grapes.  I love them, but most folks would find them too tart.  Of course, I like sour Gummi stuff, so they are right up my alley.   The Althea are still lackluster about blooming along with the Crape Myrtles, but there is a reason to be excited about the Crape Myrtles.  I bought these Natchez White Crape Myrtles as much for their beautiful cinnamon colored bark as much as for their flowers.  That color is not evident in the small plants but increases as they mature.  Mine are just starting to show the cinnamon in a few places and it looks great.  I have to comment on the bayou as well.  It is as full of life as I have seen it since moving here.  I remember the first few years, no underwater grass, no minnows, no signs of larger fish.   Last year I saw healthy grass really begin to root and a little bit of minnow type life.  I even caught a few Catfish in the fall.  This year there is more grass, and when you go near the bank the swirls of larger fish are abundant as are Mullet jumping in the bayou, and even a few larger schools of baitfish noticeable from time to time.  It looks like a happy healthy typical Louisiana waterway and I love it.  The lack of mosquitoes is also quite surprising.  After this last super raining period we do have a few at dusk, but nothing like previous years. 

Tomorrow I will get some planting done.  I move the 4 rescued Needlepoint Holly out to where they will be planted, along with the 2 new Bridlewreaths.  And I will have to spray the Webworms with some Neem tomorrow.  They have defoliated about 90 of my large Mulberry.   They are a regular pest down here webbing in the Pecan Trees, but this year there are even webbing in the Cypress Trees which I have not seen before.

Night time at New Dawn.  I smelled my first scent of a Moonflower this evening.  That has to be one of the sweetest smells that exist in nature.  I walked out at least 4 or 5 times just to smell them.  While I was out there, the noise of creatures filled the night with sound too.  So I am going to try something new.  In additional to the pictures of my blooming Moonflower at left I am going to put up a Windows Media Audio file recorded in my back yard.  Here is 30 seconds of night sounds from the humid sub-tropics of Louisiana.  Click here to listen.  Just tested it, took me a couple of min to figure it out.  I guess video is next.  Nature's orchestra has a nice rhythm doesn't it.  And it is loud too, that is unamplified, I simply turned on my Olympus Voice Recorder.  Well, have a great evening.

 June 24 - My gosh, the weeds, the grass.  The Johnson Grass, our worst weed, had reached 3 feet tall where it had gotten a foothold.  The grass had reached 8 inches tall or more in some spots.  When the rains come daily, on top of our rich alluvial soils, this is what happens.   An untouched spot of land can go from a scattered foot tall weed or two, to an 8 foot tall impenetrable weed forest in a month.  So I spent the weekend mowing and weed eating.  But there was a highpoint,.  Yesterday, I ate few Russian Tomatoes and some Champanelle grapes again.  The rains almost ruined the crop, but they are ripening well now.  The ripest ones taste very much like a slightly tart Concord Grape.   Today, I raided the grapes again, but thistime I got to eat some fresh peaches.  Our young tree in the front had a nice crop this year.

So the weekend is over.  Although I have to admit muttering explicative's from time to time trying to tame this jungle, and admittedly the beds are full of weeds, there is still a magic that I feel here.  I still have these crazy ideas about turning this in my own "Kampong" over the next decade.  I must admit though, it can be quite overwhelming.    Then other times I look out with great pride, knowing that everything that grows here, with the exception of the very large trees that I planted each and every one of them myself.   And then a glass of wine later, after finally taking the time to relax and turning my mind for the work of today to the vision of tomorrow, I see it.  I see my "Kampong."   Mature trees and plants, a small nursery in the front, a glassed in addition to the back of the house, a dock in the back with a hut on the bayou and a small party barge, driveway completed, a swimmable pond in middle with the barn being a pond side hut, and I can go on and on.  New Dawn is complete now in my head, but like most things the adventure is in getting there.  I clicked the picture at left looking across the bayou and what used to be woods.  It is now cleared and waiting for a new home for my neighbors to be across the bayou.  The reflection of the trees in the water caught my attention.  Well, it is back to work tomorrow.  Aloha from New Dawn.

June 27 - Got out after work today and planted the two Spireas and one of the Needle Point Hollies.  Still got 5 more plants to get in the ground before the weekend.   We'll get it.    I am trying the highly non conventional techniques recommended by my friend in Abbeville.  The hole is no bigger than the root ball, 2 inches higher than the planting in the pot and watered for the first 8 to 12 times with Miracle Gro.  Now this certainly isn't the norm per conventional  wisdom, but what the heck.   It seems to be working. 

On another note, I arrived home to find a note on my door from the USDA. They noted my plantings and placed a Fruit Fly trap in one of my fruit trees.  Hey, I am all in favor of doing that.  I will contact them tomorrow to volunteer for other things, like introductory plants too.   Pretty coo, I think!  Let's see what they say tomorrow when I call them.  In the meantime the Webworm invasion is still waging hard.  I hand stripped them from my young Plum Tree. 

June 28 - Worked late, rained again, this is starting to be a bad repeating pattern here.  Not to say that there not a few interesting developments.  I found a note on my door from the USDA.  They had stopped by, apparently noticing my small fruit orchard up front, and put a Fruit Fly trap in one of my trees to monitor for the pests.   I walked around briefly and could not find it.  I plan to contact them for more information, but have been too busy to even make that simple phone call.   I have to mention that even though the rain has been a real pain and the grass and rain grows rampantly, the new plantings are doing wonderfully.   I still have a few trees to put in the ground and will try tomorrow evening.  The weekend is booked for non-gardening activities, so if it doesn't get done then it might be a while.   Good news, finally I am getting a real digital camera.    Not that my pics are bad, but they can be so much better.   Can't wait. 

July 2 - Let's see, it has been a few days.  I ran over to Destin for a wedding.   So of course, I had to swing my the Garden Gate Nursery in Gulf Breeze.  I got three new plants.  First was a giant White Crinum.  I first checked them out last year, but they were not ready for sale needing to be divided and repotted.  There were 3 left, so now there are 2 left :-).  Now I could not just walk away without anything else including one plant they specialize in, which is the Florida Anise.  I got one from them a few years ago, but mistakenly planted it in full Louisiana sun.  It bit the dust in a few months.  So now, I have another which I will place in the correct location.  And,,,,there was one more that caught my eye.  An absolutely huge leaf caught my attention.  When I asked what it was the answer surprised me, a Big Leaf Magnolia.   It does not look like any Magnolia you ever saw, but it certainly has HUGE leaves.  It also has a flower bud, so I will get to see this mysterious plant bloom in short order.    While I was there I walked around the small shed to take a look at their Crybaby Tree.  A few locally bloomed this spring, but mine, which I got from them and is about a year old, has yet to bloom.   I am not sure if their's bloomed earlier, but it was just starting to bloom so I had home.  When I got home a few minutes ago, I walked around to see mine.  Low and behold, it is fixing to bloom.  Yeehaa.

Of course, that was not my only plant purchase.  I had also been looking for a couple Chinese Fan Palms (Livistonia chinensis).  I found some small triple trunk one about 3 feet tall for $12.95 each.  It will take these things 5 to 10 years to get to the right size for where I will put them in the landscape, but that is what New Dawn is all about.  No instant gratification here.  To buy these palms at that size would be several thousand dollars, like the Date Palm I priced on the way back at $6000 a piece.  At full grown prices New Dawns landscaping would run a couple hundred thousand dollars of more.  Way beyond my budget and a lot less fun.  So, I have some Data Palm seedlings coming in as well. 

Misc. yard note.  The 4 Cassabanana vines are beginning to remind me of Kudzu swallowing up the chain link dog kennels in short order.  Still no sign of a fruit of any kind.  I did find a picture of the small yellow flower, but no sign of one so far.  In the meantime my little Snail Vine seems to be taking hold.  So, in addition to the Moon Vine, a Passion Flower, and 4 Cassabanana, this will be the 5th vine inhabiting the dual dog kennel chain links.  Pretty cool actually.    Oh, my Mango seed, after being removed from the shell, being placed in a Ziploc surrounded by most paper towels and put in partial sun for a week, sent out a root shoot.  I put it in a pot and am awaiting to see the plant emerge.  Will keep you posted. 

Well, back to work tomorrow, but on my day off, July 4th, I better get a little planting done.  I still have those 3 Needlepoint Hollies in pots sitting out in there respective planting spots.    Altogether, with the little stuff, I have a dozen plants ready to go into the ground.  Sure hope I have some energy on Wednesday.

July 3 - I guess it is Palm week.  My little Palm seedlings ordered from eBay arrived today.  I ordered 3 True Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera).  At six grand a piece buying mature ones was out of the question.  These cost me just a few dollars a piece.  I will have to wait 10 to 15 years, but I am building New Dawn to retire and expire in, so I have the time, God willing.  As a bonus, I also received 2 California Fan Palms (Washingtonia filifera).  They look pretty rough and may not survive, but they were bonus plants anyway.  I will give them the same care as the Date Palm.  If they make it, all the better.   And here is a photo from my new digital SLR after only one hour of setup.   I am excited about upping the level of photos on the site.  

I also germinated a Mango seed from a fruit I bought at the grocery store.  The technique, which I found on the web works great.  After eating the fruit, I cleaned off the seed housing a bit.  Then I carefully cut around the edge, and go easy on this.  Even though the seed housing is hard it is not easy to over cut and damage the seed inside.   So I cut enough to pry open the hard seed housing to get the seed itself out, which looks like a big bean.  I wrapped the seed in a couple of paper towels, wet them, put it in a Ziploc bag and left it outside for 3 days.  When I opened it to check the seed, it had germinated and the root was already emerging about a half inch long.  I potted it up and am waiting.

Big planting day today.  Have a good 4th of July everyone.

July 4 - First, let me wish everyone a great 4th of July.  Big plans here have been dashed due to heavy rains.  I woke at 9 to sprinkling rains which turned into a downpour, which now 3 hours later is still going vacillating between the two states of rain.  Wet soils make planting out of the question.  Maybe I will do a little work on the website.

It's mid afternoon.  Beginning work on site is starting to make sense, at least to me, haha.  I went out and potted up some seedlings.  Three were Cootamundra Wattles, another was a Corkscrew Vine, and the last an Iris seed given to me by my stepmother Helen.   I also seperated out 3 Cypress Seedlings that had volunteered in pots with a couple of rooted Confederate Rose cuttings.   Those confederate roses were destroyed in the hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but I did manage to root four cuttings from them as I cleaned up the remains.  One was a single flower and the other a double.  I took cuttings from each, but did not keep track of which was which, so I will have to wait to see if I got at least one of each.

July 7 (Saturday) - Let's see, the 5th it rained all day and all night making already saturated ground just that much more soggy.  I made several trips out today.  Most things are holding up well to the leaf diseases and insects that come with all of this rain.  I walked out to the grape vines today, sure that all of the fruit would be lost, only to find a fine crop.   I could have made a few gallons of wine, if I knew how.  With the growth of the vines, next year will be a fine year.  Let's see, hmmm, can I figure out how to make wine before then.  Maybe I have something to put on my Christmas Gift list.   On the not so good side is my Dogwood.   It is hanging in there, but has lost 2 medium branches for unknown reasons.  It might have a chance if it can make it to fall dormancy, but we have 3 months of hot weather still ahead.  The little plant from Many is hanging in there too, but not real happy about life.  

So it did not rain yesterday during the day, and it looks like we may make it through the day.  That means tomorrow I mow, I weed eat, I plant, I fall out exhausted :-).  I did plant the two new Kumquats this afternoon, and transplant the 3rd one we already had.  I needed some additional soil to plant them mounded up.  Now this was a case of not seeing the forest for the trees.  All I had was more of those bags of topsoil which I had not had good results with.  I was racking my brain on something to amend it with.  I thought about potting soil, about the half a bag of Peat Moss in the barn, but nothing seemed right in my gut.  Then I remembered the 15 gallon bucket of Cow manure which has been on the front porch for 4 months.  Yeah, life has been hectic and I had never done anything with it.  Now before you start imaging a bucket of stinky Cow manure on the front porch, this was very dry stuff that had come from my father-in-law's barn.     So I layered a bag of the top soil with Cow manure till I had 3 of the 40 pound bags in there with an ample amounts of the manure.  I whipped out my little Mantis tiller and mixed it thoroughly right in the wheelbarrow.     And as I opened the bags, the problem with this soil revealed itself, not internal drainage.  To tell the truth, even with all of the organic matter I tilled into it, almost 30% by volume, I still wonder if it is enough.    It will take a while to turn this stuff into quality soil, but I will. 

