Log #22: Back in the Game..redux

Vigna Caracalla planted......check!
Snapdragons planted..........check!

The VC vine is acting funny. My leaves were beginning to whiten and die. Needless to say, I got it in the ground immediately. Despite the leaves falling off, there is still new growth. A whole new branch has formed, so that's good news!

I love Snapdragons. I think these will be happy in their new home.



The Lawn....

Well, we got rid of our 20+yo tree. There's still a stump and all the roots we need to get out ourselves or pay for it.

The Mother Unit (as my friend says) decided she wants to just dig up the whole front yard, take out all the grass, till the soil, and put down seeds. ....
...
O...kay? Alrighty then... *scratches head* Whatever.

Our front yard, for the most part, will be a mess, except for the flower bed, which is doing just fine.


We have Bleeding Heart bulbs we plan to plant out in the backyard.

The Jasmines are starting to bloom.

My 2 grape plants are coming back again. As per usual, my Green grapes are moving along faster than the Ruby grapes.

Roma Tomato seedings are sprouting and coming along fine.

Growing seeds:
Sweet Peas
Green Onion
Bell Pepper
Mixed Flowers

Hmm...that's it for now

Picture Log #11: Time Keeps On Slippin'

Okay...so a little over a year later...

Both my roses died. I was actually very surprised this happened. At first I thought it was the planter. I made sure it had good drainage. Apparently not? I'm not too sure.

I guess I'm surprised because these were my favorite $6 WalMart roses (if you recall, said WalMart roses in Joseph's Coat took the hell off when I planted them in the ground. I had great success with them), so I figured I'd get the same results. I didn't want to transfer them into the ground until after I saw they were growing in the planter. Guess that was pretty dumb.

So..the new addition to my household, the guy took it upon himself to UPROOT MY BOUGAINVILLEA AND SNAIL VINE! WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYY!?!!?! Fucking jerk.

New additions

Piss poor picture, sorry

OMG OMG VIGNA CARACALLA! CORKSCREW VINE!!! Thanks to Adam and Trish;)


It's a bad picture and outdated. The plant has been going through a growth spurt for almost all of January - which I'm very excited about. It's actually just been a long strand growing that has other limbs beginning to grow. It's so long it's wrapped up and down the stick I have in there (for being a gardener, I sure don't know many gardening terms. Sheesh).

I'm very excited to see how this will fair in Southern Californian weather. I want to put it outside in the front yard, but I'm afraid of how it will mesh with the SoCal sun.

Log #21: Back in the Game

It's been a while, longer than I'd've liked. Too many things going on, but I'm back!

To catch up:

Bleeding Heart Vine,Moonflower,Roma Tomatoes,Gladiolus,4 o'clocks,WJ = gone

Rose bush is doing great! It was growing like a weed so I had to really trim it back.

Grapes ...well, the winter looks to have hurt them, but I believe they will sprout new leaves.

Jasmines still have not bloomed. We hope they will this Spring, if not, I am contemplating taking them down.

Royal Purple Bougainvillea YES! It is still there, and boy am I happy! I bought a Temple Flame Bougainvillea, but the heat killed it, which was a pity.

Recent additions:

Snail Vine - got hurt during the winter as well, but it's still there
Gardenia - why the HELL does my mother keep trying to grow this? It'll never bloom. Never.
Sage - I'm so happy I got this, it was a marked down plant, and I've been slowly nursing it back to health.

New additions:

7 seeds:
Chives, Rosemary, Bell Pepper, Basil, Oregano, Roma Tomato, Parsley

2 roses:
Silver Moon (I think it's called that, it's something Moon) - a silvery purple rose

I'm really excited about the purple roses. Purple is not just my favorite color, I swear it's a way of life! Purple just brings me joy.

That's it for now!
Don Juan Climbing Roses - red climbing roses

Thoughts

First off, we have 2 buds on our rose bush! I can't wait to see the blooms, but I have a few weeks ahead of me yet.

Sometimes I feel crappy that all my plants aren't huge. Some die, and have to be replaced, so it seems my garden is always at a stop and go pace. Nothing I have is huge or fully grown yet. I hope that changes. At least my grapes are doing well.

I look at other people's gardens, and for a moment I'm impressed....but then I realize all they're growing are roses! Rose bush next to rose bush next to rose bush. I do love roses, they're hard not to like, but I don't feel impressed with rose gardens anymore. There's no flavor in a garden that is nothing but roses and they won't grow anything else.

I'd also like to say that my Morning Glories are really crappy. I get a bunch of pale colors, and the blue ones my mom planted haven't been growing. Talk about not having flavor. We're going to have to find a new thing to grow.

I'm getting a puppy soon, and I keep reading how all of the plants I'm growing are dangerous. Am I bad that I don't feel I should sacrifice what I grow? I feel the dog, although I'll love her to pieces, needs to know her place, and there's no reason why I can't grow whatever I want and teach her not to go near them.

I'm done ranting now.

Picture Log #10: Growth! Spring Has Sprung!

Kale, African Daisies, Primroses, and Gardenia gone


Bleeding Heart Vine, now with a side of Moonflower [night blooming morning glory]!


I don't know why, but my mom decided to plant the Moonflower seeds I bought in the same pot as the struggling-to-hang-on Bleeding Heart Vine. Apparently the BHV is still alive, and we're getting tiny new growth. This will be interesting to see if the BHV survives.

