Smoothie Land

I bought a Spider plant, or Airplane Plant, at the beginning of the spring. This is one of my favorites.  As some of you know, this plant puts off babies on the end of what I would call runners. You can clip these little babies off and plant them in dirt, keep it watered well with bright indirect sun, and they will grow like crazy. Earlier this summer, I did just that. Now mind you, these start of as very small little plants. I brought them in for a few nights to protect them from the frost, and decided to take a picture of them tonight to show all of you. I am so proud of how they are doing. These are variegated, now I would like to get a solid green one.

Happy Gardening!

Miss Crystal

Hi there everyone! I got my first award for Smoothie Land today! Laura from The Work From Home Mother was nice enough to bestow this upon my little garden blog. She has a wonderful blog and shares all the tips and leads she finds for us work-at-home moms. I have become a daily visitor because I can’t wait to see what she finds next.

Ok, now on to the specifics. If your name appears in my list, you may put the logo on your blog, link back to the person that gave it to you, and then pass it on to up to 7 blogs that you are a regular reader or visitor to. After you post the list, go to their blog and give them a holler, let ‘em know you are giving them this award by posting a comment. Here is my list of new favorite blogs:

1. Ms Frugal McDougal

2. Beetle’s Memories ‘n’ Ramblings

3. Pregnant with Cancer

4. The Daily Dish

5. Everything PLUS the Kitchen Sink

6. Random Thoughts

7. Steam Powered Rings

Thank you again to Laura, keep on blogging!

Happy Gardening!

Miss Crystal

This is a beautiful plant and one I would like to get and grow myself. I can now that we moved to a bigger place and I actually have room to sit it somewhere where it can get enough indirect light. They need to have at least 10 hours of indirect bright light a day. Do not give it more than 16 hours if you use artificial lighting, it has to have 8 hours of dark. I always thought it was an old wives tale that they will not grow well if they are grown in terracotta pots, but I have done enough research on the internet on them to agree with the theory. Every site I have read says not to use them because they are porous and hold stuff in them that can harm the plant. Before you water the plant, let the water sit out overnight and let the chlorine evaporate out or use room temperature bottled water. You need to bottom water the plant. Do this by adding water to the saucer it sits in and let it soak up the water from the bottom. Then pour the water out of the saucer. Do not let it stay moist or get completely dry either. I will let you guys know when I get mine and how it goes, lol.

Happy Gardening!

Miss Crystal

We had a little garden visitor today, Mr. Inch Worm. He was mighty tiny and mighty cute. I don’t think they do damage to your plants, at least I have not heard of it. But if anyone knows if they do, please let me know. I am desperately trying to keep the insects and critters from taking over my yard. I already had one pesky little disappearing hibiscus leaf eater this year that stripped the hibiscus my mama rooted up for me. AAARRRGGG! Me and Mr. Sevendust are going to have a hayday this next year. I live in the city, and lived in a trailer park (yes, Gail, I said trailer park, it’s not a mobile home community when you have freaks living there) for 8 years, so moving to our house (which is still in the city) surrounded completely by woods has been way different. But, as usual I will rise to the occasion and defeat the critter army, lol.

Happy Gardening!

Miss Crystal

This has been an easy plant to care for. One of the best things about it is this is a perennial. They like partial shady areas, the more shady the spot the darker purple their leaves are. When it gets more sun, the leaves will kind of bronze some and the veins stay pink.  The bloodleaf will bush well if you keep it pruned.  Most folks plant this for its beautiful foliage, although it does bloom little white spear like flowers at the end of the branch. I usually keep the flowers pinched off so it will put more juice to the plants and bush more. It also takes a little less water than some of my other plants.

It is rained this morning, and luckily we had some just a few days ago. You know what that means, more pictures to share with you guys. I was not going to take pictures of my poor little plants right after the dead heat of summer. I had to give them some time to bounce back. They are looking better every day. Rain also means that I do not have to water anything for the next few days. Although I cannot go too long, or they’ll be all dried out and wilty again. I have gotten such joy out of sharing my photos with all of you that I do not want to quit taking photos, lol. Thank you all for your nice comments, also. It makes me happy to know someone is getting some enjoyment out of them too.

I hope you all enjoy these! The first one, the Gerbera Daisy, is my favorite one out of this group of photos, followed closely by the Japanese Spider Lilies in the second photo. The third photo is a Sun Coleous, and this variety is Sherbert, and the last photo is of a plant that is commonly known as Bloodleaf. I try to ind plants that are not in everyone’s garden, ad if they are, I try to find a variety that most do not pick.

Happy Gardening!

Miss Crystal

To me, fall time is the prettiest time of the year. The leaves begin to turn colors even a painter can’t duplicate. This is also the time of the year that we get to do prep work for the next spring. We have over 2 acres and our property is surrounded by trees, so we have a large amount of leaves to get up and try to keep up so it won’t kill the grass. That is probably our largest job, our next is trimming all of my Althea bushes (commonly known as Rose of Sharon), hedge bushes, and fruit trees (that’s another post). It has become a lot of work in the last few years since we moved into the new place, but should not be as much from now on since we have it cleared out and under control. My biggest tip for gardening of any kind is to buy yourself a Farmer’s Almanac every single year and follow it according to your zone. The years we have followed it, we have great crops; the years we don’t, they don’t produce much. Now that could be a coincidence, but who wants to chance it.

Happy Gardening!

Miss Crystal

Hello Gardening Fans!

I wanted to apologize for not posting in a few days, I have been sick and I could not bring myself to think straight enough to write anything. However, while I was sick, one of my beautiful plants, called Canna, bloomed again since it has cooled down again.  I love these plants, and they get unusually tall for me. As of right now, they are taller than my husband, and he is 5’10’’. I plan on buying more of them, in different colors, and plant them elsewhere in my yard to bring some more color into my yard. They literally come in a rainbow of colors.

Can you believe the depth of the colors? They are a work of art by the Big Man himself. It is times like this that really makes gardening enjoyable.

Happy Gardening!

This happens to be one of my favorites, Wax Begonia (Begonia semperflorens), is a plant that will grow and bloom in the shade. Mine has been relatively easy to care for. It has remained beautiful and bloomed all year when some of my other shade plants seem to shrivel from the heat. It is kind of an all-around plant, in my opinion, because you can grow them as houseplants, outside in a tub, or even plant them in beds. This is also another one of those plants that do not like to stay wet. I noticed that when I watered it as often as the rest of my plants, the blooming would slow down. When I cut back on the watering a bit, it got lush and started blooming like crazy. I have also noticed that this certain plant does not seem to get bothered by bugs or other critters. I am also able to make new plants from cutting very easy, without the help of a growth hormone.

Happy Gardening!

The Boston Fern, or the Sword Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata) is one of the prettiest plants I have ever seen. I also think that they are one of the easiest plants to grow. They love moisture and partial shade. I have sat mine in a tub of water (on a brick where the bottom of the pot just sits in the water) and it got very green and lush. If you have this plant indoors, be sure to mist it regularly. Now, if it is planted outside in zones 9-11, it will come back up the next year. It will look dead through the winter, but it will grow back. In my home state of Florida, they grow wild.

Happy Gardening!

Miss Crystal