Taming The Swamp - Again

Were it not for the constant efforts of people weedwacking, mowing or shearing their yards, Mother Nature and her consort Father Time would no doubt re-install the dense vegetation and swamp that once covered most of Southeast Florida. 

Indeed, it would seem that just recently they made a hostile take-over bid for my yard........

Tropical Storm Isaac Flooding - looking toward street from driveway

Let's Play "Pin the Tail Light On Where The Street Used to Be?"

Another View Of The Street

One Soggy Yard

Isaac was only a Tropical Storm when he huffed and puffed his way through here, and thank goodness we have well maintained canals and swales to take the deluge of water away from our yards and homesites. In addition, the numerous, mature pine trees that populate our yards certainly take up most of the ground water within a day or two.

Looking south on Pathway

The yard got blown about a bit though. The Sky Vine felt very sorry for itself after the gusting winds and drooped sadly to the ground thereby blocking our patio doorway, and the pathway on the left.

During the last few weeks of intense rain, combined with temperatures in the high 90s, the foliage simply exploded with growth.

And so, despite the heat, the bugs and the afternoon thunderstorms, I headed out there for some badly needed yard maintenance.

Before - Looking South. Vine Cut Back.

Photo on right taken at 11am. Photo below 3pm.

Landscape fabric installed. Mulch will follow.

Afterwards - Looking South at 3pm

Below left: 11am from opposite direction. What a jungle! I joked with my son that if the yard got any wilder I'd need a guide, a canoe, and a rifle to venture out there! Below right: 3pm. Bird bath resited.

Before - Looking North, same pathway

 Afterwards - Looking North - 3pm

Below a close-up of the bird bath, which sits in a pot with a "running" bamboo. The photo on the right shows the base of the pot sitting on a large concrete stone. If it were not contained in this way, the running bamboo would take off across my yard, dashing hither and thither via its running (invasive) rhizome root system and pretty soon they'd be nothing in the yard except the bamboo (and the neighbors would just love me). 

The horse's head is a remnant of a once great lamp base. I really enjoy this recycled "art" in my garden.

Below a little tree frog took shelter from the gales under the folded patio umbrella, along with its whole family it seemed.

And, as if I didn't have enough raucous frog chorus in the flooded yard, the little guy below decided to sit right outside our bedroom and serenade us.....all night.

And I could really do without a skink in the bathtub thank you very much...

Below - a Southeastern Five-Lined Skink.

Naturally, the abundance of frogs and toads, leaping around in the flooded yard captured the attention of another visitor....a very large Hawk.

Honey.... I Shrank The Sea-Garden!

I don't really have a Sea-Garden, and there are plenty of very talented gardener-bloggers that create (terra firma) "fairy" gardens, and miniature gardens that, replete with tiny paving stones, teeny benches and arbors, are gorgeous to behold.

We live reasonably close to the Atlantic on the Florida Seaboard, and I thought, how much fun it would be to create a little "sea garden" that reminds us of the ocean.

First of all I had to find a suitable number of small containers in which to create my miniaturized sea-gardens. Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows what a cheapskate I am, and so my choice of containers have to range from a $1 to about $4, and the whole creation preferably should be between $10 to $15.

A visit to a couple of goodwill / donation centers yielded up the following candidates:

The 'holiday' ceramic planter on the left was $4. I don't mind that it's a seasonally colored item, because I like the fern-like pattern on the sides, I think it will make a great water-top garden, which I am saving for a future blog. The real brass container was $1.99, and needs to be buffed up a bit, this is going to be a tiny succulent sea-garden.  I also picked up a shallow glass bowl for 99c (not shown here, but at the bottom of page).

I filled them both up with water to make sure they are not going to leave a water stain on my thift store antique furniture.

The brass container came up wonderfully with a bit of Brasso and I can now see it also has a foliage pattern engraving, (the pinkish hue is a reflection from my phone case).

In the brass container, I lined the bottom with broken pot pieces to provide drainage. Then I filled container up with potting soil, to about the top of rim, placed plants in and watered again lightly to reduce air. This compacted the potting soil and left me about 1/4 inch from soil to rim of pot. Then I just covered the top of the potting soil with blue aquarium gravel (Wal Mart < $4). This is one of the succulents I picked up from Home Depot. Note the interesting 'teeth' on the plant. This is not a carnivorous plant, although my eldest son tells me that all plants are slightly carnivorous - especially those with spikes, or hair (like tomatoes) on their stems or leaves.

I added a few accessories to give the impression it was on the ocean floor, tiny half buried pot and a little turtle. The larger succulent gives the impression of kelp maybe.

Here's the sea-garden planted in the glass container bought for 99c. I bought the succulents for less than $9, used the Wal-Mart aquarium gravel less than $4 (used in both projects and half a bag left). I had to ahem "borrow" some of my husband's shell collection pieces as whimsy, and there's a piece of coral tucked in (left). The stacked rocks were just collected from the shore-line the other day. The blue stone, right with shell on it, is from Bali. The photo doesn't do it credit as to how pretty it really is. The blue gravel on green really pops doesn't it?

The glass bowl sea-garden was 99c bowl, 1/4 bag rocks $1, plants $9, I already had the potting soil, the rocks, shells and coral....so $11.
The brass container $1.99, 1/4 bag rocks $1, plants $6, ditto for "bling" .. so $9.

Ahhhh.....I can almost feel the sea breezes.

Enjoy your Labor Day Weekend. 