Oh my, look at how my Ruby and Thompson grapes have grown. I'll eventually get a big trellis


Also, look at the surprise I found yesterday from my supposedly dead Flame [sorry for the blurriness]:


Oh, here's what I'm REALLY excited about
Roma Tomatoes


WOW! I may have another hidden one, but I believe I have about 5 tomatoes growing! I haven't gotten to grow an actual tomato since I discovered my love for gardening, so I'm excited about this. My mom wants to plant it in the ground, but the pot is big enough, and I feel it would only severely damage the plant now.

Rose bush:


The Gladiolus bulbs made me interested in planting bulbs. I haven't had a chance to get any more, but the results are great! It seems like such a strong and sturdy plant. Wonder how long it'll be before I get blooms?


Funny story, my mom decided to put the rest of my bulbs in about 2 holes. So now we have 2 holes with 6 or more bulbs in them, and they are coming up


Royal Purple Bougainvillea....lives! I honestly didn't see that one coming, but now that I think about it, I was kind of stupid to doubt it. Bougainvillea is a native plant here...why wouldn't it grow? One day we noticed "Oh em gee! It's still green AND it has blooms?"


It looks like the 4 o'clocks are making a return [hell, how many seeds DID they plant so long ago?]


Mom trimmed the Jasmines and put some twine up. In the middle you can see the 2 new plants I bought:


Here's the newest house addition. My mom and I had a guilty laugh that the tag said "Wandering Jewel"...we all know it's Wandering Jew, but..well, it just made us giggle. Sorry! No means to offend! Either way, we can still abbreviate it WJ. The plant itself looks very strong, even a little glossy. It's pretty...and purple^_^


That concludes this session.

Log #20: Ups and Downs

Bleeding Heart Vine is doing poorly. All the leaves fell off, but it appears to still be alive. There is tiny new growth on it. At WalMart they have more, if all else fails, I'll just buy it.

Grapes:

Ruby is coming along just fine! It's still not growing at the rate of the Thompson grapes, but it's alive!

The Thompson grapes have gotten big. It's a joy to see everytime I look out the kitchen window. Right now it's slowing down on the growth, though.

The Flame grape plant I think may be dead. I haven't given up on it yet and keep watering...but nothing is coming.

Jasmine plants are doing fine. Not many blooms:( But the plant is healthy.

Kale is dying. I think I'll pull it out soon.

Morning Glories are growing, a lot. I bought Moon Flower seeds tonight and will plant them perhaps tomorrow.

Primroses seemed to have died. I think we over watered them. The red and orange ones have new growth, but my beloved purple ones may be seeing their end.

African Daisies may also see the same fate. But I haven't given up on them yet.

Roma Tomato plant is doing well. I've been pinching off the buds because I don't think it's quite ready yet, but soon I will let the buds grow.

The new rose bush is doing just fine! Growing more and more:D

I planted 1 Gladiolus bulb, and it has a strong sprout. Can't wait to see it develop. Not sure where I'll plant the others.

Royal Purple Bougainvillea is doing poorly. My mom planted it somewhere where there are no other plants or anything growing. It's barely hanging on:\ We have a few Bougainvillea plants on clearance at work, I may pick up another one.

Our big Gardenia plant that I forgot to post a picture of, is just still there. We've had a few buds, but I suspect someone may be picking them off. I thought I would've seen it bloom weeks ago...but no. It's a big plant, and it's still alive, so I guess we'll just wait.

The shrub on the side of the house with purple flowers is starting to grow wild. I am starting to not mind it being there.

Our grass is actually growing! We have a lawn again! It's weird.

Houseplants are fine...

What else?

OH! I am going to try to grow 3 roses from bouquet cuttings. There is this one rose in particular that is striped, it's lovely, but dying. I am trying to save it until I have the time to buy some more potting mix, and then I will do the coke bottle green house thing with them. Any comments/suggestion with that would be appreciated.

Picture Log #9: Now We're In The Swing Of Things

Okay, this post is going to be loaded with pictures.

Lavendar, Hyacinth, Tulip, and yellow flower are gone completely.

I'll commence with the pictures!


Bleeding Heart Vine

It only has a couple of buds on it right now. Supposedly they grow in clusters. They're tiny white flowers with a purplish red in the middle.

Grapes:

Ruby

This one has a new sprout! It is not growing as fast as the other one, however.

Thompson



Flame has no sprouts. I think my yard is too small for grapes and I'm worried, but who knows? We may be able to pull it off. Perhaps the people behind us might not mind our grapes growing in their yard, hah.

Jasmines have been cut a bit


I bought two new Jasmine plants as well.

The Kale has a rod. Flowers are supposedly going to grow. Little yellow ones.


Our two types of Morning Glories are growing. Morning Glories are the easiest fucking things to grow.


We have a couple new colorful flowers in the front. Primroses I think they are called.



I think these are African Daisies.



My Roma Tomato plant is doing rather well. If all goes right, this will be our first tomato plant in more than 5 years to survive. We grow tomatoes in honor of my grandmother. Growing tomatoes was a passion she had, but she was too weak to fulfill it to a great extent.


So, guess what happened with my roses after we put them in the ground?

They started to grow leaves left and right! Amazing. I thought the plant was dead!

This bulb

will hopefully grow into this flower

I have 25 bulbs. I want to go plant a bunch of them in the back. I planted on in the frontyard. We'll see what happens. It was a lucky find, it was the last packet of that they had. I have never planted bulbs before.

Instead of posting the pictures of all my houseplants, I'll direct you to the post about them:

http://yougrowgirl.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7666



As I mentioned before, I bought two Jasmine plants and also a Royal Purple Bougainvillea, which I am very excited about.

I am contemplating trying to grow more things from seed, but I'm not sure. Will report later.