GROWING TIRODS IN FLORIDA

After careful consideration I have come to the conclusion that the thing that has grown the most over the Summer months here at the Sandpit is Tirods. Now that September is here looking around the garden it is full up with Tirods.

What is a Tirods you ask. Well it is defined in the Sandpit slang dictionary as Things I Really Oughta Do Someday. And my garden after the summer is full of them!

Unfortunately here the Summer heat and Tropical humidity make a great excuse for goofing off when it comes to garden maintenance. During such times staying in the air conditioning and thinking up more Tirods seems a prudent choice.

Now that it is September and the temperatures are moderating a bit it is time to get back to work whittling down the list of Tirods compiled over the summer.

They say that if you do something everyday for thirty days it becomes a habit. Who are they you ask . I have no idea who they are but back to the point. August had 31 days in it and I was able to consistently goof off for the whole month. That means that I am one day over the habit limit. Goofing off has become a habit to me now so to break my new addiction will undoubtedly be painful. It's always something.

Anyway back to more pleasant things. There is some exciting news from the Sandpit. My Swampbush specimen has bloomed. I abducted this bush back in May of 09 from a tidal swamp in North Florida along the St Johns River. I have no clue as to what it is but I remember some of the mature bushes in the swamp had white flowers.

It was an experiment to see if the Swampbush would grow in my eco system here. Apparently it has adapted and survived to the climate change and has set it's blooms.

It is a good looking Swampbush as far as Swampbushes go and it appeals to me. So there!

And on the America Beautyberry front my two grown from seed plants have berries and they are actually turning purple like they are supposed to.

I got the seeds from a gardener up in Tampa or thereabouts from an seed exchange by mail.

Now I know that the American Beautyberry is just a kind of Mulberry bush which lots of folks consider pests. But I like it and planted in the Sandpit bird corner the two bushes look good.

The birds like it also as I saw a Mockingbird getting some of the berrys and trying them out. The Mockingbird usually prefers my Lantana plant berrys with the occasional Everglades Tomato on the side. But now he has a choice of berrys for lunch .

As for my 2010 Summer favorite I have to give the award this year to the Ruella plants. These guys never fail to be amazing with their Summertime blooms.

I have two containers of the plants that I keep by my back porch. They will be covered in purple blooms each morning which drop off every afternoon around 3 pm. The next day they start over again full of new blooms for the day.

During the Summer these plants really work overtime to put on a new show everyday.

I think that they are also called Mexican dropflower plants or Mexican Petunias.

And to wrap it up I couldn't resist adding this guys picture. He is making a picture perfect three point landing on the Mexican Sunflower that would make any pilot proud. Check out that landing flair. Now that's what I call technique.!

And that's the fresh poop from the pit. Here's hoping that you too don't find Your garden overgrown with Tirods from over the Summer.

--SANDDUNE--

NEW ADDITIONS

Several of the cuttings that I took on May 6 th have rooted and are ready to put out into the yard. This guy here is from my Angel Trumpet bush. I had to add the wire cage to protect the plants from my dogs who seem to derive great pleasure from trampling my new transplants.










This Croton plant was also made from a cutting that was taken and potted on May 6th. Both of the cuttings seem to have developed healthy roots and seem to be ready to face the elements on their own.


The Gardenia cutting didn't survive and the Bougainvillea is still green with some new growth but is looking kind of sickly. I planted the Bougainvillea out too hoping the added light will bring it back around.
Overall that is a 75% sucess rate with the cuttings experiment and I have three new additions to the garden pretty much for free.

This guy I planted out also just to see if it will survive and prosper here. It is an Unknown Swamp bush that I brought back from North Florida on Mother's Day. The original growth had shrivelled up and died . I kept it around instead of trashing it and was rewarded with this new sprout and growth. So I planted it, caged it placed it in the garden. We will see what happens with it. My wife seems to think that it is Poison Oak. Of course it is not Poison Oak, I hope.





This was my morning suprise today. My Park's Pearl hybrid Cucumber started producing it's first cucumber. I suppose they gave it the name Pearl because of it's whitish color. I will have to look it up to see how big it gets but its looking like salad is on the menu real soon.

---sanddune---
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SCAVENGED PLANTS FOR THE GARDEN

We took a trip up to Jacksonville Florida over the Mothers Day weekend to visit relatives. It was a great opportunity to go plant scavenging in that my sister inlaw lives on the edge of a tidal marsh of the St Johns river. The back of her property is woods and swamp and is like finding a wild plant store but the price is only your labor to retrieve them while surviving the attacking bugs. This trip I was able to bring back a small Mimosa tree that I am trying to nurse back to health from the heat and shock of being dug up.

I also found what I have only heard called a Butterfly Bush and was able to get it for the yard.

We had one several years ago and liked watching the multicolor flowers as well as the butterflys it attracts. I have heard a lot of folks think this bush is a pest but I always liked it. It gives off a distinct smell that some folks don't like but I am glad that I stumbled across this guy for my garden . The last scavenged plant I have no idea what it is but it grows into a large bush with white flower clusters on the ends of the branches . It got severly dehydrated before I could get it dug up and in a pot so at this point it is a question if it will come back. But to grow here in South Florida you must be tough to handle the summer heat and humidity. Only a few more days will tell if this swamp plant will revive. It was good to get back as my plants went without water for four days in the brutal heat. I found that almost everything was dehydrated except for the Bell Pepper plants which appear to like being baked in the heat. I planted them out on May 1st as small sprouts and have these two left the third a Thai Hot Pepper fell victim to some type of insect who devoured the new sprout at the ground. It is hard not to resort back to spraying poison when the bugs kill your plants. I am trying to stay with my goal of using organic methods and more research seems to be in order to find a solution to the insects without breaking out the old sprayer and insecticide to combat them. The good news beside my new additions from up north is that my Mandevilla vine produced its first bloom of the summer today. I had cut it way back to about six inches tall in December and the vine is now almost nine feet tall growing up a vertical piece of rebar steel I had concreted in the ground as a growing stake. I plan on taking some cuttings from this vine and starting some new Mandevilla's from it. The garden for now is endeavering to persevere in the heat untill the

rainy season can get here and give us all some relief. ...sanddune....

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