Imafan's other gardens

[imafan26]

I keep mixing up the other parts of the garden in the vegetable garden thread. I'll see if I can do a better job of separating it.

I can't spend as much time in the garden as I used to. I just get too tired, so I have to split everything into smaller tasks. But I do have a high maintenance yard, so things get behind a lot.

After the rains, the weeds pop up every where. My basic way to control weeds is basically weedblock and glyphosate. As long as it doesn't rain, it stays under control because I hand water so a lot of places won't get water except for rain.

The neighbors' hibiscus is coming through my fence again. One of these days I have to cut it back again.

The crepe myrtle also benefitted from the rain. It was looking shabby, but it is showing some new growth. it is still a long way from looking like it did.

The flower garden is being over run with weeds and grass. It will take some time to get it out. I even found some Fukien tea and fiddlewood in the beds. I have been pulling those seedlings out everywhere. The good thing is that the melampodium is actually spreading in the flower bed. But, I don't see any of the angelonia anymore. The alyssum is doing well in some places, but I have been pulling out the older plants. I want to expand the flower bed and decrease the grass. The flower beds on the otherside have been invaded by the grass and I will have to pull out the grass. It is even going into the neighbors hibiscus hedge. The hedge and palms cast so much shade that it is hard to find plants that are not high maintenance that will tolerate that much shade. I have nasturtiums and blue daze there. Normally, I would not have nasturtiums at this time of the year, but it has been cooler than normal. The rose struggles to get sun.

The gardenia is actually putting out a lot of buds. I have to feed it more. It has been awhile. The mussaenda is the only thing that is thriving, but so are the weeds under it, so I need to get rid of the California grass.

In the meantime, yesterday while I was out on the first "normal" day I seen in a couple of weeks, I found that at least three of my vandas are in bud or bloom. One, I did not even know I had. Most of my phals have been in bloom for months and it is the end of the season for them, so most of the blossoms are fading. The phais is putting out new shoots. Considering I lost half the plant after I repotted it two years ago, this is promising, but it is time to repot again. I do have another pink phal that is in bud.

The lehua is still blooming. I'll try to get some pictures today. Getting it in the camera is not hard getting it to upload to the computer is more challenging.

[imafan26]

I got some pictures of the yard this morning. This is after a week of almost constant rain.

[applestar]

Looking good! You really like those towers, it looks like? (I’m starting to think I might want one to try )

I kind of chuckled to see your strawberry jars that kind of looks like you are only using as “risers” for those other herb bowls (but I could be wrong — I might be projecting because my own one strawberry jar has been sitting idle for the past couple of seasons and really needs to be refurbished with fresh potting media and relocated where it can be useful)

Envying the citruses. LOVE the surprise vanda— lovely

[imafan26]

Before covid, I had a stable orchid collection of about 300. I lost a few over the last 4-5 years and there weren't any shows or clubs meeting to get replacements. I actually don't know how many I have now. I do have a lot of duplicates because the ones that do well have been divided. My orchid clubs are meeting again. There is another orchid show on June 14-15 and my club is going on a safari to an orchid nursery. I probably won't buy as much as I used to, but I am hoping to find some good ones. Orchids are relatively easy to grow here with shading. The bench with the frame is actually one of my orchid benches. It was getting a lot of the western sun and the neighbor's hedge shook 3 of my 4 benches apart. So, I have been using this one for other things. I may have to evict some of these plants because I actually need to turn this back into an orchid bench because the 2 benches that still have shade cloth ae getting too crowded.

The orchids I have probably won't do well except maybe the phalaenopsis which are often grown as house plants because they have low light requirements. These vandas are being grown under 50% shade cloth or under trees. I am growing warm house orchids. Where you live, the orchid species you could grow would fall under the cool or intermediate house orchids. I can grow some intergenerics that have crosses between warm and cool growing orchids, but I actually am not cold enough to grow the cool growing ones.

I used to have more strawberry pots. Some of them have broken and the larger ones are nearly impossible to find now. I am using them mainly for bases now. They are good for strawberries, but not a lot of anything else. Mint would take over the entire pot. Succulents do ok for awhile, until they outgrow the pot. To make use of all the pockets, the pot would have to be on a stand in full sun

I really do like the towers. I can get 30-36 plants in a 2 sf footprint. People do grow bigger things in them, but strawberries, bush beans, peppers, and lettuce have done the best. I had grown kale, chard, and bekana, but they get too big especially since I do cut and come again and don't harvest them small. I've seen people plant tomatoes and cukes in them, but they will get bigger in their own pots and they won't block the other pockets. I have seen herbs, root crops, and flowers in the towers before. It does have to be fertilized often because it leaches. I took off the mover and they are both on spinners now so they can be turned to water as well as to get more sun. I could stack fewer tiers if I don't need it so tall. It is on a paver base so it won't sink in the ground again and it keeps it level.

I belong to 3 orchid clubs, one bonsai club, and I just joined the cactus and succulent society. I am also a member of the grafting hui ( even though I have 100% failure in grafting. I do grow trees from cuttings. I am better at doing that.) I am also going to the plant shares that are nearby. I end up collecting even more plants that way. That is where most of the starts I am growing will end up since there is more than I can possibly use. I can get orchids, and succulents at club meetings. Those are usually meeting takeaways. The bonsai club, I joined because I was having my friend bring my bougainvillea bonsai to the club for the sensei to work on, then I later joined the club. The club just had its first post covid bonsai sale. I got a couple of pots and some wire. I have gotten some starters from the bonsai club, mainly they were plants that were donated by people who could no longer take care of them and every once in a while people will bring plants to sell. I have a couple of other starters, a couple of jade, schefflera, a couple of junipers that still are being grown out and not ready for shaping yet. I also started to shape the miracle berry, but I may just make that topiary because the leaves are too big and it would not look proportional. Miracle berry is also a slow grower. I have euphorbia cotinifolia which I usually grow as topiary. I have a very diverse landscape. I actually have a lot of plants, but not a lot of the same thing. I like more exotic plants that most people don't have and some are rare, but not showy, so a lot of people would not appreciate them, like the endangered native species.

