Oh What Alien Life Form Isth Thouest

While on my second phase of house painting , Aluminum siding phase. I came across
this what didn't reveal itself until I zoomed in closely only to reveal an egg cluster.

Still trying to do an internet search on this alien phenomenon.



Army Cutworm Eggs, and so it goes.

Today's Harvest Is Today's Shared Harvest

Today's first meal is from my potted vegetable garden and is shared with
a neighbor who needs a meal even more so and to be remembered in
contrast to the fact that here memory is failing her.

What's Good For The Tomatato

Is good for the Eggplant in regards to taking cuttings. This technique
will be via water as apposed to cuttings directly to soil.

These cuttings have been in water for nearly a month and while sitting
on my kitchen windowsill while one
of them is showing some roots developing.

This photo was taken a week and a half ago with no roots.

The deep purple coloring in the stems of these cuttings are just hint
of the deep purple colorings that these fruits can render.

Today's Reward

While cutting the tomatoes from the vine and looking for any browning leaves
that can be trimmed form the tomato or eggplant. A ripe and nearly foot long
Japanese eggplant reveals itself to me. First admired for it's beauty and mystery
and soon to enjoy the taste that only an eggplant can bring to the table.
I still haven't studied it's rhythm of fruit bearing process. Perhaps I will keep
this mystery a little longer and enjoy the surprise of today's reward.

Third Generation Tomato?

Nearly a month ago I took more cuttings of my tomato plant with hopes
of getting a jump on some tomato plants before the really hot Florida
temperatures bare down on this humble vegetable patch.

I was too generous with watering the cuttings that were placed directly
in some composted material only to to witness their sudden demise due
to too moist conditions setting up for a typical case of rot.

Perhaps second time, now a week into a second set of cuttings. There
are plenty of cuttings were these came from and hoping it's not to late
to start a new. This time these cuttings get one to two misting of water
from a spray bottle a day. Like I said it's been a week and it may not
look like it but they are looking a lot better than they did a few days
a go. We had some rains the last couple of days which brought some
cooler temperature which I think helped. Being under a carport helped
in controlling the amount of water the soil would have received had
they not and would have been back to square one.

Time will tell once again as is always the case.

Nature's Bounty

From this second generation of tomato cuttings that were takin the
first week of January due to a threat of frost that never happened.
Produced a large cherry tomato that is consistent to whats on the
market for this greenhouse grown variety.

 
Chose to pick these weeks before they are red ripened, knowing that the
majority will ripen fine as they do in the industry. I don't have a greenhouse
to protect these from the hazards of the garden variety. With the idea that
this will encourage more tomatoes to fruit and develop. At least that's the
idea.

Now You See 'Em

Native blueberries kind of sparse
this year for reasons unknown,
which only makes these three
berries taste all that much better.

Now you don't. Yum!

It's not often I beat the birds
to these little gems.

My Buckets Floweth Over

The day before yesterday I was doling out the last of my collected rain
water. I only have two five gallon food grade buckets for collecting water.
Used specifically for my potted veggies. This time of the year my veggies
are growing rapidly and there is no way I can keep up with their thirst with
what little water I collect, knowing that we are in our seasonal dry spell.
So needless to say I've been resorting to twice a day drink to keep my
plants from wilting and flourishing.

So these past few days I've been rationing out this collected water to other
potted plants in need of this water. My priorities lie with those that still have
my interest of them being novel for starters. Other notables are seedlings
and cuttings. I had mentioned earlier about a specific plant that had gone
into dormancy and had just revealed a few sprouts the other day when I
was giving a friend a tour of my garden. Those highlighted on this tour
were also those that got the supplemental collection of water.  

As I type this the sound of rain has commenced for a second time this
evening to only reassure my hopes of finding a bountiful supply of
natures best come tomorrow morning.

Feast Your Eyes On This Exotic

It's origins are not from a far off land. This seedling is perhaps one of Florida's
most abundant and redundant source of trees. A tree sometimes loathed and
cursed for various reasons. In this case, the fact that it sprouted up at the edge
of this grassy area. Most likely and credited to an obsessive compulsive acorn
baring squirrel.

What makes this an exotic you ask? First off all, it is a first that I have ever seen.
So that in it self makes it an exotic in my small world of a backyard gardener.
It always surprises me to find another weed of a different nature in someone
else's yard from what I have in my yard.

I've done some lite digging on the internet.to no avail. What we have is a
common Laurel oak seedling with variegated leaves. It's too early to tell
whether this variegation will continue through it's stages of growth, let
alone survive. Along with the risk of possible human tampering that I
may subject this seedling to in the name of preservation. Such as moving
it to a potted culture, which would give it the needed attention that
could prove successful.

I don't pretend to know how this sport materialized. Whether from a latent gene
or even a possible virus. Had it been successful in the past we would
possibly have seen these at our plant nurseries, which make me feel that it
may not live long. I will be one of the first to say that I am not to fond of
variegated plants. My first impression having seen this about a month ago
was , what is wrong with this. Looks sickly and had to examine this to make
sure that it was not infested. Having ruled that out turned it wonder, then
fascination and now curiosity. We've all heard where curiosity could lead to.

Pruning ,Tree Trimming And Winnowing

Heavy pruning of a tree at the side of the house over this past week has
filled my trash cans to the brim. Small shrubs were clipped back to there
bare bones. It will be weeks before they put on a new coat of leaves.
Azalea's are cropped to a sculptured finish fitting that of a modern art
museum's landscape. Trimming the Crape Myrtle trees to thin out last
years growth to let in some needed sunlight.

My potted Cacao tree is doing quite well in spite of the blast of Spring
sun it received , while the Crape Myrtle tree put on a new set of leaves.
The Vanilla Bean Orchid at it's base even turned a pale green, indicating
that it was getting too much sun. I draped some Spanish moss on top
of the orchid to help shade it from the relatively harsh sun's rays.

Said farewell to a potted Bamboo Palm that had been around a long time.
Long enough to have bloomed and bare fruit. It even sat for a sketch when
I took a fleeting interest to pencil drawing. I even gave it  a new spot in
the garden to renewed interest, however short that lasted. As I was releasing
it from it's potted confines. There was a couple new shoots at it's base, but
obviously not enough to prolong it's place here in this constant gardener's
garden.

Itsy Bitsy Teany Tiny...

They all got to start from somewhere. This spanking brand new pine
cone from a potted Florida Sand Pine.

 I've had this Sand Pine now for about five years. This has a nice distinct
broad base of a trunk which is what caught my eye originally.

Only then to be told that these pines are sought out and lend themselves
to the art of Bonsai. For years now with that intention at the back of
my mind. This tree would serve quite nicely as a live Christmas tree
for outdoors. Festooned with some bright LED lights and to never
be mistaken for a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Otherwise a rather non descript of a genus can always reveal some
beauty.