Garden chat & photos for torts and people ♫ ♫

[mrnewberry]

Last winter killed all of the commercial spineless prickly pear that I planted. This past season I drove around found prickly pear growing in local gardens and knocked on doors. I came up with four varieties of locally acclimatized cacti and they all seem to be handling the winter so far.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Nice Wintry days for some brisk walks at our local wildlife refuge

 

[Len B]

Took some pics so you could see how nice my banana trees look at the end of January. This one in the pot may be a sacrificial banana tree. I'm curious to see if it will survive with the well established root ball above ground next to the south side of the house.We have been down into single digits several times this winter so far which makes for a good durability test. The last pic is of Walkers favorite cactus patch. Wont be much of it left by the time our growing season gets here. He gets some everyday.

 

[Cheryl Hills]

Well....., at least the cactus is still viable!

 

[Maro2Bear]

Frosty up here in Maryland on Friday. Cold and snowy. Perfect for a walk in the woods

 

[KarenSoCal]

Frosty up here in Maryland on Friday. Cold and snowy. Perfect for a walk in the woods

View attachment 263846

Great picture! Leads the eyes right down that lane! [emoji102]

 

[Oxalis]

Nice Wintry days for some brisk walks at our local wildlife refuge

View attachment 263744 View attachment 263745

That looks just lovely!

Took some pics so you could see how nice my banana trees look at the end of January.View attachment 263809 View attachment 263810 View attachment 263811 This one in the pot may be a sacrificial banana tree. I'm curious to see if it will survive with the well established root ball above ground next to the south side of the house.We have been down into single digits several times this winter so far which makes for a good durability test.View attachment 263812 The last pic is of Walkers favorite cactus patch. Wont be much of it left by the time our growing season gets here. He gets some everyday.View attachment 263813

That's some impressive cactus.

 

[KarenSoCal]

View attachment 263810

That is one huge tortoise! Is it concrete? How much does it weigh?

Your banana trees look like most of the plants I try to grow! But I don't have the weather to blame it on. I'm just a terrible gardener. [emoji22]

 

[Len B]

That is one huge tortoise! Is it concrete? How much does it weigh?

Your banana trees look like most of the plants I try to grow! But I don't have the weather to blame it on. I'm just a terrible gardener. [emoji22]

It's solid concrete and weighs around 250 pounds. The banana trees are not dead, they do that every winter and grow back when it warms up in the spring. I'm terrible with keeping house plants healthy, I have just 4 house plants that do good and don't plan on adding any more.

 

[Jacqui]

That is one huge tortoise! Is it concrete? How much does it weigh?

Your banana trees look like most of the plants I try to grow! But I don't have the weather to blame it on. I'm just a terrible gardener. [emoji22]

Ditto!

 

[Yvonne G]

Last year Len sent me some wild grape seeds and some palm tree seeds. I planted all of them and got a lot of sprouts from both types. When fall rolled around I placed them into the greenhouse. I was looking at them yesterday and it looks like the wild grapes died. I'm hoping that they've only gone dormant for the winter, but they were such small plantlets, there's really no stem left and all the leaves are gone. The palm tree plantlets are still looking good though. I wanted them to put into the YF yard so they can drop their fruit for the tortoises to eat. I guess that's years in the future, though. I was going to plant the wild grapes all along the north fence of the SA leopard pasture. My tortoise partner is in the process of setting up drip along that area to water them.

We're in the middle of a bunch of rain events, so for the next 10 days or so there's no gardening for me. The flowering pear is in full bloom, though. It is a natural early bloomer, but it seems to have bloomed even earlier than normal this year. It's very pretty!

This picture is looking out the window in my front door:



And when I went to "save" this picture just now, I see that I already have one saved for February 5th, but it was in 2/5/2015, four years ago. So I guess it's not blooming too early. Same day four years ago:



It's nice to see my photography skills have improved a tiny bit in the intervening years, but the facia board above the porch has gotten a whole lot more rotten. Time to fix that!

 

[KarenSoCal]

Last year Len sent me some wild grape seeds and some palm tree seeds. I planted all of them and got a lot of sprouts from both types. When fall rolled around I placed them into the greenhouse. I was looking at them yesterday and it looks like the wild grapes died. I'm hoping that they've only gone dormant for the winter, but they were such small plantlets, there's really no stem left and all the leaves are gone. The palm tree plantlets are still looking good though. I wanted them to put into the YF yard so they can drop their fruit for the tortoises to eat. I guess that's years in the future, though. I was going to plant the wild grapes all along the north fence of the SA leopard pasture. My tortoise partner is in the process of setting up drip along that area to water them.

We're in the middle of a bunch of rain events, so for the next 10 days or so there's no gardening for me. The flowering pear is in full bloom, though. It is a natural early bloomer, but it seems to have bloomed even earlier than normal this year. It's very pretty!

