Welcome to November!

I hope everyone had a good Halloween! My Halloween was nice a bit rainy this evening , but not to bad. Today is a busy Saturday for me. I need to take down the Halloween decorations and then mow the yard. Then I need to hook up my Tom the Turkey inflatable. Thanksgiving is only 26 days away! While I am at it I will go ahead and give you a scare…there are only 53 shopping days left untill Christmas, ahh!

The scariest thing about this past week wasn’t Halloween it was the frost. My coldest low was 33 degrees. There was frost on my windshield, Banana Trees, Castor Bean, and Purple Ornamnetal Sweet Potato. The Bananas started to show black areas, especially the brnd new leaf. Oh, well, the warmer 70’s are returning next week with some rain from the on shore flow.

Don’t forget to vote if you are a US citizen!

I wish everyone a gret start to November,

Jake

26 days untill Thanksgiving!

The Weather Outside is Frightful…NOT!

The weather here is cooler and feels great, but it defintely isn’t frightful. The wind as picked up from the west as a cold front starts to move our way. The cold front will slowly move through tonight and through tomorrow night making us colder. Our high tomorrow is 61 with a morning low of 37. Our high Wednesday is 63 with a low of 34 or colder. They are saying possible frost. I know this is too cold for eveb north Florida this time of year.

I got excited last night as I was able to see my breathe. The low this morning(Monday) ws 49, yay! Where I use to live, Lexington, Kentucky, they had sleet this morning and by wednesday night are suppose to go down to 26, brr, now thats frightful.

Tom the Turkey inflatable goes up Saturday. November 1st also means I Christmas music season will have arrived. I also plan on getting ornamental cabbage and kale(if I can find it) and winter Pansy’s.

I will update if we get any frost with pics to show any damage, I hope we don’t though.

Have a good day,

Jake

4 days untill Halloween!

The Giants

In my backyard there re two plants that have turned into giants in no time. Those plants are Castor Bean and Cavendish Banana Tree.

The Castor Bean is very big and grows taller daily, you can almost see the height difference daily. The only dissapoinsting aspect of this Castor Bean is the fact that it looks nothing like the plant I got the seeds off of. My Castor Bean was seed started; I put the seed in the ground and watering and it grew. The Castor Bean started to bloom over the weekend and I decided to cut it off yesterday. The plant was only meant to be a fast growing annual that I will probably take out next spring.

The Banana Tree was planted as a two to three foot tall plant that I got for $7.99. The plant really took off with the the heat and humidity of August and September. The Banana was putting out close to two leaves a week. Since the cooler weather as started it is down to about one leaf a week. The newest leaf is just HUGE!

There is also a picture of the Queen Palm  planted in June and a hanging basket I just made on a whim. The hanging basket come from me finding and old hanging basket holde and connected it to a normal pot. I put some I believe Purple Sweet Potato Vine cuttings, Boston Fern maybe, and Purple Grass in it. The picture was from Saturday and it has been growing for about three weeks. The vine is growing really fast. 

Castor Bean

Castor Bean Bloom

Queen Palm

Banana Tree

Huge Banana Tree Leaf

Banana Tree and the fall Sun

Hanging Basket

There you have itm the giants of Northeast Florida Paradise!

Jake

9 days untill Halloween!

I am Back…Truly, Plus Halloween!

I am back I swear, I just needed a break. The late summer heat and humidity just made me not in the mood to be outside. Now though, I am back and ready with the temps in the 70’s to low 80’s and lows in the 50’s and 60’s.

I have replaced the damaged Marigolds at the Mailbox Garden with two purple-pink Mums and two yellow plants called Bush Daisy. The Bush Daisies have fianlly started to bloom, I guess they needed to get settled. The Mums are lasting a longtime…I forgot how long thier blooms last once they do bloom.

I also have some pictures of the Halloween decorations. Since I last wrote I have added an inflatable skull with spiders on it.

Body Part, an arm and a leg; and a Spider

Big Pumpkin

Little Pumpkin

Trick-or-Treat Boy

Skull and Spiders

Skull and Spiders

Skull and Spiders

Skull and Spiders

Skull and Spiders at night

Mailbox Garden Fall 2008

Mailbox Garden Fall 2008

Yellow Bush Daisy

Purple-Pink Mum

Purple Grass, I Love

Have a Good Day,

Jake

11 days untill Halloween!