Pam – Page 47 – Hydrangeas Blue

Fairytale Places I’d Like to Live

Not much is happening in my garden these days, so I thought I’d share some interesting photos I came across at the Free photo sharing site, Pixabay.

These fairytale places contain elements I would require to be truly happy and at peace.

1. I would need a beautiful view, preferably with mountains and / or water.
2. Lots of land, with room to roam and explore.

That’s about it, except maybe fertile land with room for a nice vegetable and flower garden. With room for animals, I’d probably have a lot of those too.

I prefer a small house, but maybe not quite as small as this little red house in the Alps. I wonder where those outdoor steps are leading? And quite honestly, I’d like to have a window or two in my house!

alpine home Switzerland alps — Alpine Home in Switzerland, Photo shared at Pixabay by Fotoworkshop4You

I like the idea of having to cross a cool bridge to get to my house. I’m not sure that little building is a house or a barn, but this bridge is awesome, and the river looks interesting.

Okay, in this shot you can’t see my home (haha) but this is the view out my front window. I can watch my sheep graze in the meadow.

English countryside England — England, landscape – contributed to Pixabay by tpsdave

Now this little wood home, or cabin, is right up my ally. Looks to be the perfect size, with a porch and mountain view. Could those be fruit trees of some kind in the backyard?

small house cabin with porch — Wood Cabin, contributed to Pixabay by Tappancs

And below, a picture of my horse!

Hope you enjoyed my journey through dreamland. I did get some work done today too. This was just a quick escape … which we all need now and then.

black horse with long white mane — Iceland Horse, by contributor Blaer at Pixabay

All of these photos can be found at Pixabay.com

How to Care For a Desert Rose Plant

desert rose pink flowers — Desert Rose in Garden

When I was given this flowering plant as a gift I was told it was a Plumeria. After seeing this same plant at the local Home Depot store, I discovered it was a Desert Rose. But before I knew what it was, I had taken it out of the original pot and put it into a sunny location in the backyard.

Sun is exactly what this flowering plant craves. But the word “desert” caused me to believe less water was better. The truth is that this plant did well with and without water.

Today I am watering it frequently, and it is thriving! So much for the “desert” title.

At the time I planted it, we were have a long dry spell here in Florida. The Desert Rose did well. I avoided watering it when I watered the hibiscus next to it, and the plant even sent out new buds, which you can see blooming at the bottom of the stalk.

Florida is a tropical place, but some areas are more tropical than others. I am in the central part of the state and it can get very cold (below freezing) here overnight in winter. I was afraid the Rose would die, so I ended up digging it up and putting it into a (bright orange) pot.

pink desert rose in orange pot — Dug up and potted

The Secret to Growing a Desert Rose in Florida

Sunlight is most important, with plenty of heat. The plant can deal with lack of water (I’ve tried that), but it also loves a daily spray with the hose.

These plants develop a very thick “stem” or caudex (see them in the photo below). This is the part that holds in the water to keep the plant thriving in drought conditions. But apparently it does not need to grow in a desert to thrive.

Keep it in a pot so it can come inside when temperatures drop – some sites say below 60 degrees and others say 40. Just bring it inside when it gets cold to be safe.

Pictures of My Desert Rose and How It Has Grown

As I mentioned above, this plant was a gift to me shortly after I moved into my house in 2016. I’ve had the plant for nearly 2 years now.

After a period of dormancy during the winter, suddenly lots of buds began to show up. New little leaves began to grow from the base of the stem. This was about the time when aphids were appearing on all my plants outside. A daily check, and I would spray the buggers off with the hose. I let the lady bugs take care of most of the aphids in my garden, but the Rose is not near the vegetables.

desert rose — Blooming Desert Rose, after winter

desert rose plant in pot — Give it sunshine! It is slow growing.

In the photo below, lots of greenery is showing on the plant, which has stopped blooming for now. It will take this time to put effort into growing stems and leaves before it begins to flower again.
Right now I am not sure when that will be. This plant flowers more than once a year, so I expect to see buds forming soon.

green leaves on desert rose — August 2018, glossy green leaves on my desert rose. I spray it with the hose every day.

More Information About The Desert Rose

The Desert Rose is similar in appearance to the plumeria / frangipani tree and Oleander. The unique aspect is the thick stems. The Oleander does grow in Florida, but I have not seen Plumeria trees. Maybe they will grow in the southern part of the state. For more information about growing the desert rose elsewhere, read my friend’s article: Desert Rose Adenium Plant for Gardening and Bonsai.