My little Mimosa that was doing so well before being little ripped apart by one of our cats is recovering.   I carefully trimmed away the damage, and cut the single remaining limb back by about 2/3rd to balance out the tree.  New limbs are emerging to again balance the tree, so there is hope. 

July 8 - Went out on the front porch to notice my Flowering Maple had blown over.  You know that plant is in a super protected spot, too.  I think Flowering Maples must be more vine like, than tree like, as I have yet to keep on upright for any period of time.   I'll go stake it up and try again.   On the right is the gravel road winding through the cane fields heading to my father-in-law's small farm name "Capete."  The next paragraph details my short trip out there this morning on this overcast day.  Norbert is not a big gardener at Capete, but he does maintain a nice vegetable garden and couple of fruit trees out there.  And there are numerous Pecan trees, as seen in that clump of trees in the photograph. 

Well, I missed Norbert, but grabbed 15 gallons of what I went out to get.  No lack of it out there, could have just as easily filled the back of my pickup truck.   I always enjoy going out there.  The place, and the old Cajun house, which I have pictured on the website before makes you feel as if you have stepped a century back in time.    The sad part of this time of year, especially with all of this rain and cloud cover, is the Turtle carnage on the roads.   So, on the way back on Hwy 182 it was no surprise to see a turtle in the middle of my lane.  I passed over him between my wheels thinking he was dead, but not wanting to feel that awful feeling of running over an animal.  As I look back in my rear view mirror, I saw his head pop up.  By the time I turned around and got back to him, he had survived 4 more vehicles passing over him, one of which was so close I was sure he had been done in.    So here I am in the middle of the highway now fearing for his life and mine.  Time was of the essence.  And it was a Snapping Turtle of good size, so just picking him up was out of the question if I valued my fingers.   With a few gentle and quick kicks I got him partly out of the highway.  Then I spotted a stick and stuck it in front of his face.  He latched on which  allowed my to drag him the rest of the way to the shoulder.    Now, with the immediate danger over, we stared at each other as I was pondering how to get him in the truck    Then it dawned on my, I had the flat shovel in the back of the truck I had brought to scoop the Cow poo.  One quick scoop and he was in the back of the truck.  A couple of miles and minutes later, I got home and he was still in the shovel.  I went down to the bayou and eased him in.  As he swam under the grass, it would be hard to say who was more relieved, me or him.   One thing I know for sure is that Cel was happy.  She hates the highway animal graveyard.

Took a midday nap, so now I am trying to get a few things done.  Talk about hot.  I am running cycles of about 20 minutes outside working and 40 minutes inside hydrating.  I got the other 3 Needlepoint Hollies in the ground.  Those things were in 15 gallon pots, so the digging was not minor, but finally they are in.    I also planted some small 4" pot tropical annuals.  Four Cassia Alata (Candlestick Plants) and 3 Malvaiscus arboreus "Drummondii" (Turk's Cap) are now at home.    In the right spot these plants will die back in the winter and come back, but these are on the Northwest side of the house so that is unlikely, but the grow so fast it is of no matter treating them as annuals.   Well, that's it for the day.  It was an interesting one that I topped off with a couple of cups of fresh grapes I ran out and picked a few minutes ago.  Have a good evening.

July 10 (Tuesday) - Well, it was back to work with a couple of quite busy days,   I did get an eBay purchase in, a small Senegal Date Palm, Phoenix reclinata, which after reading about, I may put down on the bayou bank. I have to scope it out, and think a little more, but at first read, that seems like a good environment.  Now, that may cause me to rethink my Cypress Grove I had in mind for the 5 Cypress seedlings I am nurturing.   The Natchez Crepe Myrtles are finally starting to bloom.  The trees are full of buds and based on this first one, the show will be spectacular.

July 11 - Tough week at work, not much thought to gardening, but I do have something to put up.  I have often referred to The Fruit Ranch on the site, and their non-traditional planting instructions.  I have tried them and they have worked for me, so click this link to open the pdf file with the details.  On the subject of fruit, at right is a picture of my Casabanana vine finally making fruit.  I thought for a while, that maybe I had accidentally gotten seeds of some mutant Kudzu.  This thing completely ate a 10x10 and a 6x6 chainlink Dog Kennel and was climbing out in every direction looking for something else to climb up.  It handily outcompeted my Moon Flower and those things are known to be a bit aggressive too.

July 13 (Friday night) - Boy am I glad this week is over.  I did virtually no gardening this week, but I am going do some serious gardening this weekend.  Toro is broken again, nothing unusual about that, so I will get all of the weed eating and close mowing (small mower) done.  And yes, I will use a little Roundup out there in a limited amount.  Next week when I get the Toro back from the shop, again, I will get the mowing done.  Got lots of plants still to plant too, and new planting to water.  And got to clean up around here finally as well, got a special event next weekend.  And I promise to put up some pictures, work has left me pooped, so laziness has the best of me when it comes to the garden.

July 14 - Even the best laid plans, well, you know.   But the day is not lost.  I watched a couple of gardening shows on HGTV to get me in the mood, but as I looked out the morning started with clouds and they got thicker by the minute.   I started the day by getting the plants still in pots out so they would get the benefit of the rain.  As I started cleaning that off, I turned my attention to some piles of wood that have lined the edge of the driveway for months.  This wood is destined for fence posts, framing for the new greenhouse, arbors, etc.  It is big treated stuff.  I got about half way getting it loaded into the trailer when the rains caught up with me. So, after a few minutes of running around getting all of the house plants put out to enjoy the rain too, I settled down to watch the rest of the gardening shows which I had recorded for later viewing.    Looks like it is going to rain on and off all day, so I will be in and out between rains continuing the clean up routine all day.   The rains aren't all bad as they keep the intense heat away.   Looks like I have found a good spot for my African Mallow.  I have tried this plant twice in the past with no success, but it appears that have the right spot now.  It will be interesting to see it is makes the winter.

July 15 - I woke up to the sounds of thunder and pouring rain at some point in the night.  After a super quick groan knowing outdoor activities would be extremely limited, again, I rolled over and went back to sleep.  I peered out this morning to see just how wet it was, and it was WET, but I did notice my hardy orchid tree in the distance sparkling with while blossoms.  Here is a shot of it with my zoom lens.   I also used this good rainy morning to get pictures up on the web.  Hope you enjoy.

This is one weekend that I am actually looking forward to Monday morning and going back to work.   Looking out at my over  grown yard and not being able to get out there is torture.   I was just about to fall for some junk food, when I remembered the figs were maturing.  I walked out through the mush and sure enough there were a few ripe ones, and I mean boy were they big.  I guess the rain was good for something, because I these were the biggest figs I have ever seen and the taste was just as big.  Now, that is a much healthier snack than what I first had in mind.   The grapes are winding down, mostly due to birds and rain, than to a lack of grapes, but I will be eating figs for a few weeks now.   Most of my guava are still green, but this one ripened up nice and read.

July 17 - Well Monday and Tuesday were nothing but rain and work, but I did have to go to the grocery store.  And I just had to have a Mango, which I did enjoy eating, but I have to confess it was the seed that attracted me as I wanted to try that  Mango seed starting technique again.  This one even had some kind label.  It was a yellow circle with a red fruit in the middle with the label ACA, and #4051 in the bottom, and producto de Mexico in the top.   The first seedling is shown at left, nice and happy. 

July 22 - We finally have a break in the rains.  The one day during that period that I could have gotten out to mow, the Toro broke again, of course, so the place looks like it has been abandoned for months.  If you aren't from Louisiana, you would not think it could get that bad that quick, but 3 weeks of rain, and an abundance of Johnson grass, and you would be amazed.   Hope to get the mower back tomorrow and begin the 3 week process of getting things back under control.  But all of the plants look wonderful, even though I had to pull some Johnson Grass to find a couple of them.   Among the hidden treasures were the Hidden Lily Ginger pictures here. 

On the fruit side, there are still lots of grapes on the vines so I ate grapes fresh from the vine, again today.  The Champanelle Grapes, when fully ripened task just like Concord Grape Juice so I suspect Champanelle is a hybrid with Concord as one of its parents.    I am also eating fresh figs right now too, but little black beetle looking bugs are having a feast on the ones that ripened and burst on the tree with all of the rain.  They are disgusting little critters.  The Casabanana vine is more aggressive than Kudzu I think.  I sure hope somebody around likes those fruit because we are going to have a ton of them.   I did finally get a picture of the flower as pictured at left.  It is pale yellow, about 2 inches across, and they are well hidden within the foliage.  I guess the Citrus crop may provide the next eating but that is a few months down the road still.   

I set out a bunch of seedlings that we lost track of the identity.  Two of them are Papaya, and one I am still not sure of.  It is the one with the big light green leaf in the front of the photo.  Can you help me ID it?

Here is a picture of my Crybaby tree.  It flowered this week.  I have been waiting on this for a while, but I haven't been on that side of the house in at least two weeks due to the rain.   By the way, I absolutely love my new digital SLR camera.  Finally, I am able to capture the true beauty and detail of the flowers.  While I was over there, I was astounded at the growth on my Wilma Avocado.   Unless winter plays a cruel trick this year, I am assured to eat a few Avocados next year.  The other Wilma, which has been the weakest is also doing ok too, in spite of the fact that I planted it in horrible soil.  Got lots more pictures, but I will save them for another day.  In the meantime, here is an interesting story from Gulf Coast with a little gardening, http://sherman.passchristian.net/index.htm.  Click the link on the site named "Fragrant Beauty."

 July 24 - Back to the work grind.  It has been quite a busy summer at work.  Rains finally stopped.  And I got the mower out of the shop.  I have a fine harvest of hay on my hands too.  I was doing a little garden surfing tonight and ran into a few fine new links, including this one, http://www.al.com/hg/mobileregister/bfinch.ssf. which is the gardening column in the Mobile Herald.  Good gardening columns are hard to find.  So, in the meantime, now that the rain has stopped and the sun is shining a few plants of the tropical nature are starting to look better.  They love the rain, but they need the heat and the sun too.   Among the Boston Ferns which are slowly swallowing the world, with my full permission I might add, is a Variegated Aspidistra and two Red Emperor Curcuma (aka Ginger).  I was a little worried about them making it through their first winter, but they seem to have done just fine.    A few other tropical plants have surprised my this year, but that is a subject for another log.

 July 26 - As I move into the weekend again, I am starting to think gardening.  Even with all of the rain we have had, it is amazing how quickly things can dry out when the full sun and mid-90 temperatures return.  But just as I was beginning to contemplate watering the new plantings, rain came today to relieve me of the chore.  This has been a great year thus far, as the garden grows.   Now, I just must pray that hurricanes stay away and that the rains continue of a regularly distributed basis for the rest of the summer.  I still have some planting to do, but at this late stage I am wondering if I should just wait till fall.  It is easier to water things in pots in one place rather than distributed across 3 acres.  I have some beds to design as well before sticking some things in the ground.  I guess I will have to pour through some books to get some ideas.  As I was walking through the gardens I noticed the sun shining through the leaves of one of my Ty Plants and tried to capture it.  Not sure I did it justice, but here it is. 

 

July 29 - Let's call this entry Keith's excellent adventure.  It started last week when I noticed a very nice Palm for sale of eBay with local pickup only.  It was in Pasadena, TX.  Now, is just south of Houston, and a 5 miles away from Seabrook, TX, which is the home of Maas Nursery.  Now Maas is worth the drive alone,  A 7 foot tall palm, with 5 feet of trunk for $35 right next door in Pasadena made it a total no-brainer.  I won the bid and off I went.  I picked up the Palm which was everything it was supposed to be, and by the end of the day 3 more Palms made their way into my truck courtesy of Mass Nursery.   The picture at left is the picture included in the eBay bid.    On the right is the old tractor at the entrance to Maas Nursery.   This nursery is several acres and has anything you could want.  This was my second visit, but certainly not my last.  Here is the website, http://www.maasnursery.com.  Jim was there, but busy with other customers so I did not bother him.  Actually, I hate to be waited on at nurseries anyway, much preferring to wander isle by isle making my own discoveries.    There were so many plants I would have loved, but I was limited by truck and by budget, so many will have to wait for my next trip, or two, or  three.  It is that budget thing you know.  If only I would win the lottery.  I fantasize about that sometimes, but I don't buy lottery tickets so that is kind of a contradiction I guess.   Well, it is one of many contradictions in my life, so there you have it.

