What's happening in your garden?

[Manalto]

Today I got a calamondin (Citrus mitis) and placed it in a high-visibility spot. I've always admired this plant, which I learned recently is hardy in my USDA Zone 8B. Calamondin is a staple in Southeast Asian cuisine, handsome in the landscape, and fragrant. Mine has fruit about the size of gumballs; they'll get a little larger and turn orange.

[Manalto]

Today I had a wee visitor in the garden. He's a green anole lizard, Anolis carolinensis, sitting on top of a dwarf palmetto (Sabal minor).



When I spotted him, the lizard was bobbing his head and displaying his dewlap, a fold of skin at the throat of a male that can be distended as territorial and mating behavior. Freezing weather makes the palmetto fronds collapse like an umbrella; it will send up new leaves and recover by the summer.

Both the palm and lizard are native to this region.

[phil]

I have been watering and watching y clover sprout. since I had clover before a lot of it just came back after thatching it. I cut it and that seemed to give the little sprouts some light, as they appeared after. I had a look at the common local weeds and Yup I have them all in there. I guess I just have to keep up and pull them or cut the clover. I'm going to try mowing it more this year.
Ive got lots of buttercups and morning glory. started yanking the morning glory from under my blueberries. I thin they could use some fertilizer. I heard they like cedar mulch and I know thye like peat.
I looked at fertilizer for the lawn, it was over 20 bucks and I remembered I have some miracle grow. It'll probably work. the weed killers are all locked up in a cabinet and getting pretty expensive.

I think the one for the lawn had a high first number and then 0 ,0 the miracle grow seemed higher in the first number.

I sprayed a lot of the other weeds with vinegar if they werent; near other plants. It poured last night but Ill see , they had two days of dry after the vinegar treatment.

[Lily left the valley]

James, are you planning to eat the calamondin fruit? I loved the Anole/palm picture. I heard they sometimes manage to get indoors, but your neighbors might have already told you.

Phil, clover is a natural nitrogen fixer. So if you have to fertilize for other reasons, a 0-20-20 mix is recommended. I can't remember if you're doing clover just in patches, or maybe you're doing a blended lawn. Every year, we have less and less grass in the back because I'd much rather have just clover and the mock strawberry between all the beds. I am looking into maybe trying some native purple love grass in the front for next year, but may end up trying to seed it when the regrade is hopefully finished this year.

It may be because we slacked off last year, but this year is turning out to be a bountiful volunteer year. Despite some of the invasives that are mixed in, many more are not and welcome surprises. Even some of the plants we inherited are naturally spreading on their own (like one of the strawberries showing up in the woodland area in the back.)

Two pictures from a few days ago:the lilies of the valley starting to form blooms, and lilac blooms. I took out the yardstick for the first because someone on a different site I haunt doesn't have these where they live, and wanted to know how tall mine were.

There definitely was some damage to the lilac, as the blooms are very uneven this year, but I'm sure it will recover. After the blooms fade, I'll be moving it behind the garage.

[phil]

I have a black thumb and the nimbers mean litttle to me. i looked up all the weeds I have and that seemed to indicate that my yard has poor drainage and low fertility but I dont know. I always thouhgt it was nice dirt and the re are no rocks that arent round and it does seem to drain well .. Ive never really fertilized. out front Ive been trying to grow only micro clover but I have a blend of that and various weeds and grass. I wanted to get rid of all else and just have clover but I guess other stuff just gets in there. Its ok I can always till it and plant grass.

last year I was so busy with my roof it got completely neglected and I think it urked my neighbor. mostly because a lot of morning glory was leaking over to his yard.
so many seem to put all these different plants and rocks and things and it just looks busy to me. I have a retired guy across my alley and if a dandelion pops up its like an emergency situation to him , but he has beautiful flowers and things. He gave me some bulbs and they haven't come up yet and I came to the realization I planted them upside down


my little strip of lawn in the back was growing a bumper crop of dandelions and so I ran out and cut them all down on the weekend but I know they will be back. on his side it's perfect so maybe I should do something to be nicer about it.

I have some succulents that are taking in my lawn and they seem to do pretty well so maybe I can spread them around. they grow slow and seem shorter than the lawnmower blade so maybe they are a method of ground cover.
i think if I can just water a little when I can and cut it more often and yank a few weeds the neighbors might like me more. My girlfriend wont do a thing which is little disappointing because it's more fun to do that stuff with sometime. I dont really mind though I need the fresh air there just always seems to be something broken and fixing it seems more important than yard work. las teekend my car broke down I got it towed home took a cab to go get insurandce for my van and put nwe plates o then it wouldnt start. I think I had two fuel pumps go in the same day. I took a cab and bus and insured a third car and it works so I go that fire out. I ordered two new fuel pumps on sunday night in speculation that this is what i need to start both and they made it across the border and were delivered yesterday.. So fast! so I have that for the long weekend this weekend.. I have another car That Im trying ot pull the engine out of strip any good parts off and have it towed so Ive been working towards making that car go away.. the parts will be useful but i need to make something like a teepee to pull the engine out.. of course as i immerse myself into one big project some hell breaks loose. the Samsung washer I fixed up a couple months back died again recently too but luckily I traced it to a bad wire, it couldn't measure the temperature of the water so it gave up and died with a cryptic error ,, luck that the repair was dead easy and cost nothing. Its just a ridiculously over complicated machine, the over complication causes reliability issues.

