A Tall Shorebird

Coastal Alabama has a lot of birds of all kinds. Here's one I saw yesterday morning:



It's a great blue heron. Very common over most of North America. This one let us get real close. There were four of us out there talking, and it just stood there, so I took a picture. :)

First Azaleas of 2010

This is a view of the patch of woods behind my apartment, as seen from my bedroom window on the second floor. It's my daily regular view now that my computer is upstairs.



The splash of purple is one of two big patches of azaleas that began blooming last week. Normally they show up back in February, but we've had an unusually cold winter. So far none of the fenceline flowers have appeared yet (and thus, no closeups).

Lawn Shrooms

At some point last spring, one of the trees disappeared. I don't even remember seeing a stump - it was just gone, with nothing but a patch of mulch where it once stood.

A few weeks ago, after heavy rains, the whole place started blooming in mushrooms. Lots and lots of them in big clumps. Here's one of the smaller clumps:





The biggest clump was about four times that size. No clue what kind they are, though they smell like portabellas. I guess the tree's symbiotic fungi are trying to find another tree.

Sidenote: my camera still takes macro shots because I remember what sequence of buttons to hit to get there, but I have no control over where it autofocuses. Thus the ..uhh, softening.. if you embiggen.

Tomatoes, about five weeks later

My tomatoes are doing well. Here they are, happily in their final pots:


And here are some future tomatoes (hopefully):


I haven't decided where they're going when I move, but they probably won't be able to come with me. But that's okay, I have more seeds for later. :)

Tomato Sprouts

Last year's tomatoes were from a neighbor who had too many, all in one tiny pot. He ended up giving me about 30 of them that I planted in three big pots. They survived up until February or so, but only made a few small tomatoes, most of which stayed green.

This year I bought a packet of seeds, rehydrated some peat pellets I had lying around, and sprouted six of them myself. Here they are, after a couple weeks in a cheap plastic incubator (clear dome cover not pictured):


I potted them last weekend. So far they're still strictly indoor plants until they get big enough to survive being dug up by roving area mammals. Then they'll get moved to my big pots from last year. I might try to find some high shelving to put them on, and let the vines grow downward instead of staking them upward. I've heard that works better.



I also have an unused 3-foot sill planter thing. I'm thinking to try putting strawberries in them. But that might have to wait until next year.

Again With The Chives

My chives haven't changed much since January. Here they are, looking a bit greener as they get ready for another summer. I'm not doing a whole lot - just watering occasionally. I could really use some good summer recipes that call for chives...

Meanwhile, I started a compost bin. It consists of a $5 plastic tub from Kmart, into which I've dumped a bunch of veggie scraps, the remains of last year's basil, and some of last year's tomato soil. Also, some leaves and debris from a 3-foot planter that was occupied by a bunch of tree saplings until just before I thought about taking a picture, whereupon they somehow disappeared. o.O Anyway, we'll see how this new adventure goes. If all that happens is I get into the habit of separating veggie scraps out from the rest of my kitchen garbage, that's already a step up from what I was doing before.

Some more pretty flowers

It turns out that the white flowers I posted last year also come in a couple shades of pink.



These are blooming by the door next to my office. The bushes that made last year's white flowers are currently demolished - someone trimmed them way, way down, and now they're only a couple feet tall.

More Azaleas

We've been having lots of flowers here. It turns out that the magenta azaleas across from my patio are still alive and well - and right now they're blooming with a vengeance. I can also see whites, pale pinks, and salmon pinks from here, though there aren't as many and most of them are nearly done blooming now.

Azaleas again

Last summer, a bunch of overhanging tree limbs got removed from the fenceline between my apartment building and the patch of woods behind it. They destroyed some of the brush lower to the ground in the process, and I was afraid there wouldn't be any more azaleas.

Well, there aren't any in front of my own patio anymore, but some of the other ones are still alive. They started blooming last weekend:





There are also a couple other colors, but they're farther into the woods and I can't get close enough for good pictures. Here's last year's pictures (which technically weren't actually taken last year, but that's when I posted them ;) ).

