I don't think I've posted too many pics recently. Well i haven't posted that much at all. Anyway i thought I would put something up. Here is a pic of one of my Dwarf Crepe Myrtles I have anchoring the walkpath to the driveway. They seem to be doing alright considering the late frost and dry hot summer. It's just starting to bloom.


This is the second Brandywine tomato I picked from the vines. That is indeed my hand and that is a pile of Romas i picked in one day from my 4 vines. I gave the Brandywine to one of the guys at work. I've got more coming in now. For some reason the Better Boys have been more susceptible to blossom end rot. I'll have to research and maybe test the soil for next year.


In case you thought it was an optical illusion, this is the same tomato from the side. The scary thing is that this isn't the biggest tomato on the vines.


I'm still getting okra and I've had a few ears of corn come in. Some of the ears are small due to the hot dry weather and my tendency to not thin the ranks enough. But all in all it's not too bad for a first year try.

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Time Sink

Well I'm back at work after my long weekend. I'm hoping it's going to be a slow day, but who knows. I'd better get these posted while I can. Follow the link all ye with broadband connections.


This is a picture of the rows of okra. I planted it in two stages about 2 weeks apart. So far the okra hasn't been growing really fast. I think the first batch went in while it was still a little cold. Hard to believe that given how hot it's been, but really it hasn't been all that hot. It's just been incredibly dry with little wind. We haven't had rain in weeks, and the rain we did get came after weeks of going without. I'm having to water the garden a lot, daily for some things, but I don't water wholesale. I water each plant or down the middle of the row. I think I'm wasting very little water. I also don't water my lawn. I think it's a waste of water and money. My neighbor waters his lawn and uses a sprinkler in his garden. He has grass growing all in it, and his lawn starts wilting if he skips a couple of days watering. Anyway, I think the dryness of the weather and daily doses of cold water on the roots has stunted the okra, but they finally seem to be taking off with some big leaf production. Or maybe okra just takes a while to get situated before it starts growing. This is the first year I've grown anything here after all. The green between the rows is where I thinned the okra during the weekend and a little bit of centipede grass that came up in the pathways. I have mostly centipede in the yard, and it's the best kind of grass to have in the yard and accidentally get in the garden. It's drought tolerant, grows slowly, and stays fairly short. The centipede in my yard is brown; witnessed by the foreground of the picture; but if I put a sprinkler on it it turns green in a matter of 30 minutes. Gotta love it.


This is the corn. It's growing a might faster than the okra. The first two rows I planted are about 2 feet tall now and going strong. I wish I could get some soaker hose to leave between the rows to make watering easier. Oh well. The nozzle on my hose started malfunctioning this weekend and I had to go get a replacement. It'll have to do until later.


These are my cukes. I have them growing on the same cages I made for my tomatoes. Next year I may make larger cages. I don't really care for cukes, but lots of other people do. This garden is primarily for give away produce anyway. So far there are a few small cukes and one that's about 7" long but hooked like a clothes hanger.


The tomatoes are doing pretty good. A few are over 3 feet tall now. They seem to be alright with the weather, but I have been really putting the water to them.


These are of the the same Romas of which I took the first picture exactly one month ago. Given that the plant is now 10 times larger I can assume growth has been the primary goal for the past month. Virtually every blossom on the Roma produces a fruit. These things are enormous producers. I'm going to have Romas coming out my you know what. I'll have to start making sauce or something with them. If they ever start ripening.


This is the first fruit on my Brandywine tomatoes. It's much smaller than the picture makes out. I've mentioned before that the BWs are considered an heirloom variety and considered one of the most flavorful tomatoes. I was curious about them when I got them. Honestly I didn't know what to expect. I figured I would probably lose one and the insects would eat a lot of the others. Well the dadblamed things are the tallest of my tomato plants. Plus they stand up the best. They also don't branch as much as the other tomatoes, nor do they bloom as much. So far the BWs seem to have a pollination problem. I'm afraid the dry weather and the bee die offs may be adversely affecting their reproduction. Or they could just take longer to get busy making babies. I'm really curious about them though.


This gives a good indication of the rows of yellow squash and zucchini. They were doing ok and then all of a sudden about 1 1/2 weeks ago they started growing like crazy. I've got a few small zukes and squash, but the squash are straight with no bulge at the bottom. That happens some with the first fruit, cause the blossom's don't get pollinated properly. I'm just hoping we get enough bees and such to start pollinating them. Next year I may have to follow my Dad's lead and plant some flowers around the garden to attract pollinators.


This is one of my cayenne peppers. two of them have been putting out like no body's business. One still looks like it wants to die and another one is just odd. From the looks of it two will produce all the pepper I need. Oh and those are some of the free-range cantaloupe in the foreground. They aren't bothering anything, so I'm letting them go.


This is my first bell pepper. I don't really care for bell peppers either. And unfortunately cooking doesn't improve their taste to me that much. Usually a plant for which I don't care for the raw taste improves greatly with cooking. I think it might be allergy related. But with bell peppers there's a bitterness or something to them that just turns me off. Raw cukes cause a similar dislike, but at least pickling can make them delicious. Oh well, more stuff to give away.