This picture is looking out the window in my front door:

View attachment 264147

And when I went to "save" this picture just now, I see that I already have one saved for February 5th, but it was in 2/5/2015, four years ago. So I guess it's not blooming too early. Same day four years ago:

View attachment 264148

It's nice to see my photography skills have improved a tiny bit in the intervening years, but the facia board above the porch has gotten a whole lot more rotten. Time to fix that!

Gosh, I hope your grapes make it! I bought a grape vine online, a nice plant over a foot tall. I kept it inside until the brutal heat was over, planted it, and now it's a few leaves down on the ground. Those leaves are green though, so I'm hoping it will pick up when it starts getting warmer.

Your place looks so nice for your shell babies! How many acres do you have?

And was it ever settled on your driveway placement from the road widening?

 

[Yvonne G]

Gosh, I hope your grapes make it! I bought a grape vine online, a nice plant over a foot tall. I kept it inside until the brutal heat was over, planted it, and now it's a few leaves down on the ground. Those leaves are green though, so I'm hoping it will pick up when it starts getting warmer.

Your place looks so nice for your shell babies! How many acres do you have?

And was it ever settled on your driveway placement from the road widening?

My property is an acre, but half of it is fenced off as horse pasture.
The City is in the appraisal stage. The plan is to start paying property owners in January of 2019 (far as I know this has not started yet) and construction is scheduled for Spring of 2020. I've decided where I want my new driveway and they're taking it under advisement.

 

[Oxalis]

My property is an acre, but half of it is fenced off as horse pasture.
The City is in the appraisal stage. The plan is to start paying property owners in January of 2019 (far as I know this has not started yet) and construction is scheduled for Spring of 2020. I've decided where I want my new driveway and they're taking it under advisement.

I was wondering about that too. I hope it all works out in your favor!

 

[Len B]

We've had some nice weather this week so i got outside and raked leaves and started cutting the mulberry trees back.I put the leaves at the base of 2 large maple trees and let them decompose there. Here is the first tree that I cut back When I got it to this point I looked at it and decided it would do better this summer with a little more cutting Supposed to have 2 more days of nice weather and then back to our average winter temps.

 

[KarenSoCal]

it would do better this summer with a little more cutting

Wow! Yes, that's certainly cut back! I have 2 dwarf mulberry trees planted, but they're only a foot tall. I'm hoping they grow well this spring.

 

[Len B]

Wow! Yes, that's certainly cut back! I have 2 dwarf mulberry trees planted, but they're only a foot tall. I'm hoping they grow well this spring.

I think mine are some type of dwarf, One that is on the fence line, that I don't cut back is about the same size it was back in 2005. By cutting them back they don't produce fruit. the one I don't cut back gets some fruit but not enough to be a problem. In the first pic of the tree before I started cutting on it has a long term captive red ear slider in the background that is hard to make out because I reduce the pic sizes before posting them. Here is a cropped piece of the pic not reduced so you can see her better.

 

[Oxalis]

We've had some nice weather this week so i got outside and raked leaves and started cutting the mulberry trees back.I put the leaves at the base of 2 large maple trees and let them decompose there.View attachment 264302 View attachment 264303 Here is the first tree that I cut backView attachment 264304 View attachment 264305When I got it to this point I looked at itView attachment 264306 and decided it would do better this summer with a little more cuttingView attachment 264307 Supposed to have 2 more days of nice weather and then back to our average winter temps.

I'm still missing my dwarf mulberry that a freak cold weather spell abruptly killed last winter. Maybe I'll look for another this season. Looks like you'll have some good mulch. All the leaves I planned to rake up for my compost bin were blown away before I could even get outside.

 

[KarenSoCal]

I'm still missing my dwarf mulberry that a freak cold weather spell abruptly killed last winter. Maybe I'll look for another this season. Looks like you'll have some good mulch. All the leaves I planned to rake up for my compost bin were blown away before I could even get outside.

I ordered my dwarf mulberries from Amazon. 2 beautiful plants arrived in excellent condition. By the time they grow enough to take leaves, I figure I won't have to worry about any fertilizers, etc.

Dwarf Everbearing Mulberry: Morus nigra - Two 4 Inch Pots Tennessee Grown https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V5015NA/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

This was right after getting them.

 

[Maro2Bear]

We've had some nice weather this week so i got outside and raked leaves and started cutting the mulberry trees back.I put the leaves at the base of 2 large maple trees and let them decompose there.View attachment 264302 View attachment 264303 Here is the first tree that I cut backView attachment 264304 View attachment 264305When I got it to this point I looked at itView attachment 264306 and decided it would do better this summer with a little more cuttingView attachment 264307 Supposed to have 2 more days of nice weather and then back to our average winter temps.

Looking good down in the Northern Neck. We were able to get some Spring pruning and raking done as well. Cut our Knock Out roses down to the ground, pruned back some overgrown Burning Bush and ornamental Red Maples.