So, I told the Husband I wanted more planter boxes for my birthday…but I wanted them NOW, not in November.   Even with the “now” caveat he thinks I’m taking the cheap way out for my present, but you know, there’s only so many THINGS you need…and I’d just rather grow stuff!

Friday evening, spurred on by as rude a design client as I think I’ve ever had, I started de-weeding the areas for the new beds.  (The “before” is here…just scroll on down a bit.)  Saturday afternoon (after a deuced exciting soccer game, which we lost a heartbreaking 1-0) I continued with the bed prep whilst the Husband built the actual boxes.  Today was the back-breaking day, with the dirt and mulch hauling.  Here’s the new culinary herb planter box 10′x2′:
 

And the new medicinal herb box, also 10′x2′:
 

Yes, I was too bloody tired at this point to walk over there for a closer shot.

Here’s the new terraced area linking the herb boxes and the new 8′x4′ box bordering the outside patio:
 

The stone border will eventually surround the enclosure but that’s how many rocks we had sitting in the driveway today.  

A better view of the North box, and the kick-ass stone support Husband put in to prevent erosion until the “grass” makes it back up the hill:
 

This is the West box, also 8′x4′:
 

Yes, I did put my aloe plant in the ground there.  Yes, it’ll be fine.

This is a little table we scored at Target last night for less than 15 bucks:
 

It will, of course, primarily serve as a platform to hold my seed packets, garden journal and camera.  Oh, and maybe drinks, once the weather returns to human-normal.

The new pitcher plants arrived yesterday, and were all potted up during the festivities this afternoon:
 

The Tarnok there on the left is the one we’ve had the longest (about 6 months I think) and it is getting to be a good size, but do notice how much larger the rubra is right out of the shipping container….at half the price of the Tarnok!  We purchased all these new carnivores from Hirts, through Amazon.com.  Highly, highly recommend them, both in price and in plant quality.

Another benefit to the reorganization going on out back is finally getting the Meyer lemon tree in the ground:
 

The only downside is you now take your own life into your hands going out that back door.  Stray not from the path, traveller, or you’ll be pierced by (in the words of our children) eat-your-soul-out thorns.

To top off an excellent, albeit tiring and stinkifying, day, the first fig from our dwarf tree was deemed ripe enough to sample:
 

It probably wasn’t completely ripe yet but it was delicious nonetheless, mild and sweet.  Must dig up fig recipes, stat!

Oh, and a round of applause, please, for the Awesome Husband.

The weather here in central Florida has become quite nice again.  Nights are in the high 60s and days are in the high 80s.  The rainy season is over, the whiteflies are dead and gone, and the humidity is a bit lower.  All that means the plants think it’s springtime again, and are acting appropriately!

We took the red rice bean plants out of Box #4, amended the soil with fresh compost, peat and manure, then planted Golden Bantam corn: 
 

The sun’s path through the sky during the day is lower now, and the house casts a big unfortunate shadow over about half the box…the half the box where the corn has yet to sprout.  The Romanesco has sprouted just fine in the same area in Box #3 so I may have to just plant more of that in the shady part of Box #4: 

Gardening is fun, isn’t it?  Stupid sun.

The cucumbers are sailing along, despite pests o’plenty.  We’ve blooms and tiny cukes all over the Parisian Pickling cuke, and the Pearl Hybrid and Lemon cuke seedlings have put out their first little grabby tendrils:
 

The peppers continue to bloom, though I do see the fruit getting smaller as things cool off a bit:

I just can’t yank out the plants while they’re still in bloom.  I’m clearly not ruthless enough to be a true farmer.

The Fresca strawberries were moved from a strawberry pot (*spit*) to Box #1 after the Yellow Pear tomato was murdered by hornworms…only nobody ever told me not to plant strawberries where tomatoes had just grown, and they’ve been puny ever since.  So, have to find a new home for them so we can actually have berries this year, dangit!
 

All the tomatoes (Mr. Stripey, Hawaiian Pineapple, Roma and Isis Candy) are blooming, giving me hope for fresh tomatoes through at least Thanksgiving:
 

The carrots are going like crazy.  That’s Purple carrots in the pot outside the box, then Parisier Markets, first crop in the middle of the box, second crop at the far left end of the box:
 

Have to pluck out the occasional interloper in that bed, they seem to love whatever the carrots are putting back into the soil:
 

Sprouted another round of Lime basil after the first was nommed by the Girlchild’s cat:
 

Speaking of herbs, I’ve altered the plan for the new boxes somewhat.  There were originally only going to be two new boxes, lining two sides of the outdoor patio, each double the height of the original boxes (24″ instead of 12″).  In the inevitable delay in getting them constructed (soccer, rain, football…you know, important stuff!), I had some time to think…and plot…and plan…and now we’re going to put two 12″ tall, 8′x4′ boxes around the patio and put two 12″ tall, 10′x2′ boxes behind the pool enclosure, where the Very Disappointing butterfly bushes currently reside.  As you can see, keeping beds weed free here in Florida is a Herculean task, and raised beds are pretty much a necessity:
 

The two 10′ beds will go on either side of the Scentimental rose there in the center, and will just encompass the bleeding heart vines on either side.  The butterfly bushes are coming out, yes…they became drought-struck after the summer rains stopped, despite being planted months and months ago, and having plenty of time to get established:
 

And they’re just too spindly for actual screening, not that we need it with this awesome display on our back fence, which effectively raises it from a 6′ fence to around 9′:

How cute is that composter, I ask you?  (Built by the Husband completely from scratch, thankyew.)  It is ROCKING at its job, too…we took everything out last weekend and gave it a thorough turning, and the whole load is going to be *perfect* by the time we need it for spring amendment.

