Yes, those are my two punks up there. They look dangerous, don’t they. Aside from their mutually-nihilistic tendencies, they’re good kids. And I wouldn’t trade them for a bag of gold.
THREE bags of gold, maybe.
I kid, of course. Hey, how about some garden talk?!?! Stop it, I know you’re excited.
If you live (or have ever visited Florida), then you’re familiar with the windshield-obliterating phenomenon known as the “love bug.” Hate, hate, HATE these things. TWICE a year these bastards hatch, fly around, scronk and make more frickin’ love bugs. They’re irretrievably stupid, too, even for insects, and will fly directly into your face, or any other part of your body, and cling there, doing their nasty bidness with each other. It doesn’t get much more icktastic than that.
Innyhoo, I was reading up on carnivorous plants (because they’re pretty and I like to photograph them), and found note of pitcher plants actually consuming a significant number of these little bastards. Exciting news, since the plethora of anoles running around the joint won’t do a damned thing about them. And I have seen, with my own two eyes, spiders cut trapped love bugs loose rather than sully their webs with them. So, I bought a couple of pitcher plants from the Carnivorous Plant nursery (who threw in a venus flytrap as a nice little bonus), and we’ll see how much fun they have out in the garden spot. Plus, pritty!
Important planting advice for carnivorous plants: They’re bog plants, generally speaking, and do NOT get along with nutritious soil…too many nutrients will burn the plants out. A half and half mix of sphagnum moss (NOT peat) and play sand (NOT patio or contractor sand) suits them just fine. They need to stay moist, too, and the best way to do this is place them in rather deep plastic trays (the kind that go under your indoor houseplants to catch water overflow) and keep them full of water. The sphagnum/sand mix will draw the water up from below, so just keep water in the trays about 1/4 up the side of the pot. Watering from above is not a good thing since it can wash away the sticky the plants use to capture their food.
This may or may not be a Red Rocket pepper:
It’s right there next to the little stick I placed in the soil after sowing the seed, and it looks like a pepper sprout… Still, I’ve had such trouble sprouting peppers this year that I ain’t believing it until I see actual blooms.
The corn is going like mad, and I’m tres excited because I’ve never grown corn before. It’s like I’m a real farmer! Aheh.
Sugar Baby watermelons there in the background…I’m skeered of those.
I watch the Meyer lemon tree with ever-growing anticipation…
And the Key limes…
It’s going to be a tasty summer around here. Yes, I know I probably won’t see mature fruit until December…we live in Florida, remember? That’s just about the *end* of summer for us.