imafan26
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Fall Garden Clean up

I did not quite know which forum to post this in

It is Fall and for me that means it is time to clean up in the garden.

I have already headed back the bilimbi and cut back some of the Indian curry tree

I had to free my orchids from the neighbors' desert honeysuckle on my fence. That and the hibiscus filled most of one green can.

Yesterday, I cut back the ti and some sanseveria and pulled a wayward cereus back from the fence. That was enough to fill my other green can.

I did give some papaya minus the seeds to my worms. My other papaya that I topped because it was too tall has got a couple of side arms coming out now.

There is still a lot more to do. I finally pulled the dried corn out of the veggie garden, now I just have to deal with the weeds. Easier said than done.

I did plant my sun gold tomato at last in the third container. I had to get a new container since the old one got too brittle.

I cut back the hibiscus,it was getting more white flies now that the lady bugs aren't coming around so much. I tied a plastic bag to it. I'll see if it works.

I pulled back the weeds from around the hibiscus and there was my pineapple all yellow and over ripe. Well, that's what happens when the weeds take over. I have another baby pineapple about the size of a golf ball that I also discovered when I pulled back the weeds. Hopefully, I will get that one.

The worms got fed a papaya minus the seeds and wild bitter melon.

I really need to get out and put in a couple of hours or at least a couple of buckets of weeds every day.

I did start to clean up my veggie beds and pulled out most of the dried corn stalks, now I just have to get the weeds. Easier said than done. The other half of the veggie beds have been pulled but now I have to water and wait for more weeds to come up before replanting. That, and I have to wait anyway since the snails are eating seedlings.

I'm planning to plant some of the garlic this week at the herb garden. Maybe I will try some at home too.

I still have to cut back the plumeria, bougainvillea, roses, mussaenda, and gardenia. I also have to do something about the desert honeysuckle that is trying to take over my yard and the guava growing in the fence. Some of that will wait until my green can gets collected on Friday, then I start over filling it again.

I do verm composting, but not regular composting. My weeds tend to survive compost piles and mine is hardly every hot enough to kill weeds and disease. It takes up a lot of space and attracts too much vermin, so I send most of it to recycling.

I have to just get in there and do it, I may find some other surprises when I finally get there.

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rainbowgardener
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It is fall garden clean up time here, but very different. :)

Yours sounds so exotic, orchids and bougainvillea, plumeria, gardenia, and things I don't even know what they are: mussaenda? bilimbi? sanseveria?


But fall is a busy time in the garden whether it is orchids and bougainvillea or black eyed susans and planting garlic....

One of the things I need to be doing is getting all the house plants ready to come back in. Some need to be up-potted, some need trimming and soil refreshing. And I have to decide how many to bring in. I have coleus all over my garden this year. But how many coleus plants do I really want taking up space in my house? Some may get sacrificed.

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applestar
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Same here. This morning's 43°F low was a warning that I really need to get going, even if the overnight lows will be in the 50's for the rest of the week. I did bring the orchids in last night but the rest of them are still out there with no protection or anything.

The "smaller" banana's plastic container is bulging and deformed into an elliptical shape -- I think that means it needs to be uppotted. :roll:

imafan26
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What you call exotics where you live, are common outdoor plants here. Well, probably not the bilimbi (aka pickle fruit) or Indian curry tree. Guava is a pest, the birds bring it, someone must have a tree nearby. I actually like tropical exotic plants anyway. Mussaenda is available but not everyone grows it and I have Mussaenda glabra not the more common Queen Sirikit. It blooms most of the year but is not as showy. I have the native Nanu gardenia which is a tree gardenia, and while nasturtiums are common plants that you would know, it is not commonly grown much. My neighbors always comment on it when it blooms in the Spring because it is usually a flower they remember from their younger days. I have a cherimoya in a pot in the front yard with two fruit now. It would be happier in the ground, but the roots might be a problem so it has to stay unhappy in a pot.

The one good thing about fall in a frost free climate is that I don't have to worry about snow days, only rainy days. I do not have any houseplants except plastic ones. Cats make it hard to keep plants in the house. The cats I have now have not been too interested, but the cats I had before would dig out an orchid if it were left in the house overnight. I haven't had a dead Christmas tree in my house since 2005 since my cat loved to climb it to get the ornaments, then I'd find the tree on the floor and she would get sick from ingesting the resin from the tree. After that I turned to a living Christmas tree, a stone pine or shaped rosemary in a pot outside my living room window.

If it rains for too long, I will have to bring the succulents into the lanai or they will rot, other than that, pretty much everything will stay in place.

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pinksand
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I started my fall clean up over the weekend. I trimmed back all the ugly sticks left from my evening primroses that are pretty much all over my garden! The black eyed susans all got trimmed back and some got ripped out to make room for other plants they were crowding out.

We had our fall neighborhood plant exchange so I divided some plants to give away and got some plants in return. That inspired me to move some plants... some that were over crowded, some that ended up being too tall for their location, etc. I am terrible about overcrowding my garden. I even know I'm doing it, I just can't help myself! It's also tricky when I get mystery plants at the plant exchange or when I buy a plant that doesn't list the specific variety. My poor plants are always getting moved around :(

imafan26
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A neighborhood plant exchange, that sounds like a good idea. How is that organized?

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pinksand
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imafan26 wrote:A neighborhood plant exchange, that sounds like a good idea. How is that organized?
My neighborhood is kind of unusual for the area. We live in a panned city with very strict HOAs where everything has to look the same and get approved, but our neighborhood was already here and is therefore an out-parcel without an HOA. Everyone has lived here for 20+ years and there's a very interesting sense of community. We have a Christmas cookie exchange, weekly garden tours during the spring/summer, and the plant exchange in spring and fall.

I'm not exactly sure how it works behind the scenes, but one woman organizes it. She puts signs out on the corner of the major intersections in the neighborhood advertising the date and time of the exchange. I'm also on her email list so I get an email invite to the exchange as well as emails whenever anyone is dividing plants or if someone is looking for a specific plant they want... stuff like that.

At the exchange we all put our plants out (I'd guess people bring 3-5 plants each on avg) and organize them by sun or shade. We introduce ourselves and explain what we brought and then round 1, everyone goes out and grabs one plant they want. Once everyone has something we go for another round and so forth. If anyone has any seeds to share they pass those around at the end.

Another woman organizes the garden tours which are similarly advertised. She asked me to participate this spring but then I attended a tour and realized I'm wayyyy out of my league and declined to show my garden... maybe one day! The tour I went on was a 35 year project. Her whole backyard was winding walkways through terraced gardens on half an acre. She planted this 25 years ago, that 30 years ago, etc. I'm only 26 years old... her garden has been around longer than I have! We have a lot of well seasoned gardeners in my neighborhood and I stick out like a sore thumb :oops:



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