Figs - woohoo!

Finally...evidence of fruit on the fig bush. I didn't think it would be an issue; the plant has been thriving just fine where we have it. But I didn't realize until last week that we shouldn't expect to see visible flowers prior to the fruit setting. The flowers are not outwardly visible but actually grow internally. I had been wondering when I would see it flower. I love that we got to skip straight to seeing fruit! Sure enough, as I inspected it this past weekend, almost 30 small figs were visible. I'm so impressed. You must know that this little "tree" (really a misnomer, it is SO small since we just bought it this spring) is only about 3 feet tall x 2.5 feet wide. It is absolutely covered with baby figs!

Culprit caught!

Aha! So this morning Jeff and I went to inspect the bell pepper plant to see if we could determine what was munching on the leaves. Success! He found a small black caterpillar on the underside of one of the leaves. Hopefully now that it has been removed, the peppers will develop without any problems.

Mushrooms

Today I was inspecting some of my potted plants and happened upon these mushrooms mixed in with my potted asparagus fern. From what I could find they can be rather common to find mushrooms in potted plants with rich potting soil. It's likely these are in a rather mature state and are in the agaricaceae family and the genus lepiota, though I couldn't say definitively. I was quite amazed at how many websites there are devoted to trying to help people identifying mushrooms.

Tomatoes, Blueberries, and Bell Peppers

We've had some rainy weather over the last week or so. The forecasters are telling us to expect a warmer and drier summer than usual, so I'll take the rain every day possible. Side note: We had a week of consecutive 107+ degree weather last summer and NO rain for the entire month of June last year. Let's hope it's not hotter and drier than last year!

I think our plants are settling in pretty well, minus the two loropetalum I was lamenting last time I posted. We have such a tiny little blueberry bush, so I don't expect we'll get more than four or five blueberries for each member of the family. But it is fun to see the berries forming, even if there are only a couple of them.

The tomatoes are coming along as well.

The Bell Peppers have just started to appear as well, though they seem to be plagued by something that is eating holes in the leaves. I need to figure out what the problem is and if it is going to disturb the peppers as they develop. It's odd that they leave all the other plants around it alone, but have really gone all out on attacking this particular plant.

Bad news, Bad News, Good news

Well, first the bad news. My two loropetalum that were struggling to make it last week appear to be toast. It's positively baffling because all the other loropetalum plants are doing fine. I really don't know what went wrong with those two plants, but we're heading into summer soon, so I'd rather wait and replace the two that died this fall. I just hate that I lost two plants though. Here's one of them, in all it's misery... :(








The other bad news was the discovery that I had not bought inert bird food and the seeds that have fallen to the ground have sprouted in my mulch in one of my landscape beds. Ugh. I can't believe I bought the birdfood I bought wasn't labeled as non-germinating. I even knew better! I'm almost out of food anyway, so I think I may just put up a bluebird house in the place of the feeder. Less messy! Less weeding. Look at this disaster under the feeder - I'm going to have to shovel it all out and put down new mulch. D'oh!













The good news was that in examining my magnolias it appears they are doing just fine. A week or so ago, I had some spider mites on them. I postponed treating them and examined them carefully today. There wasn't a significant increase in destroyed/eaten leaves. And in checking the leaves, I discovered ladybugs were between the leaves - some even resting in old web of the spiders. Ladybugs to the rescue - hurray for natural enemies of those pests! I wasn't sure there were enough ladybugs around to find my spider mites, but it appears they found them just fine. (of course - why do I doubt nature?!) My trees are young and short - just six foot or so - so I believe the ladybugs will get the job done. I also had been noticing that the leaves looked rather tired and gradually they were turning yellow and falling off. It's rather hard to miss the giant leaves when they fall off the tree. After some quick research and inspecting my trees, it appears the buds of new leaves are coming in above the old leaves and are pushing off the old leaves. Since they are evergreen in the winter, the tree starts to look a bit worse for the wear as spring comes around. But soon those new leaf buds will push out some fresh leaves and the beautiful white blossoms will appear. I see evidence of both new leaves and blossoms on each of my trees, so I feel very optimistic that the trees will be just fine. That's a welcome relief!

