Dragon's Orchid Garden

Saturday, Wayne built a little dining room in the back yard.  It's a cheap room add on at about $130 dollars and some definite sweat equity.  The temps were in the mid 90's with humidity at about 80%.  We'd had the table/umbrella/chairs sitting on the lawn, but wanted to define a space for them.  Eventually, there will be a deck, but that's expensive...not in the budget right now. We bought four twelve foot 4x4s, some weed block cloth ($19 for 120x4' at Sam's Club ), and 10 bags of eucalyptus mulch.  We had some extra 4x4's, shorter ones, left over from other projects.  Wayne decided to use those for a small graduated wall on one corner of the 'room'.  We use eucalyptus mulch because it is made from an invasive species, it repels bugs, it smells nice, and it stays in place better than other types of wood mulch.  It costs a little more.  I also really hate that red dyed stuff everyone seems to be using these days.  Am I the only one? ...

For my birthday, the love of my life found a most unique present.  He went out searching...the "I'll know it when I see it" method of gift shopping...and stopped by an itinerant garden shop.  The proprietress had a healthy display of Florida hardy plants and gifts.  He came home with two beautiful purple fountain grass plants, a plumbago and a terracotta Down Under Pot.  Skeptical at first, because I'd seen the silly looking 'topsy-turvy-as-seen-on-tv' method of planting, I liked the look of this clay pot.  It was already planted with coleus. From Garden Wayne made the mistake of mentioning that she had a cobalt blue glazed Down Under Pot.  It was more expensive, so he got the terracotta one.  Cobalt blue is my favorite color.  I may have said that out loud.  Later in the day, he went back and bought the blue one. From Garden I took cuttings from coleus in my garden and augmented the planting of the blue pot with white vinca . ...

With apologies to Douglas Adams , the last title in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy came to mind when we found Orenji floating in the pond.  I imagine poor bereft Moby swimming around alone looking for his companion. From pond Actually, Moby seems quite okay, though every time he makes a circuit of the pond I can't help but anthropomorphize his feelings (too many readings of Charlotte's Web as a child).  Do fish have thoughts? Coincidentally, the day he found Orenji deceased, Wayne went to our local Wild Birds Unlimited store to pick up bird seed.  Amy said they needed to thin out the goldfish in the store pond.  They are really pretty goldfish with really long fins and tails.  She said to come and take some of them for our pond.   I don't think Moby minds the goldfish, but I wonder what they think of this white whale . From pond Moby gets to know his new pond-mates. From pond From pond I made a little slide show of our pond which sta...

Yesterday was my neighbor's birthday.  I knitted her a ballband dishcloth and mitered hanging towel in red and white to go with her vintage Coca Cola themed kitchen.  The patterns are from two of my favorite books, Mason-Dixon Knitting  and Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines . From knitting We also traded some plants appropriate for the holiday.  I have white firecracker plants and she has red ones.  These are great plants for Florida.  Also know as Coralblow (?!), and properly as Russelia , they grow easily from seed, cuttings and runners.  They bloom continuously in the summer and attract hummingbirds. Here's a slideshow to get you in the mood for fireworks this evening.  The pictures are from our garden with a doggy version of the 1812 Overture courtesy of Barking Classics.