The drive through Seabrook was interesting too.  The Gulf Coast of Florida seems to be pretty Palmy, and certainly so does South Florida in the Palm Beach and Miami area that I also visited this year, but I have to say, not only do the homes of Seabrook have an outstanding variety of Palms, but in quality and quantity the rival any place in Florida.  Maybe it the clay soil, but the Palm that do grow there are incredible in their health and beauty.  Here are a few pics of Seabrook.  This is a small sample of the Palms, which were everywhere, many bordering on 50 feet tall.  Some of the Canary Island Date Palms were 30 feet by 30 feet with trunks easily 24 inches in diameter.  I sure with I could have gotten into some of the backyards to see the other magnificent plants that were obviously there.  Maybe one day.

 

 

 

 

August 4 - There are times when New Dawn seems like all work.  After my Toro mower broke twice in one month, and when that month had regular strong rains, it seemed all work.  Things got totally out of control, and it was a particularly hectic time at work as well.   My spirits were on the down side, extended rains and winter can do that to me even in great times, but in the summer it is rare for that mood to hit.   But today, first my brother-in-law came to the rescue when he dropped off his big commercial mower.  I had the 3 acres shaped up in no time at all.  Look at that nice mowed lawn on the left, which was over a foot tall when I started.  Now, if you want a real mower keep driving right past the Toro dealer and head on to the Scag dealer.  Now this is more than a mower, it is an animal.  My normal 3 hour mowing task was reduced to just over an hour.  Tomorrow I can turn my attention to weed eating type stuff, and a little spraying.  Rain storms pasted just to the east, and I thought we might get a little, but while it turned the sky purple, we stayed on the edge.   I should not complain about the rain actually, for while the grass was a pain, I did not have to water all of the new plantings even once, and they look great too.    I will reap the rewards of all of this rain with well established plants.   Here, the old adage, first year the sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap, certainly applies.  Certainly that applies here, except many times it is first year they die.  Our summers can just be too intense, from both heat and dryness.  This year the plants have not had to endure either.  The rains and cloudiness kept the heat down and took care of the watering issue.  I am not sure if we took a year off of that 3 year cycle, but we came close.  The plants just look awesome, even those that went in the ground this year. 

Now today, there were no rains, and only that brief period of cloudiness.  The plants don't seem to mind, but as for me, well it was hot.  I took the afternoon off, while I write this, but I will be out there again in a little while.  I have some touch up mowing to do, and I might finally get another couple of plants in the ground.  The Jujube for sure, and maybe the new Palm, depending on how tough the digging is for that one.  It might be in the old road bed, and if so I will start, but likely not finish.   Well, anyway, I am 2 hours into my 3 hour break and as I look outside, well let's just say it is a magical day.  Hard to describe, the blue, blue skies, the white, white clouds, the intense greens of well watered super healthy trees, the Mockingbird sitting on the bird feeder support pole, the cats lying around sleeping soundly, the Elephant Ears, Banana leaves, and Palm leaves flapping in the breeze, and even the heat that feels like it breathes life straight through your body to your soul.   The Gulf Coast may have hurricanes and other problems, but it is a place as magical as any in the United States.  I am honored to do my time here, on the Gulf Coast. 

Evening - I made it out to mow the South 40 one more time, actually the third time today, and it looks respectable again.  I did not dig either of those holes I anticipated digging, but there is always tomorrow.   With a decade to go to get the base plantings in place and respectable I can't afford to get in a hurry.  I here that runblimg off in the distance.  I never know at first if it is a train to the west, or a tug boat coming up the bayou, until I hear the whistle that is.  It is a train this time.  Right now the Sugar Cane is tall, so they don't make nearly as much noise as they will in just a few months after the cane is harvested.  I will take and add a few pictures to this site tomorrow after I weed eat and get some planting done.  Good night.

August 5 - I got out on the big Scag Mower this morning and mowed the entire 3 acres again.  I did it in about 1 hour, and this includes mowing around many, many trees and shrubs.  This mower is an animal for sure, and built like a tank.  Need a really big mower, forget the Toro and other similar brands, get a Scag.    It is noon as I write this and the rains just moved in.  Looking at the radar on weather.com, it seems that this will be short lived, maybe 30 minutes or so.  Last rain was 4 days ago, so timing is perfect.  Looks like the rain has mostly gone already.  It was maybe 15 minutes and a 1/4 inch or less of rain, with a a little thunder here and there.  Just enough to turn the afternoon into a sauna, haha.  Fortunately, it is enough to probably shut down the weed eating I had planned for later, but not the planting. So, if you click the picture, something looks right, and wrong.  The vine is a Cypress Vine, but the flower doesn't match.  The flowers and occasional leaves are from a shrimp plant, which the vine swallowed, yet it refuses to give up, still flowering and sticking leaves out every chance it gets.  Got to love plants,  Depending on the weather next year, the tables may turn shifting the balance of power.  The Cypress Vines have been popping up in several places, but I have no idea where they came from.  They are all volunteers

Before I get lazy for the early afternoon, I have to at least note Bayou Teche.  The Duckweed has made its appearance this summer, thicker and prettier than last year.  I am not really sure what is happening with the Bayou.  We bought this place just before Hurricane Lili.  At that time the bayou looked lifeless.  There was no grass, no minnow life, not much noticeable life at all really.  I tried fishing a couple of time with no luck at all.  Also, at this time, there was dredging of the channel going on upstream from us too, so maybe that had something to do with things.  Right after Hurricane Lili, there was a fish kill with lots of fish, mostly Catfish, Goo, and Carp flowing lifeless down the bayou, so there must have been fish life somewhere.  Then came Hurricane Rita and another fish kill but smaller than Hurricane Lili, but something changed in the bayou.  For the first time, I began to see grass  growing along the banks, not just one kind,  but several.  There were minnows in the grass, and fish activity in the bayou.  I caught a few Catfish when I tried fishing.  This year, vegetative life has doubled, and so has the fish and minnow activity.  Bayou Teche, in my backyard, is teaming with life of all kinds.  I am at a loss to explain it.  Maybe the Hurricanes and rains flushed something from the ecosystem, maybe the Sugarcane farmers switched to a less environmentally damaged chemical.  I don't know, but I can tell you that nature is recovering from something that took place before I moved here, and the results are magnificent.   There is always fish life evident in the bayou, whether it is a mullet jumping, minnows near the bank, or the swirls of large fish moving away when I walk near the bank.   

Evening - I did a few things outside, but man was it hot and humid, but even with the unbearable heat, this was the first day where something triggered in me that we had past the summer solstice.  I walked out and all of a sudden, something made me think of fall.   I guess it was not just me either, as I saw my first hummingbird in quite a while, a healthy little Ruby-throated hummer. . He worked the Hamelia, the Gingers, the Angels' Trumpets, and everything else.  I saw him on 3 different occasions today.  The picture on the left is one of my two Hamelia.  No doubt they got his attention from quite a distance away.  Well, I dug the holes for the remaining plants in the orchard.  I have all of the plants needed, in pots now, except for one, but the soil was too wet to work.  I just turned over the dirt upside down so that things can dry out a bit.   Well, I guess I will leave you with a hidden beauty. 

August 6 - Back to work, not gardening except for a few seconds of daydreaming, haha.  There was no rain today.  I kind of thought about getting out to work the soil in those new planting holes, but never got round tuit.   Tomorrow is work late tonight, so maybe Wednesday. 

August 10 - Well, in typical Louisiana style the rains shut off as if some one turns off a big switch and we went immediately to temps in the upper 90s.    Everything is in heat stress.  The abundant rains, mild temps and shelter from the sun due to the clouds made all of the plants and root systems lazy.  Now they are struggling big time.  I might lose a plant or two, but the ones that make it will have a chance long term with our crazy weather.   This makes it an especially bad time to go on vacation, but I am going anyway.  I have all of the potted plants well watered and in the shade, so C'est la vie. 

August 19 - Finally, there is a little relief from the heat.  The highs a couple of days made it to 100 with nary a cloud in sight.  We went to Pensacola for a weeks vacation.  We never made it past the pool to the beach due to the heat.  Staying under an umbrella with frequent dunks (and a few Margarita and Mojitos) made it tolerable and semi-enjoyable.  Of course we brought back a plant or two.  We found a real deal on two Giant White Crinum and one had a pup, so actually we got 3 for the price of two.  We arrived back at home on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday morning, the Battle for Middle Earth resumed.  As I got to bed tonight all of the jungles have been recovered thanks to an industrial strength string trimmer.   I cut through Johnson Grass as tall as me in many locations.  We are not done yet, but we are much closer.  Another weekend and we will be almost neat.   We must have had one light rain while we were gone and a super light rain on Friday evening, but for the most part it is really dry and the soil is hard baked like a brick.  I actually had to run the water sprinkler in a few places with some new plantings.   So, I will leave you with a picture of Pensacola, where we spent our vacation.  Definitely click this one for a zoom to see not only the beautiful pool, but also the thunderstorm out in the Gulf of Mexico and the Water Spout (Tornado over the water).  This stuff stayed offshore with the only result being a bit of wind, and having to clear the pool for an hour or so.

August 26 - When I  said "a little relief from the heat" in my log entry last week, I meant a little.  Temps are still mid 90s and slightly above at times.  A stray rain shower moves in every now and then to break the full sun for an hour, but for people and plants alike it is tough conditions out there.  I went ahead and did some planting today.  These were potted plants that should be fine with a little extra care.   I started with the Rio Red Grapefruit which went over on the southeast side of the house next to the Ponderosa Lemon.   Next I moved all the way to the other side of the house where I planted the Featherleaf Bamboo.  It was pretty good size in a 5 gallon pot.  I also put in 2 small Confederate Roses in the same area.     Next I planted the Fruiting Quince near the Flowering Quince that we have had hear for a while now.  I was assured that cross pollination would not cause a drop in fruit quality, which I find hard to believe, but we will see as the future goes.  Since I have also never seen a Fruiting Quince in the deep south before, I am curious if this plant will "do" anyway.   I also dug a few holes to prepare for up coming plantings, like moving the rose that is near the quince a few feet inline directly between the two quinces.   The picture is my Vitex agnus-castus, or Chaste Tree.  This one has the darker blue flowers, rather than the Lavender, which is more common. 

Had to take a break at midday.  With a heat index of 103, the sun was just too much.  I got out around 4:30 again and headed up the orchard in the front with 3 new plants.   I have had the plants in pots for a while, so they should do fine going in now, even with the heat.  In another month the cooler weather will set in and we can say goodbye to the 90s.  This will allow the plants to set some good roots over the fall and winter.   The Peach tree went between the other two peaches.  The Pomegranate went in between the Pear and the missing Pear that died this year.   I plan to pick up a Pear in a week or two to replace it, which will complete the orchard.  The last plant to go in was a Jujube which was planted in the front between the Apricot and the Aprium.   I knocked off for the day around 5:30 and a small thunderstorm passed through around 6:15.  It was shortlived, and all in all could have been longer, but in the end it was a perfect end for the day. 

August 27 - It was a work day, but I got home on time for a change.  Being in the mid 80's and breezy, it was actually on the cool side.  We had a good rain again today and it stayed lightly cloudy all afternoon into the early evening.  Rejoicing our break from the heat, we sat out in the backyard for over an hour, with our two new tenants at New Dawn.  Courtesy of my father-in-law Norbert, we now have Ozzie and Harriet.  On the right, Cel looks on as our new couple settles in to the lay of the land.  Note the computer in Cel's lap as well.  We may be in a rural setting, but we are still high tech with wireless internet connectivity over the whole 3 acres. 

Of course with newcomers around everyone was at full attention as you will see in the following pictures.  First up is Stella who was in fine form and relatively well behaved, but she could not help herself from doing a little goosing from time to time.  Next up is Pearl (I just call him Gold).  And then there is the mama cat, nor sure we ever named her other than "mama."  She showed up on day with 4 kittens in tow.  We fixed them all and kept them.  We are just dumb that way.  Next is the 3" long moth, who looked over while feeding on a newly opening Moonflower Leaf.  Last but not least the Horned Caterpillar was watching too, while dispatching a leaf on my Double Purple Brugmansia.  So, OK maybe the moth and the caterpillar were oblivious to the whole thing, but the pictures are cool aren't they.  They are reflective of a great early evening at New Dawn.   Soon fall will be here and we will take these evenings with gentle temperatures for granted, but it sure felt special today.

