A Special Avian Visitor and Two’fers

Here’s a quiz for you. What bird is a petite 4 inches long, has a bright blue head, red belly and a lime green patch on its back? No, not from your 6 year old niece’s “Painting By Numbers” book. Answer: A Painted Bunting. Last week, just as it was beginning to get dark, a male Painted Bunting arrived to feed. When I saw all the bright colors I could not believe my eyes. It took my youngest son to track down the identity of this elusive and shy little bird on Wikipedia. Although the Painted Bunting is a native of North America and belongs to the Cardinal family, it is sadly near threatened due to loss of habitat. The Painted Bunting likes to eat millet, small seeds but will also nosh on spiders, caterpillars and other insects. Much to our delight, he comes back everyday now and, although I couldn’t get close enough to take a decent picture, you can go to the Wikipedia link to check out this gorgeous little fella! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_Bunting

I will hotly refute any suggestion that I am a cheapskate or anything, but I am mildly frugal, and I especially like getting two for one. “Two’fer” examples in my gardening world are quantified as getting two or three harvests from one plant (duh! not beans or tomatoes) or using something for a nifty gardening purpose when it was purchased as something else. Money saving examples that gardeners in S. Florida, currently growing lettuce and broccoli, can take advantage of are as follows. I planted leaf lettuce last November and all plants have matured. Can we eat 8 lettuce heads before they all bolt? Here is the solution. When making salad take leaves from around the outside of the lettuces and maybe a few inside leaves, use scissors here for sterile cuts. Leave 4 little biddy leaves at the heart of the lettuce and continue watering. Within a week you will notice that those 4 leaves are beginning to grow with another cluster of smaller leaves inside and you will have a 2nd harvest, and maybe even a 3rd!

2nd harvest lettuce

Same deal with broccoli folks, when you have harvested the head don’t compost the whole plant yet. With just the stem left the broccoli will develop broccolets (a made up word) from the side stem which are tiny offerings for your stir fry. Wow! are we saving some money here or what!

broccolets

Who needs peat pots? Not I. Try cardboard egg boxes with holes punched in the bottom filled with some nice cheap perlite and mix in some potting soil. Put the seeds in and water with a home made watering can. My light and oh so portable “watering can” is a sour cream container with lots of little nail holes...works like a charm. When the seeds develop into sprouts transfer to larger pots with a plastic spoon, or grandma’s best silver if you prefer. And talking about seeds and sowing, guess what is super handy to keep seeds dry and will also dispense one seed at a time.......a toothpick dispenser. Dixie brand works for me. 

And finally, mad scientist that I am (not really), I recently became enamored with Quinoa - a delicious grain that the Inca civilization cultivated. The package instructions direct you to wash the grains really well - because apparently Quinoa has a coating substance called saponin, a bitter tasting compound that repels insects from eating the grain. Really? Bitter tasting insect repellant? So, when I washed the Quinoa grains I just happened to have a handy-dandy pot underneath to save the water soluble saponin. Then, because the white cabbage butterflies loitering in my garden have not escaped my beady eye, I sprinkled this water over my fledgling cabbages to see if the worms and caterpillars will be repelled. I will keep you posted on my progress fellow gardeners. Have a great weekend.

Now It Makes 'Scents!'

Crinum Lily

Today, I was reminded that long forgotten scents can and do evoke powerful memories. While walking I detected the sweet and pleasantly, pungent smell of warm hay and horses. Curiosity piqued, I took deeper breaths and remembered my horse orientated childhood, then I turned the corner and saw a horse happily grazing in a front yard. 

Walking home I reflected on the memory trigger. Do garden lovers unconsciously choose scented trees, shrubs, annuals and perennials in their yards that might not have the identical odor, but come pretty close to that linked to a pleasant memory?

7 years ago I was given a Crinum Lily which we planted and forgot. One day I could smell something amazing in the yard and re-discovered the thriving Crinum with a towering and magnificent, pink colored flower. Its delicious combo-aroma of honeysuckle, rain and pears transported me back 35 years across the Atlantic Ocean to an urban garden with a mature, rambling honeysuckle. The Crinum was promptly replanted closer to the house and we have had many ‘pups’ from that one plant. After a good rainfall, the flower stem almost appears overnight and its scent is both sweetest and strongest at night, which might suggest it attracts bats and moths. 

