Zinnias

The Zinnias progressed nicely throughout the season and just recently bit the dust in late November. While they may not have been much to look at in the beginning, these flowers sure grew into their beauty for the last few months.  They had a good run and we will be ready for next years Zinnia planting. The seeds came in a huge pack and we have tons more.  Something tells me we’ll have an overload of pink, red, and orange Zinnias in 2012!

The season is pretty much over at this point with a few stragglers hanging on for dear life.  I stopped watering and tending back in November and figured I’d see how the plants do on their own.   The Okinawa weather is slowly but surely starting to get chilly.   Every time I thought the Zinnias had stopped growing… a new one would pop up bigger and much prettier than the last.

A very simple flower and not too needy.  A bit of water and sunshine and they did their thing like nature intended. The soil we planted in was a clay based soil… which the label was in kanji (bought at the DIY store in Okinawa, Japan) so I had no idea until it was too late.  To remedy the problem I added grass mulch from the lawn mower.  It may or may not have helped.   I read online that adding organic material and/or mulch, etc can eventually work its way into the soil and make it less compact.  The clay soil made it nearly impossible for water to sink into.  The water would just sit on top of the soil.  Which at first glance made me think I was over watering when in fact the flowers were drying out because the water was unable to penetrate the hardened clay dirt.

A few weeks after adding the mulch and spraying with a (safe) chemical pest killer I noticed mushrooms growing in the pot.  Apparently a little fungi didn’t hurt at all, and before I knew it the Zinnias were growing like crazy.  Note to self: research the effects of fungi/soil/flower growth.

©J.Martinez

©J. Martinez

©J. Martinez

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The Ugly Duckling Cosmo

For the most part the flowers have been dainty all year and then out of nowhere comes the one pot that looked different. The stem was fat and tree trunk like. It was much darker than the other plants of it’s kind. It was the last to bloom.

Not a day after I thought our Cosmo growing season was coming to an end come the biggest and most beautiful blooms of the year. So awesome in fact this flower gets a post all to itself.

Shot on iPhone 3GS

Enchantment Mix Cosmos

2011©Jennifer Martinez

The Enchantment Mix Cosmos took off faster than any other we planted this year.  A beautiful addition to a struggling garden.  I misread the Burpee seed packet: 4′ (feet) but I thought it said 4″ (inches) so I planted them in our smallest pots.  It didn’t take long to realize that these babies had out grown their intended size within the first few weeks after planting.  Oops.  Oh well, they are still our most healthy flowers to date.

The smaller pots stunted the growth of our Cosmos for the most part, however they have been our most productive plant this season.  I read online that Cosmos are generally wild growing flowers.  That is so true.  My initial plan was to keep them against our side wall that leads up to our front porch.  The area gets good morning sun and shade in the mid afternoon.  It was good for about 2 months, however once the flowers started blooming and the stems continued to grow taller and taller (2-4 feet) the tops started leaning.  I mean REALLY leaning. I’m talking V8 style lean.  Drove myself nuts trying to decide what I did wrong.   So a bit more research online and I understood the problem.

As a garden newbie and former black thumb, I assume that since these plants were tall they would benefit from the wall they rested upon. WRONG.  Basically the opposite is true.  What our tall and lanky Cosmos needed was more sunshine and wind.  That’s right, wind.

It scared me at first honestly, because I just knew that I’d regret moving the pots based on something I read online. But thank you to the random person on a random forum that lead me to find the saviors of our beloved babies.  Wind and sun.  What the wind does is make the stems stronger and thicker to be able to support blooms.  Exercise… it’s like Cosmo Calisthenics:)

So we moved the pots to the edge of the yard where they now enjoy full sun and wind all day.  Okinawa has no shortage of wind and rain so we’re in luck.  Speaking of rain, the Cosmos can go without water for longer than most other plants.  As long as they get a bit of aqua now and again they will do their own thing.  Not drought resistant though, because they will curl up and die after a week.  Mostly the blooms last 4 days before a new one takes it’s place.

From spring to autumn (that is if Okinawa had 4 seasons…) here is the gallery.  Click any image to enlarge.

