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Most Recent Entries
- From the garden formerly known as summer; I get by with a little help from my friends
- More from Monica's garden (nothin' but stuff to love there!)
- My lawn is more of a ... meadow
- Chapter 12 - In which we visit the other Tribune garden writer's garden
- I'm about to save you $16 -- here's the highlights from Epcot's Behind the Seeds tour
- Boots gets the bronze and other winners of the recycled yard art contest
- Money? Who needs money for great yard art? (Not you!)
- Hungry? Let's trip on over to Eric's house
- Miracle-Crack -- it's a hard habit to break
- Picture yourself here: More photos from The Dirt's Dirty, Dirty Tour
- The 1st Dirty Dirty (hot and sweaty but wonderful) Dirt Tour!
- Glamour shots make us all want to hug a tree
- Dracaena teepee insists: "I'm more than a garden prop!"
- Willy the Garden Cat -- Adventures of a Horti-feline
- Fall bloomers? We got fall bloomers! ("I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom ...")
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Finally I get to see some really creative Keys-style garden art! I was beginning to worry.
Today is my husband’s birthday AND the opening day of stone crab claw season (Thanksgiving Day for the Carnathans.) We celebrated with a snorkel trip out to Looe Key, the No. 1 coral reef in the nation for diversity of coral and fish, or so they say. I wished I had an underwater camera because it looked like yet another garden down there, what with all the undulating sea fans and parrot fish in heavy makeup (both animals, yes, but we’re not into fine distinctions here at The Dirt.)
As we motored out to the reef, we passed a few homes with truly inspired decor. One bit of garden art I photographed just for Kim. I can see this in her yard! And when I signed on tonight and saw her post about the terra-cotta pot fish, I high-fived myself. Oh yeah, I can see Kim spending the weekend working on Buoy Man.
Even my husband was taken by this house, whose owners covered their seawall with spilling plants. The picture doesn’t do justice, but it’s one of the most lush landscapes we’ve seen so I have to post it.
Everyone on our boat wondered whether this was a bar or a home. It’s definitely a home—oh yeah, bachelor pad.
For the record, the snorkeling was wonderful although I swam into jellyfish twice. It was like swimming into a plastic grocery bag. The yuck factor is much worse than the sting. And I’m not disfigured, which was a concern. Lord knows I don’t need to add jellyfish welts to my dermatalogical challenges.
Last but not least, I took a couple hours yesterday to head out on my own and visit some of the nurseries I’d spotted. Wow. We should be very grateful for the abundance of plants we have in the Bay area! I don’t know whether it’s the economy, the brutal heat or the season, but two of the three nurseries I went to were on their last, wobbly legs. The last one, on Big Pine Key, was pretty nice. I got an aptenia, also called ice plant, which I’ve never before seen.
It’s a succulent from South Africa, a ground cover or spill-over plant for containers. Supposedly very drought-tolerant, but from what I read, it needs regular watering when it’s hot. Also potentially invasive. In my yard, you’ve got to be a very big bully to be invasive, so we’ll see.
Posted by Penny L. Carnathan, on 10/16 at 05:44 PM
Yay!! I hope it’s raining at my house!!
I soaked my nasturtium seeds right after you told us about that, Chip, and planted. Must’ve been 3, 4 weeks ago? Nothing! Maybe I’ll come home to some sprouts.
No buoy man pirate for you, Kim? I loved his peg leg. Maybe painted lavender and lime green? Huh?
I did see aptenia is also called sun rose. The nursery I visited had it with yellow blooms, too,but I only bought the one because I wasn’t sure how it would do. I have one more day—I can go back for more! Not enough to stop a wildfire, but a start. (That is absolutely fascinating, Susan.)
Posted by Chip, on 10/16 at 09:22 AM
The peg leg and eye patch are a nice touch ! I do think Kim is on to some thing with the terra cotta fish. I finally got some nastrum starting It sure did take long enough! when the first batch did not start I got more thinking maybe the seeds were old or bad now I have a few popping up so maybe they wre waiting for the weather to change or because I have been watering like crazy maybe a little of both with all the rain we are getting today thing’s should start popping up ...“Chip”..
Posted by Kim Franke-Folstad, on 10/16 at 09:12 AM
I have that beautiful plant. I think I got it at the plant sale at Chamberlain High School. Anyway, it was called Baby Sun Rose, but it’s definitely the same thing. It’s in a basket hanging from one of my arbors. I love it. It is very drought tolerant and blooms all the time.
But Buoy Man? Uh, no. That thing is hideous!
Posted by Susan Gillespie, on 10/16 at 06:55 AM
Ice plant is used extensively on the hills in California. Those who plant it below their houses used to have less fire damage during the season because the ice plant would definitely stop the fire because it holds water. And it looks beautiful. I think the city even plants it for that reason. At least in San Diego and LA. I never knew it’s real name. It has several different colors of flowers. I thought we couldn’t grow it here because our rains would rot it out.
Buoy man——too funny. Looks like you are having a great time Penny. That’s wonderful.
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Posted by Chip, on 10/18 at 11:32 AM
Boy Is it nice out side! I even put on long pant’s and sweat shirt to work in our garden. today is harvest day for our corn. will take photo’s before. Diane is planting enough onions to feed an army and after the rain we had a lot of our seeds are coming up nicely. we will have to thin them out soon. Looking forward to how the fruit and spice park looks like now I guess they dropped rare from the name maybe it isn’t so rare anymore!
...“Chip”..