Category: Gardening (Page 1 of 139)

Yesterday I spent some time unpacking boxes, and some time shopping for some home stuff, but nothing was picture-worthy.

I did at one point look for the main water shut-off for my house, and as I was looking, I saw a morning glory vine growing in the desolate patch of dirt to the east of my house. It had some flowers on it. They were beautiful.

I got a package at school yesterday. It was wood for my aquarium landscaping. It’s fun to have a blank slate and be able to decorate all over again, but I’ve been thinking – because I always use the same elements, my aquariums have all tended to look the same.

I use small gravel, because it’s easier to clean than big rocks or aquarium soil. I use java ferns, because they grow so easily and dependably. I use mopani wood, because I like how twisty it is, and because it’s heavier than water.

And everything looks the same.

I looked for some kind of decoration to put in, something to make it different, and I found something I really like: a little statue of Poseidon. It’s beautiful and tank safe, but it’s kind of pricey. But it’s so cool…

And when I played around with different arrangements the wood, it sort of went together into an amphitheater shape. Poseidon would look in the middle of this I think:

I have some jade cuttings that I’m trying to root, and they’ve been doing pretty well. They have some new leaves growing on them, which is a good sign.

But the other day, I came out to inspect them, and saw that something had been digging in the pot. One of the cuttings was completely unearthed, and several leaves were torn off of all the cuttings. The leaves even had bite marks in them!

It was a squirrel! Dang ol’ squirrel! I tried to set things back in order, then put a bunch of freshly ground black pepper in the pot. It’s been a couple of days and the squirrel hasn’t been back, so I think it might be working. I hope so. I like this jade, and I’m hoping to keep it alive until I move to my new place, were I will be able to protect it better.

I went to my classroom a little bit yesterday morning. I can’t do any cleanout yet, because there is a lot of stuff in there that looks like it belongs to someone else, so I need to ask a co-worker. It’s the middle of the summer here though, because school doesn’t start until September 7, so no one is coming in. Maybe I can catch someone at church tomorrow…

I do want to have an aquarium in my classroom. I decided to go to an aquarium store to look around. It was so fun! The guy in the store was super friendly, and as we chit-chatted, I said where I worked, and he said he knew the school. 🙂

After the aquarium store, I stopped at Lowe’s and Home Depot to look at plants again. Fish AND plants? What a wonderful day!

At the garden centers, instead of the plants, I am almost more fascinated by the bees and butterflies that cover the plants. There are so many bugs here on the mainland! It’s amazing!

The most amazing bug I saw yesterday was a giant green beetle. After a little internet searching, I found out it is a kind of scarab called a Figeater Beetle. It’s called that because it likes sweets! It was flying from flower to flower drinking nectar. How cool!

I went to a garden center yesterday. Took my time and walked through the entire place. It was so fun! They had such exotic plants, like apple trees and lilacs.

This is such a fun climate zone to live in, because it’s warm enough to grow tropical plants, but there’s a cool season, so there’s a whole other category of plants available as well. I am so excited to learn about all the ins and outs of gardening here!

But by far my most exciting find at the garden center was a velvet-leaf philodendron. I had one in Maui and was so sad to leave it behind. Now I have a new one! Woo hoo!