Sunday, May 29, 2011

Round Up for May 29th, 2011: What's going on in the Garden; Pretty Things for You to Enjoy

Ohai Ali'i.  Probably my most successful plant so far.  It's gorgeous and seems to thrive on neglect.

Hibiscus bloom.  This plant and its buddy seem to be pulling through their transplant shock.

Madagascar Jasmine draped over our fence in the backyard, from the neighbor's side.  The scent on certain warm evenings is to die for.

The same neighbors "share" their avocado tree with us, too.  Just the part that hangs over our side of the fence keeps us supplied most of the year.  Avocados don't ripen until they are picked, so they can just hang there on nature's own refrigerator until you're ready for them.

Ginger growing along the fence.  I bought some organic ginger from the local food co-op, cut it into pieces and stuck them in the ground. 

Pumpkin vines.  These are visibly bigger every day.  No one I know in Hawaii has tried growing pumpkins, so we'll see if we get our own Jack-O-Lanterns for Halloween.  These plants get so big that I decided to try incorporating them into the landscaping instead of wasting precious garden space.

My first tomato!

Memorial Weekend landscaping project, (almost) finished.  I dug some trenches to channel water from a downspout through this bed of thirsty plants.  I think the little "stream" is pretty, I used up some gravel that we had dug out of another bed and was taking up space, and it makes good use of the runoff from heavy rains.

One of my little bougainvilleas - which I hopefully will eventually train up over the trellis in the previous photo, is finally taking off - in an effort to avoid over-fertilizing, I overestimated the quality of our soil and starved many of my poor perennials, but we're on the mend now.