August 28 - Rain was in the area, but none fell on New Dawn today.  I read about a big plant sale at a nursery up in Carencro and had to run up there for lunch.  The place was a swamp having been overrun by the rains of July and even with the recent heat had not even begun to dry out.  They had to give me a ride on the tractor just to take me through the rows, but fortune was on my side as they had a real need to clear out some inventory.   I was soon on the road with two Crepe Myrtles with deep red flowers, two Hardy Gardenias, and one nice large Washingtonia Robusta.  This gave me everything I needed to complete my vision of the Arch Bed.  Now that I can see that one in my mind it helped me choose a location for another Palm as well.  While I was wandering around with the Turkey's I also spotted the location for the Big Leaf Magnolia, and not a minute too soon, as it really looks like poop in the pot and needed earth to spread its toes out into. 

The Turkeys continue to be real trip.  As I walk around the property they pretty much just walk around behind me never getting too far behind.  They follow me and the cats follow them as in the pictures above.   The cats are really mild mannered and don't attack the Turkeys, but I would not want to know what little Cat fantasies go through their minds.  I found out they could fly today as well.  They lost track of me, and realizing I was about 60 feet ahead they just took off and landed next to me.  I need to explain why they are so bound to me.  My father-in-law incubated the eggs and raised them completely by hand.  Being a man about the same size and build I suppose they just think I am him.  They certainly follow me around like to children.  It really is hilarious.

August 29 - I ran out after work and put the Big Leaf Magnolia in right where I had planned.  Crazy birds followed me around the yard again two steps behind me at every move.  Weirdest thing you ever saw.  I am telling you they think I am momma. 

August 30 - After work today, I went out and planted the Chamaedora Microspadix (Bamboo Palm) next to the bench under the large big Live Oak.  I put it right next to the little mystery plant from Cypress Bend, and on the other side of the bench from the Dogwood.  Both the Dogwood and the mystery plant are looking quite rough and are now leafless, no doubt from the roller coaster summer we have had in their first year.  But, they are alive.  I am hoping they just went into early dormancy, which is not uncommon for a plant here in its first year, and that they will begin to establish next year.  You know the old saying “first year they sleep, second year they creep, and third year they leap”, well down here “first year they hang on for dear life.” I watered one of the new plantings this late afternoon also and promised myself to water the rest either in the morning or tomorrow after work, as things were again getting dry out there.   But, Mother Nature decided to step in and take matters into her own hands with some really nice rains in late evening (that would be now as I am typing this).     

August 31 - Well, I had hoped to plant out the rest of the plants this weekend, but it seems like I have a cold, yuck. And it was raining when I got home, too.  So,,,,we'll see.

September 1 - It's September, so where is the cool weather already, haha.  I guess it a little cooler, only 89 today, and nice and humid too.  There is some cold though, the cold I caught this week, and it is zapping my energy, or at least the cold medicine is zapping my energy.  I am doing mostly clean up chores.   The Florida Anise I was waiting to plant in the fall took a sudden turn for the worse in the pot for no apparent reason.  Anyway, I thought it was better for it to die in the ground as opposed to dying in the pot.  Who knows maybe that will save it  Either way it is in the ground to do what it will.    I went over and got a 3rd red Crepe Myrtle.  The owner was there this time and told me the variety was "Dynamite Red."  Now I have 3 which should come out better.  I read somewhere to only buy odd numbers of plants and the rule is a good one, so I have no idea why I bought 2.

September 2 -  I took a walk to the orchard up front late last night to see the newly planted Jujube, Peach, and Pomegrante.  Each looked wonderful and was showing new growth everywhere.  No doubt, they were enjoying spreading their toes in real soil.  Since it is wise to plant everything slighly to highly raised here with our periods of intense rainfall, I planted them raised using only the native soil as a back fill, but with some top dressing around the raised portion of the rootball.  So, I had a dozen bags of really bad topsoil left over from the spring.  I quit using it as everything I used it on performed badly.   Part of the problem was that it had poor internal drainage, and I suspect more.   I also had left over a big compressed bag of peat moss that has been around for a number of years.   And there was that bag of Alfalfa pellets too.  So, I took a bag of the top soil, a thick layer of peat moss, and a smaller layer of Alfalfa pellets and tilled it all together right in the wheel barrow with m Mantis tiller.  If the reaction of these plants is any indication, this is a winning formula in the short term.  I'll keep an eye on these plants over the next year to see the long term effects.  We are still cleaning the Johnson Grass from the last few beds and finding a surprise hear and there, like the Lycoris next to the Bird of Paradise that was blooming away.  It was definitely not "radiata" or "squamigera."  I'll give it a closer look tomorrow and maybe even take a picture.  

September 3 - No sooner than I got out, in came the rains, again.  They have pretty much shut down any real yard activity on this Labor Day Weekend.  Cel managed to mow about half of the property  I have a few plants to plant, and for once know right where I want to put them, but the soil is too wet.  I did manage to get the new Power Washer assembled, but cannot get it started.  It sat for over a year in the box so I suspect the carburetor is gummed up.  And let me tell you, if you decided on putting a house in a rural type area go ahead and budget a power washer.  Bugs and other rural critters make a mess and a half.    So, anyway I'll bring it over to the shop in the morning so they can get it running for me and then I can get busy.   

Well, I the rains stopped just after noon so I was able to get out for a while to do some infrastructure work.  I dug the holes for the new plants and just turned the soil over for now.   I started to dismantle the cross bed to begin the transition to a pond.  I am using the garden edge blocks to outline the future driveway, a new bed that incorporates with the pound design, and new beds on each side of the Crepe Myrtle arch.  We also decided to keep the old mobile home around until we can build a real barn.  It isn't pretty, but we desperately needed to the storage in the short term.  I got things starting to look neat again by putting things back up into it.  Forgot to take pictures today too.  Oh well, I will take some and backfill for a few days.  Here is a backfill picture.  Many, many years ago, Grandpa Joe ran for city council.  We saved his sign to remember him by.   Oh, and pardon the mess in the barn.

September 4 - I continue to do bed preparation for the new beds.  I get more excited every time I look at them as I continue to see the vision of New Dawn come together.  To a point, I am not building a garden, I am building a life style.   So, with that bit of philosophizing out of the way.  I turned over the soil for the remaining plantings and finished identifying the planting spots to be accomplished with the destruction of the cross bed.   I did  a burn in on that soil today as well to help with the weeds.  With 3 acres and limbs falling and being trimmed, and since in this warm climate we have no need for a fireplace, there is always a burn pile at New Dawn.  Since our soils run to the acid side, there is also always a need for a ph raising too, so it is well served to the property.  I have always felt fire was beautiful at night to here is the picture to go with the log entry.

Also, I bought this palm, which I suspect is mislabeled, so I won't tell you what it was id'd as when sold to me.  Click the images for close ups and look close at the fronds and trunk and help me to positively id it.  Can you help, please?  As I type this, the thunder roles outside and the lightening flashes.  It is still about 4 miles off if you go by the seconds between the flash and the thunder model.   We need a good rain tonight, and then a few days without, to optimize my planting.  Lightening is increasing in frequency.

September 5 - Got in tonight in time to put in a couple of hours on the string trimmer (weed eater) and to water things.  Took a brief look around the gardens just long enough to update my "to-do" list.  I am excited about new bed design in the main gardens revolving around a swimmable pond.  The front acres is more of a fruit orchard than anything else, and designed to accommodate a plant nursery to keep me busy during my retirement years. 
The middle acre, my front yard, are the real gardens.  The rear acre, facing the bayou is a vista to beautiful to mess with except for the periphery which is well under way.   The picture for this entry interesting.  First note the second Pine Tree whose first 10 feet of trunk is covered by the Cypress Vine.  Then note the strange leave and flower erupting from it at various intervals.  The Rangoon Creeper is using it as a climbing support running internally with in the Cypress Vine and then sending out a shoot with leaves and flowers every few feet.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  It is really cool looking.  In the background you can also see my new beds design with the edging blocks  and shovel stuck in the ground.     The second picture is a closeup of the Rangoon Creeper in the Cypress Vine.  This one shows a bit more of the ambiance.  I like gardens that are a bit on the wild side with plants sometimes literally blending from one into another rather than the clearly delineated specimen plantings.  
Now, don't get me wrong, I have some of those specimen plants, sitting by themselves too, but I really loved a bed where the lines are blurred as noted by this next picture.  It is not of the best quality, as the morning was a bit misty, but you will get the point.    There are at least 6 different plants in this picture.  See if you can pick them out.  Some are obvious, but some are not, particularly for this climate.  Take your best shot and email me if you thing you have at least 6 isolated.  I will be quite impressed.  Actually, I can count 7, but it would be totally unrealistic to expect anyone to pick out the 7th based on this picture. 

You know, New Dawn is really a long shot in today's world.  It is a stretch no matter what, but with job markets and economies the way as they are, who knows.  Already Cel is working all over the region to make it go.  And there is no telling when it will happen to me.  I have just been lucky to be stable locally.   It takes both of us to make this special life possible.  Don't get me wrong, I have a high stress demanding job, but she has to travel, so to me, she is making the greater sacrifice.  Today, she works just 70 miles away, not long ago she was been states away too.  But, I stand ready should the roles reverse.  And I pray to God that we survive economies, jobs, and nature (hurricanes) to make New Dawn a reality that we can retire and expire in.  Enough of the philosophizing.  I just needed to say it, again.  Thank you Cel.

September 6 - I sometimes complain about the weather.  Well, OK, I always complain about the weather, but hey, I am a gardener you know.  But, I have to be fair.  This has been an easy summer.  I have only had to water a couple of times, which is rare down here in the hot south.   I pre-dug holes a few days ago, which means digging the area where I am going to plant and just literally turning over the soil with the sod on the bottom roots exposed.   Just a few days exposed like this and the sod is dead, and a rain or two later the clay clods break down into a nice even soil.  Right on schedule a nice inch and a half rain came today.  Barring no further rain, Sunday will be a perfect day to go ahead and get the plantings done.  It is a little too wet to dismantle and redistribute the soil in the cross bed as I had hoped to do tomorrow, but I have all of next week to get that done.   So, the beds are coming together and the final vision gets farther from my head and closer to reality.    Due to budgets it has been a slow process.  Until this year one had to do  quite a bit of imagining to "see" the gardens.  Don't get me wrong, some imaging is still required in some areas, but in others you can look and go "ahhh."   This fall I am going to turn my main focus from plant acquisition to plant propagation.    I have a good variety, now I need more so cuttings and seedlings will take precedent.   Actually, I have already started with 6 Mango seedlings, 6 Palm seedlings, 3 Wattle seedlings, 3 Avocado seedlings, and others.  This weekend I am going to do cuttings from my Blue Glorybower and Erythrina Christa-galli.  They need to cut back anyway.  I also have a Pomegranate to extract seeds from.   Got to work on Pineapples and Papayas.  Man, I am gonna need that greenhouse this winter, and I have not even started on it.  I have the main structural members and a rough plan, haha.   For the picture of the day, well, it is that Wattle thing.  An Acacia kind of plant.  It was sold to me as "Acacia baileyana", which it ain't, but it is related at least.  Accurate plant identification is certainly a lost art in today's nursery trade.  So anyway, this is the one I have the 3 seedlings of, so we will have 4 next year instead of just one, and that is good landscaping, I think :-).

September 8 - I was pretty much rained out of any activity yesterday (Friday).  And today (Saturday), Cel and I took a road trip.  We hit a couple of small nurseries in St. Martinville, La.   I bought only one ginger.   Later, we stopped at the new Walmart in Breaux Bridge, La, where we hit the mother load.  Picked up some a few palms and other plants.  Too late to go record the tags now, but I'll get them up tomorrow.  I know one was a Majesty Palm, another was called a "Cat" palm.   I'll get them all logged in the morning.  On the way back at the Lowes in New Iberia, I also got a great "Pride of Barbados."

September 9 - So here are the Palms I bought yesterday at WalMart, Majesty Palm - Ravenea rivularis and Cat Palm -Chamaedorea cataractarum.  We also got a small Peace Lily - Spathiphyllum.  We already have a large on inside, so this one will complement the larger one, which just opened a bloom by the way.  There were a couple of other cool potted plants too, but they are still under the carport.  I will log them in, when I bring them in over the next few days.   Most of the morning was spent mowing and string trimming.   At the end of the day, I spent another hour doing more string trimming.  All areas are not back under control and we are back to maintenance which is considerably faster, and easier.