For a long time resident of Florida, the ultimate aroma-induced happiness moment has to be the heady-sweetness of orange blossoms. For me the scent of those white, waxy blooms wafting from our tree, conjures up earlier years of summer vacations. Back then we travelled north on I95 with our young boys and past the miles of acres of orange groves in Martin County. And, although I have not seen a bluebell patch in 25 years, in a quiet reflective moment I can still recall the heady and deeply soothing aroma of those residents of England’s deeply shaded, and damp woodland glades. I am not likely to find a bluebell patch in sub-tropical Florida anytime soon but I’ll keep my nose to the ground and hold out for a scentsational-double that can hold its own in my garden of aromatic memories. Having said that I can assure you I won't be getting a horse anytime soon, they are just too expensive to feed!

Chilled But Not Stirred and Hold The Ice, Thanks.

Here's Bobby!

I don’t know about the rest of you South Floridian gardening folks but I was more than relieved when the nighttime temperatures began to climb into the mid 40’s. For a few days the birdbath was frozen solid in the morning and my garden was beginning to look like Halloween again what with all the blankets and sheets covering the tomatoes and peppers. Amazingly enough some 1” in-ground Cherry tomato “sproutlets” did made it through those bitter nights, but then I did cover them with boxes. The 3” Sunmaster tomatoes melted and I gave up covering them but here we are two weeks later and they have reasserted themselves with healthy, new leaf growth! The cabbages also made it through, as did the potted leaf lettuce (which I did bring in onto our screened in patio). As far as the mature tomatoes are concerned other than a little frostbite damage on leaf tips they are thriving. It is interesting to note that the in-ground tomatoes are faring better than those in large pots. Last year I had read that before a really cold spell you need to water tomatoes deeply but at their root base and not the leaves. In case you are wondering, no I don't have a remarkable memory but I do keep a gardening journal.

Since installing our tiny but beloved butterfly garden last November the group of Milkweed plants have many Monarch caterpillars munching away. I was happy to see these black and yellow striped critters also survived, and some are as big as my little finger. They really are quite smart and will attempt to hide under a leaf if you observe them for too long.

Also, luckily for this gardening family of broccoli lovers no plants were affected by the chilly weather. I discovered this tip last year - by accident per most of my learning experiences. When you remove the mature broccoli head don’t then remove the remaining plant, over a few days some tiny broccoli sprouts will appear from the main stem and they are good stir fried or steamed. I let some of the broccoli to go to flower since those little blue-green neon bees seem to love the canary colored flowers.

Our family was amused to see that some enterprising lizards had made their homes in those little, fake bird houses you can get from the grocery store. The main picture shows Bob peeking out from his Log Cabin.

Last but not least the Pileated Woodpecker has made a return visit to the large bird box. I am hopeful that they will have their chicks in there again. More to follow. Happy New Year to you and yours!

T’is the Season to be Holly, I mean Jolly

Ahh! It’s that time of year again when families and friends get together to enjoy a dish and a dram or two. I always have to give myself a big lecture before attending or hosting one of these occasions on not to bore the ants, I mean pants, off anyone by twittering on about my garden and the beauty I find in it every day. Lettuce be clear about this, over the years I have found that I can very quickly glaze someone’s eyeballs over by tooting my hornet about how big my broccoli is, the merits of growing and eating organic vegetables, in addition to the germination time of a mini pepper seed. Sometimes I can get so carried away I find myself itching to talk about the wormy compost heap just as someone’s about to pop a meatball with spaghetti in their mouth. Oh well, I guess I am just an avid – or is it aphid – gardener? Onion you glad I’m not spending time at your home this festive season? Since most of our neighbors can actually hear both of our conure parrots shrieking away at every perceived danger, they have no interest in their diet or how cute and clever they are by saying things like “what’ya doing?” or “very bad birdie!” No sir, no-one is amused, imagine that. I guess I will just have to bonemeal up on some intellectually newsworthy item like the gasoline reserves or the debate of the tax package. Anyway folks, hoe, hoe, hoe …. Ooh that’s corn-y – may the joy and blessings of this season be yours.