And finally the item that I am most pleased with. This is a picture of the very Ichiban eggplant I took a picture of before. Yes that we 7 days ago, and you are looking at a week's worth of growth. It's amazing. I would go hit the new okra and corn seed with a little morning water and look at this plant. I would come home from work 9 hours later and the dang thing was visibly longer. In the mornings you can see how much it grew last night because it doesn't turn purple till the sun hits it. And I have 2 more fruit growing on two other plants. I pulled up the logs beside them, because I think insects in the logs were coming out at night to feast upon the yummy eggplant leaves. I was seriously expecting to lose two of the plants or have little production. The early insect damage seemed to confirm that feeling, but removing the logs and a one time sprinkling with Seven dust seems to have fixed that. I love it. And from the looks of it I'm gonna have a lot of these before too long. The guy I bought them from said they love heat and sun. Well they seem to be liking where I have them. Next year I'll move them from behind the asparagus ferns so they can get even more sun.


Well that's about it for right now. There's not much going on in the yard, since we haven't gotten any rain. Hopefully we might get some in a few weeks, but I'm not holding out much hope. So far I'm pretty happy with what's happened. Not bad for a first year attempt, though I did have second hand experience from the garden's my Dad, Godparents, and television allowed me to get close to. And I got a whole lotta sun this weekend too. Come on tan.

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I Think My thumb is Infected

Or something. Cause I'm thinking it may be turning green. Only time will tell. Since I don't have much of anything else using up my time, I decided to post more pics of my yard and garden. I swear I feel like on of those new Dads that always shows everyone pictures of their child. Maybe it'll wear off in a year or so, since I still haven't been in the house for a year yet. So you have the freedom to look at the pics or not, and since there are already way too many pics on the front page, you have to follow my rambling link to see them.


This is one of two lilies my Mother gave me last year for my birthday. She planted them, and they seem to be liking it. I had to move the other one to plant my dwarf crepe myrtle. It hasn't quire forgiven me for that yet, so I'll just show the big one.


Behind my property was a dead and rotting pine tree leaning against another tree at about a 70 degree angle. I knew it was only a matter of time before it fell. I wasn't looking forward to it, because it was tall enough to land on my fence at the back and break it. Well i stepped into the back yard the other day and as I was walking I heard this crack. I turned in time to see the tree falling. I winced and went to look at the damage. The thing broke in two, folded back on itself, and missed the fence by 2 feet. Nice.


I tied several of my tomatoes up on Thursday evening. I went home Saturday, for Mother's day, and came back Sunday evening. Dog gonnit if some of them hadn't grown and flopped over again. Some of the plants had grown over 3 inches in 2 days. I can go in the garden in the evening and see a noticeable change int the plant size. The stakes were a temporary support until i got the cages built and set in place.


Well that rate of growth made me move up my timeline. I went and bought 150' of concrete reinforcing mesh. It's not terribly expensive, and it works much better than those $4 tomato cages. I didn't need 150' but I didn need more than the 50' on the smaller roll. It's kinda rusty, but the galvanized fencing with the same mesh size came in 330' rolls. This is one of my 'Sweet 100' tomato plants. I even has one little tomato on it already. Those mesh holes are 6" square, so yeah, that plant is almost 2 feet tall. I've got to finish up the cages tonight.


This is one of my Romas that i need to put a cage on. It's starting to collapse under it's own weight. That big tomato is the same one I photographed earlier. On my 4 Roma plants I probably have a dozen tomatoes growing.


These are my two rows of corn.The green in the walk paths is from some weeding and thinning of the corn plants. I probably need to pull another 1/3 out. The two wet rows behind these two are freshly planted corn. I wanted to spread out the harvest.


These are my little okra plants. I need to thin them desperately. Hopefully I can do some of that today. Again the two wet rows behind it are two more rows of okra.


The sad thing is that I still have space in the garden. Maybe I'll plant some green beans, carrots, or something else. Do you guys have any suggestions?

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Frost on the everything

So this past weekend saw the temperature drop quite a bit for Easter. We joked at Church that Easter was colder than Christmas. Some of the ladies said they couldn't wear their Christmas finery because it was too warm, and they couldn't wear their Easter duds because it was too cold. What a topsy turvy world we live in. Because the temp dropped into the 20s we now have reports that the peach and apple crops in SC this year have all bit the dust, or frost. The strawberries depend on how well the covers worked. I was anxious to get home and see what the cold had destroyed in my yard. Luckily I had taken a few pictures before I left. So in the ramble you get to see some before and after pics. So follow the link.



This is a pic of the absolutely gorgeous azaleas between the driveway and the house. They were the most amazing red, and covered in blooms.


The frost killed all the exposed blossoms on the top of the plants. At least I got a pic of them.