Anyway, back to the “speaking of herbs…”  I’ve always been interested in herbs and herbology, so these back two boxes will be Le Grande Herbe Experimente.   (See how I made everything look important by adding that extra “e”?  I’m SMRT that way.)  So, going into that area will be, in no particular order:

1. Black cumin
2. Roman chamomile
3. Cilantro
4. Elecampane
5. Feverfew
6. Hyssop
7. Marshmallow
8. Motherwort
9. Spilanthes
10. St. John’s Wort
11. Self-Heal
12. Agricultural mustard (for both soil amendment and seed harvest)

I gifted myself with a new look for my design firm’s home this weekend, over at Sekimori Design.  If it looks all gear-y and pipe-y, well, that’s a’purpose as I was going for a Steampunk look.

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality. (Via Wikipedia)

The brass, the grungy metal and paper, the gears, the dials, the pipes…I adore the steampunk aesthetic and have been roaming the web for months, searching for inspiration.  I finally got juiced enough to start the design in earnest on Friday, and walla! 

Is it wrong to keep looking at your own site because it’s so pritty?  :)

Me (after scrubbing down the master bathroom):  Check out this supah-clean sink.

Him: That *is* a supah-clean sink.

Me:  I couldn’t find a junk toothbrush though, so there’s still this tiny grotty bit between the faucets.

Him:  So we’ll buy a cheap one next time we’re out.

*fifteen minutes later*

Him (brandishing a pink Hello Kitty toothbrush I haven’t seen the Girlchild use in years):  Hey babe?  Zoe just brought this, left it in the hallway for you.

Me:  *blink*

Zoe:  *purr*

Me:  Zoe, I’d like 11 million dollars, please.

I’ve been in love with pitcher plants since we came across a log-potted growth of them at Bok Tower Gardens a few years ago.  I bought two earlier this summer to place on the back patio, partly to see if they’d make a dent in the insect population, but mainly because they’re just gorgeous.  

The Sarracenia leucophylla ‘Tarnok’ is doing very well.  It has produced mid-sized pitchers since being potted up, and is now about 12″ tall and turning out laaaarge pitchers.
 

And if you gently peer down into the pitcher itself, you can see all kinds of horror:
 

I’m glad to be rid of the pesky love bugs (which the pitchers consume in droves) and the even peskier destructive-caterpillar-spawning moths, but I’m still a softie at heart, and can’t help but feel the teensiest bit sorry for them.

Which is, I suppose, why I dreamed last night of murderous, body-snatching pitcher plants.  

Sooo, no more peering down into pitchers for me.  Eat up, fellas!

*At least those in my backyard.

Technically, Florida’s climate is classified as “sub-tropical,” but you’d be forgiven for thinking “tropical” when you’re standing in our backyard.  This is the view of the four feet above our six-foot tall fence:
 

That is the profusion of weeds growing up and over from the drainage ditch behind our neighborhood.  Gorgeous, aren’t they?  They’re also home to innumerable birds in the spring and fall, which is why I get testy when the HOA makes noises about mowing it all down.  Yes, there’s plenty of alternate habitat, but this bit is MINE, dangit.

Now, I’d just adore to tell you all exactly the botanical and common names for each of these flowers, but there are only so many hours in the day.  Resources for identifying them are rather slim on the ‘net, and I don’t have the hours required to plow through them all.  There’s an excellent wildflower ID group on Flickr, and I’ll submit them there, then update these pictures as I get IDs.

This has to be some kind of wild pea:
 

It vines faster than the honeysuckle, and makes dark purple buds that open into gorgeous deep red pea-flower-shaped blossoms about the size of a quarter.

This one grows on 7+ foot tall stems, and has amazing architectural-looking leaves:
 

It’s blooms are dime-sized and pink, with an almost, er…anatomical detail:
 

This one appears to be more of a shrub, with lovely lemon-sized blooms:
 

It makes a fine trellis for the all the climbers.

This one I’ve seen both on foot-high stems in the rose garden (where the butterflies prefer it over the roses) and up high over the fence in among the other climbers:
 

You have to get down on the ground for the rest of these flowers, as they’re tiny, no bigger than english peas.  The tinier they are, the more complex they seem to get.