Like the Oleander plant, the Rose contains poisonous sap. It may not be a good choice as a houseplant for families with young kids for this reason.

The South Florida Plant Guide site has more info.

Here’s What’s Happening in My Florida Yard in May

Aside from the fact that the raccoons are helping themselves to all my tomatoes… red and green… I am still attempting to grow a garden. The raised bed is filling slowly with dirt and compost, and right now I have cucumbers, tomatoes, summer squash, bell peppers, and eggplant growing.

So far I am eating tomatoes and cukes. Still waiting for the peppers, squash and eggplant.

raised bed gardening — New Plants in My Raised Bed Garden

None of my vegetable plants were doing very well. They had plenty of sun and water. The problem was the soil. I have been buying bags of organic dirt, but I don’t think it had any type of compost in it. So I bought a few bags of compost, and that has helped. I had started my own compost in a pail on my porch and I added that to the raised bed. What I really need is a composter.

Now my older eggplant is flowering again. I have some green peppers and can see little cucumbers beginning to grow. But I need more dirt and compost.

eggplant flower growing — Maybe I’ll Get an Eggplant

The Rose bush is blooming, with small, but beautiful roses.

I must go outside and check them every day, because the flowers don’t last. Just the other day I got a pure white rose on this bush! But I waited too long and lost the opportunity to get a photo. Roses are difficult to grow and with the humidity here, I’m afraid of black spot – or whatever they get.

Down toward the back of my house the watermelon vine is getting longer, and baby watermelons are popping out along the stem.

tiny watermelon on the vine — Baby Watermelon

Since I’ve amended the soil with compost, the peppers are doing better. The bells are not very large yet, but I’m afraid the raccoons will pick them before I get to.

green bell peppers growing — Finally, my peppers are growing!

It’s been so dry here in Florida for months. This tropical location is in need of rain. We’ve had very few rainy days, and there have been fires all over the place.

Because of this, I decided to add a cheap bird bath to the corner of my garden. Using a big plastic pot saucer, I added some broken bricks left over from the building of our patio, and filled it with water. It sits on the corner of the raised bed. Each day I spray it out and refill while I’m watering the garden.

I do get birds who drink and bathe in the thing. A female cardinal especially seems to like it, and a Cowbird (I think) had a nice long bath the other day. Of course my cats drink from it as well!

I know that if I was still living in New Hampshire, gardening would hopefully begin this Memorial Day weekend. Their garden veggies won’t be coming in for a couple more months.

Okay, I Hate These Raccoons

After we moved into our new house in Florida, we noticed every night that raccoons would come out of the woods next door and explore our yard. They came right up to the back door, with the outside light on.

Oh, they were so cute. One time we looked out back to see three little raccoon faces peering out of the woods at us. . It was adorable, and if I were any kind of photographer I would have had the camera handy and captured that image.

However, I know that raccoons are not the sweet, adorable creatures they appear to be. And these days I abhor seeing their cute faces. They are thieves, that even wear masks as a warning! They have no regard for the hard work farmers and gardeners put into growing their crops.

Raccoons have sharp claws and teeth. They can be vicious if need be, and the ones that visit my yard are mostly unafraid of humans and my cats. They mostly do their damage at night, but we’ve been sitting at the outside table, in full daylight, and had one come out of the woods a mere 10 feet from us. Once he noticed we were there, he left. Rabies is common among them, but this one did not act in an unusual manner. I think he just wanted to see what we were up to.

I usually leave water outside for the cats during the day because of the heat. If I don’t empty the bucket, the raccoons always get into the water overnight and leave a muddy mess. Occasionally they dump the bucket.

One evening after we had been out on our boat, I rinsed my expensive water shoes and left them to dry on the back patio. The next morning one of my shoes was missing! Luckily I found the shoe at the edge of the woods where apparently the raccoon decided it would be of no use to him.

That same morning I discovered my tall sunflower stalk broken and dragged across the grass. It was the only sunflower seed that grew for me, and I really had hoped to see the flower bloom.

But worst of all is the stealing of my tomatoes. I just picked two ripe tomatoes and left about 4 more green ones on the vine. Today I saw that all the green tomatoes were gone! Last week they stole 2 nice red ones just before I had a chance to pick them.

