Garden Dirt Diary

Garden Dirt

August 24, 2026

Yup, More Watering

***Heavy Sigh*** Indeed, there was more watering last week, much more.  In the middle of the Rainy Season.  LOL!  The good news is we’re not technically still in a drought, but tell that to the planties on the fringes of where the sprinklers hit.  They might feel differently.  

Morning after morning in the pre-light we started the sprinkler, running through several zones before the sun started beating down, in addition to the regular irrigation.  We needed an All-Over soak, daily.  It wasn’t enough for normal, but it helped take the crisp out of most things.

As for me, there was a heating pad.  LOL!  Dragging around the heavy hose always does a number on my back, no matter how careful I am about lifting with my legs and standing correctly.  Boo-Hiss.  I’m laughing because it’s true.  And, despite all the added water, it wasn’t on all the stuff we spent part of June and most of July planting in our undeveloped area.  No way we’re getting the hose way out there, even if I added another 200 ft.  Boo-Hiss.  We knew it, that’s one of the reasons we planted at the beginning of the Rainy Season.  The best of plans . . . LOL!

It wasn’t until Saturday we got our 1st good downpour.  Woo-Hoo!  I’m not going to lie, there was some excitement around our house.  LOL!  And, we might have gotten some Sunday night.  Things should be fully back to normal by Wed, and our planties are breathing a collective sigh of relief.  We’re hoping it doesn’t have any lasting effects.

Around Our Garden

In between sprinkler moves, we once again got some work done.  In fact, we chipped our pile of fallen palm fronds, just the Cabbage or Swamp Palms.  The Coconut fronds are way too big to get in our little chipper.  I’m fond of chipping.  The noise requires ear plugs, so noise is muted.  And, I love the wood smell.  We’re also rather fond of the clean look of mulch, and the way it keeps everything moist.  

Since we’re going to need a bunch of the fine chip come planting time in Sept, it’s bagged and ready to go.  We like the chunkier stuff for the beds and borders.  We also finished cutting up our final pile of sticks along the back fence last week.  So, we have more of that chunkier big stick mulch as well.  We’ll need more of that for the back Berm and Dry Detention once the rains start back up.  So, things are starting to look pretty clean.  Now, if we can get the rain to cooperate and get super lush and green, just like a tropical garden should be.  LOL.

We also finally got the Dragon Fruit Cactus and some of the other plants treated for the Cactus Rust.  Woo-Hoo!  We tried an organic Copper spray.  While we’ve seen a little of this before, it was bad due to the weakened condition of the Cactus.  It’d just finished fighting off Scale.  So, hopefully, the spray will help.  We’d like to see it growing healthy again.  The flowers along the front fence are a good sign.  Our sick Cactus doesn’t produce flowers.  We certainly removed a massive amount of infected sections to get it here, and we hope it pays off.  It came from My Grandma’s Garden. 

Harvest

With all the dry weather, our final 2 Tomato plants are starting to turn brown.  Boo-Hiss.  We shouldn’t have, but we did have high hopes they would survive the summer.  And, they might have with more rain.  Or, they might have rotted.  Hard to say.  LOL!  Veggies don’t like the Rainy Season.  They like droughts even less.  We had both.  Dang.  Hopefully, we’re looking at a wetter winter.  At the moment, we’re just hoping to see the daily rains return.  It’s hard planning for the Fall planting season worried about the rain, but we do have all these new baby sprouts.  They’re kind of the stuff joy is made of.

In fact, the nursery got so full last week we moved some of the new sprouts to larger pots with more dirt and spread them out to grow.  When we first started sprouting seeds, the biggest mistake we made was overcrowding.  It’s fine when they 1st come up, but each plant needs its own space to grow.  If you don’t give it to them, they stay small and spindly.  The stronger and healthier the starter plants, the faster you get food.  They’re also more likely to survive.  And with our crazy conditions this year, the stronger the better.

