Category: Gardening (Page 2 of 188)

Yesterday was a work day at school. We all chose various maintenance things to help spruce the campus up before school starts.

One of my things was one of the planters in the courtyard outside my classroom. The plants in it had died, and it needed something. The other planter has a big, beautiful lantana in it. I had five extra “Bandana Cherry” lantanas because of my decision to replace them with “Lucky Sunrise Rose” in my back yard. It was perfect!

They fill the planter with beautiful blooms:

I started a lot of things yesterday, but I didn’t get any of them done.

In the morning, I planted my new lantana plants. The old ones went into pots in the side yard. I really need to decide what to do with these plants:

I pulled the weeds out of the palm tree bed in front of my house, but then realized that there wasn’t enough sun for the lantanas to flourish. I’m thinking I might plant something else there… maybe some impatiens? They like shade.
(I took the picture below in the late afternoon – the only time there is sunlight on the bed.)

Inside the house, I was going to start painting the hallway or living room. I put some paint samples on the wall to see if I like them:

But my paint brush and cutting-in cup are all still wet with the kitchen paint color, because I need to patch and paint the hole cut by the bee keeper who took the honeybees out of my wall. The patch job requires some thick coating, so I had to let it dry overnight.

While I was by that window, I noticed my African violets were infested with aphids. I took them to the tub and sprayed them with soapy water.

While I was spraying them, it reminded me that I needed to spray the weeds in my side yard with weed killer.

Each of these things didn’t take long, but it was a pretty full day. And it was delightful! Why do I always finally kick myself into gear when I’m out of summer time? Dang it! Well, at least I have til the end of this week. I think. I should check my school email…

When I planted the lantana in my back yard, I put in two different varieties. I thought I was ok with it, but the more I looked at them, the more it bothered me. My back yard is full of a jumble of pots. The backbone plantings need to be uniform. Ack!

I had gotten the original plants at a local nursery chain called Armstrong. I called all the locations that were within an hour’s drive. They were all sold out of “Lucky Sunrise Rose” lantana. Dang it.

I did a little more searching, and found a different garden center called Roger’s Gardens that had the variety on their website. I called to see if they had it in stock, and they did! Woo hoo! I went there yesterday.

It is beyond Costa Mesa – a 45 minute drive from my house.

The place is ginormous. And beautiful. And fancy.

But most importantly, they had lantana “Lucky Sunrise Rose”. I got five plants to replace the “Bandana Cherry” plants in my garden. It’s an expensive correction, but it will give me such peace of mind.

I slept well on Tuesday night! Yay! I woke up yesterday feeling more like myself. I only have a few days now before going back to school, so I really want to do something around the house.

On Monday, I had stopped by my local garden center, and impulse-bought a lantana. The more I thought about it, the more resolved I was that this would finally be the plant that I put in the weird strip of ground that’s against the wall in my back yard. A lantana plant has everything it needs: drought resistance, the ability to take heat, fresh green leaves, and flowers… non-stop flowers.

Yesterday I went back to the garden center and got a bunch. It was a little challenging, because there were multiple varieties, and I was trying to just do one. I’m not as worried about the flower color as I am the size of the plants. I don’t want a lumpy looking border. The variety I was focusing on is called Lucky Sunrise Rose. But I think some of the plants were mis-labeled. Their flowers were clearly different:

There weren’t enough Lucky Sunrise Rose plants anyway, so I ended up getting some Bandana Cherry lantanas too. Hopefully they’ll look good together. They’re slightly different sizes, but I spaced them out symmetrically, so hopefully that looks ok.

I planted them as soon as I got home. I probably planted them a little to close to one another, but it will mean that they fill the space in sooner. And hopefully they won’t grow too big. I’m counting on those labels being right about their size.

I have been delaying this decision for a long time. I wanted something tough for this spot, but something that added some color. These lantanas will be perfect. It feels good to have made a decision.

I opened the bonsai kit I got while I was in Japan. It had a tiny bonsai pot in it. So cute!

I thought I had gotten all four kinds of available seeds, but I only got one kind: Japanese maple. I’m happy with that. It seems like an iconic kind of bonsai.

And then I used my phone to translate the instructions:

D’oh! The first note is that maple seeds are difficult to germinate, and the first instruction is to refrigerate for 1-3 months. Dang. I’m not sure I can commit to doing that. I think I might just plant them and hope for the best.