Lettuce Share

I’m behind on my blogging, for good reason; I’m behind on my gardening.  Remember when I went to New York for three weeks back in July?  Well John didn’t weed the side yard while I was gone, and I haven’t weeded it since.  This is what it looks like (and this photo was taken last weekend).

I never force myself to do things I love because then I won’t love them anymore, but this is getting to be a bit much.  The tomatoes are sun dried, and the squash is squashed.  I told my sister I would write this pitiful post three days ago.  So here I am, one more Saturday wasted on anything other than weeding, finally public shaming myself into cleaning up this mess.  I’ve used up every possible excuse to avoid it:

1.  I saw a snake.

2.  It’s too hot.

3.  I’m too tired.

4.  It’s raining again. 

5.  Jessica’s Organic Farm reopened for the season.

6.  My sister borrowed my wide-brimmed garden hat.

7.  Walk through that snake trap to get to my shovel?  I don’t think so.

8.  A spider’s web is blocking the pathway.

9.  Luke gets lost in weeds higher than my knee.

10. Fall seeds haven’t been stocked yet.

I’m officially out of excuses since seeds are popping up in stores across town.  Home Depot seems to be the last, but their shipment comes in this week.  Time to get to work! 

My mom forgave me for telling the world what an animal hater she is and sent me an interesting email about butterflies, which she does not hate.  While visiting Rainbow’s End Butterfly Farm and Nursery recently, she chatted up the owner about the size of butterflies.  I mentioned that it seemed as if butterflies in New York are bigger than butterflies in Florida.  The owner of Rainbow’s End said this could be due to a common disease amongst monarchs.  Under New York law, she is permitted to export butterflies to Florida but is prohibited from importing them because of a disease commonly found in Florida monarchs. 

During my laundry room experiment, I remember reading about a disease called OE - Ophryocystic Elektroscirrha.  OE is a protozoan parasite unique to monarchs and milkweed, and it does indeed cause monarchs to be smaller in size, specifically they weigh less and have shorter forewings.  While Googling OE, I came across another butterfly farm, Shady Oak.  They have a page called Ask Edith; Edith is one of the owners and she addressed a question about OE.  Apparently, it’s more common in Florida because butterflies fly year-round and plants don’t freeze to the ground, so the cycle never ends.  In colder climates, spores die as the milkweed disintegrates in the winter.  In the warmest part of Florida, the southern tip, there is approximately an 85% infection rate compared with 30% or less in the rest of the country.  

After reading up on OE and its symptoms, it seems that I prematurely blamed the ants when it was probably OE that took my third and final butterfly baby.  Another symptom is that they’re too weak to hold onto the pupal case while their wings unfurl.  But to end on a happier note, here’s a photo of a beautiful female monarch warming its wings on the banks of the Hudson River.

Deer in Florida are scrawny and scarce.  Deer in New York are robust and abundant. The latter can be a bit of a problem.  They total cars and decimate gardens.  This deer, in particular, is tormenting my mother.

The deer nibbles on her Hostas, poops under her apple tree and brazenly lounges in her front woods.  She’s tried using Milorganite, and she’s tried to physically chase the deer away.  Neither approach has been effective.  No exaggeration, this deer can be spotted morning, noon and night munching on apples in the front yard.  As a friend or family member of my mother, this is both ironic and hilarious because she hates animals.  For an extremely selfless and loving mother, grandmother, sister, and daughter, she is the most unlikely and absolute animal-hater I know.  She’s probably annoyed reading this, shaking her head saying, “I don’t hate animals,” meaning she doesn’t want to open a taxidermy shop because she enjoys the zoo, but she still has no use for them as pets or otherwise.  And as they say in New York, fuhgetaboutit when they mess with her garden.  

While my mother’s hatred may be unique, her predicament is not.  Deer are actually more menacing than cute.  They’re dangerous to drivers, and as their herds increase other animal populations decrease.  The former I know to be true because of first-hand knowledge; my brother-in-law is convinced by her scarring that I’ve met this deer before from behind the wheel.  The latter I know to be true because of the Cary Institute.  While we were hiking around the surrounding property we came across an enclosure in the middle of the woods, a large square of extra-tall chicken wire.  But this enclosure was actually an exclosure - rather than keeping anything in, it was designed to keep the deer out.  The data collected from the exclosure will be used to determine the environmental impact of deer and what the forest would look like without them.  Because deer are willing to devour just about anything at eye-level or below, large herds can wipe out the habitats of songbirds, insects and amphibians…oh, deer!

I’m back from New York and finally back to blogging.  Since I never officially closed out my run with ABC Wednesday, I feel I should say Z is for Zip-a-dee-do-dah, I’m also back online!  I loved my summer vacation in New York visiting with friends and family, but it’s 2010 and I love my high-speed internet connection equally.  Getting so behind makes it tough to decide where to begin, but it makes sense to start back up with my go-to favorite subject - butterflies.  My mom and I spotted scores of them walking through the woods behind the Cary Institute.  This was one I’d never seen before - a Red Admiral:

The butterfly pictured above is a Northern Pearly-eye, and the one below is unidentified.  Help, please?