I don't have a lot of succulents but I do have air plants , adenium, dragon fruit, and some true cacti. I can only grow the ones that are more tolerant to rain because I live in a relatively wet area. It is also why I grow mostly vanda, cattleya, oncidium, and phalaenopsis because they like it cool and can handle more water. I have only a couple of dendrobiums that can handle more water. The cane dendrobiums like to be hotter and drier and they do well at my mom's house but not mine.

[imafan26]

It is 77 degrees. The trades are back but there are still occasional showers. It finally was less windy this morning so I was able to get out to do some weed control. There are some places where I will have to bring digging tools and cutters to get through but at least I should be able to spot those weeds once the forest is tamed.

I have to step up the watering because it is windy, the plants are drying out faster so I have to get into the habit of watering everyday instead of every three days. The prolonged rain got me out of the routine, so I have to get back into it. It is much easier to fall out of a routine than it is to start it again.

I haven't seen any more snails. but it took me almost three hours to do the weed control today. I should put out the slug bait just in case. At least that is easy to do.

[imafan26]

It took a few days to find one that wasn't so windy since the trades came back, but I got sprayed the weeds. the nutsedge was about 8 inches tall when I finally got around to weed whacking it yesterday. Some of the other weeds are also dying, but some did not. I will try to pull some up and if that is not enough, some of the weeds are resistant, I will have to try to dig them up to move up to tryclopyr.

I did get one green can out early this morning. So, it is empty again.

I have a grafting hui trip tomorrow to do some topworking on mangoes. I am just going to watch. It will take up most of the morning. It is 30 miles away and will take 40-60 minutes to get there, if I don't get lost ( I am not counting on not getting lost).

On Sunday, there is a plant share, but I am not sure I will be going. It is a lot of walking and I can't walk very far. I can make a different one, there is a share every week or two. In the meantime, I have started some plants for the share but I may be able to use some of them at the Second Saturday at the Garden event next week. June is pollinator month and I do have some mint and thyme and some other starts I can donate. I am not going to donate the glove amaranth or mini roses, since I want to get them bigger and propagate them.

It rained a little overnight, but I need to water, it won't be enough.

[imafan26]

This time of the year, I don't do a lot of planting. It is cooler this year than normal. It is still raining and it is 70 degrees at 8 a.m. with an expected high of 83. Normally July-October the night temperature is near 80 and the day temperatures ae about 88 degrees. Rains are light, less than a tenth of an inch and humidity is high. 90% today.

I usually take more stuff out of the garden at this time of the year rather than put anything new in. I did get out yesterday afternoon briefly ( it started to rain) and worked on pulling my container pots out of the weeds. I did find more ground mealy bugs in one of the containers and these are ornamentals that are not in bloom so I treated it with acephate. Acephate and Malathion are the only things effective against ground mealy bugs. I will have to find Malathion too, but it has to be applied multiple times for control.

I am not having too many bugs. I do have mites, they are hard to stop in summer. Thrips are always around, but usually do not meet my threshold for treatment. I found some white flies, but this is a low year, so I have been able to control them with water.

There are always snails and slugs. I usually find the slugs under the pots or in the pots when I pull out the plants to inspect the roots. So far this week I found 4 African snails ( I killed three, one got away) I put out snail bai, an 1 slug and eggs inside of a container. Most of this is in the front yard. I have to go in the garden to see if they are eating the kale and perpetual spinach leaves or if it is caterpillars or birds. The society finches like the kale but there is one white cabbage fly I haven't been able to catch and it is small enough to get through bird netting. I may replace the bird netting with insect netting instead if I can find a large enough piece.

The biggest problem are the birds. They have made holes in the bird netting I have to patch. I saw the rose ringed parakeet sin the trees yesterday. The society finches were feeding on something, I don't know what. I saw a cardinal checking things out. That one may come for the tomatoes. And I saw a mejiro. Mejiro are fruit eaters, but I dd not chase that one away. For a small bird it is very fiesty and can keep larger birds away. I just planted one of the refurbished containers with zinnia and cosmos. I know they were watching, so I made sure I covered the bin with construction fencing. I have covers on the seedling trays because I know they like peppers. Most of the peppers I have are too big for the birds to swallow, and that is why I grow them over something like Hawaiian peppers that would have to be grown in a cage.

I found aphids on a few plants earlier, which is unusual for me because I don't usually have too many aphid problems. Most of that has resolved and I am not finding a lot of aphids now. Some of the peppers I have are not resistant to black spot. Joe E. Parker is not, so I may not plant it again. I will look for a more resistant cultivar. The coffee leaves are brown around the edges. This plant has been here for years, so it is probably because of water. I need to try to repot this. It bloomed three times and finally set fruit. The coffee berries will take 9-10 months to mature. I don't drink coffee and I am not going to roast these. I grow this purely as an ornamental.

There were what looked like mites on the eggplant, but I think they were falling off the tomato that was growing over it. I put the tomato back on the trellis and hosed off the leaves and it looks fine now.

Even the gardenia in the front yard looks pretty good. It has some sooty mold, but this is mild for a gardenia.

The neighbors hedge does have hibiscus mealybugs and erineum mites. I have treated my hibiscus so they are staying away for now. The bay leaf has red mites. It is in a growth phase now, so I will prune it down.

