Updates (late as always)

Ok, so when i said "tomorrow" in the last post what i really meant was 2 days from now. i can see where there would be confusion though... :)

Tried a little trick i saw posted somewhere that said if you rake your nails across a bar of soap and get soap under them first before you go digging around in the dirt all puppy-style that it's easier to get the dirt out of there.  Well i tried it and either my soap loading technique was horrible (ha) or it really didn't work that well for me. Someone thoughtfully commented that i should soak them and use hydrogen peroxide which i will be sure to try next time i'm out there digging in the yard.

speaking of digging in the yard: i transplanted the hollyhocks into the ground. they are the first transplants i've ever done from seed so i'm (sadly) very excited and hopeful for the little guys. i didn't do a ton of research on it before i dropped them in but i hope they can tolerate semi-slow draining soil that's slightly acidic - which i've read most of natural texas soil is.
so i'm digging out a spot for them so i can amend the soil a bit before they go in and you would not believe the stuff i found in my soil. my father is a mechanic so you find a ton of misc motorcycle parts everywhere but in addition to that theres:
   lego blocks
   wires
   glass shards from god knows what
   spoons
   bearings
   nails and bolts (nuts included!)
   old micro matchbox toys (my brother and i used to play with outside, only an inch long)

i swear i'm laughing as i type this b/c is so ridiculous. if you saw half of the stuff i pulled up... i'm gonna pile it up next time and snap a pic just so people can shake their heads at it. anyway, so digging this hole and i'm hitting something with my shovel. so i'm curious and i bump it a couple times making a "ting" noise. i'm thinking, alright, gotta be glass or a big rock right? but i dont wanna dull my shovel so i decide to poke around with the trowel to fish the little guy out. turns out it's not just a little guy but a water main, you know, the one that brings ALL the water into your house. yeah, so that was fun to find. note to self, right? i had an axe too to cut away thick roots that were labyrinthed under the dirt so i'm glad i wasn't hacking away at it. you can see the pipe in the picture right there. stuck my shoe in there for length perspective.

i put all the leftover soil in a large separate container and added finely shredded wood to it. the soil is so dark already i think it has plenty of nutrients, it just lacked that loamy texture everyone desires. read that the wood sucks up nutrients as it decomposes but i'm not all that worried about it even if it is true. i added a minute amount proportionally so i figure it's a pretty negligable impact if at all.

and speaking of hacking away roots... i dont know what plant was putting them out but my, there were a TON of roots. i have some ferns near there and some bush that puts out these red piped clustered flowers that hummingbirds gather around but i dont know which was doing it. i'll have to look the bush up later. but the roots were a nightmare. just look...these are only from that small section. those are not sticks, no sir, roots. All of them. funny too b/c i needed one more row for all the hollyhocks i had and i hadn't amended the section but as i was pulling up the root systems it was aerating the soil and loosening it for me. it was win-win.

and the soil i have out front is semi-decent too. i found worms and grubs in it. of course i threw out the grubs b/c i believe i saw somewhere they destroy root systems (although you woudn't guess it by what i pulled up). i found about 3 or  4 of the little worms and chunked them in with the hollyhocks and told them they could live there and start a family and all that good stuff. stay as long as you want my little symbiotic buddies.

oh, and i noticed the snow peas were way way overdue for some sort of trellis action. they were clinging to one another trying to make some headway. makes me think of when you're at work and you have those people that "climb to the top" but in a literal sense. one guy trying to make gain off someone else. well i couldn't let my little peas go out like and all i had was chicken wire from a scrapped previous project so we put it along the back wall. the bad thing is that the vines grow towards the source of the light and since the wall casts a slight shadow (which i'll move the bed next season) they grow away from the wall. to solve the problem i used some old bamboo shade we somehow acquired from somewhere, cut the thin sticks apart and weaved them together to make more of a slant towards the chicken wire we attached. i thought it looked kinda cute and much more natural looking than that hideous wire. next season i'll have to move that bed away from the side of that wall, i dont know what i was thinking when i put it there. and i'm thinking the slight shade cast at the far end (not pictured) is the cause of the stunted growth of a couple of the sprouts. learning experience.



ok, caterpillar time.