Flowers

Not 1 but 2 of our specialty hybrid Phalaenopsis Orchids bloomed last week, and we couldn’t be happier Featuring the Strawberry Swirl Phalaenopsis Orchid.  With its sparkling pale yellow petals shot through with pink veins and matching pink lip petal, it’s a riot of color.  But it’s the tiny round spot of white, right in the center, that draws the eye.  These were such a fun and pretty addition to Our Garden.  Woo-Hoo!

The wildflowers don’t seem to care they’re getting blasted by hot dry air.  The small bit of water has kept the pots and beds of wildflowers blooming.  Not being pelted with water daily has extended the blooms.  We also got Dragon Fruit Blooms.  Woo-Hoo!  The Purple Water Lilies look grand and the Bougainvillea finally started producing its pink leaves and little white flowers.  So pretty.  Enjoy!

August 17, 2026

We’re Watering

Let me see: middle of August, technically the Rainy Season (June-Nov).  We live below the tropical growing line.  Pretty sure we didn’t move.  So, where’s all the rain?  You know, the afternoon showers and thunderstorms we have every year.  It’s all the Rain and above-freezing temps that makes Growing Tropical possible.  It’s hot, but we haven’t had any rain in about a week and we’re starting to question our own name: The Tropical Grower.  LOL!  And, we’re watering.

**Heavy Sigh.  If you haven’t heard me mention how much I dislike hauling around our super heavy hose, this may be your 1st time here.  LOL!  We have hose made out of recycled tires.  It’s required.  Some of the irrigation hoses are just heavy duty, but those are buried.  We’re particularly hard on hoses, both from the beating sun and use.  My Mom just tried one of those heavy duty expandable hoses.  It lasted 3 weeks.  LOL!  And as much as I don’t mind pulling it across the yard once, multiple moves, even just moving the sprinkler, all over the acre is taxing.  It didn’t help we also did some clearing last week.  Rubber band arms.  LOL!  Seriously, I was sore.

Unfortunately, we’re going to have to continue watering until mid-week.  I don’t recall the dust and upper-level high pressure restricting the storms this long, but that’s where we’re at.  It’s a Growers responsibility to give their plants what they want, and they don’t want this at all.  So, sprinkling it is, heavy hose and all.  I do like the sprinkler.  It sounds nice, and you can walk right through it to cool off.  LOL!  Perks. If you just need a little irrigation, try : How to Set Up Simple Irrigation.

Around Our Garden

Because we did an early morning sprinkling rotation, it severely limited the other activities in Our Garden last week.  Dang.  And even with the sprinkler cooling everything down a bit, it was hot and humid.  So, we hid a bit between the sprinkler moves.  There are several cooler areas in Our Garden: in the very back, at the base of the tall pines along the eastern border, in the tunnel under the Cage Match, or on the undeveloped area in the woods.  Woo-Hoo!  Reprieve from the heat. 

So, we opened up a much needed 2nd entrance into the woods, weeded, and made Mulch.  In the back along the fence, I have piles of sticks.  Last year, we cleared Pepper Bush and Scrub Oak, broke down the branches, and stacked sticks along the fence to chip later.  It’s easier if the sticks are dry and not fresh.  But instead of chipping, we decided to make stick mulch.  It’s heavy, lasts longer than the chip and keeps the sand in place.  Great for the dry detention and berm.  Because it was stacked the same direction, it was as easy as slipping the JawSaw in and cutting sections.  Placing the Stick Mulch was lots hotter.  Dang.  We broke down all but one of the stick piles.  It’s good to get things cleaned up a bit.

In a surprise find, not a good one, the ants are building mounts in the Golden Dewdrop branches, apparently over scale bugs, to protect and immobilize them while they harvest their slime.  Yuck.  So, we washed all that craziness off.  We were going to treat it, but I saw the Asian Lady Beetles.  Don’t want to kill those.  So, we’re going to see if they’ll clear the scale bugs out.  Fingers Crossed.

Butterfly House

Don’t get too excited.  We did have a Butterfly emerge, but He was super independent.  Wanted nothing to do with us, and immediately flew off as soon as it was outside.  Dang.  Yep, that’s a big lip you’re reading between the lines.  LOL!  