The plumeria have rust, but this is a chronic problem for them. I am still debating whether to cut down the plumeria trees. I have a lot of leaves to rake up.

The orchids are getting sunburned. This happens every summer, because I keep delaying working on the shade cloth.

[applestar]

Yeah the heat and humidity, and I think the higher night time temperature contributes to a lot of the adverse conditions and issues.

I know the current heatwave here, with overnights not going down much below mid-70’s is likely to bring out the summer phase pests and diseases.

I’m fertilizing more this year (especially N) to see if that makes the difference for the heavy feeder corn, eggplants, and cucurbits. And the tomatoes are ending up with more than they strictly need. This may cause more pest issues, especially sucking insects.

On the other hand, I’m trying out the multi-level assorted microbial cultures as tonics to improve plant health. Relying less on compost, which I’m neglecting this year (can’t get around to doing them all).
mYhey say healthier plants are less vulnerable to pests because they do put out their own defenses.

One other I haven’t really tried yet is the tonic to increase photosynthesis.

Good luck heading into July-August! Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up as well.

[imafan26]

Most of the plants I grow in the yard are fairly heat and drought tolerant. I have been trying to water the plants (not the grass) once a week. That is still hit and miss. Normally, I don't water at all, and there has been some overnight showers. I mainly have to water if there hasn't been any rain for a week.

The plumeria rust is early, Only one plumeria seems to be immune called plastic pink. The rest are not immune. It usually does not kill the plumeria, but the trees in the back are old and have been stressed for a long time.

There hasn't been that much pest pressure. I do have white flies in the usual places, but not as much, so this must be a low year. It cycles with the predator prey cycle. When there are more predators there are less whiteflies. The fungal disease was from the rain we had.

I try to get resistant cultivars, but some of the new varieties I planted are not resistant like Joe E. Parker pepper is not resistant to black spot, so I probably won't plant it again and I will look for a more resistant variety. I know Chinese Giant is not resistant, but it also produces the biggest peppers, so when I plant it, it cannot be in the rainy season.

I have to water everyday in summer because my soil mix is light and has a lot of perlite and because most of my plants are in containers and not in the soil. A lot of the containers have competing weeds and are under potted.

[applestar]

Those whiteflies must have come here because I have been finding whitefly egg circles under the unprotected broccoli leaves! I was surprised because I didn’t know they were pests of concern for these plants.

I’ve been carrying around a cup of soapy water during white cabbage butterflies and cabbage moth egg mass inspections, and dip my gloved fingers in the suds and then rub at the circles as well as the whiteflies if they are still there and don’t manage to fly away.

Hopefully this is sufficient.

[imafan26]

I was at the urban garden where I volunteer yesterday. I saw one of the intern MG's putting together a wire cage made from pet fencing. I stopped in the middle of the road ( the other cars had to go around my car). I said I hope that is not a tomato trellis. He said it was for a demonstration project he was doing. I pointed out the flaws of using pet fencing. It is impossible to get your hand through the narrow space between the wires. You can grow tomatoes in this cage but it will be impossible to get the fruit without cutting openings in the cage to get your hand in and pull any fruit out. We had a good laugh. I said ask me how I know.., Yeah, we learn the most from our mistakes. I did it before.

The IPM class I did on Monday was a great success and it ran over, which always happens for me. I decided to do a part 2 in a couple of weeks. The exercise in part one was for the class to go out in the garden to look at the plants and find samples of bugs, disease, or evidence of pest damage. Well, everyone went out of their way and ignored the easy stuff and decided to bring back the tiniest creatures they could find.

In part 2, I told them they can bring in one sample from home, but not to look for hard ones because this class will be more about identifying what they find, because the things in the garden don't come with labels and they will have to figure out how to identify what they find.

I went through my garden today while I was watering. Even though this is still peak bug month. I did not find a lot of problems, except for the chronic ones. The garden patrol is doing such a good job of keeping thing under control. I have kept up with knocking things off with water or pruning. The only things I am having problems with are plant hoppers which are coming from the neighbors hibiscus hedge.

[applestar]

You are really doing a lot. I had to chuckle about the narrow opening in trellises — yeah, I’ve been there too.

Why is it that we have similar pest issues halfway (1/3? 1/4?) around the world in completely different environments?

Plant hoppers of all kinds are pestering me here as well. They are mostly on cucurbits and the berry fruits including figs. I can think of at least 5 species, haven’t seen the 6th but no doubt will be here anytime now.

This was mentioned in your other thread but — Whiteflies are at the brassicas again. I think they might be contributing to the lower leaves getting yellow spots and eventually dying.

[imafan26]

Whiteflies are year round for me. The numbers decline in winter, but they never go away. There is a predator pest cycle with whiteflies. This year is not too bad so there probably are a lot of ladybugs out this year. The whiteflies are fond of peppers and gardenia. The gardenia looks pretty clean, but the peppers are taking a beating. My hibiscus was treated with bifenthrin for the mealybugs so it also takes care of the white flies. I have 3 hibiscus, one is a native hibiscus brackenridgei which the erineum mites don't bother, but mealy bugs really love. The other two hibiscus are a hybrid Princess Michiko. Everything loves that. Even the birds are eating the leaves.

The plant hoppers are coming from the neighbor's hibiscus hedge. I can't catch them and I can't really treat them, so they are causing some minor damage to the okra leaves.

I have new flush of leaves on gardenia, citrus, and bay leaves. But no aphids or mite damage that I can see. The bay had spider mites before the flush so I will have to prune it and hose the leaves to control them.

