When I was a little tyke, we owned a dog that loved vegetables. Even though we had the garden fenced well against the deer, she would get in and pull up carrots, beets, and radishes and devour them.

 

Two different varieties of Halictidae iridescent bees on one of the varieties of pentas in my yard. I didn't know there were so many types of bees other than honey bees. These are iridescent green.

 

Prepped the garden last weekend, got a few things in. I have like 6 days off this weekend, i was thinking of building a spud box or two... Has anyone done it, is it worth it?

 

Heliconia starting to flower

 

Wild coffee (psychotria nervosa) - I have six of them in bloom now and am anxiously awaiting the development of coffee cherries.

 

I caught a rare specimen with my camera phone today. I call this picture "Miatus Fortracus in the Garden".

 

is that pink butterfly weed?

 

The pink one is Pentas lanceolata

and the blue one is a Salvia cultivar of some sort.

 

Coffee growing.

 

Spent a little time yesterday extending our drip irrigation system to cover some additional plant beds and pots. Man that's super convenient. I need more stakes though.

And also less of this:





... which would be the bucket of irrigation connections, emitters, etc. all hidden in my grass and not their handy little tray on top of the distribution hose dispending bucket--which, incidentally, is not heavy enough to permit one to pull from a distance greater than about 12 inches. Oops.

 

Well, not exactly gardening but close. All of this started when we purchased our house two years ago and wanted some curb appeal. Then we had our first child and that got put on hold. Left my job, sold both of my miatas and it got put on more hold. Then I decided to finally tackle it this year.

This is how it looked in the beginning:






Then I power washed the porch and began ripping up the existing grass and flower beds:




Then dug the trenches for the irrigation and installed the stone flower beds for the front. Here you can see I ran pipes for drip irrigation to each flower bed on a single zone:





Laid down sod and tested the irrigation zones for each area:





Lastly, some photos as it currently sits. In the front flower beds you have Zebra grass in the back, then Russian Sage in the middle, and then stella day lillies and hydrangeas in the front. At the curb strip, it alternates between lavendar and pink coreopsis. Along the side of the house are white and pink rose bushes.














Still need to finish installing the drip irrigation (the main lines are ran to risers) and pick out the cap stones for the flower beds. All the while our second child was due this past Saturday so the clock is ticking!

-Matt

 

I have a love-hate relationship with Lavender. It's gorgeous and smells great and attracts all the insects.

but it gets so damn HUUUUUGE it takes over our sidewalk. And then people walk weird around it because of the black and yellow pollinators. Especialy after a rain when it leans even further over.

 

Interesting - when we read how big Lavendar gets I thought it was only 3' x 3'. I guess anything can get bigger if it isn't properly trimmed or pruned. Do you have a photo to satisfy my curiosity?

-Matt

 

I don't have a current picture. This one is from late May.





And two weeks later, starting to bloom:





Note that over winter it completely turns to dry sticks and gets trimmed to a small stump. It also grows underground like a rhizome or runner. You'll see new sprigs sprout a few inches away from the main mass and keep extending out. Keep an eye on those as they can get woody fast.

I think I will have to cap the drip emitter at my plant and pull away some mulch. Apparently this climate is more than moist enough for Lavendula.

 

Different subject:

What are y'all using to protect tall tomato plants? I hacked together a plastic fence-based tower and roof to keep the squirrels out of mine but it's ******* ugly as **** and this is my front yard.

I'm seriously starting to approach this level of ridiculousness, but we only have two plants:

 

Get some 1"x2"x8' lumber. Hammer it into the garden bed, book-ending the plants. Drape some bird netting over the top.
This is the cheapest/fastest solution. It doesn't look terrible from a distance, but it looks really cheap up close... because it is.
The plant will being to grow into the netting. Just be careful not to damage your plants when lifting the netting.
This is my 4th year using this method. It keeps the birds and squirrels out.

 

can pollinators get through that netting?

 

3/4" squares. Plenty of room.

 

I use the mt.net approved method of squirrel control. There is a pack of stray cats in my neighborhood that keep the squirrels off ground level. It's free too.

 

Tropics.

No howler monkeys but we have some fun plants.

Curcuma ginger pictured.