Category: Gardening (Page 2 of 164)

I have been smelling a smoky smell on the weekends when I water my orchids. A while back, I had guessed that it was the charcoal in the potting mix. I was wrong. It’s one of the orchids themselves.

These flowers have a scent, which is is unusual for a phalaenopsis. But the smell itself is really unusual. They smell like smoke. Honest-to-goodness smoke! It’s so weird!

One of my backyard hoses has a hole in it! I don’t remember this ever happening to me before. Of course, I usually use regular hoses, and not the stretchy kind. I think the stretchy ones have a shorter life span. I had this stretchy one to help fill my aquarium at my last school.

I will probably get just a regular hose to replace this one.

I have wanted to put up a hummingbird feeder for a while now. On Saturday, I did it!

I’ve seen some hummingbirds flying around my back yard area, and figured it would take them a little time to find the feeder. It did not. They were at it already yesterday.

I’m so happy! I love watching birds, and hummingbirds are so cute 🙂

There is a small strip of earth between my house and the cement surrounding the pool. It’s full of rocks right now, which I don’t care for at all. Weeds grow in the gaps and it looks unkempt.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what plants I could put there. They need to tolerate full shade, and they need to be kind of tough – we don’t get much rain here.

I have a patchouli plant that has gone through two winters now, and it’s looking pretty good. It wouldn’t be good for the whole area though. It’s too tall.

I think houseplants might be just the thing. They’re generally pretty tough, since they grow in difficult conditions, and winters here are warm enough that they could survive outside. Syngoniums were my first thought. They are vines, and grow pretty vigorously. Then I saw a Chinese evergreen in the store, and thought maybe their bright colors would bring some color to the area. And yesterday, on a whim, I got some spikemoss. It’s low and fuzzy and a fresh green color.

I planted them all yesterday. We’ll see how they do over the winter:

I have a flowering begonia in my entry way that I think is really pretty. It’s been blooming all summer, and is getting a little leggy. Will it continue to bloom through the winter? I don’t know.

I decided to take some cuttings to see if they will root.

The internet seems to suggest that I just need to make sure the water doesn’t evaporate, and I’ll soon have new plants. Woo hoo! I hope it works!