My dad gave me a maple tree he grew at home. It is a sibling of a maple from my grandfather's yard. I think it is a Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum Atropurpureum) or one of the improved varieties. I planted it near the driveway over a month back and it started coming out a week ago.


It didn't fair so well. Ordinarily I wouldn't be too worried about a tree, but it's recent transplantation causes a little trepidation.


This is a picture of my bifurcated maple growing in the front yard. It was like this when I moved in. It is a filigree (lace leaf) red Japanese maple that I think was grafted to a regular maple root stock. It seems that at some point the root stock sprouted and grew much faster than the filigree, as one would expect. Frankly I like the contrast, and I'm going to use it to my advantage. I'm going let the green maple pump energy into the root system, but in the late winter I will trim it back so that energy is sent to the filigree. Hopefully I can keep them scaled together.


Well the filigree half took a big hit, but the green half is fine. I hadn't foreseen this, but the green half should go a long way to helping pump energy into the filigree to help it recover. I hope.


Luckily it looks like the painted maple I bought in the Fall at the SC Botanical Garden Plant Sale is none the worse for wear. I'm gonna go back this year.


The driveway flower bed started looking really good. Too bad that by the time I got my camera back the sparse stands of tulips were fading. The dianthus in the foreground are doing really well, even after the frost.


The flox however did not fair so well. Last Saturday you couldn't see anything but flowers. Oh well. It'll come back.


Surprising me was the clematis that showed no signs of any damage whatsoever. It's starting to hit a stride in blooming. I've got to try to keep it on the fence rails.


Also the Iris in the yard and the end of the driveway came through without any damage.


This is the red dogwood in the back yard. It's trimmed kind of funny, but the petals came out a pretty dark red on the edges. It got pinched by the frost too.


These two dogwoods are on the other end of the yard from the driveway. I wasn't at home at the right time to get the light right on this picture, so it doesn't do them justice. They were so white you couldn't look at them in direct sunlight. This picture is actually mostly in the shade of some pine trees.

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Bloomin Good Time

Last Thursday i took some pictures that I wanted to make a post of. Well some things came up and procrastination reared it's ugly head. I went to Atlanta over the weekend to go to Sal Grosso for a friend's birthday party, and packed ourselves with meats of various kinds. Then we spent some time playing on another friend's Wii. Then I came back home and left my friggin camera bag in Atlanta. Luckily I had copied my pictures already. Follow the link to my ramble if you want to see the pics.

This is the line of Cherry trees that grow behind the building in which I work. The picture really doesn't do them justice. The petals really started falling like snow yesterday and are carpeting the parking lot and bed with pink petals. But I can't take a picture of it. Oh well. maybe next year.


This is a picture of the space behind the library. I had to dodge the Bumble bees. They were flying around like madmen. It looks a little odd because the clouds were making some strange lighting effects on the open space. It was kinda cool. Anyway there are a bunch of Redbuds on this side and more pink trees on the other. The grass was the most amazing green, but what do you expect from a college build on agriculture and engineering.


A friend of mine worked for campus planning for several years and recommended Yoshino Cherries when they were replacing the trees in front of the library. I think it was a good decision. At the time Clemson was voted #2 party school. We joked that they should have been Maraschino Cherries instead.


In front of the library and cherry trees is a reflection pond with fountains. The seating around the trees overlooks the amphitheater, Hardin, and Brackett.


Farther up behind the amphitheater is Carrilon Garden that holds one of the bells from the bell tower.


This is a little zoom to show the bell off a little more.


I left campus and went out to the Botanical Garden on the outskirts of campus. If you are around, every Spring and Fall they have a sale. I recommend you stop by for some interesting plant choices. Plus the staff can answer almost any question you have about the plants. The entryway into the garden has a bell and some nice walkways.


There is an area in the garden planted with nothing but camelias. Here's an example.


There is a trail that goes through the camelias. It starts off and you think that there are quite a few of them.


Then you take a turn and realize that it's practically a camellia forest. When I got there some plants were in full bloom and the rest were on the way out. The smell was amazing. If I hadn't been taking my allergy medication it would have driven me crazy. As it was the sweet smell almost gave me a headache. I'm just glad it wasn't a Gardenia forest.


Getting into the rest of the garden you see several benches donated and placed in various nice spots. I like the azalea behind this one.


One of the benches overlooked this scene right here. You can barely see the water running behind the foliage and rocks.


Lets look at that from the bottom side. There's the bench I was talking about. You can even see the blue flowers from here too.


Down by the big pond the wildlife was enjoying the 80 degree day. The turtles were out basking on several of the logs.


The resident geese/mafioso were out in force. For the love of God don't feed them. They get quite aggressive. I walked by without making eye contact, but I managed to snap a picture.


I saw a white duck resting in the shade on the warm day, and then realized what I think is a mallard had plopped down for a rest under another one of the benches.


And as a closer, one of the other flowering plants. I think the label said it's an azalea.


I have more things I wanted to show at the house, but without a camera. Oh well. Maybe I can get it this weekend.

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