Soil Sulfur to Front Pot and Star Jasmine update

The poor plant in that front pot.  It's hating life even more after flushing it out. I think partially because the soil has stayed so wet after all of that soaking.  Working another angle, 10/30/18 I put soil sulfur in the pot to see if acidifying the soil might help.

On the bright side, the star jasmine has been quite pleased with the humic acid, fertilizer and fish emulsion. The leaves have stopped turning red and there are new green leaves developing.

Flushed pot on front patio

On 10/14/18 we did a deep soak and repeated flushes with water to the potted plant on the front patio that I mentioned in the last journal.  It has been struggling.  A kind and helpful blog reader (thank you!) suggested flushing the pot as salts from regular watering may accumulate.  Why didn't I think of that!?  I use Reverse Osmosis water for exactly this reason on our houseplants, but I do not do this on the outside pots.  This is the only one on a hard surface and, therefore, in a saucer.  Fingers crossed... let's hope this helps.

Garden Update at Home

I'm updating some from this weekend's gardening.

The potted plant on the front patio had a hard summer and lost many leaves. The only real difference in its life is a saucer under it that doesn't let it dirty up the tiles.  But that hasn't been wet holding much water, only damp after watering.  So, I don't think that's the issue. Over the years, its had white fly issues. I periodically add worm castings to it.  I don't think that pattern has changed. I showed it to my mom and she suggested iron.  So this weekend, I gave it some liquid iron and an all-purpose fertilizer.  Did I also give it some fish emulsion? Can't recall.  So much for writing this down quickly.

I also gave liquid iron to the lemon tree. That tree is closest to the house of the recent ones planted and does not get enough sun.  I knew the site was suboptimal, but figured a lemon tree could survive that spot.  It is doing ok, but not taking off as some others are.

Two star jasmines are acting more deciduous than I like. Is it the variety? Location? It isn't that cold here.  And some of the leaves that turned red last year stayed on and continued red. Which is pretty, but I'd rather it be leafy.  Wondering if it needed any soil help, I added some humic acid to the incredibly hard soil. Also gave it all purpose fertilizer and fish emulsion to help those leaves.  Maybe this is all futile and I'm just expecting it to keep more leaves than that variety does. Other star jasmines around, don't turn as red and lose as many leaves though.

The tangelo had first an aphid problem and now some black residue on its leaves. I've been spraying it off with a hose, which helps some.

All the citrus got a dose of humic acid and citrus fertilizer.

Planted New Citrus

I've been wanting to get more citrus in our yard.  So last weekend we planted:

Algerian Manderin (Front NW)

Eureka Lemon (Front NE, closest to house)

Minneola Tangelo (Front NE, next out from house)

And this weekend we got the 4th one in at the nursery and planted:

Gold Nugget Manderin (Front NE, furthest from house)

(I'm back publishing this. It happened 1/28/18 and 2/3/18)

Chocolate-Free, Dairy-Free Chocolate Milkshake

I invented this "Chocolate Milkshake" that contains neither chocolate or milk when I was feeling envious of a regular chocolate milkshake.  We think it is surprisingly good.

Ingredients:
2 frozen bananas
3 T Peanut Butter Powder
2 T Carob Powder
Ice/Water to right consistency and to dilute intensity of other flavors (I think I use about 1 cup of ice cubes and 1/4 c water, but really never paid enough attention)

Blend and enjoy!

Harvested Worm Castings, Compost and Castings to Plants, & Visitors

The worms love the start of melon season.  Nothing like watermelon rinds to get them overproducing. Since they seemed to be running out of space, we harvested the completed castings and I put them under the peach, apple and valencia trees.  I also gave some to the miniature roses and a potted plant on the from patio for bug control, which seemed to work well last time.  The fruit trees also got the last of our finished regular compost from the last compost cycle.

Over Mother's Day weekend, we had family visiting us.  I was so glad to have my Mom and Step-Dad here to celebrate Mother's Day.  We went for an outing to the community garden.  My Mom and the kids kept busy trimming the flowers from the cosmos I as pulling out so we had a beautiful bouquet.  The cosmos reduction in the box was part of the normal cycle there.  It self-seeds and is beautiful, but as it takes over I have to pull it to make room for the tomatoes, green beans, kale, carrots, etc.

Spring Update

Spring is here!

Community Garden: I've continued to rip out the broccoli at the community garden.  The bean seeds are sprout well.  Some tomato starts are struggling.  The cucumber and carrots are sprouting minimally.  Likely the seed is too old.  I dug out some cosmos from the garden box and brought it home to enjoy here.

Around home: The Mr. says he wants more flowers in our yard, which we've done very little with since moving in.  So I bought a dahlia this week and added that with cosmos to a prominently placed pot in the backyard.  Also, there was this old, scraggly and sad poinsettia plant in a pot in a fake well decoration that I was sick of looking at.  The location is tough due to water issues.  Now I'm trying some succulents in there.  We'll see how that works.





















I'm loving the apple tree blossoms in the front yard that we walk past multiple times daily.



These little freesia are blooming in a spot we see out our back windows.

Many of our potted plants I topped off with finished compost.  Some I planted seeds in, including some Super Snow White Cherry seeds I'd saved from 2012.  It was an incredibly sweet and flavorful cherry.  I doubt those old seeds will sprout, but its worth a try.

I also put Basil in a pot and some flowers, including these Bachelor Buttons, Carnations and a Black Eyed Susan, which I'm hoping will vine up a tomato cage.









We've had a heck of a time this winter with first DS, then DD, then DH getting pneumonia.  I'm grateful to say that no one currently has pneumonia or is on antibiotics.  Everyone is on probiotics, though!