Dandelion!

Most people think of dandelions as a weed plant, but there's nothing like a lush green grassy meadow dotted with these cheery yellow flowers. They're edible, too. They don't grow well down here in the coastal southeastern U.S., alas.

State of my Chives

My chives are the only plants left in my lush, expansive garden. Here they are, not so lush anymore, and with flowerstalk stumps everywhere. Ironically I eat more baked potatoes during the winter than the summer when they're growing well.

The tomatoes died to the last cold snap. :( Now that I have some clue what I'm doing with them, though, I'm looking forward to the next growing season.

A Flowering Tree

This tree is outside a business complex between my apartment and my chiropractor's office. I walked there last week because the car was in the shop getting an oil change. The chiropractor told me not to do that again, and had the receptionist drive me back to the shop. Apparently, walking can be hazardous to my health.

Anyway, so I saw some trees that were flowering. As usual, I have no idea what these are. Someone among the UCF probably does, though. :)

There's a cat outside...

It wants to know if I can play with it.

Or it wants to eat me. I'm not quite sure. It stares at me while I'm sitting around at the computer, then goes into stalking mode. A friend says that means it wants to move in. Which I'd be fine with, but the complex management wouldn't. :(

State Of My Tomatoes

My tomato plants are tenacious. I figured they'd be dead by now, but they're still hanging in there. One of them even has a bunch of new flowers.

The fruits get bigger and ripen more after extra-cold nights (whenever it dips below freezing), but otherwise just sit there being pale green and not doing anything. Here's a picture of the third fruit that has managed to ripen.

It's also the biggest. Maybe these are supposed to be cherry tomatoes. Or maybe I should fertilize them. But they seem to do better if I don't bother to water them, too. I wonder if they'll survive February...

Roses in January

These are blooming outside the apartment complex manager's office.



Yep. In January. Where it's been sunny and 70 degrees for the past few weeks. ;)

Flowers in November

In the quad of the place where I work, there's a bush that seems to think it's spring, not late fall. Therefore, I took pictures, just so Michelle can see them. ;)

And here's one with trees against blue sky for Ilya if he happens to wander by. ;)

Little Green Tomatoes

My tomato plants finally started making tomatoes after I moved them away from the chives. Apparently chive flowers are much more interesting to bees than tomato flowers.

I counted seven promising-looking tomato fruits this morning. Now I'm hoping they'll turn into something edible-sized before it gets too cold. :)

Flowering Chives

My chives are in full flower. I saw some bees frolicking in them this afternoon, but neglected to take pictures while they were there. The tomatoes behind them are also doing well. Still no fruit and only a few flowers.

My Lush, Expansive Garden Volume Four

Here's what my garden looks like at the moment. To the left is the present state of my basil. I let five of the flower stalks do their natural thing, but have been trimming off any new ones I see. Still, it was too late, as you can tell by its pale yellow color... On the other hand, I have lots of little black seeds. I can make new basil! There are two small sprouts at the bottom, possibly the earliest seeds, which are making the original rounded leaves instead of the pointy ones.

Meanwhile, my chives are also flowering. None of the buds have opened yet, but I'll get closeups when they do.

The other two pots are tomatoes. These were originally planted by a neighbor who had 50 of them all in one tiny pot. He offered to give me a few. Somehow I ended up with 20 - about 15 in the two pots pictured and another 5 in a third pot on the neighbor's patio. (They're there because animals kept digging them up when they were on my patio.) Something keeps eating the flower buds, so I've sprayed them down with Sevin, so hopefully they'll actually manage to fruit at some point.

Basil Flowers

My basil has gotten a lot taller in the past couple months. "Leggy" is probably a good way to describe them now. They do get full sun in the afternoons but apparently could use more than I can provide. Aside from longer stems and smaller leaves, they've also been flowering.

May 2

Jul 4

Basil flowers are tiny and white. They've decided not to all bloom at the same time on each stalk as I'd hoped, but to go a few at a time.

Now I'm wondering if I should be trimming the flower stalks off so they make more leaves....