In the middle of the day, I started some plant rescue, repotting, and propagation operations.  I have a few plants that were dying, near death, or otherwise just not doing well, so I decided to dig them up, pot them, and see if I could restore their strength.  If come back, I will try them in a new spot next year.  Today, in that category I potted a Tibouchinia.   It was just coming back from the winter when my mowing help took it down to the ground.  I had written it off till I looked down and say a new shoot starting to emerge from the pile of roots.  Since it was not in a good place anyway I dug it up and potted it.  If it survives that too, I am sure it will regain its strength.  Then I dug up the two Gold Dust Plant Aucuba japonica 'Variegata',  They were doing OK, but when the weeks of rain stopped, the high 90, low 100 degree full sun days hit and the old Mimosa defoliated it was more than they could handle.   And I think the snails homed in on their weak state as well.  On will make it, but the other looked pretty bad, so we'll see.  Last for today, but not overall for there are others that still need rescue, was the little Coral Bean Erythrina herbacea.   It looked OK, but was not growing after 2 years.  After digging it up, it had a large kind of root know which was partially rotten.  I completely was the soil from the whole root ball and washed out the rot from the root mass as well, then potted it up.  I am potting everything in Miracle-Gro potting soil with food and moisture crystals. 

On the propagation side - I had a lone fruit on the new little Pomegranate tree added to the orchard  2 or 3 weeks ago, so after reading that they came easily from seed, I planted the seeds.  The picture for this entry is a Crinum that popped up.  It is similar to the Milk and Wine Heirloom

September 10 - More stuff done here and there today.  On the plant rescue side was the Many Plant.  It lost all of its leaves and I was hoping it had just gone dormant early.  It obvious spreads by underground roots.  I got it by digging up a root division so there was reason for this optimism.   The remaining stem was mowed over this week end and was quite dead, so that reduced my hope.  I went ahead today and dug it up anyway.  The roots were definitely still alive, so I washed the roots and potted it in the fresh Miracle-Gro.  Believe it or not, some of the plants I did this too over the weekend are already looking better.  Instead of shock, it is immediate progress.  With what these rescued plants have been through it is not surprising.

On the planting side, it was two steps forward, two steps back.  On the back side, one of the 3 Leland Pines planted this spring became diseased and died within a 3 week period.  The other two look great.  Also, this Peach tree that gave me a little crop this year dropped dead.  It lost its leave, and upon investigation today was quite dead all the way to the ground.  Now, having a few deaths was not totally unexpected.  Louisiana weather is always tough and plants here need to be tough, but this year nature through a one-two punch that anything weak or not established would have trouble handling.   After weeks of rain and totally saturated soils, the rain and clouds vanished while temperatures shot up to the 100 degree mark.  Frankly, I am surprised that these seem to be the only two casualties.  On the two steps forward, I planted the Vermillion Pear which was bought to replace the one that died earlier in the spring.   I also put in a Meyer Lemon as well.  Both have been in pots for a while, but I have waited for the weather to normalize and to get closer to fall to plant them. 

Also, forgot to mention I picked up a little Eucalyptus.  I tried one of these a few years ago.  It died in the winter and since I had not seen any around, I assumed it was not worth trying again.  I saw a great large one in the Florida Panhandle last spring which has a similar climate and noted it, but this week I saw a couple locally that were only maybe 5 years old and doing well.  So, off we go on try number 2.  The picture for this entry is the positive result of a plant rescue and the wonderful adaptability of plants.  This Jatropha was planted in a bed back in Jeanerette years ago.  I thought it died over the winter.  All the way in September of the following year I noticed a little green nub showing on the remaining stump.    Knowing we were moving from Jeanerette the poor little thing has languished in a pot for the last two years just barely staying alive.  I planted it in this spot late in the spring.  It has become a fine plant. 

September 11 - A good bit of rain fell on New Dawn today ending any after work activity I might have entertained, and yes, I was entertaining some.  A while back my step mom gave me a large potted Bubblegum Lantana.  I finally figured out yesterday where I wanted to plant it, and the spot was not soggy so I did go ahead and plant it today.  It likes things a little on the dry side, so the fact that its site was not soggy was a testament to picking the right sight, too.  Also forgot to mention that I planted a potted Purple Cat Whiskers - Orthosiphon aristatus, which was mislabled as Orthosiphon Stamenius, that I had gotten for Cel as a mini-surprise.    We had this incredible bed in the gardens in Jeanerette before Lili destroyed them and the Cat Whiskers we had there were planted by Cel.  They were a high point in the gardens.   This is not meant to represent the grandeur we had then, but to represent the possibility for the future.  Funny how things go in the garden.  I realized just this weekend, in September, that we had no Castor Beans this year.  They always self seeded in Jeanerette so I never had to think about getting seeds.  We had one last year, but no volunteers came this year and I just never noticed.   They are such great tropical looking plants that can go from seed to 10 or 12 feet in just a season down here.  Each winter they die, but they usually self seed so to put it simply, "they are easy."

September 13 - Worked quite late last night, so not even a thought about gardening.  Well, OK, I did think about gardening quite a bit, but don't tell my boss, Today, out of nowhere came Hurricane Humberto with winds (nothing damaging) and real deluge.   I got home to see a lake next to the driveway.  The natural flow of the land drains across the lot from under the driveway.  I put a six inch pipe to allow the water to flow, and it is adequate until some little thing impedes the flow, which is too often.   So off I went with my digging spade to clear the way ankle deep in water.  All is well again.  Water logged soils have shut down all garden activities, but hey, at least I don't have to worry about watering things.  Plant rescue items are looking really good.   It is always exciting to do that.

I hit the motherload, I think.  I stopped at a local fruit stand with a few rag-tag plants for sale, 12 plants to be exact.  I asked how much for one of them, and the owner said take the whole bunch for $50.    Well, they were looking a bit rough, but if you have read any of my logs yet, you know what my answer was, "done deal."    Most of these things were not labeled, but roughly I got 4 large Azaleas, 1 small Azalea, 3 Variegated Lemon Trees, 2 Sweet Olives,  and 2 Camellias.

September 15 (Saturday) - It's cool, it's cool, I don't know how to act.  Lots going on today.  I planted two of the large Azaleas where in the spots where I rescued the Gold Dust Aucuba.  I planted a Sour Kumquat where in the line with the 3 existing Sweet Kumquat completing that line.   The Phoenix Reclinata went out into its final home.  Also, I put the King Palm - Archontophoenix alexandrae , into its outside home.  This palm is a real stretch here, but it is in the most protected microclimate I have here at New Dawn, so we will see.  I got on eBay for steal, so I won't lose any real sleep if we have a winter that takes it out.  It certainly would have survived the last 2 winters here, but you never know in Louisiana.  The last plant to go in before lunch as one of the Variegated Lemons.  This was the smallest, and its roots were nearly non-existent.  All 3 of the Lemons looks quite bad, but alive.  The should snap back once in the ground, and should survive a normal winter quite well. 

I began the rebuilding effort on the arbor by the barn today.   Tomorrow I will be able to cut the roses back and tie them to the two new posts.   If I get to Lowes this weekend I will get to concrete to put in the remaining post, otherwise I will finish this over the next week.    

Seeds, seedlings, etc.  I planted two new Mango seeds today.  The sprouted in the Ziplock bag methods just fine.  I found a couple of mystery seeds from the South Florida trip so I stuck them in a pot too, just to see what comes up, if anything.  In a shallow tray, went some seeds from the Hardy Wisteria on one side, and seeds from a neat dark purple ornamental pepper that has been floating around my and my mother-in-law's garden for several years now.   More Mirlitons were obtained on the 12th too.  Actually, that is why I stopped at the Fruit Stand in the first place.   Of the 2 I originally started, only one made it, but it was accidentally cut down while cleaning up the yard last week.   So again we start, with 3 new ones.

Afternoon shift - One of the Camellias from the fruit stand was labeled "Yule Tide.", which I found on the Internet as Camellia Sasanqua 'Yuletide' - Yuletide Camellia   They other may be the same.  I guess we might know in the spring if I am lucky enough to get a bloom or two from each.  One of them, the one with the label, was quite healthy, while the other had lost one of its to main branches.  The other branch was OK though.  The roots on some of these plants are so pitiful.  So, I started a new bed outside of the master bath and used these two Camellia as corner anchors.  So, what now.   Back out side to ponder :-).

Rescue - English Ivy Tree.  I have no idea what this plant really is.  It is more shrub like than an English Ivy, but with leaves that are nearly identical.

September 16 (Sunday) - Sometime neighbors can be a pain in the rump.  So, I spent some time marking off property lines and cutting back plants to insure that they stayed within the realm of New Dawn.  After that I potted plants and repotted a few others.  I not have quite a few Bordelon Bananas to place in some new spots.  I planted the new Ginger, that we got last week on our road trip, in a spot by the front porch where we can enjoy the scent and beauty.   I placed the Camellia in their respective spots to along the front walkway and they look great.   So I have about a dozen plants ready to go into the ground, but I need some top soil as the lack of has become the limiting factor. 

Today, I cut back the roses from the collapsed arbor and tied them up to the two new posts.  After that, I top dressed each with a bag of compost/manure.  They will be set back from their past beauty for a couple of years, but in the end will likely wind up ever healthier than they were before.   I dug the holes for the two remaining posts, once obtaining a couple of bags of concrete they will be in place.  Then I can build of the top and complete the arbor.  This time it will be built on 4 4x4s, so short of a super major hurricane, this arbor, with a little car, should outlast me. 

September 19 - New Dawn, a garden, a vision, or a life style?  Well, the answer is yes, depending on the eyes of the beholder.  In the end, the garden exist for the gardener.   The moment that someone second guesses their garden and starts to adjust it based on the wishes of others, for better or for worse, it ceases to become their garden,   If the gardener listens to enough people it becomes landscaping.  A distinction must be made between creating a landscape and building a garden.  Landscaping can indeed be attractive, in fact it is designed to be attractive to the masses.   There is nothing wrong with landscaping.  Building a garden on the other hand is personal, and sometimes even a spiritual endeavor.  There are many types of gardens and gardeners. 

Domingue Browning's Incredible book "The New Garden Paradise" list these types of gardens/gardeners.

So, by Dominque's definitions New Dawn clearly falls into "The Plantsmen" category.  A quote from "The New Garden Paradise regarding The Plantsmen reveals that there their gardens, are after all, arranged to fit the needs of the plants."    You see, The Plantsmen are in many cases the exact opposites of landscapers.  A landscaper may fit in quite well anywhere, because they seek to create things that appeal to the masses.  They are most at home in city communities where the many people find comfort in conformity.   On the other hand, Plantsmen, seek to have unusual, unique plants and combinations of plants that stands out from the norm.  Plantsmen gravitate to more rural areas where they are free to explore their passions free from the constraints of things like "neighborhood restrictions."   The bottom line for New Dawn.  When we see it, we smile.    As for others, they can plant their own gardens, or their own landscape, or not.  To each his own.

September 20 - The hummingbirds are here in full force and so are the Hurricane Lilies.  It seems they have been everywhere for the last week or two.  Well, I finally got home today at a decent hour, so first thing I went out and set the final set of post for the new rose arbor.  I might even get that thing finished up this weekend, but there is no rush at this point.  The important part, cutting back the roses, tying them to the new supports is done.  Now, they can begin to recuperate from their ordeal.   I then turned my attention to the 9 new Gardenias.  I only got 3 planted, before a combination of back fatigue and insects ran me indoors.  The gnats were bad today, and the mosquitoes too. 

September 21 - Got in a little early today, early afternoon.    Checked out the plants.  Watered a few things.  Air has been dryer, and a little cooler, still hitting 90 during the day.    Established plants are fine, some of the newer one are struggling a bit.  Since I got a jump on the fall planting I have to give them a little extra TLC.  Weather says 100% chance of rain tomorrow night, so that will take the edge off.  I have already been out and planted the second trio of Gardenias.  Just 3 more to go and at least the Gardenias will be done.  Got to get back out.  It would be nice to get all of the planting done by the time the rains come.  The picture for the day is the red stemmed Ginger I added last year.   The died to the ground like most gingers here, but came back very strong.  I may have to add a few more of these. 

As a side note, I had lunch in Carencro, Louisiana today, just 30 miles north of here.  In someone's backyard, backing up to the restaurant parking lot, was one of the largest and more perfect Golden Rain Tree I have ever seen down here in Zone 9a.  They are not recommended here, but after seeing that one maybe I'll try one.   I forgot to note the microclimate details, but I will make it a point to go back next week to take a picture and do just that.  What a magnificent tree.

September 22 - Well, the day came and went with not a drop of the "100% chance of rain" as predicted by the weather service last night, so we continued our clean up quest.   Some days I think we will never get this place shaped up, while other days I am 100% sure we never will.   Nevertheless, as in many things in life, if is not going as quickly I had hoped but it is progressing in a logical fashion.  We started out the day by loading an old pile of tin, and a few other larger pieces of trash metal and hauling it down the local recycling operations.  Sure was nice to get that junk out of the way.

