30 Minute blog about Gardening

This is my 30 minute blog about 30 minutes of gardening today. I decided that since I have an extensive to do list today that I would commit only 30 minutes to each task. Lets see how this works ;)

I put on my gardening shoes (yes I have shoes just for gardening) and went to work.

I had been staring at these little seedling all week. These seedlings were not expected. You see, I reused some seed starting mix, partly because I am cheap frugal and partly because I saw nothing wrong with it. So I tried to re-seed my macadamia nut seeds I brought back from Hawaii. Now, the macadamia nut seeds still have not sprouted, but these little guys did. I have no idea what they are at this moment, either guava or papaya (also from Hawaii - I know I am weird...who brings seeds and plants back from a trip as souvenirs), but I thought I should give them a chance.

Mysterious Seedlings, A starting chance, Guava in the back - new seedling in the front

I also had a huge bucket of potting soil that I no longer needed from previous plants, so lets reuse that I thought. I read somewhere that as long as it is still retaining moisture the potting soil can be reused. I added some Epsom salt and organic fertilizer to each pot and started planting my seedlings. I am so excited to see what they turn into. They are a little leggy right now, so I watered them from the bottom, but I think they will turn out fine.

Plumeria (from Hawaii) is doing well, I still have Ti Ti to plant

 In addition to these little seedlings I noticed by orange mint was outgrowing its little pot and I just so happen to have an extra large pot sitting around (thanks to my mad rant while trying to light the bbq in the wind, I will post a note at the bottom about that). Oh, and then I noticed one of my thyme plants was looking sad and I re-potted him as well.

I watered everything on the patio and filled up my make-shift birdbaths. All of this while my awesome drip/spray irrigation system was working on the veggie garden.

Marigolds, this little bean plant is still trying to survive...how cute

As promised here is the note about the BBQ debacle. We have never had such a breezy summer since I lived in NW Florida for the last 5 years. This year we are trying to cook on the grill more to keep the house cooler, but this stinkin' wind is giving us a run for our money. So the other day I tried to start the grill and of course it would not start. I was tired and grouchy from the long day I had. So, to the left of the grill was a large pot full of pine cones (Charlie collects the "popcorn" for us when she plays outside) . We usually use one or two for kindling,but this day I dumped the rest of them on top of the coals and lit them. Boy did that fire get going...lol...bonus! - I had another large pot ready for a plant.