Strange and Wonderful Things in the Garden

This semester of classes is pretty tough..Discrete Math and a more advanced C++ currently topping the list.  I have to study harder and more frequently which gives me less time in the garden..I have left it to its own devices meandering out there here and there to check on things.  This morning, however, I decided to spend some quality time as some of my plants needed moving and some just needed to be put in the ground.

The veggie garden is making good progress.  I planted Fern Leaf Dill, Pineapple Sage and Gomphrena in the space next to the edging this morning.  Hubby had dug a trench to install irrigation off our main system and the tilled dirt inspired me.

I finally planted my red Passionflower Vine on the back wall of the butterfly garden, in between my regular Blue (purple) Passion Vine and a Lady Lavender Passion Vine (which I have yet to see bloom).  This really weird 'hammer head' worm was sliming down the back wall.  I watched him in fascination and allowed him to crawl around my plants until I lost track of him.  After the fact, I kind of regretted it, realizing he may be some strange parasite..he was about two inches long.

Back behind the garden is a shed which we will eventually remove.  For now, I use the ledge of the foundation at the base of the shed to 'store' my plastic pots and some garden paraphernalia that comes from the nurseries.  I have started re-purposing a lot of items for gardening, like egg cartons to sprout seedlings with vermiculite/moss mixture.  Admittedly, I don't always pick up after myself.  This is a bucket I used to scoop up oak leaves for the chipper to make mulch.  After I was finished I left it sitting behind the garden and eventually put two plastic containers in there that I had used for sprouting.  Several rain storms later..it was filled with these slimy, goopy black eggs.  It is VERY bad to leave standing water in Florida because of all the terrible mosquitoes..but there was no mosquito larvae to be found.  I have no idea what the eggs are..I am going to guess some sort of frog..and I could not bear to dump it out so they are staying where they are for the time being. 

Moving on to the butterfly garden..I never get tired of snapping photos of the ever present Gulf Fritillaries.  They pose for me all the time.  I normally crop the pictures in really close but I loved all the background colors in this one from the petunias and the pentas.

The Long Tailed Skipper has been here for a few weeks.  Prefers to hop around the lantana.  I love the blue green fuzz on his back.

Another strange and wonderful creature spotted in the garden.  This white spider was clinging to the underside of the lantana and didn't really want its picture taken but I persisted.  It was so white - I didn't know if this was the natural color or if it had gone through some skin shedding process but he looked pretty cool.

Aside from being messy, another of my faults is impatience.  Everything I have read about gardening says to have a plan and don't just put things in the ground.  This is very good advice.  I have looked at hundreds and hundreds of plans but couldn't decide exactly what to do for my zone and the space I had..etc.  So, sometimes, I just impulse buy a plant or flower then look up its characteristics later.  I bought a seed mixture wanting lots of blooms and colors..not realizing the height the flowers would grow.  This seed mixture has grown over the course of four weeks now to a height of three feet!  Since I foolishly put it at the front of my red and yellow garden, it is blocking the view of the beautiful plants behind it and looks kind of wild..I am going to have to move them one day. 

Luna Hibiscus is blooming profusely and one of the flowers blocked by the giant cosmos and zinnia. 

Coral Honeysuckle is blooming and growing beautifully on the trellis John built me.  I was worried about it for awhile but it is doing great now.

 

Mr. Lincoln rose bloom this morning.  The roses are doing pretty well in their own garden beside our temporary shed.  I had to weed today for the second time this week then covered them up with some more cypress mulch, hoping to inhibit some weed growth. 

I cut these flowers from my garden this weekend.  It includes Vinca, Zinnia, Melampodium, Lantana, Dahlia, and Pink Roses.  I have two varieties of Melampodium in the Red/Yellow garden..I don't know how the second, larger variety got there.  Several months ago when I planted the garden, I bought some dying Melampodium Melanie at Lowe's..they died after a couple weeks.  I bought some smaller Melampodium ( I think Paludosum) at a local nursery and it was thriving.  I saw these large leaves sprouting up one day and they bloomed like Melampodium..so maybe they were the dead ones from Lowe's?  At any rate, this morning they were invaded by army worms which are the only caterpillars I don't keep in my garden so I pulled some of it out and disposed of the critters.