100th Post!

I began this blog last July as a fun summer project to share my balcony garden with you. One hundred posts later (didn’t know I could!), it’s become much more. It has helped discipline me in my writing and I’ve taken hundred’s of photos of many aspects of my garden. I’ve been happily stretched.

One friend is amazed that I can have such diversity in such a small garden. Plants change as they grow—that’s part of what I like about gardening. Several—even non-gardeners, have said that they find refreshment and stress-relief as they read my posts each day. I’m pleased. That's why I share my garden.

As I’ve shared my successes and not-so-successful gardening experiments with you, people from many parts of the world have looked in. Gardening is, for the most part, universal. Like it or not, small gardens will likely become the norm as cities and populations throughout the world grow out—and up. One doesn’t have to own acreage to grow a beautiful garden.


I’ve been amazed at the variety of natural kingdom visitors making their way to my “tree house” garden, some enjoyable like this tiny frog, and others such as the leaf-chomping giant grasshoppers, dreaded.

While I’ve dedicated this blog to God, the original Artist and Gardener,Creator of everything, I wasn’t interested in making it into a “daily devotional”. If I saw a parable then good, I’d share it with you but didn’t contrive everything to fit a devotional template. I have however, ended up sharing some of the deep things the Lord is working in me, along with the joys of his creation.

http://leafyjournal.blogspot.com/2011/09/same-song-second-verse.html
http://leafyjournal.blogspot.com/2011/09/garden-watered-by-god.html
http://leafyjournal.blogspot.com/2011/10/to-bloom-again.html


I’ve also shared some nuts and bolts of gardening how-to’s from my years of gardening experience, working in flower/plant shops and reading garden books—my first book club purchases as a child.


Of course, as an artist, color is a really big deal for me and
always influences my garden as well as my posts.



I hope you’ll "visit" with me in my garden for many more “sunrises.” I’d love to get your feedback in comments or e-mails (leafyjournal@yahoo.com). There’s even a place at the end of each post to click on “reactions” to the post and a place to click for sharing the post on facebook, twitter or through e-mail—bring your friends, the more the merrier. Thanks for stopping by!

A New Leaf

A garden book told me that cutting old, dull Tropicana Canna leaves off will provoke new growth. So I bid goodbye to the leaves with grasshopper holes and those whose stripes had faded. Now it has an abundance of new red and gold striped leaves! None seem hurt by the cold weather as long as they were covered.

The vendor I bought the canna from said that it will “die back” but to keep watering it through the winter and it will grow again in the spring—hers have for years. I think though that when it looks like the cold will triumph, I’ll find a place for the striped beauty indoors.

Two Kinds of Singers

Has something changed? What has drawn a variety of birds wheeling and swooping around our back easement? The vibrant blue of a male blue jay has been scarce until today. The birds seemed intent but not distressed. I don’t know what’s different except that the calendar has changed to November but birds don’t generally read calendars. Is it the cool, fresh air? We’ve been buoyed by that for awhile. Maybe the local cats are involved. I don’t think anyone is feeding the birds’ expensive tastes. When I’m outdoors, I’m aware that there are so many aspects of God’s creation, so many potential factors of influence that I don’t know anything about.

The red hibiscus seems happy to be back in its winter home, blooming twice today behind the Hawaiian Ti plant. When I brought the beauty queen in, I heard a high “singing.”
“That’s pleasant. We have our own natural soloist.” Then the cricket’s “song” became louder—and shriller.
“That cricket will eat your plants! We’ve got to get it out of here,” my husband insisted.
Oh yeah, there’s that. But where was it? The loud “singing” directed our search to the hibiscus but our eyes couldn’t see what our ears heard.

Then we brought in the large flashlight and there it was—a tiny brown cricket with a “voice” that belied its size. Experience with the huge green grasshoppers taught me how to capture and remove this mini. I moved quickly out through the door and into the garden to grab my garden gloves and an empty plastic pot then rushed back in to scoop the interloper into the pot. Out again I rushed and sent it flying over the rail into the bush below. Ah, relief.

Another Month Another Grasshopper

While watering my hanging bougainvillea, I spotted yet another grasshopper! I could tell it was a different one because it was slightly smaller. I again put on my gloves and scooped it into a small plastic pot but alas, it turned up again on a Mexican Petunia leaf. I grabbed my camera and actually got a picture—sort of, of the pesky creature then scooped it up again and sent it flying. And sent it flying...and sent it flying. Finally!



My nasturtium had been doing so well in its trailing;“Would it bloom soon?”
Then the other day, I noticed something under my foot. The nasturtium. Did it trail that long? As I looked closer, I saw that it had been severed, undoubtedly by another caterpillar (cutworm?). This time I haven’t seen the culprit.

I can still put the leaves in a salad. I got out the seed pack and promptly planted more. Gardening, like life, is like that; some things are beyond control—or the “control” is worse than the original problem (in this case chemical pesticides). You just have to pick things up and start over—and keep going.

Plenteous Pentas

I finally added a deep pink penta to my garden; the first one hadn’t yet opened when I bought it so I couldn’t tell that it was more of a “sweet” pink. Oh well, butterflies like them. Butterflies may enjoy dining on the nectar of pentas but they must not have gotten the invitation to mine; I haven’t seen a single one.

