MY NEW WEBSITE:

:: GET SOILED :: I ♥ SOIL

Visit me, I'd love to see you there!

Hey...pssssssst!!!

I have started adding comments to my new site...if you'd like to see them here's the address:

http://www.getsoilednow.com/


The name of the new site is:

GET SOILED

Hope to see you there ☺

It's happening!

Remember a while back I posted a few lines under the heading "One too many (gardening) fools"?

Well, I found out that the process of importing/exporting a blog is not a walk in the park. It is very time consuming...but I'd do anything not to be confused with the site listed in Dr. Phil's website.

I am in the process of switching this here blog to this new site:

http://www.getsoilednow.com/

The blog's name will be "Get Soiled" but I could not see myself forking more than 10 bucks for a website and to buy that domain would have been outside the budget.

The most time-consuming part is reformatting the blog as this one (colors, fonts, sizes, etc.) and manually copying all of the stuff on this blog's sidebar. Lemme tell ya, it is a P-A-I-N, but that's how much I dislike Dr. Phil ☺...professionally speaking at least. Perhaps the guy is a terrific person to those closest to him...benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, this process should be completed by this week's end.

I noticed that I have some "followers" (a feature I chose not to list on the sidebar) something that still blows my mind, anyway, to those of you kind enough to follow me you might want to switch to the new address sometime next week.

Thank you all (all three of you...or is it two? ☺) for your patience with this change, and for continuing to visit in spite of my pachydermal sense of tact when speaking of likes and dislikes & in spite of the many blurry and out of focus photographs.

Monarchy Case Study

The making of more butterflies

The George Constansa of Monarchs

You'd only get this title if you are a fan of Seinfeld and saw one particular episode...

Disobedient vine

For the millionth time little vine...It is around the column you must go!

Figs

This one is one of the few remaining brown turkey figs. The beach sunflowers next to the fig tree will give you an idea of the scale of our mini-orchard. Yes, most trees we still look down to (in a physical way, not pejoratively speaking).

We also have a taller fig, about 6 feet, but it is new to our garden and it has not produced fruit yet.

Bumper crops, where are thou?

Where did these come from????

Hum. Not complaining here...but puzzled. I guess this is the kind of surprise a gardener who loses all its seedlings' labels get, eh?

They do look tasty, and I know that whatever they are, they surely are heirloom tomatoes. So seed saving is in my future.

GE Eucaliptus trees field trial about to be approved

Genetically engineered eucalyptus trees might soon be part of your landscape if you live in a colder climate.

And, no, this is not a good thing.

Eucalyptus trees have been known to become pests and destroy ecosystems in certain areas of the US (e.g., California).

This field study puts existing trees (and their ecosystems) at risk as we have no idea how they will respond to this highly unnatural introduction.

To read more and to take action (PLEASE, DO TAKE ACTION BEFORE JULY 6th) click here.

Thank you.

'Roid Lizard

I found this dinosaur-looking guy today.

I had never seen one of these before and I found it to be quite the stud so I went nuts with the camera.

Bear with me while I punish you with eight hundred photos of him.

I could not get a better photo of those fang-like white things coming out of what it seems to be his nose. I thought those where quite unique. Also, he was sticking his tongue out at me...but I could not catch it well either...you can kinda see his pink tongue here a bit.

Buddleia davidii

b

Barbados cherries & blooms

B

Seen & heard this morning: Monarchy and Populace

Ha.

Get it?

Monarchy.

...and populace...

Moon flower vine

I have this one in a pot.

I am still debating where and if to plant it in the ground. See...these vines are like stalker boyfriends (or girlfriends, whatever the case might be), they hold on to things with their little stalking tendrils like they want to strangle you (with love, of course)...these should definitely not be planted near the house...anyway, the flowers of this vine are almost large as dinner plates, and they smell so wonderfully! They open at night mostly and also during overcast days. They remind me of daturas.

Shooting star flowers

Cassius blue butterfly

Strawberry guava puppy

Thanks Dan!

Soy update

A few postings below there are big news about soy and its benefits or lack thereof.

Today I finally had a chance to go over the Bon Appétit magazine article written by Paul Tullis.

Here are a few take aways that I don't think I included in the original posting:

* Yes, soy is high in protein and has zero cholesterol

* Soy "contains dangerous levels of isoflavones, natural chemicals that are similar to human estrogen."

* "Isoflavones can affect fertility in men and may increase the incidence of breast cancer in at-risk women."

*Studies' results are highly mixed, changing dramatically from one study to another.

* Err on the side of caution, read labels to be sure you are not unwillingly consuming the stuff, and stick to miso, tempeh and tofu, all of which have undergone various degrees of fermentation (this process reduces isoflavone levels).

Yelling for help????

"HELP! We've been falsely imprisoned! Help us out! Help us out!"

Or is it a "welcome home guys" kinda yell???

Jujubes still trucking along

Just to clear up some jujube-pollination-related misunderstandings...here is the info straight from the Southern Living Garden Book (about the Li and Lang varieties): "Lang needs Li as a pollenizer; Li is more productive with Lang nearby, though it will produce some fruit if planted alone."

Miracle Fruit & Pitomba arrived today!

I ordered these from Pine Island Nursery just yesterday and today they got here right before the storm hit. Plants are currently showering outside and no pics yet as I only had enough time to pull some of the Pitomba's sickly looking leaves off before lightning started striking dangerously close to where I was.

I really hope this is nothing major (I have to look it up) but it looks like some kind of fungus.

These are two plants that were on my wish list for quite a while.

I love apricots (which I cannot grow here) and the Pitomba fruit's flavor is reminiscent of them. The Miracle Fruit was more of a just for fun kinda thing...although I read that it is a very desirable fruit for people undergoing chemo treatment as it diminishes the metallic taste foods tends to have during treatment time. In case you did not know, this is a slow (very slow) growing plant and its fruits (berry-like) after being consumed make even the most bitter of foods taste sweet.