Garden chat & photos for torts and people ♫ ♫

Our recent downpours have actually made our lawns green; they'd been brown and dry all summer. But who cares about lawns? The rain perked up all our garden plants, which were getting ready for fall and winter. Steve's primrose bloomed again, like it's spring. It's been the weirdest season I've probably ever seen. At least Steve has lots of flower treats for a little while longer as he begins to slow down for the season. He pouts when he gets greens; he just wants flowers now!

As summer weather goes we had unusually wet summer, I had to cut the grass at least once a week. that ended in early Sept. the rain stopped for about a month and everything started drying out until last week when we finally got some rain.

So heres an odd question in case anyone has any input....
So here i am cleaning unkempt palm trees, and this particular one, a pretty old one, has some dirt like substance in between the "stumps" as i call them....parts look like element-rotted wood ( or whatever palm tree counts as), and other parts look like straight up dirt. There are worms all up in it and everything, like even several feet off the ground ones.

So my question if anyone knows....what would this stuff be called or referred to as?

And more importantly, would it be good for plants?

I forgot i have a pic, not so great but maybe you can kinda see what im talking about

Peliroja32 said:

So heres an odd question in case anyone has any input....
So here i am cleaning unkempt palm trees, and this particular one, a pretty old one, has some dirt like substance in between the "stumps" as i call them....parts look like element-rotted wood ( or whatever palm tree counts as), and other parts look like straight up dirt. There are worms all up in it and everything, like even several feet off the ground ones.

So my question if anyone knows....what would this stuff be called or referred to as?

And more importantly, would it be good for plants?

Click to expand...

I am no palm expert, but it kind of sounds like the wood was rotting maybe? If there's green at the top, I would assume you can continue cutting away the "bark" away to get a smooth trunk and it should be OK? I hope so.

Yeah the bottom part is what it all looks like now, not really smoot but much better. but what i was wondering was if the dirt stuff that was in there would be any good....or bad for plants? like if it could be used maybe for some type of plant booster or fertilizer, something like that

Heres what it looks like

I would tjink it would enrich the soil.

It could be dirt that blew in and settled there. Or if its not dirt, I'd think its basically compost or castings if from worms. Or a combination. I don't think it would hurt plants.

It’s definitely fall. Lots of pinecones and red leaves. And daffodils are starting up again! Also added a little tour through the garden and a Korean maple from last season.

I forgot the maple!

Peliroja32 said:

Heres what it looks likeView attachment 220830View attachment 220831

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I think that would provide some good humus for the plants. My compost bin lacks a lot of humus sometimes.

Peliroja32 said:

Heres what it looks likeView attachment 220830View attachment 220831

Click to expand...

Any organic material is good for your plants. If you are worried about those worms, you could compost this stuff for a while and then use it to enrich your garden beds. Is use EVERYTHING, including wood ashes from our bonfires it’s all good stuff for plants. Much better than chemicals. Your birds, bees and butterflies will thank you for that. I have had “butterfly heaven” in my flower beds and people come walking their dogs from clear the other side of our neighborhood just to see my swarms of butterflies bees, bumble bees, some hummingbirds. Butterflies are mostly Monarchs, there are 100’s of them here, every years they stop by my garden here on their way down to Mexico on their migration. But we also see Swallowtails and many other species. The “show” is however dominated by that orange color with white dots. So pretty!!!! There are so many that you can actually hear the sound of them flapping their wings! Really cool! So use your palm tree saw dust and other organic things and enjoy your garden

Pearly said:

Any organic material is good for your plants. If you are worried about those worms, you could compost this stuff for a while and then use it to enrich your garden beds. Is use EVERYTHING, including wood ashes from our bonfires it’s all good stuff for plants. Much better than chemicals. Your birds, bees and butterflies will thank you for that. I have had “butterfly heaven” in my flower beds and people come walking their dogs from clear the other side of our neighborhood just to see my swarms of butterflies bees, bumble bees, some hummingbirds. Butterflies are mostly Monarchs, there are 100’s of them here, every years they stop by my garden here on their way down to Mexico on their migration. But we also see Swallowtails and many other species. The “show” is however dominated by that orange color with white dots. So pretty!!!! There are so many that you can actually hear the sound of them flapping their wings! Really cool! So use your palm tree saw dust and other organic things and enjoy your garden

Click to expand...

Speaking of the monarch butterflies, since we had a warmer fall, the news reported that the butterflies were waiting longer to migrate this season than usual. Have you noticed fewer butterflies this year? I plan to plant a lot more milkweed in my yard for them next year.

something like this one. They are all different though seems like the patterns differ from one to another this btw is the Butterly Weed, I have it growing all over my garden and another plant they love: Greg’s Mistflower! Man! This one is litterally a “butterly magnet”! Ever since I planted this one the Monarchs seem to have made a migration stop by my house. and this is what you get when you put out piece of citrus fruit of split long piece of banana in shallow dish and another shallow one with water and some rocks for them to sit on while they drink. Hummingbirds love that too. There are many other species. They all seem to like Texas native plants the most. I have almost completely stopped buying those pretty potted annuals from garden centers. My native perennials are well established and while maybe not as pretty as Miracle Greened to death and pesticide treated instant colors in the garden, this now is what has been inviting the wild life that I so appreciate having around . all those and many more are in my garden daily every Fall in huge numbers.

And little guys like this one and tons of green and brown anoles. Now Guys I’m getting a big gulp of air posting this, to remind myself of all the good things in life. This is what helps me to keep plowing through rough times. Wishing ya’ll great Sunday afternoon[emoji173]️

Pearly said:

And little guys like this oneView attachment 222097 and tons of green and brown anoles. Now Guys I’m getting a big gulp of air posting this, to remind myself of all the good things in life. This is what helps me to keep plowing through rough times. Wishing ya’ll great Sunday afternoon[emoji173]️

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I come on Tortoise Forum a lot for cute tortie photos. They keep me happy. The winter blues set in for me today, and just like it read my mind, AccuWeather posted an article about seasonal affective disorder!

Pearly said:

And little guys like this oneView attachment 222097 and tons of green and brown anoles. Now Guys I’m getting a big gulp of air posting this, to remind myself of all the good things in life. This is what helps me to keep plowing through rough times. Wishing ya’ll great Sunday afternoon[emoji173]️

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I found one like that, and i just had to get a pic of his little feet lol

Peliroja32 said:

View attachment 222140View attachment 222141
I found one like that, and i just had to get a pic of his little feet lol

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Those are pretty cute.

I was given these three,(3) succulents and for the life of me, I cant identify them. I’m in the PNW and the older lady that i got them from had no memory of when she got them or where she got them. I’m mainly wanting the identity of the large leafed one that has developed pyramiding on the underside of the leaves. Here are 2 pictures for y’all, if you need more let me know.
Typically, in this situation, I’d follow my own advice and lug this planter to my local nursery for an identity, but this whole planter weighs so much it’d take 2 strong men and a big boy to move it. thanks y’all fer the help.