The burning went quite well in the new bed.  Without a strong wind I was able to keep moving the burn pile around within the bed.  At least 75% of the new bed area is now free of weeds and grass.  The wood pile was reduced a bit too.   I might be able to finish that up tomorrow and start planting it out next week.      Still no rains, but it has rained near us, so I am still hoping.     The picture of the day is the beginnings of a new bed, and to the right, the remnants of the Cross Bed which is being dismantled.

September 23 - This afternoon, we put in 3 of the 4 new Crepe Myrtles.     I replaced the two Azaleas that had died as well.   All of these plants were in the grouping I picked up on sale.   Also as a noted, for the first time this summer, the mosquito are both numerous and vicious.  The large black ones are out in force that just bite you right through your shirt.  Anyplace where the fabric is close to the skin they just come right through, so both the skin and the clothing has to be spraying with repellent.  Also, speaking of pest when I went to plant the 2 Azaleas, I noticed Ants in the hole.  In paying to much attention to staying out of their way, I failed to notice they had invaded the Azalea pot as well.  So, again, they got me, and pretty significantly I might add.   I am going to continue to spot kill for the rest of the year, but next year I am going to broadcast the whole place with something while continue to use organic techniques to make the place less ant friendly.

Taking advantage of no rain again today, I ran out on a second trip this afternoon and planted the last Azalea and another Variegated Lemon.   That leaves only 1 Crepe Mytle and one Variegated Lemon from the Fruit Stand  remaining to be planted.  I still have the Pride of Barbados to go in the ground, and that is it, until I buy another plant(s).  I am well ahead of the fall planting season, so great going this year.   Now that the house is out of way, turning my attention back to gardening has resulted in quite a bit of fill in.    We still have about 5 more years of foundation planting to go here, and another 5 for things to grow in to their spots.   Thus far I am happy with the progress.   We have quite a few plants starting to show their future selves.   But still it will be many more years until New Dawn shows its beauty.  I know I have said that many times in these blogs, but it does help my to stay focused to continually make that affirmation.  

A third trip out allowed me to plant a few other plants.  The last Variegated Lemon, the Pride of Barbados, and the Duranta erecta 'Blue Sapphire Showers' went into the ground.  One plant left, another Crepe Myrtle.  I am back in cooling off hoping to get enough energy to get it done too.  This on needs some major direct work, so maybe?

Well, I got a last wind, went out and planted the last Crepe Myrtle.    There are now only 4 plants left to plant on New Dawn, that being 4 Palms.   I planned to wait for the tractor to dismantle the Cross Bed to move the dirt, but it was so easy to dig that dirt by hand today, I will probably start doing it slowly and manually.  I'll just let the tractor do the clean up when I can get it. 

On the potted side, after cleaning the fence line, I now have 11 potted Bordelon Banana plants.   I promised one to my mother-in-law.  I am not sure of what I will do with the rest.  No doubt, some will be planted here, but I certainly don't need 10 more, besides I have other bananas I am still interested in planting here, so they can't all be Bordelon.    Oh, I and I have lots of little baby Pomegranates.  The seeds do indeed germinate quite readily.  The picture of the day is one of my Altheas.  The weather combination made this a tough year for Altheas everywhere, but this one is finally putting on a decent showing.

September 24 - For the 3rd day in a row, it rained all over South Louisiana, but not here.  The little bit last night was not nearly enough.  And just about when I was going to complain, I looked outside to notice a nice light rain falling.    Now if it will just do that for a few hours all will be good for another week. 

September 25 - More light rains fell today at New Dawn, enough this time, but not in abundance.  The days are getting noticeably shorter, which only reminds me of the coming change back to daylight standard time.  After that, it is pretty much weekends only to get things done.  So, I have two pictures of the day.  The first and attractive one is another picture of Hurricane Lilies.  As you will see, they don't only come in red. 
The yellow ones are much less common.  We had them at the home in Jeanerette.  I was not sure any made it here with us, so I am glad to see at least one made it.  Although this is the lone yellow bloom this year, more may have made it, as these bulbs, both red and yellow are notorious for skipping years or a number of years blooming when disturbed as these surely were.     Now the second picture of the day is my future greenhouse.  As you see I have a problem, and only a couple of months at best to resolve it before the cold weather gets here..  Thank god my back is cooperating, at least for now.  

September 29 - I didn't do a lot of gardening today, but I did dig 7 fence post holes for the new wood fence.  That leaves only 3 holes left to dig, but unfortunately 2 are through the old road bed.   I have had to do that quite a few times, and man, that is tough digging.  It will be nice to get that in.  It will help many things, give a little privacy, allow the courtyard to be built and keep a few plants under control too.  This picture of the day is Cassia Alata.  While mostly grown as an annual, it does come back from the roots most years.  These were planted quite late in the year, but still have grown to look great this year. 

September 30 (Sunday) -  I am slowly moving more and more organic.  Today, I started a fall organic fertilization program.  With high nitrogen fertilizers I would never think of fertilizing this late, but on this program it not a real big deal.  Today, I put out 120 pounds of Alfalfa meal.  I have another 40 pound bags here, and one more to get to finish up for the fall.  I will follow that with some dry molasses.   We got a vey light rain night before last.  Enough to keep the established plants in great shape, but I am afraid the new plantings need a little more, which I thought we were going to get this afternoon.  On thunderstorm went to the west, and on to the east, and we were dry in the middle.  That means I will be  out watering in a little while.   Now normally I like watering as it is a very relaxing exercise, but in the last 3 weeks the mosquitoes have been unbelievable.   Those little critters along with the humidity have made being outside a pretty miserable experience.  Hey, I just checked the radar as I am typing this and there is still hope for rain this afternoon.  Sure would be nice, especially now that I have spread the Alfalfa.   Picture of the day is a few roses.  I have not particularly done well with roses here at New Dawn, which is ironically named for a rose.   Down here with our humidity roses need quite a bit of care, which having a new home, I have not been able to give.     Never the less, we have a few stars. 

About 4:30pm I gave up on any real amount of rain and went out to water.  Just as I was watering the last plant a nice light rain began to fall at 5pm.  But I doubt it will be enough for the new plantings anyway, so I don't regret going out to water.  It will be enough to start the Alfalfa breaking down and doing its job.

October 1 - The days sure seems to be getting shorter even faster than normal.  By the time I got the animals fed and watered, and watered just a handful of plants, it was dark.  And it is still Daylight Savings Time.  My suspicions on the little plant from Many were correct.  It is indeed alive and just sent up a new flush of leaves.  By the way, I think I have this thing identified as a Red Buckeye.  

 

October 4 - About this root flare stuff!.  On the site is the link to the radio show for "The Dirt Doctor."  I have spent the last week or so catching up to the radio show, listening every night.  I have to admit, I am tired of hearing "the tree is probably planted too deep" and hearing about "the root flare."   I am always the skeptic at first, so I began researching the subject.  Maybe, just maybe, this is "the smoking gun" when it comes to gardening success.  I went around today, particularly paying attention to a handful of plants that seems to be having trouble, and a few that are doing outstandingly well.  The ones in trouble are indeed "planted too deep" per Howard's definition.  Those that are doing well, do seem to have well placed root flares, so maybe there is something here.  I exposed the root flares on those having trouble.  I did on two of the three expose girdling roots as well.  So, is it the root flare thing, the fact that in doing girdling roots are exposed and dealing with them is it, or is it a combination of both.  Next year will reveal whether or not it was worth the effort here.  It will take more time with more work to start to reveal how much is root flare, and how much is girdling roots.   The Mimosa and Gingko that have been having trouble seemed to be root flare only, the Camellia and Live Oak had root flare and girdling root issues.  All were dealt with so we will track the progress here next year. 

I am convinced enough at this point to begin the root flare excavation across New Dawn.  This is simple in many cases with so many new plantings, but quite complex in others.   Stay tuned.  And hey, the Bird of Paradise recovered nicely from last winter and has 2 very healthy bloom stalks on it. 

Time to shut down for the evening.  Winds have blown steadily all evening.   A tropical rain band continues to work its way toward us.  We need it for sure, as the clay soil is beginning to crack.  If it makes it, it will be early morning hours, so with a little luck I will wake to sound of rain. 

October 7 - Nice and laid back, no other way to describe this weekend.   Rains came gently and steadily all weekend.  Although fall is certainly not in the air, temperature wise, the plants are starting to transition.  Maybe it is from the shortening of the days.  The Grapes and the Redbud leaves are in active decline, as are a number of other trees.  In contrast some of the tropical plants are starting to perk up due to the even daylight/darkness hours and moderate temperatures.  The Night Blooming Jasmine is putting on quite a show this year as it literally tripled in size with all of the rains in the summer.  Right now it is a sea of white blooms.  I was also delighted to see that Bird of Paradise has at least 3 bloom stalks on it. The Hamelia still look great too.  They aren't exactly in the right place, but Hamelia are cheap so no worry.  As things grow I will plant more to fill out the border and let the existing ones do as they may.  Here is a picture of one of the new Althea we added this year.

Tanenashi Persimmon - the new addition.  We stopped at The Fruit Station, and well, here comes another plant.  I mistakenly thought, due to its Japanese name that this was a non-astringent Persimmon, so I was a little disappointed when we got home and I looked it up on the Internet to find the opposite.  But no bother, there is room for it on New Dawns along with many others.  Now, I have to say with this root flare knowledge, I guess planting will take a bit more time.  Take a look at this video, http://easylink.ishowmedia.net/drdirt/the_container_hi.asx, to understand.   This is from www.dirtdoctor.com, which I recommend as required reading for all new gardeners.  So, I guess I will spend this winter, plant by plant exposing the root flares of the new plantings.    The picture on the right is the planted Tanenashi which was indeed to deep in the pot.  In the picture it is easy to see the 2 inches of new exposed trunk. 

October 11 - Temps are expected to hit the 50s this weekend as we roll into some of the best outdoor weather of the year here on the Gulf Coast.   I can't wait for the weekend.  It should be a lot of fun to be out, and lord knows we have enough backlogged projects.  A couple of small plants made their way to New Dawn.  One was a  Pride of Barbados and the other a Starfruit.  With both being tropical in nature, I plan to leave them in pots and nurse them through the winter.  The Pride of Barbados is ground bound, while the Starfruit may need to stay in a pot forever in our climate.  I have read reports of them surviving in Lafayette and Houston, soooooo maybe.  I went out to expose the root flare on the little Mimosa that has constant leaf diseases to find it was about 5 inches too low.   Next year will tell if there is something to this root flare stuff.

October 13 - Today was some cleanup errands in and out of the house, but I did get the new  Tanenashi Persimmon planted today.  I properly exposed the root flare as I took it from container to the ground.  The flare was a good 2 inches too deep.  This was very easy to correct at planting time.  While in the area I did some more root flare work.  The Ichy Persimmon has not done well over the last 3 years.  Sure enough, the root flare was buried deeply.  In fact, I was wondering if it had one as I continued to dig down.  About 7 inches down there it was.  So, far we are 100% in every tree checked not performing well had a root flare buried too deeply.

October 14 - Cool weather made for a great weekend.  I also got to fit in a few more pieces of the puzzle of New Dawn.  I put a Bordelon Banana in on the rear left side of the property where it will anchor a line of Upright Elephant Ears.  I also put in two Bordelon Bananas on the right rear of the property where they will frame the eventual driveway to the back of the property.  Also, one the right side of the arch I put in the Livistonia Chinenis and Livistonis Decipens.  All right/left directions, by the way, as as looking from the house.  Yet to go in is the Washingtonia Robusta and Livistonia Chinensis on the left side of the arch.  Maybe next week.  Before I do a planting I first burn some of the scrap wood on the spot.  This provides much needed nutrients and ph adjustment as well as killing the weeds.    The pic of the day is the two palms still in the pots.  Tonight they sleep with roots in the soil  I know it has to feel good. 

Also this weekend, I did another root flare exposure.   This time on the Pawpaw Tree which was another plant not doing well.  This one was as deep as the Persimmon, maybe 7 inches or so.  I was wondering for a bit if it had a  root flare.  And although Palms do not have the same types of root flares as trees, I did pull back the soil a bit on the Palms I just planted.  They did look just fine.  Now I am pretty sure that the large Washtingtonia I am planting soon  is too deep in the pot.  I will adjust when the time comes.  The picture at left are the same two palms above, now planted into their new spot.