I went to the plant share on Saturday. I wrote on face book that I wasn't able to get any of the vanilla that was there. The person who brought the vanilla plants contacted me and offered me a plant. I am so grateful and lucky that I didn't get any at the plant share, because the one she gave me is so much better. I just have to repot it and get a trellis for it. I have been going to plant share for a few months now. I usually only go to the ones closest to me. It is a way for me to rehome a lot of my extra seedlings and I have gotten some plants in exchange that would have cost me a lot of money, if I could even find them. This last time,
I picked up 2 bromeliads, one is a pineapple. Normally a bromeliad costs about $20. Of course these have no pots and need a little tlc, but they are not hard to care for. Vanilla is hard to find, it is rarely available. I got a bozo (globe amaranth) in a soup can. Bozo is a popular thing now and it is an old fashioned garden plant. It is good for lei or drying. I also got a tuberose. I have never been able to keep it alive for long. I will see how well it does this time. I even got some origami pots, an epi orchid, and the host gave me a smart pot.

I took 19 seedlings and divisions ( Thai peppers, peppermint, lemon thyme, dasheen. I also brought 14 snack size zip locs of things I harvested from my yard. I had kaffir (makrut) lime leaves with a recipe for chicken and basil, calamansi, super chili, and Thai chili.

This was the first time I went to this location for a share. It is smaller than the one I usually go to, but it is always great meet new people and to talk to fellow garden lovers. There were quite a few first timers there. The next one is on Aug 17. But it is 20 miles away and it is on the same day as my bonsai meeting. I cannot do two activities in a day. It is too tiring. I still have a lot of plants left that I potted up. I may take some to the free store instead.

It is still raining. I am hoping I can get out today and pull the old bird netting down. I have all the parts now to put the new covering up. I will have to see how far I get putting it up myself. I got a trellis for the vanilla yesterday. I should have a pot I can use and cinder.

[imafan26]

I moved most of the pots away from the foundation of the house. I made cuttings of the native hibiscus ( hibiscus brackenridgei) and prunet it to within a foot of the ground. I had to do that for the roof and termite tenting.

I finally got to weed whack the weeds and grass in the inner courtyard. I started putting the pots back. The weeds were growing between the pots. I also moved the 3 ft benchmaster to the other side because it would also be in the way of the work on the house.

I still have to move the succulents and move the orchids out. I moved some of the orchids out yesterday and I made some space on 2 benches. I moved some of the pots away as well. I still have to move the plants off the open bench and move the bench closer to the fence so I can cover it with shade cloth. I will probably some of the plants into the main garden to store them for now. I will definitely be late for the September planting. I have already transferred some pepper and basil seedlings into the tower. I put out slug bait because I found a huge 4 inch African snail while I was pruning back the Vireya, and because I am moving orchids out and snails just love that.

The flower seeds germinated in the 5 tier tower. I may have to do some culling later. The zinnia are blooming in the container now. The dill is lagging behind, but I did plant it later.

I can make more room in the cutting box if I plant out some of the things. Some things like the Lehua really need to go out. It is already touching the shade cloth.

I checked on the worms. They are still working on the carrots. I may have to remove the vines from the sweet potato. They don't eat those, they just like crawling on it. I added more carbon for them.

[imafan26]

I got about 2 inches of rain from the three storms that came by. The weeds love it. So, yesterday I weed whacked the grass. There is some nutsedge I am going to have to spot treat with glyphosate. I also found some creeping indigo. I dug it out. The root was about 8 inches long. I will have to see if there are anymore hidden in the weeds.

It has been hot and humid, but the trades are returning, so I spent more time in the yard yesterday. I like working in the yard much more than in the house. I had rounded up some wild grass that was over a foot tall a while ago. I got around to cutting them back. It was dry enough that I was able to knock most of it back with the weed whacker. I haven't seen the rocks that border my main garden for a while.

I divided the black bamboo. It did not spread sideways but it had roots curling in the outer pot. I could only make one division, so I gave it to one of my orchid club members who had asked for it for a long time. One of the branches I put in the pot did not have much root on it and it may not make it but the rest did not get transplant shock. I put the curled root ( it had curled three times in the outer pot into the bamboo pot, I may grow from the root.

I potted up the ohia from the cutting bench, and up potted a Bearrs' lime. I found another lime, but it had mealy bugs. I will have to treat it before I can up pot it. At least these are not the root mealies.

I found more ground mealy bugs in a couple of pots. I did end up throwing away one of the nau (endemic gardenia). It is an endangered species with only one plant left in the wild, but I have a few of them and it is hard to kill ground mealies in pots without multiple treatments and this one was badly infested.

My habanero fruit are getting sunburned. I have to cull them and feed the pepper. It is looking a little pale. I was hoping they would last until next week, but I may be able to salvage some seeds. I fed the peppers, eggplant, sweet potato, and onions. The onions in the pots on the ground are not looking good, probably from the rain. I will have to watch them. Aphids like to attack them when they look like this. The ground there was probably partially flooded during all the rain. The onions don't like that.

I have repotted some of the orchids and hung them on the fence. Usually, repotting is how I kill orchids. I cleaned up one of the orchid benches and made some space. I was surprised. I only found 2 dead ones, and while a lot of them lost their back growth they do have some new growth. I will have to cut the dead growth out. I put down slug bait in the front yard and under the orchid benches. I haven't found any snails for a few days.

I have moved most of the plants away from the house. I still have to move the Spanish moss, but I can move it that day. It will do fine in a bag and I can put it back on the fence after.
I moved one of the 3 ft bench master I had under the eaves out into the yard. I put most of the pots on the ground, so I have some space. I will need to put the succulents on it when the house gets fumigated. I moved the succulents in the back to clear half their space because they are close to the house.

