Two Hairy Situations

It was late Sunday morning and I was enjoying lunch in the den with a last cup of coffee. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm, so Kyle was outside working in the yard.

I had just turned my laptop on when Kyle came in. He went into the living room and came back.

Calmly, he asked, "Have you been sitting there for a while?"

"Yeah, actually, I have. Why?"

"Come see what Murphy did in the living room."

Oh God. I figured she must have peed on the "dog couch" in there again (marking it? Who knows), but as I turned the corner into the front room, I saw a brand-new type of naughtiness:

She had uprooted Kyle's six-foot corn plant from its pot in front of the window, and dragged the entire plant--with most of its soil, apparently--onto the couch. That dark spot on the cushions isn't a shadow--that's dirt.

As we stood there, staring silently, Murphy wandered in. She had this look on her face, like, "Heeeey . . . so, you noticed the plant, huh?"

Stonefaced, Kyle said, "I'm not dealing with this right now," and walked out of the house.

Which was probably for the best, anyway. I yelled at the dog for a while, in the hopes that the yelling would communicate this was not considered appropriate behaviour. She wisely retreated to the back yard to think about her actions.

After thirty minutes or so of sweeping, scooping, replanting, and vacuuming, everthing looked pretty much the same. (Here I insert a shout-out to our "Gardening in a Minute" Flickr photo set, Repotting Indoor Plants) Of course, the plant is now leaning a little, and the pothos plant that was growing at the base of it is much, much smaller. I did take a few pieces of the pothos and put them in water; hopefully they'll root. And while the couch cushions are not clean, exactly--they're clean enough for the dog, anyway.

There are two lingering mysteries: one, why now? That plant had been sitting in that same exact spot for a few weeks. And two, how did I not hear her knock it over? I didn't have the television on or anything. Weird.

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I promised a photo of Kyle in his beard, and I got one just in time--he plans to shave it off when he returns this weekend from his trip down to Polk County (he's helping our friend Greg with a BBQ competition).

I took it with my iPhone last night at Hooters trivia:

He grew that in a week. Seriously.

Death of a Loquat Tree (with bonus puppy photo!)

We have several loquat trees in our back yard. Also known as Japanese plums, these trees are a pretty common sight around here, almost to the point of invisibility - you kinda stop noticing them. Until something weird happens.

I'm poking around with the dog in the back yard a few days ago and notice that one of the loquat trees is looking, well, pretty bad. Every leaf is drooping and turning brown. What's weird is that there are two more on either side of it - and they look great! They're actually flowering right now.

Not my best work, but here are two of the trees - the dying one is on the left:

A close-up of the leaves:


The other healthy tree:


I brought a leaf in to Kim, our Master Gardener, but it's really hard to tell what's ailing a tree by one brownish leaf. There's no sign of insect damage, which would lead me - in all my ignorance - to believe it's a disease affecting this tree. So why just the one? We must have seven or eight loquat trees in the back yard.

If we were to figure out what the problem was, I hope it's an inexpensive cure. Kyle doesn't really like the loquats for some reason, and has been talking about taking them down. Luckily, he's got an invasive mimosa and some dangerously close pine trees on his to-do list now.

In a completely unrelated story, my puppy!

Just chillin' on the front lawn with Kyle. I can't believe how big she's getting. Not a pokey little puppy anymore, sigh...

Although not a grownup dog, either. This morning I stumble out of the bathroom to see that Murphy has thrown up on the bedroom carpet (for some reason she never chooses to do this on the tile). This is not the first time this has happened, and in fact, it's the same stuff - pine bark, leaves, but with a new addition - some fiber from a toy she destroyed at a friend's house the previous evening.

Not the best way to start your day. But then I look at her and she's just so damn cute.

To use a phrase that's becoming very popular in our household, damn dog.

Pretty . . . weed

I was walking across the "lawn" from the parking lot to my office building this morning, and came across this lovely flower:

It's really quite pretty - if you look at the full-sized version of this photo, you'll see that each little blossom resembles a tiny little snapdragon flower.

In reality, this plant is really small. The flower couldn't have been more than an inch tall, if that. And I'm quite sure it's some sort of weed, as it was growing merrily across the grassy strip surrounding the parking lot. Plus, the leaves remind me of another weed found pretty much everywhere in Florida, the dreaded spurge. But I've never seen one with such pretty flowers.

I looked through the book "Weeds of Southern Turfgrasses," pulled from the shelf of my coworker and Master Gardener, Kim. Nothing - no tiny, low-growing weeds with itty-bitty-pretty flowers.

Perhaps someone will recognize it here? Hmm, I'm not sure how many botanists who specialize in Florida landscape weeds read my blog.