i come into my room and notice a hint of movement out of the corner of my eye and had to do a double take before i realized that it was the caterpillar that was moving. keep in mind he's webbed up at the top of the container, so he's actually upside-down. well one of his ends are moving, i don't know which end - what would the head or tail end look like anyway? so the end is protruded out and it looks like two small sacs (either eyes or some set of glands i would assume) are sticking out from either side and from the very tip he (or she :) ) is secreting this yellow tinted fluid in small globuals and sticking them to the webbing. poor thing was contorted at such a weird angle too trying to place the little droplets exactly where he wanted um. i actually sat there and watched him for a good 5 or 10 minutes. i wish i would have caught him doing the webbing. who would have ever thought that caterpillars could do that (especially furry ones). And now that i look at him today he's unclamped all of his footsies and he's just laying there, suspended in his little webbing house (why is everything "little" to me? haha). you can actually see the little globs of fluid all over the webbing in the picture. i would have moved the leaf but i hate disturbing him. i felt bad for even taking off the lid to take a picture. i tried to get a video of him actually secreting and placing the stuff but the top of that plastic container is much too cloudy. if i ever raise another one its strictly glass top only.

the magnolia tree is still a sapling but it's really starting to shine. I'm still pretty pleased about that one. it's the first tree i think i've ever planted and possibly the first thing i ever planted.

sidenote: i HATE the way this editor will not let me wrap text easily around my picutres. they should have a properties section for pictures like MS word when you right click. so irritating.

the plantings around it are ranunculus. they were becoming rootbound and overcrowded in the container they were in so i put them around the tree. not sure how shallow the root system is, but i'm hoping they're not too much interference with the tree. i've seen planting of crocus around trees but they may be better suited for it.

the ranunculus are also putting out flower stems. i can see the little bluges on top that flowers will emerge from on a few of them. i hope they're beautiful when they finally debut.

you can see that poor little top flower that i smacked and knocked petals off of. i took 2 more entire flower heads out too. i forgot how exactly now. it was probably: niki, in the front yard, with the shovel
(get it?).

With the shadier garden side: the hosta roots i planted seem do be doing well but i've seen no sign of the lilly of the valley yet. i'm sure they're fine though. the astilbe roots were planted later so i'm sure i wont see them for a while. the astilbe seeds were planted even later so i doubt i will see anything spectacular from them this year (or maybe even the next). i got super super lazy, not to mention running out of seed starting space, so i just went ahead and direct sowed some burpee alyssum seeds i picked up the other day. i don't find them all that spectacular so if they make it, great. if they don't i won't be that upset. they were a last minute impulse pick-up at the store. they're only 3-6" so i put them right on the front lines of the lilly of the valley so they'll be in front and they're only part shade so they'll get a bit more sun than the rest.

i have to go back to the vegtable garden, forgive me. i love those little guys. they grow so fast they give you instant gratification. it's much easier to wait on the flowers when i can see so much activity from the veggies.

i was very worried about the quality of everything for a while b/c Dad was telling me that they were growing slow, but i think they're alright. i probably planted them a bit later that i could have but hopefully they're not too far off track. i know, i know, they're probably still way too closely packed together - i just can yank out anymore. next year i'll be much more careful about spacing. trial and error. 

i love the way that little tomato sprout picture came out he's too cute. like "here i am world!!!"

one last thing: those poppies i said i planted, i'm so glad i did. on a trip to my brother's new apartment we stopped at a red light and a saw a planting of what i was fairly sure was poppy (or some close relative?) and they looked, well, charming is the best word i can think of right now. i got both the orange/reddish and the yellow variety. i hope mine come out that well. ha, i just yanked the camera out of the glovebox so quick i  even got my passenger mirror in the shot! they look great against the rock too, like a nice contrast.

that's another thing too, i get so jealous when i see seeds that i planted already in maturity somewhere else. i feel like i'm losing so much time to enjoy them. but i feel a little better in the thought that they probably just bought them from some nursery that grew them in a greenhouse and they didn't have the enjoyment of sowing them by their own hand and watching them (nervously as i do) grow. i am gonna winter-sow like a madwoman next time just to get a jump on things. i already looked it up and have a whole list of all the ones that can be started via the winter sowing method and since it doesn't snow (much) in this region i can start them even earlier. i found the list somewhere out there online and i'll have to look it up to give her credit but here are the perennials and the annuals (hardy). i believe her name was Trudi.

i have to start breaking up these very long winded posts but i never get time anymore between everything. i am conscious of it though just so everyone knows :)

oh! i almost forgot. that lab i was finishing... yeah, they weren't done until 2AM that next morning. had to drive up there at  6:30 AM too to drop them off and miss traffic to come home, get ready and leave for work. lack of sleep made for a very interesting day that day.