The volunteer lettuce I transplanted into the 7 tier tower both survived. I have a few peppers to pick and a few plants probably need to come out. They are looking very shabby and they are bell peppers so cutting them back is probably not worth while. The other hot peppers that I fed earlier are looking greener. I even have some nice Wailua pepper (locally bred jalapeno) to pick. I checked the okra. I haven't harvested in a couple of days, but today I did not see any leaf/plant hoppers. I did see a butterfly around the blooming zinnias. It may have been a gulf fritillary.

the Italian parsley looks happier, but the cutting celery is looking very shabby. I probably need to replace it. The sweet pea tomato is also looking worse for wear and it is causing problems for the eggplant, so I may pull it out. I did cut the eggplant back a lot. It has a lot of thrip and mite damage and cutting it back is the easiest way to resolve it. I did fertilize the container with the mix of 6-4-6 with minors, dolomite, and k mag. Pulling out the tomato will also help since the tomato is probably causing most of the mite issues.

I tipped the ohia, it was starting to root in the ground, however the aerial had a good grip and it was harder to pull. I have to ask if cutting the aerial root would be an issue. The aerial root is over an inch in diameter and the problem is if ohia is infected with fungus it can lead to rapid ohia death. That is why I avoid pruning Ohia and I use pruning paint on all of the cuts.
https://cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu/rod/THE-DISEASE

There are a lot of plants that need dividing and repotting. The parrot beak and lemon grass does too and they don't like being contained. I am planning to give 2 of the lemon grass away, they dry very fast and show it, ( I currently have 6 lemon grass), The parrot beak, like the bamboo is trying to escape its pot, so it needs to be divided. I can give the divisions to the free store. Parrot beak heliconia (Heliconia psittticorum) is good for flower arranging and as a graveyard flower because it lasts a long time as a cut flower. But it is one of those things you cannot let get out of control, so this plant is always on a bench and never on the ground.

The dragon fruit is starting to take on a rosy color. I am debating covering it. It cannot be picked until it is ripe and the birds are waiting for it too. I found one strawberry in my strawberry bin.

Yesterday, I went out to water and saw one of my orchids was close to blooming. Dendrobium crumenatum aka pidgeon orchid is a one day wonder. It reblooms on the same spike and takes weeks to set up the bloom. It blooms after sunrise and closes by sunset, so it blooms for only a day. It does bloom every 4-6 weeks for about 4 months. In fact all of the plants in the neighborhood that have spikes will bloom on the same day. This blooming habit makes it hard to bring it to an orchid meeting. I brought it once when it was blooming and literally watched it close as the sun set. Since orchid meetings are held at night, it is nearly impossible to show this plant in bloom. But I did take a picture.

[imafan26]

Somehow I lost the pictures.

[applestar]

My goodness how long did all that take? I have to at least at outset limit my target tasks to 3 …and 4th and 5th if I can. On worse days, I tell myself 1 task (plus the must harvests).

In reality, I end up noticing something (I tell myself “not looking… blinders on…” if I’m really in bad shape)

I might be out there for 3~4 hours on average, longer if I give myself a drink/food break.

[imafan26]

Yesterday, I took 6 pots of old potting soil the landfill. When I emptied the pots, there were earthworms. So, I rescued the ones I saw. One of the worms put up a struggle, but I eventually gave them a new home elsewhere in the garden. I went at the right time, traffic wasn't bad and I was able to complete the round trip in less than a hour, including driving almost 2 miles into the landfill to the dump site. The landfill is 14.7 miles away. On the mainland, that is probably not a long distance to travel and indeed on an island, you cannot really go that far. But, for an island having to drive more than 10 miles from home is a long drive. From my house to Honolulu is 23 miles. I don't go there very often. People who have big trucks have to pay $75 a week for gas just to commute for work. Normally, I don't drive every day and I drive between 2-6 miles two to three times a week. I fill my car when it is half full, just about every 10 days and it cost me about $24 now with gas prices rising. The current price for the cheapest gas is $3.79 per gallon. My car gets about 23 mpg.

If the composting facility would take potting soil, the soil could have been reused. The hot composting would have killed the weed seeds and pests in the soil. And the dilution would have mitigated the soil nutrient imbalances. But they won't take soil. I still have a few more pots to take. Some of them are too big for the car, so I will have to bag the soil to take it. Some of the pots are wet. I need it to dry out a bit so the bags won't be so heavy. There is one pot of potting soil that isn't that bad and a couple of bags of potting soil that is not that old and they did not have a lot of problems with disease, pests, or weeds, so I may be able to use them, if they are diluted with new soil. One of the large pots had virus, so that soil has to be thrown out. The other has mealy bugs and that has to go for that reason and it has been reused a couple of times already. The other was a cucumber pot. It was also reused multiple times so the soil nutrient imbalances are hard to fix. The landfill will also take cement and rocks. I have the fountain that my dog broke in pieces in my yard and I have some quick crete mix the painters left years ago and they said they will take those too. Now. I just have to get rid of the paint the painters left after I told them not to leave any leftover paint. I just got more oil change boxes. Latex paint can be hardened with a hardener, but oil primers need to go into boxes.

After I sterilize these pots, I will have be able to repot them again. The main garden is not ready, but I can get these pots started.

It used to be that after an hour or watering or 30-60 minutes of work in or out of the house. I would need a long break. But since, I have been forced to have to move everything out of the living room and purge some of my 30 years of accumulation. Because I have been forced to do more things in a day, my conditioning has improved. I still can only water for about an hour because, my knees and hips have not improved so I still need long breaks after doing that. But It has taken me weeks to move everything out of the living room. My sister and BIL helped take the larger things to the convenience center. And I have filled my garbage cans every week, when normally, I only have 2 bags on garbage day. I have also made 3 trips to the convenience center to dump what I have purged and 4 trips to goodwill for other stuff. Most of what I have outside was not near the house, so it did not take long to move them. I did it on different days because I can do only so much heavy lifting in a day.