Nevertheless, the pentas' clusters of star-shaped blossoms are pretty, long lasting, bloom often and grow well. When I bought the "sweet" pink one it was the size of this deep pink one (that I got for half price!); now it has multiple branches and blooms. They like having more room to grow.

I thought I could stay outside longer this morning to write since it’s cooler but the humidity smothered that plan.

I haven’t seen any more caterpillars or grasshoppers, no lizards—just lots of tiny white flying insects. I don’t use chemicals and to a point, I reason that these creatures have a right to be outdoors. However, they don’t need to be attacking my plants; they especially like my petunias. Maybe I’ll get some fly paper.

A Change in the Air

Today is one of those “golden” days when the temperature is cooler and a light breeze stirs. The slant of the sun has changed ever so slightly and sunset paints its colors half an hour earlier. I could stay in the garden all day in this weather, especially if I had a computer that could operate outdoors!

And it’s a good thing since Monday always calls for extra attention to the garden after a weekend of only hurried watering. There are dead leaves to trim and spent flowers to deadhead, vines to reroute. Often, as today, I have weekend plant purchases to repot; the garden centers’ small flimsy plastic pots cause the plants to dry out too quickly in my setting.

Happily, I finally found one of my all-time favorites, peppermint. I’ve been searching all season but all were either gangly or too expensive or both. Now, I finally have a nicely branching plant at a good price but after its sojourn in the dimly-lit parking garage entrance to Trader Joe’s, it’s stretching for every bit of sun it can get. To keep it branching, I think I need to make some tea. I grew up in “ice-tea” country and often enjoyed a sprig of mint in a tall glass but a brief trip to North Africa intrigued me with hot mint tea. Either way, I enjoy it’s fragrance as I brush against it so I put it within easy reach My iced tea sprigs often do double duty; when the tea is gone I often put the mint in a flower arrangement where it then roots and can later be planted—the ultimate “reuse”.

This particular peppermint plant doesn’t have a variety name but last year’s Kentucky Colonel Mint of “mint julep” fame proved too strong a flavor for my tastes, so I passed that one by.

I’ve seen no sign of the “giant” grasshopper since I last sent him flying. The birds like the weather too!

Plan B

What a humid day! Last evening a blanket of gray clouds pressed down the oppressive heat. They were so heavy with moisture that I knew they’d have give it up. They did.

And that’s the problem—not the rain, we’re glad for it. It’s just that our gullies have been washed several times lately and uncharacteristically, the rain has inundated my garden. Usually welcome, the rain waterlogged my pot of hydrangea stem cuttings, causing several of them to rot—even though they were in a terra cotta pot.

So today I was able to rescue three cuttings and followed the rules more closely, putting them in a small plastic pot with a lighter “sterile” seed-starting medium. They’re now out of the way of downpours but I’ll have to watch closely that they don’t dry out. Many plant cuttings can be “just stuck in the dirt” and they will grow but apparently not these. I did add more rooting powder.

If you look closely at the picture on the right you can see tiny bits of new growth! We’ll see how it goes.

It’s yet another two-red-hibiscus-day and yes, the grasshopper was back. But not for long, I sent him flying--further this time.

Trouble in Paradise

Paradise: an ancient Persian word meaning garden.

The other day as I examined the plants in my personal paradise, I found an interloper—a “giant” grasshopper. It was exactly the color of the hibiscus leaves. I’m not one to pick up bugs, uh uh, so I didn’t know how to get rid of it (and I prefer not to kill them if there’s another way). If I shook the bush, the grasshopper would just jump to another leaf. As I prayed for a solution, I looked around and saw a handy small plastic pot and my garden gloves. With my gloves on (!), I scooped the pest into the pot and cast it from my garden. It flew to a tree across the easement. Sure it could come back but I kept it from eating more for awhile at least. Then I saw the huge hole in a leaf of my beautiful red-striped Tropicana cannas—the grasshopper’s calling card.

Today, I found more holes. It was back. I checked each plant as I watered and then in the last spot, I caught it green-pincered on a coleus leaf (it must like colorful food like I do). My method didn’t work as well this time since I had a little less elbow room to throw it and the grasshopper landed in a hanging basket. By the time I spotted its new hiding place and turned to get the pot, it was gone. I searched and rustled the other plants without finding it so maybe it flew away. Good riddance!

Okay, so maybe I’d find it a fascinating part of God’s creation if it wasn’t devastating my plants. It’s not like there isn’t plenty other greenery out there in the semi-wild. They are kosher but I won’t go there…except to ask those who insist that the Biblical dietary laws are the only acceptable diet, “Mmm…have you eaten the grasshoppers on that diet?” And yes, I know that they are a delicacy in some cultures and in others they are “all they have” but unless it’s necessary, thank you but no thank you.

New Resident

As I watered the garden this morning, I looked up and was excited to see a baby lizard (or newt?)! I’ve never before seen one so tiny with its stub of a tail and green stripe down its back. Though the lizard is a welcome addition, something I found trying to blend in with the geranium leaves—a grasshopper, was not! I let it know that it was not welcome and sent it flying!