Look just above the existing leaves and you'll see the new leaf buds. As they grow in, the leaves below them will yellow and fall off. The second picture is a magnolia flower bud. The whole tree should be covered with gorgeous white blossoms soon!

Didja Know: Apple Tree Propagation

Today's Didja Know came to my attention while watching a Netflix documentary called "The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan. Did you know that if you have a wonderful apple tree that produces spectacular quality of fruit, taking a seed from an apple that has grown on the tree would be highly improbable to grow a new tree with edible fruit? That's because the seeds for apple trees contain the genetic code for many possibilities of tree characteristics and any number of the characteristics can develop when the seed sprouts and grows. It's due to a property called extreme hetrozygosity in which something called the alleles of each gene of the seed can be radically different from each other. With an apple seed, each potential variation affects any number of qualities in an apple, including the color of the skin, the size of the fruit, the sweetness of the fruit, disease susceptibility, etc.

Humans, for what it's worth, also exhibit hetrozygosity in reproduction, but it's not nearly as extreme as what you find with apples. Family members may look different from each other, but frequently share familiar features.

Anyway, with regard to apples, the preferred method of propagating a quality apple tree is by grafting. A bud is taken from a desirable tree and grafted onto a young developing tree, which results in an exact copy of the original. Grafting takes all the guess work and thousands of possible variations out of the equation and provides predictable results.

That's not to say it's bad for there to be apple trees grown from seed. Having trees grown from seed allows for biodiversity which creates opportunities to explore more characteristics and cultivate new varieties of trees better suited for various environments, better disease resistance, and preferred flavors. We need to have biodiversity because if we only have limited varieties, over time those varieties become more and more susceptible to disease and pests. It's just important to know that those new cultivars are not easily developed from seeds.

Another contribution from seed-grown apples over the centuries has been its use in creating hard cider, where even bitter tasting fruit could become useful after pressing, storing and fermenting it to create an alcoholic beverage. In fact, according to the Michael Pollan documentary, before 1900, 99% of apples were consumed in beverage form. It wasn't until after 1900 that apples were cultivated to the varieties that we so commonly consume in their natural form. Interesting huh?

So now you know...plant an apple seed for fun, but don't expect edible fruit if you do. For home grown apples, you'll want to seek out a sapling that has been grafted from an already proven tree that has demonstrated the ability to grow well in your area.

Loropetalum - Ack!

Ack! Something has happened to two of my loropetalum plants I put in last month. Most of the bushes look fine, but two look like someone took Roundup killer to them...barely holding on for dear life. It's definitely not an insect problem. And the soil is also definitely not too wet. It has been rather dry, and I know their root systems weren't that great when they went in, so I'm going to work on the assumption they just haven't been able to get enough water. I'm going to be watering them twice a day and also put some liquid Miracle-Gro on them this afternoon. I'm really hoping they can be saved!

Bromeliads...a Didja Know Discovery

I was doing some reading today and learned something new. I had known that pineapples were a type of bromeliad. And the grocery stores and nurseries always have such amazing colorful bromeliads for sale. I had read that the Bromeliaceae family has three subfamilies: Pitcairnioideae, Bromeliaceae, and Tillandsioideae with hundreds of species in each. But these hard-to-pronounce terms weren't my new knowledge discovery.

My new discovery was learning that Spanish moss is a type of bromeliad! How about that? I grew up seeing it hanging off trees everywhere, but never in a million years would have guessed it was in the same family with the house plants we're accustomed to seeing in pots. They look SO different! And if that weren't interesting enough, I also learned from wiki that it "Spanish moss shelters a number of creatures, including rat snakes and three species of bats." While I saw many birds use it to make nests, not once did it ever cross my mind that rat snakes and bats took shelter in it. Which reminds me...my oldest daughter LOVES bats. Armed with this information, she'd probably ask me to try to cultivate the Spanish moss on our live oak trees. Freaky!

