This weekend went very well. Temperatures were in the 80s and the sun was shining the whole weekend! It was nice to have some good weather especially since a tornado came through Friday evening. This weekend I stopped by a really cool local shop and found some really nice plants. I ended up spending more than what I wanted to, but it was worth it. I got two orange mint plants, an asparagus fern and a limelight hydrangea. I spent all Saturday morning and afternoon running errands, but all I wanted to do is go home and play in the dirt.
So here’s the highlights of my weekend
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My collard greens have finished flowering. Just in case you didn’t know, when collards start to flower, they produce these bright yellow flowers and then the flowers die and leave little pods with tiny seeds that are then sown back into the ground. One plant produces 50-100 of these little seeds.
This fern is called an asparagus fern. Asparagus ferns love sun (unlike my boston fern and my cinnamon fern). I’m changing the name to the dreadlock rasta fern. 😛 To propagate these, you can plant them by seed (they have little white flowers that contain seeds) or you can divide them. These plants are vigorous. They will grow too fast if they are fertilized with the wrong fertilizer and can overtake other slow growing plants if not controlled. In some states (such as Hawaii and Florida) and some countries such as Africa and New Zealand, the asparagus fern is considered a weed.
I also planted (with the help of my children) the dwarf hazelnut bushes that I got from the Arbor Day Foundation. Unfortunately, I think I am going to have to move them already. #Mistake3 After reading about them, seems they are not so dwarf after all. They reach about 8-10’. I think I may put them on the other side of my yard away from my raspberry and blueberry bushes. After reading about these plants, they probably won’t produce nuts until the second year.
My hostas are growing quickly. I have two in my side yard that are not growing very well. Apparently they are getting too much sun. After speaking with the local gardener, he stated that anything that is variegated (having two colors) usually do not like direct sun #Mistake3 Again! Ummm, good to know. I also put out the slug repellant. Trying to catch them before they get started.
Orange Mint leaves…..Very invasive so pot them away from the vegetable garden or any other plants!
Added pine straw to my four bradford pear trees. I decided to do this first to kill all the weeds around it. Then later this summer, I’ll put some hostas and some ground cover plants below them.
My peppers are looking SWEET (no pun intended)! I have a mixture of mini sweet green and red peppers and hot habanera peppers. I put these in the ground this weekend and 3 days later, they have doubled in size. Mushroom compost is the best! The green peppers (I planted Big Dippers and California Wonder) are also doing well. My goal is to save and donate the seeds so that I never have to go back to Lowes to get any more potted veggies.
My secrecias are doing well. I’m sorry……..I have a #Confession – I hate the name secrecia. I swear there is probably some ghetto woman out there that has named her poor child this (I’m just saying). I’m not sure why they are called secrecias, but they are also called “purple heart.” Regardless of the name they are beautiful plants. I have been able to propagate them from cuttings. They don’t do well in the winter of course (Found that out the hard way #Mistake3 AGAIN!!!!) so I have them in a pot to take in during the winter. I asked the local gardener why they aren’t the deep dark purple color they usually are and he stated that they have to be in direct sun. 🙂 My reply….OH! LOL ( #Mistake3 I’m on a roll).
I also tried out my new watering contraption. I think I like these much better than the aqua globe. The problem with the aqua globe is that you have to keep taking it in and out of the plant and soil gets jammed in the nozzle from pushing it down in the soil. It also takes forever to fill them up because the nozzle is so small. If there is soil trapped in the nozzle you have to dig that out first. In addition, almost every two days I have to add water to it. The new bottled water system has a terracotta base that isn’t removed from the plant. It also hooks to any standard water bottle and the release of the water is steady and slow. I have been using the Fiji water bottles (not pictured) since they are smaller. These are great for ferns because ferns usually need slightly moist water.
This is my limelight hydrangea. They are soooo gorgeous. Now I have to find a place to put it. (So I can avoid #Mistake2 )
Overall, I had a great weekend. My grass is growing and my flowers are doing great. Some of the things I have noticed…my beautiful elephant ears have not come back yet (I think the frost got them) and my agave plant under the mailbox is also not coming back (too much water). All other plants have been doing well. I guess you live and you learn or in this case you kill them, learn and go buy more once you figure it out. 🙂