Yesterday, I harvested okra ( I hadn't harvested for 3 days so some of them were too old), I ate a couple of them, but I forgot to bring the rest inside the house. it is still in my lanai. I watered the yard (45 minutes), went to the landiflll to take the pots of used soil. ( I packed the car with the soil the day before), That took a little less than an hour. I stopped to get a plate lunch. I shouldn't but I wanted it. I spent 20 minutes in line at 10:30 a.m. for that. It will be enough for 3 meals. I had lunch toss salad and one chicken from the plate lunch. Then I took the long break. My niece came over after lunch and took half the things I was going to give to good will. It doesn't matter as long as someone can use it. I took the rest (4 bags) to the goodwill donation center in my community about 2 miles. I went to home depot to get more buckets and parts for my rain barrels. I used washing machine hoses for the rain barrels but the diameter is too small and the rain barrel is over topping. It should drain off at the port but it isn't. so I got new hoses for it. I went to the association offices and paid my HOA due for the last quarter and picked up my permit for the reroofing and gutters. I called the roofing company and spent a lot of time trying to send them a copy. It did not work so I had to upload from the phone to the computer to send it to them. If that doesn't work, they will send someone today to pick up a copy I can print for them. I still have to wait for them to schedule the repair and I called the termite company. I have an appointment for that. I gave about 20 seedlings and transplants to the garden yesterday for an October event. I need the space to move some plants around because I need to move the bench, fix the frame, and cover it with shade cloth because the orchids cannot stay in the lanai when the house is tented and they cannot be in the sun either. I have already moved some of the orchids out. I have to work on moving more. I repotted some the plants that really needed to come out of the cutting boxes. That is actually an orchid bench, so I can move more of the orchids to that bench, but I probably need to put another layer of shade cloth on it because it is getting too much light for the lanai orchids which are mostly phals. I re homed the worms and rinsed out the pots. I still have to scrub and disinfect them. That I will do today.

The most exhausting thing for me to do is weed whacking and it is hard on my back even with the strap. For that I can only do 30 minutes at a time, so anything longer than that, I have to have an hour break between. Sometimes I have to push myself because after weed whacking, I have to clean the sidewalk and the road with a broom.

A couple of months ago just thinking about doing all this would have been exhausting. Now, I just have to do it, but I can actually get more done now just because I have better conditioning, at least for now. I don't get to spend as much time in the garden, but I still have to water everyday, so I unless there is a storm I still have to do that everyday.

[applestar]

Seems such a shame. Can’t you solarize the potting soil by double bagging in clear drum can liners? You could treat/inoculate with beneficial microbes and myco’s afterwords?

Maybe you could experiment and then have the soil tested. Is there a way to propose this as a project with one of the organizations you are affiliated with?

[imafan26]

I have bagged the soil and kept it for over 6 months, but still have problems with the soil mealybugs. Solarizing won't fix the fertilility imbalances. Composting would, but I don't have a compost pile. I do sterilize small quantities of soil and pots with hot water and basically bleach. I can't do too much because both my microwave and range broke because they cannot handle the heat for that long. I would have to get a turkey cooker and propane tank to heat water.

It has been hot the last week or so. It is only around 87 degrees, but there hasn't been much wind. It makes it hard to sleep at night too. Even with 2 fans on.

I moved all the plants off the bench I want to move. I repotted a citrus, crown flower (giant milkweed), Song of India, penta, and a couple of pots of mint. It has made room on one of the shaded benches. I have so many weeds that I have to Round Up again. I have gotten about half the orchids repotted and moved from the lanai to other benches or the fence. I was planning to weed and try to move the bench today, but since I did the repotting instead. It is gonna be a job for another day. I have to move an umbrella base, some pavers, and pots. Pull the weeds, treat the ground, and put another layer of weed block down before I can move the bench. I was not looking forward to doing that. After I move the bench over, I will have to glue parts of my shade cloth frame to keep it from coming apart. Not looking forward to that. I don't like working with pvc and glue. The alternative is to drill a hole through the joint and tie it together with wire. An equally unpleasant task. After I do get it cleaned up and moved and covered, then I can move some of my high light orchids to the fence and that will make more room on the benches. The bench I need to put the phals on have baskets on them now and they would need to have hangers added and hung. I could put more orchids on the half bench I just cleared but it gets more light so I would have to throw another shade cloth over it to make it darker. Some of the plants on that bench may not like that.

I am still cleaning up in the house. I am still finding things I missed. I will have a couple of more buckets to bring to the storage unit. Tomorrow I will find out if I have more things I have to pack. I had to take 7 boxes of unopened spices to the storage this week because they could not be gassed. I cleaned out my freezer. I am so short that I got a cramp trying to get to the bottom and three days later it still hurts. Tomorrow I will get the bags to start bagging the 2 refrigerators and the chest freezer. Not looking forward to this. I have thrown a lot of stuff away. I took the pasta and most of the dried goods out of the frig and freezer and they are in storage. My sister took some cheese and 2 bottles of Japanese vinegar. We don't like the same things. I finished the last apple and lime in my fresh veggie drawer. I only have onions and garlic left. They can stay outside. I am going to put a bin or two in the yard for the opened bottles. They are too hard to transport to the storage .They should be ok over night. I can put the onions and garlic in a bucket in the yard with the araimo I harvested. I can put the ginger in the ginger bucket. It will do fine there. I am pretty much eating surimi and cheese omelets with hot dogs for breakfast every day to use up cheese eggs and surimi. Tomorrow I am making liver and onions with frozen vegetables. I am adding frozen spinach to the omelet tomorrow. That would make an omelet for at least 3 days. I have nuts, baking chocolate and my garden seeds. I would prefer not to keep them at room temperature but if I need the space, I may have to make that choice. I did not realize how much nutes and chocolate I had. I have a lot. Cooking gets a little harder every day. I have packed most of the spices. I have no ketchup, I even tossed out the condiment packets I had. I am running out of crystal light. I may have to dig that out of the storage. I am mostly eating out of the freezer. I made cabbage soup, but I froze half of it. I could not finish it in 4 days. I did go to McDonald's twice, taco bell once, and got a plate lunch which was good for 4 meals after I got back from the landfill. Other than that, I bought 2 carrots and a dozen eggs. Everything else is just eating out of the freezer and frig. Next up will be tofu steaks to use up the tofu. I have less than a cup of sugar. I will have to make that work.