The Cost Of Growing Your Own Vegetables?

Has anyone ever asked you "why bother, when you can get all those home-grown vegetables from the organic green market/local stand/grocery store?" 

You mean outside of the ridiculous amount of enjoyment I get in starting the garden off with deciding what to plant, and sowing seedlings and buying transplants, the daily fussing checking in on their progress, and the harvest-to-table enjoyment?

Now I am the first person to admit that the initial outlay of large pots, wood for planter boxes, compost, peat moss, bamboo stakes etc, might put a lot of people off, but I am convinced that over a period of two years or less you're way ahead. More importantly the kids learn a hands on skill that, to my knowledge, isn't taught in schools, and which they can incorporate into their own lives having gotten a little confidence from early on.

My hubby gives me the deer-in-the-headlights look when I (very) casually mention a visit to the big-box DIY store. So I thought I'd take a minute to get my head around the weekly cost of buying veggies from someone else vs. growing them myself.

Free Things First: get your own compost bin going. It's free plant food. My compost bin is a cracked recycle bin, it took a year to get completely underway because my boys would just throw the eggshells/left over snacks (apples, celery stalks, carrot sticks etc) in the trash.

Let's imagine that, like us, you are a family of four, who enjoys stir fries, eggplant parmesan, salads, salsa, veggie soups etc. The below example shows an initial 1st year's outlay of installing a vegetable garden. The 2nd chart shows the costs coming down significantly. Finally I round off my self-debate with our weekly veg grocery cost as a comparison. To view our families weekly harvest during South Florida's veggie season, please take a peek at my previous blog.
My Summer Veggie Garden Rests

1st year outlay example
Assumes you use some of your own garden soil.

Description	#	Unit Price	Cost
15 gallon Pots/Totes	4	$ 10.00	$ 40.00
Compost/Peat Moss/Soil Mix	7	$ 8.00	$ 56.00
Selection of stake bundles	2	$ 4.00	$ 8.00
Alaskan Fish Emulsion 1 gallon	1	$ 13.00	$ 13.00
Wood for one 8’ x 4’ planter box	3	$ 7.00	$ 21.00
Bonemeal 4.5 lbs	1	$ 9.00	$ 9.00
Netting for beans	1	$ 4.00	$ 4.00
Tomato/Pepper/Eggplant Cages	6	$ 4.00	$ 24.00
Tomato Plants	2	$ 4.00	$ 8.00
Pepper Plants	2	$ 4.00	$ 8.00
Eggplants	2	$ 4.00	$ 8.00
Broccoli / Cauli transplants packs	4	$ 4.00	$ 16.00
Assorted Seed Packages	4	$ 2.00	$ 8.00
Sundry items/other veggies	1	$ 25.00	$ 25.00
Miracle Grow/Dynamite examples	2	$ 8.00	$ 16.00
		Subtotal	$ 264.00

2nd year outlay example

At this point you've got your own compost pile to add to your garden.

Description	#	Unit Price	Cost
Compost/Peat Moss/Soil Mix	4	$ 8.00	$ 32.00
Selection of stake bundles	2	$ 4.00	$ 8.00
Alaskan Fish Emulsion 1 gallon	1	$ 13.00	$ 13.00
Tomato Plants	2	$ 4.00	$ 8.00
Pepper Plants	2	$ 4.00	$ 8.00
Eggplants	2	$ 4.00	$ 8.00
Broccoli / Cauli transplants packs	4	$ 4.00	$ 16.00
Assorted Seed Packages	4	$ 2.00	$ 8.00
Sundry items/other veggies	1	$ 25.00	$ 25.00
Miracle Grow/Dynamite examples	2	$ 8.00	$ 16.00
		Subtotal	$ 142.00

 

Notice the reduced 2nd year Subtotal vs. 1st year's cost?

My weekly vegetable bill alone would be this - if we didn't grow our own!

Description	#	Unit Price	Cost
Broccoli	2	$ 1.99	$ 3.98
Green Peppers 99c/lb	2	$ 0.62	$ 1.24
Red/Yellow/Peppers $1.99/lb	2	$ 0.96	$ 1.92
Cauliflower	1	$ 2.49	$ 2.49
Tomatoes on Vine $1.29/lb	6	$ 0.60	$ 3.60
Broccoli Rabe $1.99/lb	1	$ 2.49	$ 2.49
Bag of Carrots	1	$ 1.99	$ 1.99
Onions White	2	$ 1.00	$ 2.00
Strawberries	1	$ 2.50	$ 2.50
Basil Sprigs/Parsley/Lettuce	3	$ 1.99	$ 5.97
Eggplants $1.99/lb	1	$ 4.00	$ 4.00
Bag of Potatoes	2	$ 4.00	$ 8.00
Celery Bunch	1	$ 1.99	$ 1.99
		Subtotal	$ 42.17

Note: I have been very forgiving with the unit costs. For example Green Peppers are sometimes $2.49/lb and Strawberries $5.00 for 16 oz. Baby Eggplants run at $3.49/lb.

Let’s say I would spend $42 over 48 weeks (assume chopped and / or frozen left overs carry us over the remainding weeks.) Over the course of a year that’s approximately $2,000! 

My initial outlay of approximately $300 has yielded a minimum of 7 months of continuous fresh produce. They are not all readily available at the same time, due to differing maturity periods, and cool vs. warm weather veg. But none-the-less, the grocery bill savings are enormous.

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me! Now what was the question again.....