October 15 - I got home just in time to burn the second planting spot for the remaining 2 palms.  Tomorrow I hope to get the holes dug before the rains come, but with 60% chance tonight I might not make it.  While on the subject of palms, here is my little Chamaedorea microspadix.  It is a great spot to sit and do a little reflecting.

October 16 - Guess what, my Livistonia Decipens is not, not a Ribbon Palm that is.  I always though it was mislabeled and seems to be Coccothrinax hybrid.  So, anyway I got home today and busted it to get the last 2 palms in the ground.  The 3 gallon Livistonia Chinensis and 35 gallon Washingtonia Robusta are in place.    Here is a great picture of the day.  The purples of this Millettia reticulata are awesome.

 

October 19 - A little here, a little there.  The rains brought a little moisture here, a little moisture there, and even a lot in a few places, but none to New Dawn.  Not great for the new planting which need water, but good for a some infrastructure work that is long overdue.  Our soils have been quite wet for many months, so a long needed drying out is not un-called for, but it does mean watering the many fall plantings now in place.  I added to those today, planting a second Bismarckia nobilis , and 2 Chamaerops humilis  palms.  I am staying well ahead of the fall plantings so next year, I will be able concentrate on ground covers.   Today, I have to take the small mower inside of the larger bed to mow the native Bermuda and Coco grass, but my one experiment this year in ground covers is quite promising in finding something that can compete with those two awful nuisances of Gulf Coast gardens.  On the right is my first Bismarckia finishing up its first year at New Dawn and looking pretty good. 

October 21 - Yesterday, was a beautiful fall day, blue bird skies with a high in the low 80s.  I spent the morning on a trencher.   Midway in the route, which needed to be at least 36 inches deep we hit mud and wet soils.  After a couple of cave-ins and running the trencher 4 times we got the job done, and I mean barely.   It is easy to forget, when the surface dries, what a wet year this had been, but a 36 inches deep it becomes apparent that this was one of our wettest years on record.  It was a nice relief after some near drought year.  So, after that was done, the rest of the day was spent with an extended family get together to watch "the game.". 

Today started with clear skies, but the clouds continued to move in throughout the day.  I spread the last of the Alfalfa pellets today, just in front of rains due in a couple of days.  That pretty much ends the organic program for this year, except for one last batch of organic tea which is brewing.  And of course, I will haul in many truck loads of compost over the winter too,  to improve the soil, but I don't think of that as an organic program, just expediting what nature would do on her own if left alone in 20 years.  I made one last trip our before dark.  The feeling out can best be described as ominous, kind of a calm before the storm kind of thing.   Our first real cool weather is on the way with three days next week forecast to not even make highs in the 70's and lows in the mid 40s.  Actually, this cool weather is good since it will signal the plants to go into some dormancy.   Well, I could not find the cable for the camera, and now I can't find the camera. 

October 22 - The rains arrived today.  Many areas of South Louisiana got far more than us.  Several inches fell in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, but I am guessing only an inch or so fell here.   Also, my little Neem tree came in.   I get to wake up to our first little taste of winter.  Low tomorrow night might not even make 50.  It is definitely going to be an appreciated break from the norms of recent.  .

October 31 - Got a new baby today.  Meet Dypsis leptocheilos, my first Dypsis Palm.   Hardy to Zone 9b and I live in Zone 9a.  Perfect match, right, haha.  Suffered most of the last week and a half with another terrible cold, but at least this one did not make it to pneumonia like the last one.  Still it had us worried for a while.  Things are on the mind now.  We are in the beautiful drier cooler weather of fall finally.  Things are finally drying out a bit, but that means regular trips out with hoses and watering cans also to keep the new plantings hydrated.  The cooler drier air really get them thirsty fast.   I also picked up a little Neem Tree and a nice batch of Tung Oil tree seeds too.   If it is unusual or rare, I got to have it.  Is there a cure out there?  Nahhhh.  I have the curse of a thousand gardeners before me.    Here is a better picture of my little Chamaedorea microspadix and reflecting bench.

November 2 - I stopped by Stokes Tropicals on the way home and picked up some new bananas I have been looking at on their website for months.  We now have Musa Belle, Musa Grand Nain, and Musa Raja  Puri.  My Tung Oil Tree seeds came in as well.  I am soaking them for 5 days before planting.

November 4 - The beginning of the end, of 2007 that is.  It has been cool and dry for over 2 weeks now.  The leaves are beginning to fall, and few trees are already leafless.  I rode around looking at gardens here and there today, and I have to say, I did not see one that looked great.  It was a tough summer for plants, and they are showing the wear and tear. 

November 5 - The truth about palms.  This was the year I took an interest in palms and added quite a few to the landscape around New Dawn.   In the research that has ensued it is also when I began to discover the truth about palms, or at least confusion and ambiguity in the naming of palms in the industry.  It seems that many, if not most palms may actually be labeled in the nurseries?   So my Washinigtonia Robusta labeled palm may be a Filibusta, my Livisontonia Decipens is probably a Coccothrinax something or another, and now my Chamaedorea microspadix  is definitely not a microspadix and may not be a Chamaedorea.  And on top of that my first Dypsis was my second, as I had 2 palms labeled Areca Palms are actually Dypsis lutescens, or at least I think, because it seems that quite a few palms can carry the label Areca.  I can't fault the nurseries too much, because after buying a couple of really big thick books and spending quite a bit of time on the subject, it is indeed quite hard to tell some of the palms apart, not to mention that many hybridize quite easily and readily.  So in the end, whatever its real name turns out to be, if you buy a palm, enjoy it for the beauty it is.  And remember, here on the Gulf Coast an Artic Blast as we get every so many decades is likely to clean out the landscape of almost all palms requiring a fresh start as last happened in 1989,   Indeed, the only palms you will see around older than that year are the numerous Trachycarpus fortunei (Windmill Palms) and a few Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island Date Palms.)  Here are some pics of the palms added to New Dawn this year.

 

 

 

 

Above left is the pair of Bismark palms, in the middle is the pair of Pindo plams, with the large Canary Island in the background, and far right is the little Washingtonia near the bayou.

 

 

 

 

On the left is the small pair of Pigmy Date palms and on the right is the Senegal Date Palm

 

 

 

 

 

On the left is a Washingtonia with a small cluster of Chinese Fan palms in the foreground.  On the right is a Coccothrinax something or another, also with a small cluster of Chinese Fan palms in the foreground of it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my new pair of Humilis palms on each arch of the driveway turnaround.

 

 

 

 

And here are a couple of large Pigmy Date palms that have been with us a while.  And another new couple of Palms as well, except these are "Royal Palm Turkeys. 

There are a few other palms running around here and there at New Dawn.  There are a couple in pots in the house, a couple in pots under the oaks, several seedlings, a couple featured in earlier website blogs, etc.  I guess we will have to call 2007 the "Year of the Palm" at New Dawn.  Hmmm, I wonder what next year's obsession will be.

Cel and I often discuss whether palms represent the old northern gulf coast antebellum south or not.  With our numerous arctic blast in the last 100 years (last one 1989), other than Trachys and an occasional older CIDP, there aren't a lot of old palms around for sure.  But were they once?  I found this old picture from the nearest town to where I live.  These pictured palms were probably planted circa 1890 and photographed here circa 1910.  These palm appear to be Washingtonia Robustas and maybe a Phoenix re too thick for Trachys and the one right next to the porch looks like Phoenix dactylifera.   They must have been quite exotic for their day.  There is no trace of these palms remaining, nor the house for that matter.  In each case, what a pity.

November 8 - African Oil Palm joins the family courtesy of eBay. 

November 10 - Today, we planted out the Wattle seedling alongside their mother to create a small grove.  While there we collected another batch of seeds from the mother for future stock.  We also collected tons of seeds from the Moonflower, for next year. 

I planted two of the new bananas acquired from Stokes Tropicals last week.  Raja Puri was planted of the edge of the carport on the right corner.  Grand Nain was planted of the right front corner of the house near the Azalea on its left, the Crybaby tree to its rear, and the large Uppie Elephant ear to its right.  There were so many suckers on that one, that I planted the largest one back in the original pot.  That leaves "Belle" to be planted tomorrow.    I dug up and potted a nice 30 inch Papaya to keep through the winter.  this one, planted early in the spring, might actually bear fruit next year. 

There were a few showers in the area this morning, but none fell here.  We are in need of rain at this point, so a few newer plantings are starting to complain, like the Azaleas, but all of the well established plants are quite fine.  We got our first really cool weather this week too, with lows around 41/42 for a couple of nights.  The cooler temps along with the dryness has accelerated fall dormancy for a few things.    Well, that's a wrap.  Maybe I'll get out tomorrow and finish up some easy chores.  Oh, here is a picture of my little King Palm seedlings that were viciously attacked by my Royal Palms, turkeys that is.

November 17 (Saturday) - Night before last even though temperatures only got down to around to around 37 or 38, we had our first very light patchy frost.   I went out to plant a few things, but the ground was so hard and dry it was impossible.  I did get a a couple of Iris in the ground we grew from seeds earlier this year, but that was it.  At least we have rain in the forecast all week, so hopefully we will get some relief.  Here is a little picture of a little aroid that washed up on the bayou edge.  I planted it on the rear of the garage.  It is an odd little thing and this is its bright yellow flower. 

November 18 (Sunday) - Very light rains fell today from noon till around 3pm.  Not nearly enough for this years plantings, but more than enough for the established plants.  In the meantime, I guess I will be back to watering in a few days.  We do have more rain forecast later this week, but if it is like today, it will be of little use.  Yesterday I started moving the blocks from the Cross Bed and framing the new beds in front of the house.  Finally, the vision is my head is starting to become a physical realization.     A little Roundup and a lot of ground cover will bring these beds into reality.   Don't get me wrong, we are still years for many of these plants to grow into their roles.   With a garden this size, one of my budget does not start with mature plants, and only about a third of the plants have even been planted yet, but with time the monstrosity will turn to beauty.   Pictured, on the rear of the carport is my new Musa Raja Puri.  Not sure if this is its permanent spot, but we will try it there for a year.  If I can keep it to a single trunk, maybe. 

November 19 - What is it about palms?  These little deals keep popping up if one is aware.  My first Chamaedorea microspadix turned out to be maybe something else, but today I got a  Chamaedorea microspadix for sure, and a really nice 6 foot tall one at that, and at a get rid of it before winter sale price too.   So, the front bed designs are coming together.  I can see better what has kinda been my vision, if there is such a thing.  Anyway, here is a picture of the leaves on my Red Abyssinian Banana (Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii') behind the Elephant ears.

 November 20 - Curiosity post of the day.  I was reading a book entitled "Garden Islands of the Great East" by David Fairchild.  The book was published in 1948.  Here is one of the palms they ran across during those travels.  I wonder if that palm still exists or has fallen to the hand of man, aka development.    Be sure to click for the enlargement to get a feel for just how big this palm really is. 

November 26 - Well the long Thanksgiving Weekend. is over.   I got some major bed layouts done, but the soil was too wet to plant and it was cold, damp, and windy so that was about it.  Kind of funny out there right now as there many yellow flags marking spots for this and that.   Definitely a lot of plants to be planted or moved in the next month.  Sure hoping for some good weather soon.

November 28 - Just back from a  whirlwind trip to Jackson, Ms.  So, at least I have to take my lunch hours towards gardening interest.  Well, my current interest is in palms, and this was on palm sans adventure.  Other than a gas station or two, there was zero palms visible from the interestate from Hammond to Jackson.  The one lone exception was a pool supply visible from I-55 just south of Jackson with a handful of Washingtonia Robusta visible just south of Jackson.  The same was true from Jackson to Alexandria save for one nursery in Vidalia, La with a nice collection of Washingtonia and Butia palms.    Again, the selection was limited to Washingtonias, Trachies, and Butias.    Very nice palms, but there are more that are potentially hardy, particularly in So. Louisiana.    While driving down the road, I spotted this incredible cactus on a lone fencepost in front of a closed down business.   While taking the picture a small part landing in the back of the truck.  Not sure how that happened, but I am happy to continue its lineage before the RoundUp truck shows up as is always enviable here in Louisiana. 
 
The same thing happened with this Bamboo as well.  I would describe it as a loose clumper, rather than a running bamboo.  At the center of the clump it probably reached 35 feet in height and 3 inches in diameter.  It was bright yellow at the edges where the sun hit, but more grayish green in the center of the clump.   Here a a couple of pictures.  the little bit I got from here may or may not make it.  I would say doubtful at this point. 

