PROJECTS UPDATES

Status report from the gardening projects front line.

The Lantana bush that I brought back over Mothers day from Jacksonville, Florida is covered in blooms. It attracts a white color butterfly here.

As for the seed trial from the Desert Rose they have not germinated as of today. I am giving the seeds heat and moisture and keeping my fingers crossed. As with most plants they require patience.

The lawnmower repairs are slowly proceeding. After waiting for my initial epoxy patches to set up and dry I reinforced them with another layer of fiberglass cloth and epoxy.
Today I painted the deck and the underside of the mower deck with rusty metal enamel primer.



The primer went over the epoxy sealed holes in the metal.

This is probably a temporary fix because the rust will return eventually but the idea is to give the mower hopefully one more season of hard use.

As you can see the rust damage was pretty extensive to

the deck of the mower.

The repair is not that hard just time consuming having to wait for one step to dry before making any further progress.

The primer is drying now and after it does I figure I can use up a lot of my old half used cans of spray paint to paint it final coat.

After that if it will start I can finish mowing the yard with my multicolored mower.----sanddune----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOME COSTA RICA TROPICALS

Some more pictures of the tropical plants in Costa Rica from earlier this month. All of these photos were taken in the Tortuguero National park . This is a Heliconia plant in bloom. I had some of these in my front yard before that I bought from Home Depot. They did well up until it got cold here. They are the poor mans Bird of Paradise plant.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This guy is really cool but I have no idea what it is. If you know please leave a comment .

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another cool tropical that I want for my backyard. I found the name on the internet after some searching . It is called a Chenille plant or more correctly Acalypha Hispeda.

This plant really draws attention to it with it's red fuzzy tails.

This one is going on my wish list.-------------------------------sanddune------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ONE MORE SEASON ?

Well it had to happen sooner or later. I had been putting off repairing the rust from my venerable old lawnmower for too long. Half way into mowing my back yard grass the metal deck of the mower which supports the engine fell in. The spinning blade began gouging up the grass and I had to stop with a half cut lawn.

This old mower and I go way back together. We sort of keep each other entertained with it trying to stop working and me trying to keep it running.

It seems that the wet grass inside the deck area had rusted a ring inside which finally fell through dropping the motor to the ground.

The red circle in the picture is the area that broke and collapsed.

This picture shows how the metal seperated.

One can only admire the lenghts this mower will go to to stop working. However it has underestimated my resolve to keep it working one more season.

After some pondering for a plan, as this is as we say here a goodin, epoxy came to mind.

I recall having a recycled RIGHT TURN ONLY sign that I keep around and cut pieces off of when I need scrap metal for a project.

The first job was to clamp the deck back somewhat into its original position.

Then using a electric drill with a wire brush remove the rust and paint from around the affected area.
I did this until I had a shiny metal surface.

I then cut a square piece from the right turn only sign. After cleaning the metal surfaces with Acetone to remove the dirt and grease it was time to mix some epoxy.

I coated the sign plate bottom and the mower deck with the liquid epoxy and clamped them together until I could drill holes and apply bolts through the plate and deck.
Tightening the bolts down really tight gave the project a mechanical fastener as well as allowing the plate to chemically adhere to the deck tightly as the epoxy sets up. I cut some fiberglass cloth wetted well with epoxy and used it to cover the side holes.

It is setting up now as I write this so the results will not be known until tomorrow. My wife thinks that I should just buy a new lawnmower but she just doesn't understand that this is personal between me and the mower. ---sanddune------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CROTONS TROPICAL NATIVES

One of the tropical plants that I like is the Croton. Codigeum Variegatum if you are so inclined for the proper name. I just think they look good and can grow in South Florida.



I got the opportunity to visit the Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica the first part of this month. I took these pictures of some of their Crotons growing in a small park there.



From what I have read there are over 750 different types of these plants.


The colors change in the leaves according to the amount of sun that the plant is exposed to each day.



They don't like the temperature to go below 60 so to grow them outside you should be in a warm climate. The warm tropical rainforest found in Costa Rica is
perfect for these guys.
You can tell from the pictures that they
really like it here and are really healthy.


Several different variety's can be found growing in this park.




-------------------------------------
This guy is my South Florida contribution. I started it from a cutting back on May 6th [ see post --- NEW THINGS FOR SUMMER --MAY 6 th]. I made two cuttings from the parent plant. This one rooted and the other one didn't. Thats why one of my hard learned garden rules is: Plant several and hope for one.

------------sanddune--------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DESERT ROSE SEED TRIAL PART 2

For the seed trial I decided to try four seeds and see what happens. The old standby yogurt cups with drain holes cut in the bottom will once again come in to use. They are plastic and hold up well to be used over and over to start seeds in. Four of the cups were filled with commercial seed starting mix. I have found the seed starting mix to be invaluable because it is finely ground and much lighter than regular soil to start seed with.

--------------------------------------

Once the cups were filled with the potting soil they were put into an old plastic greenhouse tray. The soil was then wet down until it was moist with some collected rainwater. As per the advice from the Internet I cut off the fuzzy part of the Desert Rose seeds on both ends. Then the seeds were sprayed with a fungicide. I found spray Daconil and used it as the fungicide . I don't know if that is required but it was suggested to dust the seeds with fungicide so I did.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The seeds were then placed on
top of the moist soil and covered with a very shallow topcoat of the soil mix.

You can see in this picture the seeds at the tip of the yellow arrows just prior to being covered over with soil.




--------------------------------------

The clear plastic top of the mini greenhouse tray was put into place . It is supposed to keep the moisture inside and not let the cups dry out to fast.

It is not required but I had it and figured might as well use it for something.

So that's it . Now we wait to see if we get any results from the harvested seeds and the planting methods used. --------sanddune-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DESERT ROSE TRIAL

My new project for the garden is to try to sprout some Desert Rose seeds that I collected from this plant back in August.

The Desert Rose -Adenium Obesum- is a native to sub Saharan Africa and does well in zone 10. This bush I have had for four years and it is most always full of blooms. It loves the full sun and heat that my garden gets here.

--------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back in June this plant stopped blooming and produced these long seedpods an its branches. I researched on the internet and found information on the seedpods.

As per the instructions given I put small wires around the pods to keep them from popping open and dumping all the seeds. In August I found the pods were buldging open and harvested the seeds inside.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The seeds have fur type material on both ends which catches in the wind like a sail to spread them.

Closing the pods with wire kept them inside. It was good advise or they would have all blown away when the pod split open.

I put probably over 100 seeds up into an old pill bottle to store them.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So now I am going to try to grow some new Roses from the seeds.

Since this is my first attempt I found some advice on the Internet.

Step 1- cut the pappus off of both ends [ I guess they mean the fluffy things].

Step 2- dust seeds in fungicide.

Step 3- plant shallow in seed starting mix.

It sounds simple enough and the site states the seeds should germinate in 1 week at 85 degree temperature. I have the heat.

It also said that when the plant gets six true leaves it will be ready to transplant which should take about one month from germination.

It will be worth the effort if I can germinate these seeds . The seeds sell for around $4.00 for five seeds of a common variety up to $28.00 for two seeds of a rarer variety. I saw small plants of the Desert Rose for $10 - $15 each in the local garden stores. So for a garden on a budget propagating your own is the smart way to go. ---------------------- sanddune------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------