Category: Gardening (Page 1 of 132)

The taro plants at school had a pretty bad aphid infestation. Fortunately, soapy water kills aphids. Unfortunately, I mixed it too strong and burned the leaves.

The plants will survive. They’re pretty tough, and they’ll send out new leaves quickly. And if I can say there’s a bright side to this, I’d say it’s the beautiful autumn colors in the leaves. Yay Fall!

I worked on my bird bath yesterday. I wasn’t entirely happy with what it was looking like. I wanted the water to be deeper, and I wanted some different kind of plant material in it.

I ended up getting a new water bowl. It’s nice, because it matches another bowl I already have flowers in. I also got some new water plants from the aquarium store. They are called “frog bit”. They look like tiny lily pads.

I like how it looks now. I think I will leave it like this for a while.

The birds adjusted quickly to the change in bowls. They were drinking from it as soon as I came back inside.

Happy Birthday to my niece Rachel! Yay!

I’ve been doing a little re-arranging on my lanai. One of the things I did was get rid of my lotus. It was looking rough. Plus, it only opened its blooms during the day while I was gone. Two strikes! Out!

I did like that the birds came to drink the water though, so I decided to put a container out there for them. I found a nice sized saucer-type thing. I decided I’d get an aquatic plant from the aquarium store to help keep the water from stagnating.

I’ve seen birds try to take baths in the lotus water, but it was always too deep. I decided to try to hardscape the water dish to make some shallow areas for birds to use. We’ll see if they actually use it, or if they just keep gripping the edge of the container for their drinks.

I think this is not its final form, but it’ll do for now…

I did some gardening yesterday! Yay!

First, I went to school to tend the planter in front of the preschool. There are some really aggressive grass-like plants growing in the dirt already.

It’s only been a week! Yikes! Those are some fast growing plants! They grow from bulbs, and have running roots. They frighten me. I bought chemicals to fight against them.

When I got home, I puttered on my lanai a little. My spathoglottis plant has been blooming for a LONG time. But its leaves look really awful.

I was about to get rid of it, when I noticed this:

New leaves are growing from the base of the plant! It’s renewing itself! Cool! It has saved itself!

Jason from church, who volunteered to take out the palm by the church’s front door did his work yesterday. A few of us met him to help with that and with trimming some trees. The tree trimming went fast because it’s only been a year since the last trimming.

The palm removal also went quickly. Jason used a backhoe. It was fascinating to see him work. He tried pulling the clump all at once, but it wouldn’t move, so he scooped it out piece by piece. He really knows how to use machinery. It looked so delicate while he operated it.

I took a lot of pictures. I’ll just put them all in a row.

Isn’t the empty bed beautiful? The rocks that were in the shape of Maui are in a jumble now. I think I’ll use them differently in the new design. Maybe in a smaller raised bed or a little wall.

I won’t be able to plant right away, because I need to get the plants from the upcountry nursery that is holding them for me. I’ll have to see if they have weekend hours. In the meantime, it’ll be good to let the bed dry out a little to make sure the palm roots die. They were creepy looking… so thick and tangled.