Saturday, September 18, 2010

POTPOURRI AT RAMDOM

I certainly miss a few television shows that remain in the memory. Two Fat Ladies, about British gastronomy.  The heroines drove in a motorcycle with a sidecar around that isle demonstrating the goods that country has in the field.

City Gardener, the best show, the one that lasted the least, on HGTV, about gardening with good taste, pragmatics,
in really small spaces in the home of the Manchester United.

Another weird show: Rosemary and Thyme. The protagonists were a couple of women, gardeners and detectives, solving different sort of crimes, always within the gardening framework. 

The beauty and imagination demonstrated on these shows, was truly amazing.  A pity there is no way to watch reruns again.


In the local front, Puercorico, USA, back on the  dirt adventures.

The Chayamansa, was relocated from plastic to fiberglass.  The lemon tree, four years old, went the other way.  What is Chayamansa the curious, serious gardener may inquire. Go to search, find out. There will be no more new botanical names until further notice.

French drain and hole.  In front of the Pithelobium dulce,  there was a puddle after any rain.  With a chisel, ten pound sledge hammer a one square foot was dug.  Were not as easy to dug as the seven previous, for drains or planting. The concrete mix had more rocks and thicker, making it harder.  I removed the top, put it aside. Caved about 18" deep, removing the sand for future use, placed back the concrete debris in the hole and metal grille/plastic on top. That is that, no more puddle.

The other hole in concrete, will become  home of my fourth Bouganvillea, this one propagated from a cut stem  and rooting hormones. It came from Fajardo City, in the north easth of the concrete/asphalt isle. This color is not very common, color, almost scarlet. A dark intense purple.

After a new attack from the populace on my Calliandra haemathocephala, one stem of Pereskia bleo, was planted in front of  it and one with the Guaicum offinale to dissuade future passers by from snapping/snatching.

The multiple thorns, eventually will stop the vandals doing it for  the hell of it or to propagate, as it was mentioned some time ago.

During recent snail/slug crusades, thirty of the first and five of the second were casualties of my beer wars.

After some research, I found that grape juice, egg shells, and pine needles could be used to stop or execute the culprits.

Apaga i vamonoh.


4 comments:

  1. Egg shells are not sharp enough.. they just crawl right over it (tried it. dried egg shells out a bit a few minutes in the oven and a spice grinder made chopping it up fast and easy).

    Copper rings do work.. and diatomaceous earth works (until it rains.. and then it seems to clump up a bit and not be as effective.) I was fighting off a slug population explosion this year.. I was ready to see if I could rent some ducks (they go nuts for slugs.. and snails).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anne:

    Thanks for the feedback, I will keep it in mind..

    ReplyDelete
  3. No problem. :) I'd help you dispose of slugs if I could. I have gotten very good at it this year. The tokyo cross turnips were their favorite if you ever get frustrated enough to consider a trap crop. Each poor little turnip would be covered in dozens of slugs, but dusting a circle of diatomaceous earth around them kept the slugs away. (very sharp to them, and cuts them as well as dries them. They will slither around it to try to get past and avoid contact with it.)

    Good luck. I always look forward to your posts. You are blunt, logical and inspirational.. all traits I appreciate.

    Oh.. you can watch some of those shows on youtube, but quality is not so good for several episodes. Two Fat Ladies series can be rented (netflix and blockbuster have it). Blockbuster also has the Rosemary & Thyme series.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, I enjoyed the shows; two fat ladies and also Rosemary and Thyme; at the moment there is nothing note worthy watching, I guess I am hard to please when it comes to TV.
    We have cane toads in the garden they devour the snails. The cane toads are very poisonous. They have been introduced to eat the cane beetle. Big mistake they ate and eat everything else.
    They are a hazard to wildlife and domestic pets.
    I used to place halves of squizzed Oranges or Grapefruits upside down into the garden beds and the snails crept underneath and I could collect them! I had to look up Chayamansa; now I know! I wished I knew more, I never know enough!
    Thank you for your visit I appreciate it.T.

    ReplyDelete

Popular Posts