Pickin' up pawpaws and puttin' 'em in your pocket...

We have a shrub or small tree in the back yard, right in front of the master bath, that blocks the window nicely (when it has leaves; it's deciduous).

I've always wondered what it was; it didn't look like anything I'd seen before. And this spring, the mystery deepened when small green pods appeared on the branches:

Photo of fruit:

Photo of foliage:

After weeks of procrastination, I finally took some photos and brought them in to work for our master gardeners to look at. Tom, the state master gardener coordinator, works downstairs, and my coworker Kim is a master gardener as well.

The two puzzled over the photos briefly, and Kim pulled out a book titled "Florida's Best Fruiting Plants" (they both have an impressive library of plant geekery).

Mystery solved! It's a Pawpaw tree; Latin name Asimina triloba. According to the very handy web site Floridata.com, it's native to the Eastern U.S. and likes rich, well-drained soil. The strange little pods are the fruit, which mature up to 3-6 inches long and have a creamy interior full of black seeds. The taste has been compared to a banana or pineapple. We'll see if our pods make it to maturity; our squirrels number in the hundreds and dang, are they hungry beasts.

Our particular specimen has been there for some time, although it doesn't look like a tree; it looks like a shrub, meaning it has growing to do. Which is unfortunate, as Kyle will be cutting it down if it gets too big. I wonder if whoever planted it right next to the house knew pawpaw trees can grow up 25 feet!

What the interior of the fruit looks like:

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Free for any use.)

Here Comes the Sun . . .

Spring has arrived! Yes, I know it's probably a bit rude to rub this fact into the faces of anyone from up north - say, the 140,000 without power in Maine thanks to the snow storm, but I'm so excited and it's so pretty!

The azaleas are really starting to crank the blooms out now. This is our largest azalea, out back besides the porch:

(Speaking of azaleas, I think the Florida Azalea Festival in Palatka is still going on March 7-8, even though I couldn't find a single mention of it on the Palatka Daily News web site. There is a web site for the festival, but unless you want to register for the parade or the Azalea Queen beauty pageant, there's not much there to look at.)

Right next to the azalea is a shrub that has little tiny buds that are starting to pop:

When it's fully leafed, it provides a great deal of privacy for our master bathroom - right now, anyone who really wanted to can see in.

One of the other trees in the back yard is also budding with leaves:

There's a few survivors in the vegetable garden planted by the home's previous owners, and most of them are doing pretty well. There's some sort of cabbage plant, rosemary and parsley:

The pineapple isn't doing so well:

I'm really hoping my plumbago comes back. It looks bad - Kyle thinks it's a goner.

Christmas... uh, I mean, Valentine Cactus?

Look who finally decided to make an appearance!

My "Christmas" cactus finally started blooming! We had it inside for too long in the fall, so it wasn't getting the six-eight hours of darkness it needs to bloom. We only moved it outside around the holidays, so I knew it would be a late bloomer (Ha ha! Late bloomer! Get it?)

New Flower in the Scurrilous Yard

Kyle saw this little plant pushing up between edger stones. He contemplated taking the weed wacker to it, but decided to wait and see what it turned out to be. Turns out it's Pentas:

Color Theory

The house officially ours, we're starting the process of making some changes. Things that are easier done before you move in than afterwards, like painting and putting some new flooring down.

We want to tear up the berber carpet in the den and hallway; it's in pretty bad shape and Kyle prefers hard surfaces. We're going with either wood or a really nice laminate. We've got to do some more shopping, though - Home Depot's laminate selection sucked ass. They barely had anything, what they had felt cheap, and 75% of the samples had a sticker announcing they'd been discontinued.

I've order some samples from Lumber Liquidators. Even though they're not in Gainesville, the prices look like it could be worth the drive. I'll share when they come in. I ordered two laminates and two woods. Kyle's not sold on the laminates, but I'd love to go with something tougher and cheaper than wood - if I can get something that looks nice.

As for paint, these are the colors we've chosen:



The reddish colors are really just a stand-in for the Mexican tile we've got - I wanted to make sure these colors looked okay next to it, because it's not going anywhere. Kyle was immediately drawn to the Ralph Lauren paints, and while their selection is smaller than the big brand also available, these colors looked richer. Reviews I've found online concur.

As you can see, we like neutrals. But not only that - we have very little furniture, so the paint has to go well with things that aren't in existance yet. (I'm sure we're aware that you're supposed to match paint to upholstry and other fabrics, not the other way around.)

Hopefully the weather clears up for the weekend. I plan to take photos of my plants and beg my coworkers to identify them, namely our resident Master Gardener.