Listening to the Voices in My Head

Ripped out the dead catnip plants from the pot they were in. Fed the two lime trees and the orange tree with specialized plant food for citrus. Mixed up batch of regular plant food for all the other potted plants.

Pruned back the chili plants in the front yard, as it seems to be flagging a bit. Will see if it perks up after the feed and prune. If not, I'll take one of the chilies out of the freezer, thaw and germinate some of the seeds.

I did this without using knee support, but my left calf started cramping. It's those damned shoes! The nano I took them off and walked bare footed in the house, the cramping stopped.

Gawd it's hot outside. I got my almost daily walk in and was wondering why I felt like I was sweltering. 'Official' temperature 31c? My bet, a bit warmer here.

Came in, got a drink, went back outside to tend to the gardening. In this case, watering plants in back yards, feeding potted plants in front yard, and harvesting more chilies.



Might have to pickle this batch. Thinking about adding a bit of soy sauce to the mix this time around.

The past few weeks, Sam (the gardener) has been doing a great job taming the wild growth. The past two weeks he's been working in the back yard, on the right side of the house. He did a great job (see below)





Problem is this: because the last person we hired to clear the yard didn't take the debris away, or even bag it for us to dispose of, but left it hidden in piles under trees or shrubs, which allowed the seeds to fall off and it just started the whole thing all over again. So, although Sam has thoroughly weeded, every morning I go outside, and I see grass sprouts at least 2 inches tall. I get the rake out, dig them up and expose their roots, and they do dry out. Later on the same day, I go outside, and I'll be damned if there isn't more of them, same height.

Looking into either burying the area in mulch, or find a pet safe weed killer. The only one I found the weeds need to be in the sun. Not happening back there. The fence casts shadows right to the bricks.

And sage, too.

Got some sage seedlings to replace the one that was destroyed by woolly aphids. Dumped all the potting soil out of the old one (shame too, as it look fresh an usable, but not taking chances of aphid eggs/larva being in it), put some news paper in the bottom of the planter, and re potted the seedlings.

Did the same with the thyme, but have them in smaller pots, to be hung out of reach of snails.

Used some SeaSol in all three newly re potted planters, and sprinkled in some animal safe snail pellets. Will head off to Bunnings t get some hooks to hang the thyme plants up. And *this* summer, when it gets too hot, I will bring them indoors.

What I thought was dirt on my sage plant,  tossed up by the recent rain, turned out to be white aphid type insects. The poor plant is infested with them. 

Just spent about an hour  rummaging around for plant pots, then clipping off healthy-ish parts of the sage plant, cleaning/removing as many of the insects as possible, spritzing them with an organic insecticide (watched the rest of the bugs just fall off YAY), rinsed them, dipped cut end into cutting powder and planted about a half dozen of them.

Might have to buy fresh sage for a while, but with luck I'll have another crop of sage in a while.