Tall Fescue

Over the past two months my winter dormant St. Augustine, the preferred lawn grass for my area, has gradually been coming back to life. Who doesn't love to see their brown lawn gradually becoming a beautiful shade of green? I noticed about eight weeks ago that I had a couple mounds that appeared very grass-like (not like your typical weed varieties) popping up in the lawn. Never-the-less, it was not St. Augustine and not Bermuda or Bahia, so I hoped my weed and feed would get rid of it. A couple weeks after we applied weed and feed, these little dark green mounds had not decreased in number. In fact, they were starting to take over. The mounds were very dense, and unlike my other weeds which just seemed to sit on top of my St. Augustine, close inspection revealed they were actually choking out the runners of the new Augustine growth. We have the lawn mowed regularly, but the mounds were strikingly dark green and did not match the coloring of the lawn. It wasn't something I was willing to let go and leave in the yard. Once I determined they weren't going to respond to neither a post-emergent nor a pre-emergent herbicide, I figured my only bet from keeping it from spreading and causing more dense mounds that would continue to choke out my St. Augustine would be to dig them up. The yard literally looked like someone had planted random mounds of monkey grass all over. So dig them up I did. It was no small effort! Well, ever since I dug all them up, I can tell you the yard looks SO much better. But in my mind, I really wanted to identify what these dark mounds of grass were. From what I've been able to find online, my culprit was tall fescue. Imagine my surpise to learn that in milder climates further north, entire lawns are made from fescue (and look gorgeous from what I've seen online, I might add). Evidently once we get into our hot Texas weather in the summer, the fescue would not have stayed nearly as dense or healthy. But since we've enjoyed a much milder winter/spring than usual, it's evidently had a chance to grow. I probably could have left it in the yard and it eventually would have been controlled as the temperatures rise, but from a strictly cosmetic standpoint, I am so glad I dug them up. Older, wiser gardeners remind me that patience is a gardener's best friend. I clearly haven't mastered that virtue yet!

Here is a picture (not from my yard) of tall fescue. In my yard, my new St. Augustine grass is a bright spring green/yellow color as it comes in. These mounds were very, very dense(like monkey grass, as I mentioned) and not at all the same color as the rest of the lawn. It really stood out from the street. For my impatient eye, they had to go!

Spider Mites

So I discovered this evening what's eating my magnolia leaves...spider mites. I discovered two of the munched on leaves appeared to be stuck together. When I pulled them apart, I discovered a thick white web joining them, and then I actually saw the little spider. It would appear I have at least one or two on each magnolia tree, both in the front and back yard. I did a little researched, and found out my assumption that it was probably nothing to worry about was inaccurate. Left unchecked, they can be a very serious problem.

Here's some information I found online about them at http://www.guardenguides.com/

"Spider mites, or two-spotted mites, will eat your magnolia flowers and weave tight webs around the leaves of your magnolia tree. They appear as tiny brown or yellow spots, but can take over your tree within a very short time. Treatments include spraying the tree with a 1:3 ratio of alcohol to water, spraying with a miticide containing pyrethoids, or spraying with an insecticidal soap."

I understand ladybugs can be a natural predator of the spider mites. I suppose that would explain why we have been seeing a number of ladybugs around...they obviously have a food source in our yard. Unfortunately, judging on the increasing number of eaten leaves on my magnolias, it would appear that there are not enough ladybugs to solve my problem, and I fear I would have significant damage to my trees if I were to wait the amount of time it would take to have ladybugs mailed to me. A few garden forums I've read seem to indicate that even a simple soapy water solution on the leaves can be effective to combat these pests. I guess I'll be researching a bit more in the morning and then washing down the leaves.

Weeds and pests...what a day I've had in the yard!

Weeds...

I've been pretty diligent with manually pulling weeds in the front yard. But I'm still having problems with a few broadleaf weeds like clover, spurge, and dollarweed popping up. So I went and bought a lawn weed killer that you attach to your hose an spray on your lawn. It's made by Ortho and is supposed to be safe to use on St. Augustine, Bermuda, Bahia Grass and a number of other lawn grasses. I think I've crossed into "desperate" territory when it comes to wanting to finish those weeds off once and for all. I sprayed the lawn this morning and am crossing my fingers that it does the job. Then I can start focusing on the back yard. [*moans* My poor back yard lawn...Disaster with the CAPITAL D.]

