"Spring"ing to Life

The Castor Plant.


Well, one week since posts and I am liking everything that is going on around the property. The live oaks have shed A LOT of leaves....I have mounds all over and I just keep blowing them into piles....and more piles. It truly does make a good mulch...it's just not an attractive mulch. Soon the pollen will drop from these two huge trees.....you can see on the branches and buds are swelling and about to burst.....it's going to be a HUGE mess! Usually it will work this way....one day nothing; the next a carpet of pollen all over the patio grounds. While it looks like a disaster struck, it can be quite pretty.

Also this week, I checked my elephant ear bulbs in the ground because several weeks ago, I found one rotten. It frightened me and I ran to their beds to check and see if the bulbs were still solid....and thankfully, several hundreds of dollars of Colocasia Esculenta were saved and more are still arriving. I ordered from Brent and Becky's bulbs. It was my first time ever ordering from a catalogue this year. I also purchased several seeds from Hint's Farms and I wasn't disappointed.

Today was an affirmation that what I am doing will be amazing for all. The smell alone of the plants carried this fragrance all around the grounds. Currently, the citrus trees are giving off the scents and it's a wonderful smell! The smells along with the blooms and the birds/hummers flying around the property are making me truly excited for what is going to be quite a show. The nectarines, plums, peach, apple, fig, and citrus trees are all beginning to bloom and leaf out. However, I see nothing on the persimmons tree, but I am assured that things will begin soon on this tree. The branches are bendy so that is a good sign. Another smell on the grounds is from the purple verbena plant. They look great and smell fantastic. During winter, they can look kind of weedy and ugly, but the minute the heat and sun come back, these things really clean up nice and make a beautiful addition to the garden.....and the smell!! Roses currently have buds on them and ready to open in about a week. I am sure many people are going to enjoy the color parade of these plants. Finally on growth....the Hosta plant and Hydrangea. People told me it was impossible to grow and yet.....they are growing wonderfully. They are both in total shade...new leaves every day and both are quite full. I look forward to monitoring their success because if they work, that will open up a whole new sector of plantings as we have extreme shade areas that can be easily watered. I'll keep you updated.

As for sprouting. The first castor bean that I planted has popped out of the ground as do I see the Pride of Maeira shooting up. It was planted in FULL sunlight and so I'll see if these can take our full sun load during our extremely hot months here of 110-115 degrees! If not, I have planted several where the morning sun will only touch them. Above, I put a picture of what the castor bean plant looks like when full grown. While it's a weed in most places, here it makes a catchy tropical view in the garden. There are several varieties and I have planted only 2. Rincus Comunis and the Zhanzibar variety which can grow up to 15 feet tall. It is my hope to harvest the seeds to plant for the next year. It is a poisonous plant(mostly in the seed)....of course, a lot of plants are, but what's unique about this plant is the way it can "shoot" it's seeds to spread out. I saw this plant for the first time down in the Lake Chapala area specifically in the retirement community of Ajijic. There was a forest of them and during the hot spell of the day, the plants made an exploding sound shooting their seeds all over the place. I thought they were rats running around because I had seen many of them. Being a little bit on the bad side, I brought several of them back with me to the US and planted them in the ground and it was quite fun to watch them pop up and work their magic. This may sound cheesy, but I wanted to create an active garden for people....of sort of Pandora(from Avatar) that comes alive and invigorates the senses. It's a garden for smell, birds and butterflies, people and their gardening needs, for inspiration and color, and most of all an escape from our busy lives.

That's all for this week. My new and exciting bulbs will hopefully be coming this week....one of them is the Borneo Elephant Ear. It will grow to 15 feet tall with leaves 4-5 feet wide. These will be placed around our smaller pool and under our live oaks....it should be quite a sight! The datura is doing well and appears to be growing so I will update on that as well. Until next week.....

Live Oak Leaf Drop

Yesterday and today mark a massive leaf drop on the oak trees. This is normal during this time of year and like clock work, the pool filters are clogged with leaf litter and the courtyard is full of leaves. I don't know why I obsess about it, but I always think the trees are going to die even though they've been doing this for years. This tree decides to drop all of its' leaves in Spring and then within 2 weeks, there will be a huge pollen drop of yellow/green all over the grounds. It just happened later this year and my thinking is that it is due to the mild winter we've had. Only recently has it been around the 80 degree mark and last year at this time, it was already at the 80 degree mark in February. I think once that temp is set for all the trees and bushes, the process of budding and in the case of the Live Oak trees, leaf drop occurs. They are unique and beautiful trees on the property adding a lot of shade and ambience to our courtyard. So I'll take the blower and move those leaves elsewhere until all leaves have dropped.....and then of course, the pollen and allergy season will begin:)

This is what some research has found....from San Angelo, Texas by Allison Watkins.

SAN ANGELO, Texas — The live oak is a popular tree for home landscapes. These beautiful shade trees are considered a treasure by many homeowners, and with good reason. They are a nice addition to almost any landscape and are generally reliable and valuable trees. They can tolerate many harsh conditions including drought, shallow soil and high pH; also, relatively few pests can damage them.

Live oaks are not a true evergreen, as they are commonly termed. The leaves drop, but with different timing than most other trees. Live oak trees lose their leaves during late winter to early spring, with the exact timing depending on genetics and environmental factors.

When the leaves fall, it can cause the tree to look bare for a few weeks — some years are worse than others. This can be unsettling for homeowners, but don’t panic; just wait a few weeks, and the new leaves should start coming out to fill the canopy.

Pruning, if needed, can be done to live oaks this time of year. While there is no evidence of oak wilt in the area, painting of wounds is recommended as a preventive measure to protect against the disease. Live oaks also can be planted now as container-grown, balled and burlapped, or as native transplants.

One common issue with live oaks is the pesky root sprouts that pop up in the lawn under the tree. Unfortunately, not much can be done to eradicate them. Since they are connected to the main tree, herbicides cannot be used. Growth regulator chemicals are available, but have not proven to be effective.

The best recommendation is to plant a circular bed of ground cover around the tree, which will hide or blend in with the suckers. Asian jasmine is especially appropriate for this task since the leaves look similar and it can grow in the shade.