Waterfall

I want this waterfall!!

Why I am so excited for my girl to start school . . .

This is the school she is going to. They have their own organic garden!!!

Word of the Day: Soggy

Well Fay left us a soggy mess. The storm was not intense, but the wind and rain stuck around for a while, over 24 hours, and we still may see some outer bands of rain later this morning. Fortunately we are not seeing the flooding that some parts of Florida are and we haven't lost any trees like our neighbors have. I thought I'd stroll around the yard and show you what did happen:

The major thing was this branch falling in the corner garden. The branch was dead and hanging ominously over the garden. We cut down as much of it as we could, and since we couldn't afford a professional to trim it up, we hoped that when it did eventually fall that it wouldn't take out the fence or the palms. Fortunately, this is what happened. It did squish my gingers, but they will bounce back with no problems.

This picture of the pool shows how truly concerned we were about this storm. We forgot to take the umbrella down, and it is no worse for the ware.

My oleander in the front garden is strange . . . it didn't really fall over, more like it is bent over. Not sure how to fix it. Maybe prune it back so it is not so top heavy.

My lantana tree fell over, which is not a surprise because it falls periodically even without a storm. Before Fay it was on the agenda to spend some serious time weeding this garden and that certainly hasn't changed. This is the only real damage. I think the branch broke some slats in the fence. No big deal, but I'm sure the neighbors will leave it there for another three weeks. Do you like their paint job? A few months ago they painted as far up as they could reach and then left like that. Attractive, huh?

I might have spoken too soon . . .

Fay's coming right at us!!! And the party is deferred, because after two false-alarm, sunny-as-could-be hurricane days I'm definitely having to go to work. Actually none of it would be a big deal if my daughter's first day of school wasn't canceled again, and I didn't have to shuffle her around between parents and grandparents. She's mopping pathetically around the house saying "I want to go to Kindergarten!"

I can't wait until this is a gardening blog again.

Ocala Wore its Hurricane Repellent Today

Overnight, Fay went from the west coast to the east and is headed back north, completely going around us. After school closings, changing work arrangements, buying emergency supplies (matches, batteries, beer, etc.) it turns out, we have pretty sunny skies right now. Ocala wore its hurricane repellent. A bit of a bummer too. Here's a secret every Floridian knows, but you almost never hear about. Hurricanes can be a bit of fun. Our version of a snow day. Now, by all means, you need to take all necessary precautions and always leave if the authorites recommend it. But once you are hunkered in, off from work, house full of non-perishable snack food, and no electric, what are you going to do but have a party? It also makes a bit of sense. When you have bunch people you can pool your supplies and take care of your friends who's living conditions may not be so favorable (aka mobile homes). In the '04 storms, we hung out in our garages and barbequed with neighbors - kegs going up and down the street from one house to another. But the real parties where in college. In Tallahassee, which was more prone to flooding and had actual hills, one hurricane party featured drunken party goers riding plastic garbage cans down the flooded street. Ahhhh, those were the days. Anyway, if you have suffered from hurricane damage, I don't mean to make light of it. I just wanted to post the other side of hurricanes you don't often hear about. Do you want to plan your own party? Check this out. (Really, a gas powered blender. How genius is that?)

Rainy Day Treasures

Today was rainy, as the will be the rest of the week. The plants are drinking it up, especially the weeds. Isn't the bird of paradise just huge? I'm hoping it will get to a blooming size soon.

My daughter spent the weekend with my parents and of course she came home with presents. This bromeliad in a coconut shell is very neat. You can see how the "flower" is really a modified leaf as one of the leaves is actually turning red. I have no idea how to take care of these guys, so any advice is welcome. Julie, did you hear that?

Isn't this cactus cute? It looks like a scoop of ice cream. My little one has been pretending to lick it all afternoon.

Will a Hurricane Come? Fay May.

Looks like it will be an interesting week. By the time it reaches us, it will be a tropical storm. We still have to be concerned about the power being out, tree limbs falling and potential tornadoes. Fortunate I don't live on the coast so the storms are not as severe for us. The major bummer is you can see that the storm will be over us on Wednesday at 8:00 am, the exact time my daughter was supposed to start her first day of kindergarten. It is unlikely that it will be open because even if the storm is not severe, they often close schools to serve as shelters for evacuees. If in the watch area please take care.

Good post on big leaf tropicals

This is mainly for my benefit. If I don't link this post I'll never find it again.

http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=1475#comment-4337

Wicked Bad Gardener??

So, you ask, "What does a garden look like when its owner has totally ignored it for some lousy Olympics?" Well my friends, I'll show you:

There are weeds.

And there are more weeds.

The slugs are monsterous.

The spiders think they own the place. (The mosquitoes however know they own it.)

It's not all bad. Some coleus sprouted that I had forgotten about. And the other coleus are doing beautifully - with no help from me.

I'm Blaming Michael Phelps

It is all Michael Phelps fault that I was not the garden this weekend. I blame the Olympics for being far more interesting than my weed and mosquito infested garden. Every time I thought about going outside, I looked out the window at the pathetic garden area then over to the sofa and the air-conditioned living room. Guess what won out? Oh well, I think both me and the garden needed a rest. I am still around and will try to catch up on all of your blogs, (what else would I do during the commercials?) so if you stumble on my blog, come and say hello!

Go USA!! (. . . and for my Canadian friends, Go Cana . . . yeah, well, don't worry. The Winter Olympics are just around the corner.)

I've Been Blobbed.

Check out this picture that Mr. Subjunctive from Plants are the Strangest People. He used a site called Dreamlines to make pictures out of some garden blogs. He put the term Wicked Gardener in to it and out popped the above picture. It seems to do a search for pics on the term and then layers and scribbles on them in really neat ways. Cool huh? Looks a bit like a blurry Chagall. The green devil is neat - I mean, "Hello?" Green Devil. Why wasn't that my logo??? Oh well. Thanks Mr. S for the new toy and for thinking about me.