They will drag pots and my fabric potting bags around. It seems they have a grand old time during the darkness of night. When the weather is nice, and my windows are open, I can hear them outside my window at night scampering around and occasionally “screaming” at each other. Yes, they make noise, and it’s creepy.

raccoon and chain link fence — Raccoon image from Pixabay

I’m thinking it’s time for a fence. However, I am not sure that will keep them away. I’ve read that they can climb fences, and we’ve watched them climb down from way up in a neighboring tree. The fence may have to be made of slick material, like metal or plastic, that they cannot climb. I’m saving my money, as we had planned to fence the yard anyway. These creatures just give me more incentive to do so.

I can only hope that with a wall between them and my yard the little robbers, or bandits as they are rightfully called, will forget about my garden and go someplace else to scavenge.

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A Little Mouse Story

I really don’t remember how I came across this little mouse. But I believe I saw my cat, Skittle, chasing something outside my back deck.

When I went outside there he was, “hiding” behind the dying nasturtium vines. Luckily for him, Skittle doesn’t seem to have the greatest eyesight. She couldn’t find him, but she knew he was in there someplace.

little gray mouse — Mouse hiding in the nasturtiums

This is skittle perched on the deck post, looking for the mouse down in the plant (lower right). The little guy stayed very still, thinking he was hidden… or maybe too scared to move.

His little nose was pushed into the vines and maybe he thought that made him safe.

Now, mice are cute. But up north, where I lived in New Hampshire, they always seemed to find a way inside the house for the cold winter months. I fought them every winter.

I hate to kill anything, but they can’t be left to take over the house. I set traps in my basement, and trusted the cats to help keep them away.

More than once I was up in the night because the cats were out in the kitchen “playing” with a mouse. They never killed one in the house, but Skittle liked to bring them into my bedroom – up on my bed – in the middle of the night, just to show me her treasure!

Ya… no.

I would get a plastic bowl and plop it over the mouse, then slide a piece of cardboard under it to catch the thing. This was surprisingly easy to do. Then, I would open the door and let it outside… where it belongs. Needless to say, I couldn’t sleep if I knew there was a mouse running around my home.

This little mouse in the Nasturtiums got away, as Skittle gave up looking for him. I’m sure he eventually made his way inside and scurried around my basement enjoying the warmth. The never-ending cycle.

Sunday Morning Garden Photography

Taking garden photos to share on a peaceful Sunday morning.

Is there anything better than a quiet, peaceful (and fairly cool) Florida morning? Sure, lots of things, but today I enjoyed the cloud cover as I checked on my gardens this morning and took some photos with my iPhone.

The hibiscus is blooming profusely and I noticed today that some of the flowers are a lighter color than others. They look pink here, for some reason, but they are really light orange. I was too lazy to use my graphics program to fix the color – look at the photo below to see a more true version. …….Still, the beauty is apparent.

In New Hampshire I always had sunflowers growing in my garden during the summer. They sprang up on their own, known as “volunteers”. I just let them grow where they were and planted my vegetables around them. In the Fall, little goldfinches and chickadees would land on the big heads and eat the seeds.

Because I don’t feed the birds in Florida, no sunflower seeds will voluntarily grow after being buried under the winter snow, so this one I had to plant. In fact I planted a lot of seeds, but this one the only one growing. Animals (squirrels) probably ate the other seeds.

My rose bush is doing fine so far. I am seeing roses bloom continuously. Their color is stunning, but the flowers don’t last long.

I’ve never been able to grow my own watermelon, but I am trying again. This one seems to be doing well enough.

The Desert Rose, which at first was thought to be a Plumeria, is planted in the ground and doing well. Lots of bright pink flowers have bloomed and I am seldom watering it, as required.

Persian lime flowering — Little limes growing on the Persian Lime tree

The Persian Lime tree is blooming like mad and little limes have formed. Many of them will end up falling off, I assume, but I’m hopeful that some will grow to be edible size.

Other happenings in my small yard: I saw two black snakes (black racers) yesterday within the span of about 3 minutes. They are “good” snakes and not poisonous, but still creep me out as I watch them slither through the grass. Now I’m back to watching where I walk.

Later today I will pick the one zucchini growing on my single zucchini plant. The potatoes have been dug, and the carrots pulled. Time to plant some new things that may, or may not, be able to take the Florida summer heat. At this point, it’s all an experiment.

Have a wonderful day!

Thank you for sharing!

The Secret to Growing a Desert Rose in Florida

Pictures of My Desert Rose and How It Has Grown

More Information About The Desert Rose

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!