"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
Robert Louis Stevenson




Thursday, November 18, 2010

A Visit From A Few Feathered Friends

I happened to have the camera in the kitchen when a few of our friends stopped by for a bath.  I believe the brown, black and white bird is a Spotted Towhee, not sure about the blue and brown one.  I missed taking a picture of the gold finches today.  Yesterday there were a dozen taking a bath at once. I rarely see the Towhee in time to get a picture but was lucky today.  I took these through the kitchen window on zoom so they are not as clear as I would like but I wanted to share them.  I will check again later in the afternoon and hope to get some pictures of the finches. 





Tuesday, November 16, 2010

My Sansevieria trifasciata has flower buds!

I have been growing this plant for at least 10 years.  Last August a friend of mine was visiting and mentioned that her plant blooms.  She must have the Midas touch because for the first time mine now has three flower stocks coming up.  I believe that it is doing this just for her!  I will add more photos as it opens but for now here are a few shots of "my little miracle."




My friend with the Midas touch!


Commonly called the snake plant or Mother-in-law's tongue.  It is an easy plant to grow and if you are lucky to have a friend with the Midas touch, you might just get one to bloom.


Thursday, November 11, 2010

Brown Turkey Fig Tree


The weather was perfect on Sunday and it was time to plant my wedding anniversary gift from my husband.  I have been wanting a fig tree for several years and  we finally bought one on our 32nd wedding anniversary in October. 

With all the rain we have had the last few weeks I was unable to plant it until the ground had some time to dry out.


 I dug a big hole, yes I do this myself! Tony was standing by just in case I hit some granite. I recently removed a white Buddleia davidii  from this area so most of the soil was loose enough for me to dig deeper.


I used the leftover soil to make a berm around the tree to create a basin to hold the water.  This area is on a slope of ground so this will keep it from running off until the roots take hold.


We decided on an Improved Brown Turkey Fig.  Our local nurseryman said this one would not grow that large and since we don't have a lot of space left for trees we thought this would be a good choice. 


"Blessings upon thee, gentle bud of hope!"


The bird bath was another gift from Tony. The old one I had was Italian clay and was here when we bought the house. The raccoons loved to tip the edge of the bowl to get to the water.  One October night they must have had a party; they tipped the whole thing over and broke the bowl into so many pieces it was not salvageable. It had been broken once before but I was able to repair it. This new one is far too tall for them to reach, I hope, and is so heavy I don't think they will be able to. It is actually a base for a fountain, we negotiated with the nurseryman and got it for $100.00. 

The birds are really enjoying it, it is much deeper than our old one.  I saw a Black Phoebe in it yesterday, he was diving in and then resting on the center area after each dive.  He never really bathed like most birds do, he just kept diving in and up to the center; I have seen this bird often but this is the first time I have seen it bathe; maybe it likes a deeper bowl. 

Here is a picture of the base I was able to recycle from the old birdbath.  I hate to throw anything out that can be re-purposed.  This worked out perfectly for one of my many Pelargoniums.

After all my hard work I sat down for a nice cup of Hibiscus tea.  I recently cleared this area of ground cover to create another seating area.