I still have to move the Spanish moss. I can just put it on the fence. I have to find a place for the succulents. That is more of a problem since they are in a lot of small pots and they need to be in the sun, but they don't need a lot of water.

I did start some seeds of DiCicco broccoli, Fordhook Swiss chard, and Lacinato kale. I haven't prepped the garden yet. I don't know when I will get to that, but the seeds should be started now.

I cut the tops off my Ajaka basil. It looks like mites are after it. I have about 2 trays of starts for the plant share in a couple of weeks. It will be a busy weekend. I have to try to move stuff out of the storage then as well.

I found 27 Coconut rhinoceros beetle larvae in my tomato pot. They were still young. so I dug them out and cut them all in half. I also found 5 slugs in the pot. The tomato did not have damage. I pulled it because it is just old. The eggplant wasn't looking good and it was yellow and the leaves were dropping off. It had ground mealy bugs so I took the soil to the landfill. I have sanitized the pot twice. I still have one big pot of soil to take to the landfill plus the soil that is in smaller containers. The pot had tylcv so it also will need to be sanitized more than once.

[applestar]

Whoa I don’t know if I could do all that. It’s like you’re moving. We’ve lived in this house for so long it will be a nightmare to try to do such a thorough cleaning.

.. a couple of thoughts -

• If you’re considering investing in a turkey fryer to boil that quantity of water, what about a vertical smoker and converting to steam or hot smoke sterilization instead? There might be some natural wood or herb that would help eliminate or at least discourage the ground dwelling pests, too. (I’m thinking of non chemical, natural pyrethrum mosquito coils we use for example, or the very primitive sage and other herbal smoke fumigation methods….)

• …now what was the other thought ? … Oh I know — I don’t know if this is a possibility in your more tropical climate, but I was thinking about the elderly Japanese ag instructor who keeps his root vegs like satoimo in a deep hole in his garden — he lowers a sealed bucket (a typical Japanese pickling bucket) down into it. His remote garden is to the north of Tokyo though. I read about a similar set up in one of the “Cat Who…” mystery series but I believe the setting is Minnesota or somewhere — north. Anyway, not quite a walk in root cellar, but lowering a metal box in a block-lined hole to keep bottles of preserves and liquor safe….


An I FEEL YOU about being too short to reach the bottom of the freezer. Not sure if taller folks who can reach down from higher level, with longer torso and ARMS, can appreciate this…. I get cramps/stitches from not quite being able to reach the bottom of our big family sized top-loading washer for socks, etc. (I wouldn’t be able to reach the back of a front loader, BTW, particularly if it was stacked and on top.)

[imafan26]

I finally got around to laying down the new weedblock and moving the bench closer to the fence. I glued the pvc frame yesterday and let it set overnight. One of the joints came apart. Which isn't too bad, but it is why I don't like to deal with pvc and glue. Its worse when this happens to an irrigation line. I reglued it and let it set a few hours before putting on the shade cloth.

I went to my garden club meeting this morning. Our speaker talked about soil biology (bacteria and fungi). Someone from the club brought us some moringa seeds. I did not take any. I had moringa before. It gets too tall, but it is a very good food source since it does grow so fast.

Tomorrow is green day, my can is almost full, so I am going to fill it with a few more things. I have more than enough. I may be able to get the other can filled too if I do more tree trimming.

I lightly pruned my bougainvillea bonsai. Part of the branch the rock was supporting is not looking good. I don't need the rock anymore. I hope it will stabilize. Bougies are tough plants but they are prone to rot especially in a wet climate. I took the training wires off. The branches are set and I don't want the wires to cut into the branch. It is still in the plastic bowl, but it has fallen off the stand twice since I transplanted it. I don't want to put it into a ceramic pot until I can get it on a stable stand. It is starting to bloom now.

It is 83 degrees and there is a breeze. Humidity is 57%. It is still hot outside but the lower humidity and breeze makes it nicer to work outside.

[imafan26]

This morning I went out and pruned my rhapsiolepsis Indica hedge. It has been awhile. I had to cut it back a lot. It is easier to maintain a shape than to create one. It wasn't perfect and I had to cut the front of the hedge back about 5 inches so there is a lot of holes in the front. I have to probably go back and tweak the cut and smooth out the waves.

I did it in the morning and I watered the yard, but then I was pretty much done for the day.

[imafan26]

It is 77 degrees and it has been very breezy today. It has been drizzling off and on for most of the day. I did not get to do what I wanted to do today the ground is too wet to work in the garden and the wind is too strong to try to put down any mulch by myself. I did get out and water a few of the larger pots this morning. The rest are pretty much o.k.