Butterfly #3 was another boy with a distinct line of yellow dots.  Every time anyone got close to the Butterfly House, he flew around and tried to get away.  Since we didn’t want to stress him out while he was drying his wings, we stayed away.  I took 4 fuzzy photos inside the Butterfly House.  Boo-Hiss.  And even though I had my hand covering him, He immediately flew out and off as soon as we got outside.  We caught a glimpse of him clearing the back trees, and he was gone.  A little bit of a disappointment after all the plants and poop, but interesting how different they all have been.

Harvest

A few Key Limes were collected early in the week, but as the Rains let up, so did the Harvest.  The tree held on to its precious fruit.  It’s okay.  We got many early, and we’re still using those up.  If we run out, we’ll pick a few, but we prefer to let them fall when they’re ready.

The nursery on the other hand looks so amazing!  Beautiful new baby plants sprouting up a storm.  At least there’s a storm somewhere.  LOL!  The new Bok Choy, Celery, and Red Cabbage seeds sprouted immediately and are right behind everything else.  We’re probably going to have to start moving everything to bigger pots this week.  A good problem to have.

Flowers

The Golden Dewdrops captured the Feature this week.  Despite the ants farming scale bugs, it’s blooming like crazy, attracting all the Butterflies fluttering through Our Garden.  While visiting the Butterfly House in Dallas, I decided we needed one.  It’s a flowering hearty vine, like the Bougainvillea, without the thorns.  Woo-Hoo!  But best of all, it has dozens of long trailing tendrils filled with tiny purple flowers.  And, this one the kids picked out and gave me without knowing how much I wanted one.  It just looks like something I would love.  LOL!

The Giant Elephant Ear Philodendron started popping out the 2 foot tall white lily flowers.  We love these.  So big.  The Buttercup bush is filled with flowers and Skipper Butterflies.  Because the Skippers are brown people often mistake them for moths, but up close, they have lots of color.  So pretty on the golden flowers.  And, we got another round of My Great Grandma’s Easter Lilies.  Woo-Hoo!  Enjoy!

August 10, 2026

It’s Done. Finally.

In August of last year, our 1980s full-size satellite dish we repurposed into a gazebo covered in Dragon Fruit Cactus, collapsed.  It’d been at least 20 years.  It probably lasted much longer than we had a right to expect.  LOL.  In our defense, it was super sturdy and would have lasted another 20 if the center post hadn’t rusted below the ground.  Apparently there was a hole, and it may or may not have held some water.  LOL!  I joke, but sadly, we lost a major blooming space.  Dang.  We love Dragon Fruit Cactus Blooms.

It also meant removing all the Cactus, and there was a ton of it.  As we were going, we noticed some snails.  Dang.  Then, some scale.  And, finally, a fungus.  Not just on the stuff we had to remove.  Dragon Fruit Cactus grows in long sections.  It was connected to the Cage Match and all along the fence.  Then, it spread to other parts of Our Garden.  Both the other fences with Cactus, some of the plants.  We did have a hard freeze and things have been recovering.  Not a good time to expose the planties to anything.

The Fight

Of course, the other plants were the priority.  They are fine.  We removed leaves, cut back anything infected.  It all stayed mostly with the Dragon Fruit Cactus.  And, we started work, a year ago, removing everything infected, along with the regular trim, and the collapse.  Now, I will mention, some stuff got reinfected and removed.  But, as of this weekend.  It’s all trimmed back.  We’ll hit it with some organic fungicide, 1st cloudy day, but the major removal is complete.  And it’s oh, so, bitter sweet.  I dislike seeing the removed sections, but I also dislike it being sick.  Can’t it all just be recovered already.  LOL!

The Cactus sections are heavy, and there was so much.  So, instead of trying to remove everything, which I would normally highly recommend as it was sick, we’re composting it into the yard.  Not the beds or regular compost.  We do not want to potentially spread anything.  We’ve chopped the sections, allowed them to die in the summer sun, sprayed and treated everything.  It’s still a risk.  But, piling it until we could remove it also posed a threat of spread.  So . . . We’ll see.  It’s done.  Woo-Hoo! Check out: How to Grow Dragon Fruit.  