This past month we planted two Fan-Tex Ash trees. One seems to be doing really well, but the other one is having issues. I haven't really figure out exactly what the problem is. I *think* the soil it was planted in may not be draining well. The leaves are all green, but they are wilting. I've read it's common to mistake too-much water for not-enough water. I know it has had sufficient water, but our neighborhood has the problem of the dirt having too much clay in it. I thought I had accounted for that problem by making sure the hole that was dug was deeper and wider than the rootball. We backfilled the hole with tree an shrub soil before planting the rootball, thinking it would create a nice area without any clay for it to grow the roots before coming to the clay, which tends to have draining problems. While I know the roots haven't grown out of that space of great soil yet, I suppose it is possible that the clay is acting like a bowl an holding in too much water. I'll be keeping an eye on it this coming week to see if it might perk up. If too much water is the culprit, I may be out of luck, short of digging it up and moving it. Next week they are forecasting rain all week. : /

On a happier note, most all the other things we planted over the past couple months seem to be doing well. I am discovering a few munched-on leaves on my new magnolia trees, but I don't think there is a wide spread problem to worry about. It's just a couple leaves. The flowers an other plants seem to be settling in quite well. I hope it's a sign of good things to come!

A few more things from my yard right now...




















Left Column: New Gold Lantana, Blue Plumbago, Hibiscus, Red Oak Leaves
Middle Column: English Ivy, Pink Pinwheel, Dahlia
Right Column: Indian Hawthorne, Chinese Tallow Leaves, Mexican Heather, Bug Munched-On Magnolia Leaf (Susanna said - "well at least they ate it in a heart shape")

Making Progress...

While other parts of the country are still having some freezing temps, we've definitely been enjoying spring for a number of weeks now. We'll be hitting nearly 80 tomorrow and we'll start easing into summer from there. The yard improvements are nearly done. SO SO SO happy about that. I've put in what feels like a gazillion hours of work. We've lived in our home eight years and when we moved in we were given one tree. Over the years we'd done some work, but it really wasn't looking like much. I really wanted to put in a ton of effort and see if I could get some good base landscaping in. So...we've planted five new trees -a DD Blanchard Magnolia, a Little Gem Magnolia, two Fan-Tex Ash, and a Blue Point Juniper. Planted 20 purple lantana, 2 hibiscus, 12 flats of Mexican heather, 33 Indian Hawthorn shrubs, 24 pony tail grass plants, 6 knock out roses, 2 Texas mountain laurel, a celeste fig, some type of blueberry bush that I forgot to write down the variety, 7 tomato plants, 1 green bell pepper plant, 6 purple loropetalum bushes, 3 plumbagos, a mexican sage bush, and replaced a few of my foxtail ferns that didn't survive the unusually cold winter. We also did some container plants with the girls...marigolds, dahlias, lilies, and a sweet (scotch) broom. To top it all off we've put down 122 cubic feet of mulch (61 - 2 cubic ft bags) and will probably need about 40 more cubic feet to finish it off.

A front landscape bed around our live oak tree had been very small - maybe 4 or 5 feet in diameter at most - and we expanded it to some 20+ feet across after bringing in nearly 100 cubic feet of topsoil.

Our lawn, unfortunately, is far from done. We struggle with weeds like crazy. The way our neighborhood was designed, the drainage for our row of houses goes along the back yards of all the houses, including ours before wrapping along our side yard and down to the storm sewer in the street. We're the last "stop" as the rainwater drains past the row of houses which, much to my dismay, results in a hundred varieties of weed seeds being washed into our yard. Ugh. My preferred weed deterrent method is manually pulling them because I'm not crazy about dumping a ton of chemicals on the yard, especially since the dog and the girls like to play back there. But it's completely unreasonable to consider pulling weeds for hours each week. So we've applied some topical weed killers. I really hope between that, consistent watering and mowing that we can get them under control soon. It's so disappointing to put so much effort into the yard, but still be plagued by these pest weeds!


I am really looking forward to enjoying our yard as the spring and summer progress. Here's a peek at a few of the things that are blooming right now. :)



First Row: Hybrid Lily, Purple Trailing Lantana, Yard weed that the girls pick by the handful, MarigoldsSecond Row: Bridal Wreath (Spiraea), Sunny Knockout Roses, LoropetalumThird Row: Hen and Chicks Succulents, Celeste Fig Tree, Blueberry bush, Sweet (Scotch) Broom