Ive been picking away at the gardening. I have a lot of buttercups along under my blueberries. only one is productinve out of 10 maybe I can fertilize and make them happier. I planted a new plumb tree about three years ago and I'm happy because it is taking and getting a couple of branches not which means it probably will survive. I guess I need ot wait to see what ind of plumbs they are..

I have another kind of plumb that I trimmed to a stump two years agon and it exploded and went 20 fet in all directions , that one must go. It just grows too fast. the plumbs are lit cherry tomatoes and they have a short span and they mostly are too high to get so I never get useful fruit from that one. a guy I knew from Europe, maybe Russia, said they were common there and admired it. I moved that tree by moving a sucker and killed the old one so I seem to be dragging it around

i have a nicer yellow plumb that is very old and I though tit might die. it sprouted a sucker and I left it. I'm thinking maybe I can kill the tree and leave the sucker to renew it.. the last couple of years it really gave a lot of plumbs so it does like me.. I should get a pic and ask you people what to do.

i usually eat about 10 a year and I give the rest to neighbors and such and doing that gives me a nice feeling. I like fruit trees because they keep giving despite my neglectfulness. I like that you can read through all my typppos too

[Gothichome]

Our bearded irises are opening up, also noticed the day lilies are about to open, those are a bit early this year. They usually flower after the irises have flowered.

[Manalto]

Our bearded irises are opening up...

Irises are always elegant in the landscape, particularly the blues and purples. Let's see photos!

An iris relative has begun to bloom here at Thornewood. Crocosmia, AKA montbretia (although I've never heard anyone call it that), has sword-shaped leaves like iris and gladiolus, and its flowers open in the same manner, from the bottom up.



This plant was here when I bought the place, revealed after removal of the impossible tangle of vegetation that had engulfed it after years of neglect, a testament to its indomitable nature. I admired this plant in northern gardens, where its fine foliage and delicate sprays of bloom blend harmoniously with other ornamentals; here, it's a thug, swallowing up real estate, and gets so crowded that it eventually stops blooming. The most popular cultivar in the US is 'Lucifer', a form with red blooms.

[Lily left the valley]

I have a black thumb and the nimbers mean litttle to me.

Real quick before I forget again, the three numbers stand for: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). In the midst of a lot of seed starting this week. I'll respond more later.

[Gothichome]

Here we go, as requested

[Lily left the valley]

Yay, pictures! A few from our garden today before I start more seed starting indoors.

I spotted two different crab spiders lurking on open dandelions today, one with its yellow jacket snack. I'm still failing miserably at getting better pictures of them. I've informed my Floor Manager that all I want for Xmas is a better camera. Hopefully with his salary boost he'll be getting after the transfer, that won't be outside the realm of possibility.

All the starters we bought are doing well under the cloche, but I forgot to take any pictures in there. The parsley has been the biggest surprise growth wise. I desperately want to get the tomatoes out because I fear both are rootbound, as they haven't done worse, but haven't grown that much more since going in there. I have the minerals and booster liquid fertilizer for them which should help them along once they are in ground. The sequoia has several green berries, and I plan to transplant it tomorrow. Out of all the plants in there, pillbugs and one particular type of spider (that seem to be feasting on the pills) are always in the plastic bin I have under that I use for bottom up watering since it's still in the pot it came in. I'm not sure if one of the two or both traveled here with the starter or they're simply attracted to it. The mint has, in two days, developed a three inch long lateral side stem with many leaves already forming which I clipped off. It's DEFINITELY going indoors tomorrow after I get a pot ready for it. (Though Sean is trying to convince me we can container it on the porch.) The Ozark witch-hazel is just doing its thing. I hope to have that transplanted as well tomorrow, but it will really depend on how far we get with other things on the To Do list. It may have to wait until Monday.

The first batch of water bathed peas (to check for germination before bothering to sow) are doing well. All but 2 of 12 have sprouted within two days. Tonight & tomorrow I have many more peas and beans and a few flowers to start along as well. This batch is the experiment with the plasma I'm casually doing with my friend that treated them for me. So far, the initial sprouting has been actually better for the non treated, but two of the seeds I randomly pulled from the treated bag are smaller, so I don't know if that's skewing the results.

I'm very happy the columbine James gave us seems to be doing well in its spot along the low rocky border wall, partially shaded by the white oak and a few species of birches.

Our azaleas and rhodies are behind bloom time from Gothic's. They also suffered some leaf burn from the cold snap, but seem to be recovering. The leaves most affected by leaf eaters also mostly seems the burned ones. Should I clip off the browned portions or the entire leaves? I haven't had time to look that up yet, so any advice is welcome.

Also spotted the lily of the valley I had planted a ways back in the woodsy area before I knew how bad of a garden thug problem they are here. I thought that one dead as nothing was seen of it last year. I transplanted it today amongst its brethren under the side stairs, safely surrounded by Beebe's foundation and the driveway.