Around Our Garden

While I thought we’d be spending the week planting, we didn’t.  LOL.  We got to working on the Dragon Fruit Cactus, we tried to do a little each week, and saw how close we were to being done.  Motivation.  LOL!  There was at least one weekend morning of powering through.  A year is a long time to work on something.  Did I mention how much I dislike cutting up the Cactus Sections?  It was so sad.  But, it’s done, now.

Most of the rest of the week was spent on maintenance.  With all the rain and our focus on plantings, things get out of hand quickly.  We’re in the tropical growing season and that means weeds and crazy plant growth, including grass.  Since we converted some of the areas with grass to mulch and rock this year, those particularly need to have the weed grass treated.  It doesn’t help that the raccoon keeps digging in all the mulch.  Dirt on the bottom, mulch on the top, to keep weeds down.  No sense in lecturing the raccoon.  They are searching for bugs.

We also got started on our Fall Food Crop, the beds at least.  The Raised Crop Beds were completely weeded and the mats pulled up.  While we’ve been adding compost every year to the plantings, this year we’re going to turn and add new soil to all the beds and pots.  Every 2-3 years it really boosts your crop to basically fill the beds with new, fresh and highly nourishing soil.  Turning helps with soil settling.  We do that every year.    You don’t want tight, compressed and compacted soil for planties roots to fight through.  You want to make it easy for them to grow.  With that, we’re 1 step closer to being fully ready to start our plantings in Sept.  We like that.

Harvest

Also on the ‘Like’ list are all the sprouts in the nursery.  Woo-Hoo!  We love baby sprouts.  We’re well on our way to having starter plants and that much closer to food.  We usually start with the Cabbage and Broccoli.  The bigger they are when they go in the ground the better.  While the seeds sprout almost immediately, the plants take a minute.  Unfortunately, the Red Cabbage and Celery did not sprout.  Dang.  We should have new seeds in a couple of days.  The quicker we figure out which seeds are bad, the better.  We could buy them new every year, but we don’t.  We try the leftovers 1st.  Some plant seeds store better than others, but a cool dark place usually works for at least a year.  

Still in Our Garden, Leeks, Onions, and Tomatoes.  The Leeks and Onions like the long days, hate the daily rains.  We’ve found they like it under the big tree, and they’ve lasted into August.  Woo-Hoo!  There are also 2 Tomato plants.  They are not producing Tomatoes.  Our guess is the rain is washing any pollen from the sparse flowers away before they are being pollinated.  We even tried by hand.  No powdery pollen.  Dang.  We’re going to try to take some cuttings in the hopes of having nice strong starter plants for the Fall.  Tomato plants don’t like to be cut, but we don’t expect them to last the summer.  It’s our best option at this point.

Flowers

The Flaming Torch Bromeliads sent out their 1st round of blooms last week and captured the Feature.  Woo-Hoo!  We have whole beds, and in the sun, they grab the light and look quite flaming.  So much so the camera has a hard time with all the light and color.  LOL.  A lovely problem to have if you’re just enjoying them in the garden.  Up close, dozens of small red/orange flowers with purple and yellow centers.  Amazing.  Luckily, this is just the 1st round.  We usually get 4.  Whole areas filled.  Woo-Hoo!

The Streamside Spider Lilies are still floating through Our Garden like little jellyfish.  Even with all the rain battering them, they just keep throwing out new ones.  The August Zinnias we planted a month or so ago are starting to open their 1st flowers.  These are usually the biggest and strongest ones we get all year.  And, yeah, we drop new seeds all the time.  LOL.  Because we can.  My Great Grandma’s Easter Lilies sent up another stalk.  It got rained on, but so pretty anyway.  And, the butterflies are coming back.  Woo-Hoo!  Enjoy!

Check out the What’s Bloomn’ slideshow for more flowers or visit Garden Dirt for the latest around Our Garden.