I forgot to note that I planted the Banana "Belle" behind Cel's cutting bed.  Today, I also dug up and repotted "Raji Puri" and "Grand Nain."  I have decided to move the Abyssinian bananas from the rear to the front on each side of the southside brick facing wall.   This mean moving the Grand  Nain, which was newly planted, and the Picard bananas on the left and large Upright Elephant ears on the right of the brick wall   They can go near the middle section on the left near the Cassias.   Man, I am having trouble keeping up with moves this fall.   

BTW - The Cactus has been identified at Opuntia engelmannii var. linguiformis, Cow Tongue Cactus.  Cool.

December 2 - What a weekend!   It all started with deciding it was time to take out the two Pine Trees and the Mimosa.  I should have taken out those Pine trees when I built the house just like my daddy told me to, but I have a bit of a hard head.  They did create a nice microclimate where I have a few Azaleas and Camellias, but they were a liability in a hurricane or storm and in the end they were breaking up the front view too.  That meant lots of plants had to move some, like the two Bismarckia Palms to save from damage.  Others, like the Azalea and Camellia because they would no longer be in the right microclimate without the midday shade of the Pines.

The picture at left shows the area with its mix-max plantings.  So, first to be dug up and put into pots were the 3 Camellias.  Next were the 2 Bismarckia Palms and the Variegate Lemon tree.  A little Native Azalea and a small Pride of Barbados.  Last I dug up the old Azalea and transplanted it.  The picture at right shows the area cleaned up and waiting for the tree cutter.  Actually looks better with no plants than it did before.  

Since I was transplanting the soil was perfect moisture wise for the job, I kept on going.  Over on the right side of the driveway I slightly relocated the turn around, so I transplanted the two little Humilis Palms to get them back in the right spots.  I also transplanted the Ginkgo as it was now in the turnaround area.    Then it was all the way over the left driveway.  I just repositioned its route which put the Persimmons right in the middle of the lane, so up came those with a transplant about 20 feet to the right of where they were.  The Icky is closest to the house and the Tanenashi is towards the road.  I also dug up the plant that was labeled as Livistonia Decipiens and that is probably a Cocothrinax something or another.  It is repotted and replaced with another Washingtonia Robusta.   That fixes the palm in the wrong location best for it, and looks better too.  I also transplanted the 2 Altheas to their new spots in the left triangle bed.

Oh, and I have to move about 100 of those brick garden edge blocks, AGAIN.  And I will have to put them back when we are finished, too.

So, down came the Pines and the Mimosa.  The picture at left shows the new front view and thanks to all of the digging and potting, there was not a single casualty from falling tree parts.  Well, at least I hope there wasn't.  One of the plants that had to be moved were my two Bismarckia Palms.  They are known to die after being dug from the ground.  The small one was recently planted, so I am sure it will be fine, the larger one on the other hand is already showing shock in less than 48 hours.  I fear for it.  Tomorrow I will cut back some of the leaves apply some root stimulator, and pray for it.  With the Mimosa removed, I am already designing the new cleaner looking bed.  I dug up the Flowering Maple and discarded it.  The Foxtail palm that will reside there is sitting in place in the pot for now.  I moved the Abyssinian Banana that was dug from near the turkey cage to its final resting spot.  Next I have to dig up the Picard Bananas and put them out past the Figs and Loquats on the left side of the driveway near the center area.  They had suckered heavily and were way to messy looking for the front of the house, just as was the Flowering Maple.  The balance between a lush tropical and messy is indeed hard to hit.  I am working on it. :-)  

Looks like lows going down to 34 tomorrow night, so the small plants have to some inside for the nights.   That is going to be a pain.  I sure miss my little greenhouse.

 

December 3 - My little Roystonea pictured above left  took a hit with a broken leaf stem, but it should be OK.  Lows forecast for 34 tonight.  I would say winter is here, but temperatures are forecast to right back up to the mid 70s in a couple of days, and upper 70s by the weekend.  But even for one night, I had to pick up all of the small sensitive seedlings and small potted plants.   

The tree service showed up today and ground out the stumps of the pines and the Mimosa, so it is a wrap, the tree work for this year is done.  Now, I can get back to business on the beds.

 

To the right is my beautiful Dypsis Lutescens palm.  Some of my palms are marginal for this climate, but I will make use of microclimates and do my best.  I should have the greenhouse back up for next year too, so that will definitely help.  Below is a close up of the trunks.   This was another surprise great buy at the local big
box. 

 

 

 

 

The Areca Palm Mystery solved.  These are Majesty Palms

December 5 - Got home a tad early today, so I got busy.  First was laying out the left side of the front parterre bed and laying the block back into place.   Now I can get busy planting it out. 

On the right side of the Parterre I put in the Livistona Chinensis palm.  Still remaining is a Trachy and Mule Palm on the upper left side and the Crepe Myrtles and Azaleas down the center isle.

The left side, just having the palms removed is far less complete, but at least now I can get started.  The newest change is moving the fountain to the center of the front walk.  This will ad an incredible ambiance and polish to the beds and the front entry.  It is a big job, for which I will hire some help, but I can't wait.  This will be the cherry on the cake.  For the picture here, lets feature our little stray dog, Joyce.  She adopted us, so we don't claim ownership, but she is a super sweet dog.  Extremely gentle and loving.  

Over in the left side bed in front of the home progress continues as well.  The vision is now complete here too.  I put in the replacement Mimosa today for the one that was cut down.  There are always seedling Mimosa around, so I transplanted one to the new spot today.  I also put the small Bismarckia Palm into its permanent spot as well.   I used 1-Step in the Mimosa and Bismarckia plantings.  The soil was so good and the plant so healthy I did not bother on the Livistona Chinensis palm.   I also added the 1-Step to the large Bismarckia and Cocothrinax pots.  They are suffering, but that is about all I can do for them at this time as each would have been dead if left where they were earlier.    So, I know where a few more things go, so if I get up at daybreak,,,,yeah right.  But if I do, banana moves, plant the small twin trunk Bismarckia and the Livistona in the left side bed, the Trachy on the right side bed.  Humm, just maybe.  So, I hope it is not a requiem, but here is Big Bizzie before being dug up.

Hey, got a head start.  It is 9:05 at night, but went out and planted the new Foxtail Palm anyway.

December 6 - Well, I didn't get up a daybreak, haha.  But I did get a few things done early this morning.   I did move the Picard bananas out to the left side of the left driveway.  Then I moved the Abyssinian banana from its the back near the carport to where the Picards were.  The front beds are closing in at this point.  I still have a Japanese Maple to move, but I honestly don't have a clue was to where to put it.  I also completely laid out the left parterre bed.  I have all of the needed plants, except for the White Crepe Myrtles and White Azaleas, and of course the 2 Mule Palms.  I am ending with a picture of the little Wattle, or at least that is what I think it is.  I am putting it here, but is anyone knows what it is, please let me know.  I grew 4 seedlings from this plant last year.  I planted 3 back into the garden to make a small grove and gave the 4th one away.  I also collected a large amount of seed from it again in November.  Its ease of propagation and fast growth would make it a fine heirloom or nursery plant.  Overall, I am very close to completing the 07 planting plan.   It is pretty exciting as finally a glimpse can be seen of the final product, of course it still requires a little vision :-).

  December 7 - First things first.  The layout of the left parterre is complete.  The first thing to go in was the Livistona Chinensis Palm.  It was small and easy.  Then I started digging the hole for the big Butia Capitata palm and oh man.  Close to old palm trunk and full of roots.  I dug a little and then looked around for something easier to do.  So, I moved over to the hole where the large Bismarckia palm will go.  That one is easier digging, but I am not too impressed with the soil quality, but it is what it is.  I have this helpless and hopeless feeling that this plant is doomed.  They don't transplant well to start with and it is marginal in this climate.  So, I have to dig it up due to the tree work and transplant it at the worse time of the year.  I was as easy on it as one can be with a palm that size, using the 1-Step Mycorrhiza fungi, etc.  Pulling out all of the stops, but in the end this one is up to God.   A mild winter would sure help.

So, the large Bizzie is in the ground again.  And so is the new Dypsis Lutescens palm.  I made another round on the hole for the large Butia Capitata palm.  Six inches to go, sounds easy, but for ever dig of the shovel, I have to pick up the axe to chop out roots.  However, I will make my goal.  Oh, the picture is a plant that has naturalized near my Mom's house.  I don't know the flower, but it has berry red, brown, and black all over it in the summer.  I finally stopped and dug a seedling.  Can you identify it?

Big Butia is in the ground., as is the Cocothrinax as well.  Almost done for the day.  I have a Japanese Maple that has to go somewhere, I just don't know where quite yet.  Let's see, I also planted the Grand Nain banana on the right side of the right driveway down by the center area, near the big Cassias.  

So, I looked around and it hit me, the Japanese Maple went into the new bed.  Looks great there.  And, the Chamaedorea microspadix is in its spot tonight.

I also identified the Wattle looking plant, which is not a Wattle at all, but is actually a Caesalpinia mexicana, otherwise known as a Mexican Poinciana.  Here is  a nice little map from Microsoft Live Earth.  If you have not used this program, it is worth a tour.  You will be amazed.

 

December 8 - OK, I got out this morning to polish up a few things, but that mad dash of planting yesterday took it out of me.  This morning, I put in the last of the Pindo Palms (Butia capitata).   I also put in the Two Trachys near the barn in the right parterre.  In went the variegated Gardenia and the 3 Giant Crinums.   This morning was another mad dash too.  Bottom line, I am pooped.    But the good news is major hurdles were cleared and the bed that just a week ago held two large Pine trees looks reasonably complete at this stage. 
There is still a lot to be done, but it is substantial enough at this point to look good.  Next job is to move the fountain and its 900 gallon pond to its new location, ughhhh.  I dug that first hole myself with a shovel and a wheelbarrow.  Thinking of hiring help or renting heavy equipment this time.  The picture for this entry is my new Butia, which is the anchor for the left Parterre.   And the second picture here at the bottom is it planted in the left Parterre where the two Pine Trees once stood.  This afternoon, I did plant the Variegated Gardenia, near where the old one stood.

December 9 - I guess I wore myself out.  Didn't do a thing in the garden today.  Finally, I did make it out in the late afternoon to water everything in better, this time with a little Miracle Gro.  Even later than that, a light rain fell.  I did go to Walmart with Cel and found this little goodie.  Now I just have to find out what it is :-)

As usual, the folks over at palmtalk.org were quick with the answer.  I have never seen anything like this group of folks.  They just don't come any better.  If you ever get into palms, this message board is a must.  So, the answer was this is Rhapis excelsa or "Lady Palm."

December 10 - It was a work day today.  Got in after dark, but I did snap this little picture that I thought was neat.  Roses and Palms are not thought of as a common combination, at least not by me. 

December 12 - A few misc pictures below.  An eBay palm.  The front bed layout du jour.  Then the mega sugar mill at Patoutville and last is the Uppie Elephant Ears with the sugar kettle at the end of the season.   

December 17 - Well, it came, winter that is.  We had a couple of cool nights, one at 31.8 for an hour, but with no major damage.  But last night the temperature was only 32, but the frost was severe.  A thick blanket, one of the worst I have seen.  Even the Southside of the roof was coated.  Let's just say I had to redefine the microclimates here a little more conservatively.  Here are few pictures of the frost.

 

 

 

 

December 19 - Four days back n the 70s.  Out go the plants again.   Other than that not much gardening as holiday concerns have taken over.   But right after New Years, it will be time to get busy with the spring seedling production.  Yahoo.

December 25 - Merry Christmas everyone.   Holidays and festivities have not allowed much time for gardening, nor is the time of year conducive as well.  I do have a few pictures here.  Who can identify the mystery palm?  As usual the answer was quick in coming,  This is a Majesty Palm.

December 28 - Well,, 2007 is moving quickly to a close and while we have had a warmer than normal December, it looks like January is coming in on par with a lows of 33 and 30 predicted for the 1st and 2nd.   I will try to get a few end of year pictures up for comparison.   In the meantime, here are some pictures of the Bismarckia palms I had to move when the Pines came out.  The palms are notorious for disliking, aka dying, when transplanted.  It looks like not only did the small not mind being moved, it actually responded positively by shooting up 2 new fronds.  The larger one, on the other hand, is looking very shabby.  It has lost several fronds including on that opened dead right after being moved.   It does however still have a few live fronds and a new frond spike that seems healthy and very securely attached to the bud.

December 31 - The year ended wonderfully.   Got cold on the horizon, but that is next year right.  :-).  Cheers to 2008.

  ©1999 - 2007

Keith Thibodeaux