Garden Update!

First of all, I absentmindedly rescheduled epiphyte day for a day when I'll clearly be in Atlanta and unavailable to blog, soooo... how about you leave links for your posts and I'll compile them when I get back? This means you now have til the 5th to share your posts! For the time being, I'd love to tell you what's going on in my garden before I start my trip.


By the way, I'll be at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens on the 3rd, and the Proven Winners Outdoor Living Extravaganza on the 4th! Stay tuned for my live coverage via Twitter.

My front yard edible garden was a nice flop this year, especially since I wasn't around to tend to the veggies. The collard greens are practically minuscule, and the mustard greens (pictured) had already begun to bolt even though they're still so tiny. This is what happens when you don't amend the soil and only visit the garden twice a month.

The multiplying onions are doing great, and the lemongrass is already recovering from winter! Oh, and I also planted what was left of a green onion bunch a couple of weeks ago, and they've been growing like mad!  Yesterday I planted Siam Queen basil seeds, a Thai Hot pepper plant, lettuce, arrowroot, and roselle seeds. I acquired the arrowroot from Grower Jim of Garden Adventures, and the roselle from my good friend Cora! I'll do a blog post on Cora later.

I also planted dragonfruit inside a confederate jasmine trellis so it will have solid support and frost protection. Crossing my fingers! My ice cream banana had turned to mush, so I cut it down a few days ago and was relieved to see growth after only two days.

Finally, the bottlebrush in my front yard is deciding to bloom the way it's supposed to. I've had sporadic flowers over the last two years, but judging by the quantity of buds in the photo above, I'm expecting a riot of color!

Here are the new leaves on my split leaf philodendron. Pretty cool looking, huh? Nearby I discovered some green leaves sprouting from my sea bean vine! The entada gigas seed was one of many found washed up onshore after a long voyage from Central America, so you can see why I'm excited about it's survival! A heavy mulch of leaves can really work wonders. My monstera deliciosa is also returning from the freezes. What a trooper!

Alocasia "California" is starting to really bounce back. This plant gets BIG!

I was surprised that the tibouchina actually retained some green leaves through winter, but now it's really starting to rebound, and putting out lots of fuzzy green leaves. The firespike had actually air layered itself this year, so I now have new plants to spread around the garden! One minor irritation: There are a LOT of morning glory volunteers that need to be yanked out. I'm not a fan of morning glories and their invasive tendencies, but my mom sure does like them... so in the garden they stay!

I'm starting to fall asleep and I have a big day of driving tomorrow, which means it's time to say goodnight. Watch this space for epiphyte day on the 5th and an article on the Proven Winners event in Atlanta shortly after! (I've also recently visited the edible garden of an amazing Cambodian woman. Trust me, you will be amazed by her garden.)
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