Once again I missed ABC Wednesday, but I have a good reason.  I’m in New York and my mother’s house seems to have a real problem with me having online access - same thing last summer.  And to make matters worse this summer, the neighbor wised up and secured his wireless connection.  It only takes one and my sister and her iBook may have ruined it for the neighborhood, so here we sit at the local library.  Yada Yada Yada…on to my Yikes!  When I landed in New York on Tuesday, the pilot announced, “The local temperature is a scorching 99 degrees.”  I thought he was Yanking my chain until I stepped out of JFK airport and felt the heat climbing up my legs like wildfire.  That combined with this familiar looking butterfly, I’m not completely sure where I am anymore…Florida, New York, the sun???  

On first glance, I thought this was a Gulf Fritillary.  But after thinking about it, one: it’s unlikely for this area and two: it’s just not orange enough.  Now I’m thinking Great Spangled Fritillary.  Check the pictures and see for yourself.  The heat minus the constant air conditioning of Florida has my brain feeling Yucky.   

It finally feels like July Forth.  After a gloomy, rainy weekend with barely a ray of sunshine, it sounds like a civil war has broken out two streets over.  Ahhh, the sweet sound of American patriotism and excess.  I’ll catch the festivities next year under clearer skies.  This is the display I enjoyed today.

Plumbago

Lantana

I’ve written about my epiphytes in past posts, and thanks to ABC Wednesday and the 1997 edition of The Merriam-Webster Dictionary that sits on my nightstand, I’m ready to write about my Xerophytes.  Epiphytes, such as the ball moss in the grapefruit tree, are plants that survive with no soil.  Xerophytes, most commonly cacti and succulents, are plants that survive with hardly any water.  Bromeliads are another example, except I don’t have any of those.  Here’s a Xerophyte I do have:

It’s the tall spiky succulent in the back.  It’s commonly known as Milk barrel and formally known as Euphorbia horrida.  Every rose has its thorn, but in this case, the two are one in the same.  The spikes are left behind when the flower finishes blooming.  I’m looking forward to seeing it bloom; the spikes are pink.        

Here’s this morning’s yield of Grape tomatoes:

Pretty paltry!  But it’s okay because there are more to come.  The other bite-sized varieties we’ve grown have all started annoyingly slow - a tomato here, two tomatoes there - and then they all come in at once.

These were once the tiny tomato seedlings I bought at the Phillippi Farmhouse Market - three for a dollar.  I expect to get my money’s worth!  Two plants ended up in the ground, and one ended up in a pot.  I planned on putting the potted plant into the ground but never got around to it.  I assumed those tomatoes would be smaller, just not teeny.  They’re closer in size to raisins over grapes!

We had already planned a sunny Saturday at the beach when we heard about Hands Across the Sand on the news. 

For fifteen minutes, between 12 and 12:15, people joined hands to protest offshore drilling.  It would have been neat to see an arial view of Florida at about 12:10.  Check out this map to see how many beaches statewide participated.

We’re among the lucky residents; the Gulf of Mexico we know is still pristine and oil-free…for how long?  We don’t know.  My mother didn’t think my last BP post was completely appropriate, but I’m angry and a little FU here and there isn’t the worst thing in the world.  I’m expressing myself, mom!  At least it was a well-deserved FU.  BP took chances they didn’t have to take.  They risked wildlife, livlihoods and lifestyles.  I am angry, and I am heartbroken over this oil spill.  I’ve lived 10 minutes away from Siesta Key Beach for over 15 years.  The sand wins awards regularly for being the whitest sand in the world.  It’s 99% quartz and blindingly white.  I took my sunglasses off yesterday to take a swim.  I felt like a bear fresh from hibernation seeing the sun for the first time; my left eye would not fully open!  For all of you land lovers living away from the shores, where this oil spill will inevidibly become yesterday’s news, this is what’s at risk - the whitest sand in the world turning black.

Sorry to make you Wait.  Let’s just pretend it’s Wednesday since my Wednesday felt more like a Monday and my Week felt more like a month, Which in my Weird World makes this post right on time.  I’ve finally figured out the Wine Bottle Waterer.  It can be made from 100% recycled materials - Wine bottles (or vodka bottles as recommended by vodkaandgroundbeef) and Wire hangers.  

First, unscrew the top of the hanger.

Just hold the base of the hanger and pull the hook around.  It unwraps in seconds.  The hook, with a slight modification, will hold the neck of the bottle in place.  Either squeeze with your hands or use plyers to tighten the hook around the neck of the bottle.

Then you need to wrap the body of the bottle.  Follow the curve of the hanger.  One corner of the hanger will meet up with the bottom of the bottle.

From here, you’ll wrap the wire back up to the top of the bottle and thread the wire underneath where the original hook is around the neck.

Again, follow the curve of the hanger.  The opposite corner, pressed together, will form the stake.  And after the stake forms, the two squiggly pieces of wire will meet up again.  The wires will catch on each other at the squiggly parts; use the pliers to twist the end and secure in place.    

That’s it, but here are a couple tips I learned along the way: Save your cork.  It’s much easier to control the water flow by poking holes in the cork than by measuring out marbles.  Although the marbles make a clear bottle look much prettier.  The second tip is to buy Lucky Duck chardonnay.  It only costs about $4 at Walmart, and when you flip the bottle upside down, the lucky duck turns right side up!