I got an orchid from my orchid meeting last night. Maxillaria aetinifolica. I think. We were given small plants without names and we had to look at the samples to determine which one it was by looking at the morphology. The plants are mostly not in bloom now. The only way to confirm is to keep the plant alive until it blooms. The speaker, Walter, was funny. He said we have 8 senses all of them in our heads, Vision, hearing, touch, olfactory, taste, The sixth sense is ESP, common sense, and nonsense. I repotted it this morning into a net basket inside a terra cotta pot. The orchid was freshly potted in coir and potting soil in a plastic pot, but that media in a plastic pot would be death to my orchids. Changing it to a smaller net pot inside the terra cotta will let the media dry out faster.

I did get out later in the afternoon, it was still drizzling but the weeds were drier and I pulled a 32 gallon bag of nutsedge, purslane, and grass out. The soil is well saturated now, so it is easier to dig and pull the weeds out. When it is dry, my hoe mattock would have bounced and not gotten very deep. It took me less than 45 minutes to pull those weeds.

It is supposed to be windy again tomorrow, but I'll see what I can get done then.

[applestar]

Send me some of that rain! It does sound like perfect condition to pull weeds.

The 8 senses definition and ID’ing and take home and grow to find out sounds like fun project. Hope you got a good one.

[imafan26]

It took 8 days, but the weeds that were sprayed are dying. Some are at least yellowing. I spent the morning yesterday pulling the crab grass, nut sedge and clover out of the front yard. I pulled two bags of weeds. Because they were sprayed with glyphosate and dicambra, it went into the trash not the compost. One, nut sedge survives composting. Two, glyphosate I don't worry about, but I usually don't use dicambra and it lasts longer than glyphosate. I just needed to get rid of some pesticides and I had some spectracide weed killer that had glyphosate, but apparently they changed the formula to dicambra, and I did not realize that so I used it up on these weeds. It won't kill nutsedge or any weed that comes back from the roots. That it why it was sprayed with both. At least glyphosate will kill the roots as well. I managed to clear about a 6x8 ft area.

The purslane was not affected by glyphosate because of the shiny leaves. I will have to do lights out to get rid of it.

[imafan26]

I got another orchid from my orchid club Christmas potluck. too much food. I still have leftovers. The orchid is a dendrobium. So, I repotted it the next day into a clay pot with styrofoam. It looks very healthy and it has just started to bloom. Let's see how long this one will last. I don't buy cane dendrobiums because it does not do well where I live. It rains too much. That is why it had to come out of the plastic pot and bark media. It would have stayed too wet.

I may try to take cutting from a few plants. It has been a warm December and plants that don't usually bloom or flush now are doing just that. So, I can try taking cuttings from them.

There is another plant share on January 25, I can start plants for that.

[imafan26]

I worked on my bonsai plants today. I repotted a schefflera, and a jade. I did try to do some training, but I decided to quit while I was behind. I was breaking too many branches. I don't have the right size wire. Jade is an easy plant to work with, but it is soft os it is easy to break branches. It is forgiving though. I did replant the parts that broke off. I split the jade into two pre bonsai.

According to the bonsai sensei, the winter solstice is the time to defoliate the trees since we don't really have a dormant season, it is an arbitrary date. I don't defoliate my trees, but I did basically cut back the tops to make them flush better. I did this to the miracle berry which is still in basic training and the bougainvillea. I have a juniper but I did not do anything with it. It does require wiring. I don't have the wires and I need to find my concave cutter.

I pulled a few weeds from the path in the main garden and put down another plastic mulch to try to keep the weeds down a bit more.

I collected more zinnia seeds and pulled some of the old zinnias out.

I only did spot watering today. I have ants in the plants I need to put out more ant bait.

[imafan26]

Merry Christmas. I hope you are enjoying time with friends, family and neighbors.
I still have to take care of the garden. I go lot done this morning all in one session. That's already great for me. I weed whacked the front yard. I had grass that invaded the border that was very tall. I had to sycle it down, but it is leveled now.

I divided some of my succulents and repotted a barrel cactus into a larger pot.

I have a little weed whacking to do in the front yard, but that is for another session.

My sisters gave me a wagon for Christmas. It is really big. I have to figure out where to put it. It will make things easier to transport things around the yard since it has big tires.

[imafan26]

I have a few orchids blooming now. Some of the oncidiums are blooming out of season. The bougainvillea is also blooming. I started shaping a couple of my pre bonsai, a cutting from the other bougainvillea bonsai, miracle berry (which may end up as topiary. the leaves are not shrinking enough.) And I had a jade that I divided and then while I was trying to repot it, I broke pieces off I did not intend to, so now I have a few pots of jade. I started shaping a Nana juniper. It had two dominant forked branches so I had to pick one. I don't have the right wire to bend it where I want to and I don't want to force it, so I settled for a softer bend. Nana's are easier to cascade, but cascade pots are hard to find.

I did the annual cutting of the lavender. I cut one of them over a period of three days because it has come back to bite me when I do radical pruning on woody lavenders. I made some cuttings from what I pruned off.

I have some zinnia volunteers, I may pot them up or put them in the front yard.

The weeds, mostly clover is growing back where I weeded in the front yard. I hoed the weeds a couple of days ago since they were small. There was some nutsedge and I pulled those out, but there are more nuts so I will be easier to let them sprout and hit it with glyphosate instead. It will take out more nuts.

I have scrubbed and bleached the pocket pots. I think the ground mealy bugs were climbing up the pots and infested the bowls. I bleached the bowls and used new soil and plants so it should have been clean. I have 2 bowls which I recently repotted on two pocket pots. The pots look clean, but I sprayed them with a disinfectant anyway. I will have to do something about the weeds sprouting up around the yard. Some can be pulled out, but a lot of them are peristent weeds or between the pavers so those are easier to get with herbicides.

I have to rake up all the flowers that have fallen into my yard from the neighbor's tree. I also have to cut the other neighbors encroaching hibiscus. It has mites. I have already treated my hibiscus which was starting to show mite damage.