Weeds & Seeds Swap

Not long ago, I needed a ladder to get to the skylights inside our home.  Our bungalow style cabin on a lake has relatively low ceilings, so I don’t need much.  My husband has a huge extension ladder, and a small step ladder, both…even the small one…are cumbersome to carry and manipulate.

For this reason, I’m a bit fascinated by the Extend A Step telescoping ladder that was introduced to me recently. I am not tall or strong, and as years go by, am afraid of hurting myself handling large objects…or climbing on a ladder that I don’t feel safe on, so like the idea of something light and easy to manage…whether it be indoors to clean those out-of-reach places, or outside pruning limbs, washing windows, or cleaning out gutters. That is something that really needs doing right now as we have so many leaves that have fallen. Fortunately we fared well with the heavy snow that fell last weekend in the northeast…so many are still without power, but we are doing okay.

Is it okay to say that this ladder is cute? I think it is.

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With an October Nor’easter in the weather predictions for the northeast so early in the season, it is as good an excuse as any to be thinking about the tropics….tropical gardens that grow almost year round in some places, and provide some of the most delicious fruit that can be found.

Even though I can’t grow many, if any, tropical or warmer climate plants outdoors in our area, I do love the fruit; bananas, pineapple, oranges, and on the list goes.  I wasn’t aware until I visited a site that has banana seeds for sale just how many varieties of the banana there are.  This fruit has become particularly important to me in keeping Potassium levels where they should be naturally.

Banana plants need warm weather, not lower than the upper 60′s at night, humidity and sunshine…unless you have a place to duplicate this type of climate, Banana plants may not be the best thing to grow in your home.

We look forward to hitting the road tomorrow morning and driving home…in snow…in October, so it’s been nice to take a mini-tropical mental trip to dream a bit about what it must be like to grow tropical plants like the healthy and varied banana.

My husband and I took a road trip well in Pennsylvania a few days ago, and have a feeling we’re going to be driving home to New Jersey in what they are calling a northeaster or Nor’easter.   The weather has had it’s extremes since spring throughout many parts of the country, and even the world, and in NJ, hurricane Irene really did some significant damage.

I’ve been watching what is usually beautiful fall foliage in new jersey that, in some places, is struggling.  It’s still pretty, but the heavy rains and the wind that battered leaves late in August during hurricane Irene, and perhaps the abundance of rain that we have had all summer, seems to be changing the view that we had last year.  Where we are, in the northern most part of the State, and at our home elevation close to 900 ft., we’re pretty much at peak conditions as far as the leaves go, and the colors are rusts, browns and yellows…a bit less red than usual.  We “peaked” a little later than last year  Other parts of NJ in lower lying areas have barely started to change.  If you are looking for places to do some fall foliage peeping in New Jersey, visit the link earlier in this post, and you can see what stages the leaves are at in New Jersey at weather.com.  Keep up with the latest snow condition, too, we want you to be safe.

I have not dug up my bulbs at the end of the summer for years because all of them are coming up fine each year, just where I’d like them to.  But one of these years I’m going to want to redo my bulb garden.  I understand after many years in the garden, they gradually lose their original color…I am satisfied with what I see, even though mine have been there for over 25 years.  Still, they are getting a bit sparse thanks to squirrels that like to dig them up on occasion, so I’d like to dig them and redo them one of these years.  It isn’t too late this year if I decide to do so.

Preparing them is not hard, but it’s nice to have a nice work area.  I have to settle for my bathroom Porcelain Sink or the stainless steel sink in my kitchen. I’d love to have a workspace with a sink, and know if I wanted one, it could be here in a flash with same day delivery, but am afraid that due to the size of my home, I’ll have to settle for one of my Porcelain Sinks.

To prepare the bulbs, it is important that they be dry during the storage period and be stored in a cool somewhat dry place over the winter, so if you do clean the bulbs off, which isn’t absolutely necessary, do so gently, allow to sit out and dry, then store in a bag or container that breaths. If the bulbs are large enough, an onion bag from the supermarket does just fine if you cut it open just right.

These are my grape hyacinths, they have come up and spread each year faithfully for over 25 years.  A tulip is peeking out in the background.  I know this is a simple grape hyacinth photo, but if you like it and use it somewhere, kindly link back to this post.

Years ago my husband gave me an artificial orchid that looks amazingly real, and this week, he has given me the real thing.  It is an interesting and beautiful plant…a little awkward with it’s pretty pink flowers at the top of a stalk that needs a bit of support and the broad green leaves at the bottom.  I have never had an orchid and know little about the care of one, so had to do a bit of research.  I am intrigued by the watering instructions with mine, to just let 3 ice cubes melt on top of the soil each week, and between waterings allow the “soil” to become dry.  The top of the soil is very loamy, in fact I don’t believe it grows in a soil, but a bark.  It has a few roots coming out from the top of the pot.  Here is a picture of the flowers…in better lighting when we aren’t having as much rain I hope to get the whole plant, and then I will provide links to some helpful sites on the care of orchids that I found:

A delightful site by some folks who really seem to love their orchids and with information about many varieties is called, appropriately, Beautiful Orchids. Another is About Orchids. I will be back to let you know how successful I am at keeping orchids alive and well.