This is the Turkey Tangle Fogfruit (Phyla nodiflora), which looks like Battenberg lace up close:
 

This is appears to be a kind of Lobelia but it only gets about three inches tall.  
 

This little guy is almost orchid-like, grows on longish stems with multiple blossoms every few inches:

This tiny cluster of flowers sits right on top of its leaves, about an inch off the ground:
 

This little trumpet-like flower grows on a stem about five inches tall, a Lobelia relative, perhaps:
 

And finally, this amazingly peach-colored cuphea lookalike grows on spear-shaped stems only about 6 to 8 inches tall:

I had been planning this wildflower post for several weeks, as the profusion growing over our back fence became more and more impressive, but it was only this morning that I found the last five wildflowers on this list.  A lesson to slow down and watch where you step, I suppose.

Mmm, fall programming.  Tonight we have How I Met Your Mother (still the funniest thing on TV), Chuck (hurrah!) and Life (double hurrah!).  I thought for a moment earlier that we also had Heroes to watch, and kind of deflated…until I remembered I junked it from the TIVO to-do list last night.  It had such promise in the first season, interesting characters/stories…but for me the show just got mired down in the details.  It never had the scope I wanted from it…no Batcave, no Dr. Xavier, no Justice League, for pity’s sake.  If I wanted a soap opera (and make no mistake, that’s what it is) I could turn on my TV any weekday.  But my evenings are PRECIOUS, people, I do not have time for your little pretend-epic there, kthx.

UPDATE:  Chuck, how do I love thee, let me count the ways…

1. Theme song by Cake and kitschy credits.
2. Cute as a button hero…completely sans wimpiness.
3. Morgan significantly less creepy this season.
4. Casey has apparently grown a heart.
5. 85% less screentime for Sara’s underpants (compared to last season anyway).
6. An actual body count…this is no puff piece, people.

I sincerely hope this is not indicative of how the rest of my day is going to go…

I’ve been pondering the garden these past couple of weeks, deciding what to pull out, what to plant.  The blistering heat is finally starting to ease up a bit, with nights in the 60s and 70s and days in the 80s.  The rainy season is officially Over, so all the cursed whiteflies are finally dead, which means I can plant cukes again, woo!  To that end we did some much needed maintenance today, laying down newspaper between the boxes and topping it off with eucalyptus mulch:
 

In box #1, we have a flourishing Parisian Pickling cucumber, a few struggling Fresca strawberries (what, too hot still?), and a newly planted Lemon cuke:
 

In box #2, we have a bumper crop of Parisier Market carrots, a newly sprouted Pearl cuke, and five new rows (on the left there) of Parisier Market carrots:
 

That used to be the home of the Hawaiian Pineapple tomato, but after the Yellow Pear tomato was slaughtered (MURDERED, I SAY!!) by hornworms, I emergency evac-ed it to a large pot inside the pool enclosure. None of the tomatoes are particularly happy right now, though, all with small curly leaves.  I haven’t had time to devote to figuring out their particular issue, though I suspect it is nutrient-related.

In box #3, the peppers continue, though a little lackadaisically.  The Thai Hot pepper is covered in new blooms, so we’ll see if this is a last gasp for them:
 

Today I also planted two Romanesco cauliflower seeds, and will add more as the peppers retire.  And I freely admit, to you all, here and now, that I am growing the Romanesco as much to photograph it as I am to actually eat it. 

In box #4, we took out the faithful, and extraordinarily productive red rice beans (into the composter, of course!) added some fresh soil, compost and manure, and planted two offset rows of Golden Bantam corn:
 

Harvest for this variety is in 83 days, which will put it on the table right before Christmas.  This is as much experiment as anything else, to see if we can get a good harvest of corn outside the rainy season.  We also hope the sodding cornworms will be less in evidence in this drier weather, but stand ready with Worm Death^TM should that prove otherwise.  I want fresh corn, from my own garden, dammit!

Other crops in progress include Purple Haze carrots:
 

Napoli carrots:
 

Seems kind of bare, eh?  Someone…who shall remain nameless, since he’s the one who will be building my new planter boxes for me…stepped on the edge of this pot while harvesting red rice beans the other day and tipped out almost the entire crop of carrots.  The seedlings were rescued and moved to a different pot, and new seeds started in the original pot:
 

Next to the rescue pot are Ishikura bunching onions, shallots (woo!) and Carentan leeks.  I am having ABYSMAL luck with leeks this year…do they prefer cooler weather or something?

Still to come on the planting agenda are:

• Cebolla yellow onions
• More strawberries
• Ground cherries
• More carrots (Purple Haze, Parisier Market and Napoli)
• More shallots and Carentan leeks
• Raddichio
• Butterhead lettuce
• Tennis Ball lettuce
• Celery
• Spinach

Back when we all started blogging, those of us who were, erm, uncomfortable with the typical level of sharing that went on in most blogs took lots of these little tests and quizzes.  I’m better about the sharing these days, but sometimes you just have to take a stupid quiz and post the results.

Via Joanie