With the kids off in another state, and our own vacation only two weeks away, the Husband and I planned nothing special today for the 4th, and of course wound up in the yard…a fine American pastime if ever there was one.
I had three new things *eyeroll* to plant out front…a Butterfly ginger:
A Red Button ginger:
Remember this side bed won’t be complete until after vacation, so no comments on my sloppy mulching here.
And a purple (Giggles? Chuckles? Smiles? Some non-dignified name…) daylily whose variety I will probably never know, since I LOST the label I had tucked away in my shorts pocket:
Major changes out back, too since apparently summer in Florida is just no time for cucumbers. In box #2, out came the two lemon cucumber plants, who had spontaneously lunched themselves through a combination of mildew, some kind of chewing moth, and a seeming disinterest in becoming productive members of my garden:
Also removed the pineapple melon, whose pitiful little root structure was roughly the size of a golf ball. Planted on either side of the Black Valentine beans, as you can see from the *ahem* diagram, are Hawaiian Pineapple tomato, Japanese Black Trifele tomato and Sugar Snack Tomato.
An update on Box #1, where The Slowest Tomato Evar (the Yellow Pear) is getting bigger, albeit quite slowly, and the Super Sweet 100 has bracts and bracts of little tomatoes:
The Watermelon radishes should be ready for harvest in about a week or two. In the center, the Golden Crescent beans are cranking out pods, should be enough to grace a soup soon, huzzah!
On the subject of growing things in summer in Florida…I am verrrry disappointed in the corn thusfar. It is only about three feet tall (5 is max for this variety), and the ears are on the small side (though pests may have something to do with that). It is possible I have planted it too close together for the foetid weather this time of year, and we’ll have to try spreading them out a bit next time.
Disappointed to report that the Daikon radishes basically rotted in their pot, I believe due to the huge amount of rain we got in the past few weeks. We’ll have to put that one on the fall-planting list, along with lettuce, celery and cucumbers.
The Birdhouse gourd remains ecstatic to be allowed to climb the pool enclosure:
Please note all the fruit hanging there, that when it reaches full size, will no doubt bring that vine tumbling down.
Oh yeah, finished painting the bathroom yesterday, and installed the new light fixture and mirror:
Sooo, what do we think? The light fixture perplexes me. In the store they had it displayed horizontally oriented, and that is indeed how I thought it should actually work. However, upon installing, the only way it would orient so that the mounting plate was straight on the wall was in this funky wave pattern. But I’m kind of liking it, seeing as how the entire theme of the bathroom is sort of underwater-y.
The hole in the wall on the right there is where the stupid mirrored wall cabinet used to be. That thing has always vexed me. Sure, storage is good, but wtf would you put a mirrored something right next to an actual mirror? So, we plan to line the breach with nice white oak, and border it with some lovely half-round rope style molding we found at the Big Box store. Add a shelf and walla, bathroom storage sans pointless and redundant mirror.
Now we’re plowing through our Buffy Season 1 DVDs and just as awed and amazed as the first time at the brilliance of Joss Whedon. Hope you all also had a very fine Independence Day.