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The Big Freeze
We’d experienced several frosts and a hard freeze even before Winter formally began, with Nov. 30th changing us out from extended Summer conditions to plant-killing anomalous cold blasts. But the last few nights have been a straight dive into the low to mid 20’s with dangerous wind speeds and potential for freezing rain. I wasted no time and went on an expensive shopping spree at Lowes to get a huge roll of 6mil plastic, spring clamps, two more 1500 watt electric milk house heaters, a second Cat 6500 watt generator and a remote temperature sensor. My mom was right out there with me to put up the thick and heavy…
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Growing Bigger
Approaching Winter Solstice and the lowest light levels of the year I did not expect to still be seeing such noticeable growth in a short time on all the cacti, and where I had repotted the largest of each species, even more stunning thickness and height in just three weeks. The warm Fall helped. It is at this size each species that I’ve grown from seed here really takes on its characteristic features and beauty with a stunning variety of spination, color and shape. I’m particularly enjoying the different hues of green, turquoise and blue in the wooly torch cacti that are the genus Pilosocereus. Some have grown so heavy…
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A Sweet Week
Ma’s new chicken shoes arrived, and the birds each had to strut over to inspect. Style, comfort and cleanliness make tending the coop more enjoyable for everyone. I added to the fun by feeding them a couple of “treat sticks” that had trespassed on our plants. Across the yard at the banana bed, just below the mulch line and attached to sprawling vines was a jumbo yield of sweet potatoes we weren’t expecting the first year. These grow better in enriched sandy soil but put all their growth into leaves and vines, not tubers, when growing in recently built-up composting mulch. Such had been the case twice in Estero, but…
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Lots of spiders and a Few Other “Bugs”
You know, I just LOVE these things. Yuck, you don’t like? Awww, c’mon, it’s Halloween anyway! How about a hand-sized golden silk spider to brighten (frighten) your evening? We’ve got tropical tent spiders, fuzzy spiders, cute lil’ spiders, dotted spiders, huge spiders, green lynx spiders, extra large centipedes, flying ant lions and even a big undertaker beetle (red and black Nicrophorus burying beetle) to make the holiday real. But I did squash the invasive tropical brown widows and their egg clusters hiding in a couple of flower pots before I even thought of whipping out my camera, because the screams would have been deafening if Mom had found them first.…
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Indian River Prickly Apple, from Bud to Fruit
This time the flower stuck around instead of falling off early, as did the first one this Spring on the East pasture. It bloomed spectacularly; now if the fruit will just finish ripening already. I think it has taken a month just to turn burgundy and I hope it doesn’t take another month to fully swell into a smooth, bright red ball for seed collection (and final photograph). Not sure if my brush pollination or a large hawk moth did the deed, but we like the results. It will be interesting to learn how many seeds this species has per fruit. Harrisia Fragrans, the Indian River prickly apple, is an…
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Fall Harvest, Wild and Cultivated
October brought a quick turn of edible color at Cactus Island. It’s not just what we planted that has reached harvest, but also the wild goods growing in the vast natural areas we’ve maintained. There is a healthy population of American persimmon (fruit and spring bloom in photos) and sandhill pawpaw (if the wildlife would ever leave us one) on the land, plus the winged sumac that grows all over the place as an understory shrub makes a great lemony-flavored seasoning for chicken as well as a light citric tea. Ancient Romans used their variety of sumac for seasoning so we gave it a try; excellent and worth the effort.…
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Three Basal Pups Forming in Ten Photo Slideshow
I’ve never seen the eight-rib variety of wooly blue cactus generate pups, so this was the surprise awaiting me as I weeded around the base of this plant late this Summer. Basal pups sometimes form on stressed cacti but he main stem on this one is extremely healthy and still putting on height. We’re looking forward to a beautiful candelabra shape by late next year.
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Cactitude
We’re up in arms at Cactus Island….way up as various cactus mature and put out pups that are growing into gorgeous arms, mostly blue ones at the moment in several species of columnar Pilosocereus from Brazil. Mom’s favorite is the fuzzy dark turquoise Pilosocereus Flexibilispinus trio with lots of arms. It will end up in its own raised stone cairn bed next year in a place of honor at the edge of The Oasis she designed. We’re also up on seedlings with over 14,000 tiny green Caribbean Royen’s tree cactus from this Summer’s yield of eight fruits. Two Fall bloomers are now forming for potential fruits #9 and #10. I’ve…
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Bugs…..again.
But they’re wickedly cool, and everywhere. I archive what I come across as I go each day, stumbling upon interesting insects with a regularity that is unreal. Some encounters, like the predacious wasps dragging their prize kills across the patio, really should come with comical incidental music. Many of the solitary wasps we’re seeing paralyze their prey, drag it to a nearby burrow, lay an egg on it which produces a hungry grub that will eat the host alive as it matures. This is pest control that is downright Medieval. The three rust-colored, horned beetles in the lower photos also drew the short straw, having the misfortune of emerging above…
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Wild Mushrooms Abound
Every time we have a rainy stretch the networks of mycelia in the ground put forth an abundance of fungal fruit – mushrooms, boletes, puffballs, earthballs, toadstools, slime, stinkhorns and other forms of which we have yet to become acquainted. Though most are not edible for us, it makes a plentiful ongoing buffet for small animals. I’m only seeing a couple of squirrels on the land and with some kind of mushroom in their mouths when I do. Probably building up a stash when they’re not scarfing them down. When we get around to cultivating edible mushrooms it will be done with several kit options and protected in a mesh…