Composting

Seen the price of potting soil? I go through bags of it since our Florida yard soil is very sandy and does not have much nutritional value for healthy plants. Over the years I have amended it and it is getting better, both in consistency, drainage and ‘muck’ value. Mulching certainly helps, but takes a long time to break down.  I didn’t want the expense of getting a composting drum and my husband was pretty concerned about the perceived odor. Determined to give composting a go I bought a 25 gallon plastic drum from a large nursery store and punched holes in the bottom with a box knife. Every day I put the potato peelings, egg shells, carrot tops, coffee grounds, broccoli stems, orange peels, wilted lettuce, molded fruit, tea bags and anything else I could think of including the paper from the bottom of our bird cages but with the exception of dairy and meat. I covered it with a lid and watched the transformation from gunk to gold. I won’t go into the fascinating meltdown process that takes place but it’s fast! In no time at all I had black, healthy compost that I can incorporate into my veggie pots and they LOVE it. And guess what….no odor. Now don’t let this gross you out, but sometimes I see the pile moving as the bugs, worms etc. chomp their way through this decomposing morass-like heap. It’s also a smorgasbord for all the lizards and frogs that eat anything of a flying nature that thinks it can muscle its way in. Honestly it’s a wonder my neat freak beloved puts up with my “experiments” – what with the recycled (and well rinsed out) 15 gallon detergent containers positioned at strategic points around the house catching the runoff rain from the roof (very classy) and now the compost heap!

Get Certified!

My family and I love all the furry, feathery, slithery, fluttery visitors to our yard. Every spring the Pileated Woodpeckers return to the neighborhood and nest. Look on UTube for some great videos taken of these birds. Since putting up a large enough box for the Pileated, other critter families have taken turns raising their young in same box, including a rambunctious family of squirrels and a “hoot” of Eastern Screech Owls. One year a honey bee colony set up their hive but we lost them during that unusual cold snap a winter or two ago. During the time the bees were there they did not bother us once, even though the box is located right by our BBQ. Now when the Pileated Woodpecker returns as soon as the grill lid is opened we hear this scrabbling from the box 15 feet up, and a fledgling will pop a head out of the box and watch us grilling! Another box set in the back provides shelter for smaller Red bellied Woodpeckers who seem to “live” in it year round, this is probably not surprising since the box is a hop, flap and glide to the bird bath and sunflower seed/peanut holder I fill up every morning. If I am delayed in this obligation I can always rely on the blue jay brigade that will shriek at me from the branches until I get myself out there. I also hang little huts that I pick up at the grocery store for bees and lizards to shelter in. Keeping to permanent shrubs and plants that are Florida specific and drought tolerant provides shelter, food sources and saves oodles of water. We have birds of paradise, coconut and fox tail palms, wild coffee, blue and salmon colored porterweed, fire bushes and sea grapes that produce loads of berries for the birds. In the back part of the yard we have a permanent brush pile that I believe a box turtle lives in and I know black racers live under the shed and a red rat snake occupies a Queen Palm. Ever seen a snake climb a tree? A large broken clay pot turned upside down has a plant tray on top that I fill with water. I believe there are probably toads that live in the pot underneath, I don’t think I will put my hand in there and find out though. So when my neighbor, whose yard resembles the nature trail at MacArthur Park, put up a sign “Certified Wildlife Habitat” I was wildly curious how one would get certified. Turns out we were half way there already. To apply and join visit the web site of the National Wildlife Federation and, if you have water, shelter, places to raise young and food sources for wildlife, you’re all set. I can tell you it was a great source of pride for us when we put up our own sign that gives recognition on “the establishment and maintenance of an official wildlife habitat.” You can live in a pint size yard and still meet the guidelines, so what are you waiting for…….Get Certified! The local wildlife will reward you with hours of entertainment and enjoyment. Visit www.nwf.org for more info.

Tomato Time!

I saved the seeds from last years crop of tomatoes and this year started most from seed in the last week of September. I used really good quality potting mix and paper drinking cups. I labeled the paper cups with the seeds I was going to plant and dated it.  I punched little holes in the bottom of each cup, filled with potting mix, one little seed and placed in one of those deep styrofoam containers that mushrooms come in. I dampened down the soil mixture with diluted fish emulsion and lined them up on the patio facing the sun. I kept the soil damp and 8 weeks later they are 4” high. I have found with practice that baby tomatoes plants like to be “brushed” with your hand, they grow into stronger plants. I am torn between container gardening and wanting to just plunk them into the ground – I have watched Godfather II you know, Don Corleone didn’t have any problems with his tomato patch even though it rather seemed they assassinated him. Using potting soil seems to solve the problem of those nematodes that like to lay their eggs in the roots and stunt growth. So….I do both. I dig a 10” x 10” hole in the garden and line it with newspaper, then I fill it partway with compost from my pile, then some perlite, then potting soil, stir in with some slow release fertilizer and wait for it a ripe banana! Tomatoes love bananas – who would have guessed. Pop the baby tomato in hole while still in its paper cup and fill so the soil is mounded around plant and then mulch heavily, but not with Cypress. The photo shows a tomato that is 39” high that I put in the ground November 1^st! PS. Raccoons like bananas too and evidently can smell them even when they are buried 8 inches deep.