microb's blog: Back to "Normal"

I know its been nearly two weeks since my last posting but yesterday was the first day in that time that I really felt my time was my own again. I've either been digging plants out of other peoples yards or digging holes to put them in my garden or at the Zoo.
Zoo project is going well - Tuesday two weeks ago I put 8 Heliconias in the ground. Currently planting them along side a forested area where a broad paved pathway runs past the back of the monkey cage (Ooops sorry, I stand corrected - the primate area). There is plenty of room for a few more. The plan is to get the forested area cleared of under growth, but leave some canopy and (in my dreams) have a tropical pathway lined with Heliconias, gingers and other tropical growth for visitors to enjoy. The Zoo staff just completed training to use Cherry Pickers to get up in the trees and trim so the only thing holding the project back is lack of manpower due to County funding. Last week I discovered that Zoo employees are pushing green waste over a patch of Heliconias so I need to stop that practice and rescue as many plants as I can. Some will get moved within the zoo grounds, others will come home.
The Zoo manager will be putting an article in the next newsletter describing my achievements and putting out a call for people to let me know if they have plants they can share with the zoo. They will email me and then I will go collect.
Back at my garden I've been digging holes for incoming plants. Last Sunday I took two tree ferns to a friend, who in return, filled my van with Red Ti canes, two great Heliconia roots of varieties I don't have and a root of Bamboo. I had to dig them all out of her yard under her supervision and the Bamboo needed the use of my trusty chainsaw to free the roots but it was well worth it.
Generally the work around my yard has been clearing and trimming. Today I cleaned out years old growth around the bottom round pond. Looks much better but in the process I ended up with eight cuttings or plants with roots to move to other locations - more holes to dig. I guess I've dug over 50 holes for plants in the last three or four weeks.
Amarayllis are doing well. Seven blooms so far. Orchid cactus are full of buds, Fuschias are leafing out and showing more blooms.
Amorphophallus are waking up and need their pots cleaned or get repotted. One has bloomed and more bloom spikes are coming.
I just joined Facebook and have been posting photos there. Also joined a couple of Groups - Aroids, Bamboo and Orchid Cactus groups - I'm not getting sucked into social media - BUT PLEASE FRIEND ME! - No, really I don't care, just like to share pics and enjoy others.
On Monday another friend is coming to help me remove Water hyacinth from my ponds which she will take for her new pond,last Saturday two ladies come for a tour of my Bamboos, another friend gave me some Impatien seeds with came up, got potted into larger pots and are now being devoured by either slugs or rats. I think the latter as the soil is getting disrupted, seedlings are getting dug out and I can't see legless slugs doing that.
A couple of nice Orchids are blooming in the trees in various locations in the forest. Always nice to bump into those.
Giganteus Bamboo now has 16 new nodes that could produce new canes but most are likely to be stunted and stop short after a few inches. The parent just cannot support growing that many 8 inch, 60ft high canes.
Weather has been a balance of sun and showers until this past few days that have been hot and dry. May get thunderstorms tomorrow and Monday. A little rain would be nice.
I decided against using igloo dog kennels to create a hobbit house. They did just not look right, being made of plastic. So instead I plan to build a small log cabin using Australian Tree Fern logs. Progess report to follow.
New fish that were purchased a couple of months ago are growing nicely. Out of 40 purchased I think 23 survived. I have a suspicion that frogs ate some of them.
I'm sure much more has happen in the last two weeks but has been pushed from my memory. All I know is that I am all finished digging holes for new plants for a while. House needs attention. On Thursday I took off a third of the plastic roofing on the front porch, lowered it over the edge of the deck (6 ft down) washed it off and put it back again. While the roof is off I clean out the gutters. Oh nearly forgot the Passion vine that has made it up the deck railing. I'm training it along the railing hoping that it will fruit.
Borrowed my neighbors leaf blower the other day, climbed up on the roof and blew away the piles of bamboo leaves. Still have to climb back and clean leaves out of the gutters.
Enough for now. Must go check Facebook for new "friends".

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