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Time to go Carpet of Snow :(

2011©Jennifer Martinez

We’re back online and trying to catch up on all the progress we’ve made in our Okinawa garden.  We haven’t given up on our gardening duties but I’ve been too busy to blog.  Although to mark our success and failures we took plenty of pictures. We will NOT make the same mistakes next planting season.

If I knew when & where we went wrong, we may have may have actually had a Carpet of Snow.

What I know:

1.We did follow instructions to keep the plant in half sun/half shade.

2.The Alyssum grew fast and started to become very full. Which makes sense because they are ground cover/spreading  plants.  The flowers that did bloom were tiny and looked like a much smaller version of the picture on the Burpee seed packet.

3. At one point I pulled a dying piece out during thinning and may have damaged root. (Not to mention I waited a month too long to thin.) However this was only in one of the 3 pots.

4. We had a series of over water / under water indecisiveness… thanks to internet searches.

5. The pretty, bright green petals that once were… quickly dried, curled,  and shriveled up until falling off completely.

6. Taking matters into my own hands I decided I’d add more soil mixed with Miracle Gro Blood Meal.  Now I had no clue what it needed to survive so I gave it a shot. This unopened bag of organic matter was just staring me in the face.

Conclusions or lack there of … we’ll call my best guess

Theory 1: Unknowingly sentencing the Alyssum to death by over crowding pots that were too small to begin with.

Theory 2: Planting a few months too late.  The Okinawa heat is NO JOKE! We are much closer to the equator than North America, where this flower is said to bloom very well with little effort.  So this leads me to believe that if we had given the Alyssum an earlier start closer to March/April instead of June/July they may have thrived.

Theory 3: Alyssum do not do well with organic matter Blood Meal.  (Note to self: research the effects of this product on this plant)

After countless attempts to bring back a struggling plant… I gave up.

Time to let nature take it’s course and see what happens.  While the plant is still green, it’s dried up and very unhappy.  No blooms, no foliage, no leaves, no petals; just a maze of little twiggy green stems.  Looking more like an ugly weed.

However I’ve noticed that there are beautiful weeds that fool me into watering them!  Weeds really do get a bad wrap. Although since I’ve quit maintaining the Alyssum pots, I’ve noticed that weeds are starting to grow freely.  (Notice the clovers and other strange growth in the last few pictures below) Really we could play the which plant does not belong game.

Either way the Alyssum adventure is over for us.  At least until next year.

PS. My little helper turned 4 and now could care less about our garden most days. She waters her feet and likes to cut the Zinnias and Cosmos. Which are coming up on the blogroll in the next few posts.

Related articles

• Resist the Urge (greeneyedgoldie.wordpress.com)
• My Garden in July (adnelg.wordpress.com)
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So let’s take a look at the Alyssum from start to finish:

2011©Jennifer Martinez

2011©Jennifer Martinez

2011©Jennifer Martinez

2011©Jennifer Martinez - iPhone 3GS - Diptic App

2011©Jennifer Martinez

2011©Jennifer Martinez

2011©Jennifer Martinez

2011©Jennifer Martinez

2011©Jennifer Martinez

2011©Jennifer Martinez

2011©Jennifer Martinez

2011©Jennifer Martinez

Slackin’ on Bloggin’

2011©Jennifer Martinez

Since we took our vacation last month… I have been seriously slackin’ on life, especially the garden blogging.  While of course I have excuses a mile long (my own homework, kids, end of summer, kids, baseball season, plus being the dreaded “team mom”, and oh yeah kids.) I love them, but it’s time for school to start up again ASAP!  Next week buddy… back to a schedule.  It’s so funny how antsy everyone gets the week before school lets out… and the week before it starts again.

The garden has been through a 4 day vacation, the longest typhoon on Okinawa in decades, countless days of drought, brutal heat, and yet is doing better than it was before.  Improving due to the fact that I realized soon enough that I was underwatering.  Yup. I was starving the poor babies.  Our plants have been through disastrous starvation, bug attacks, and even sunburns in just 4 weeks time.  We’ll get to the details in my next few posts.  It’s so much to catch up on in a single post, so I will break it down by individual flowers to help show how much progress has been made in the last month. Not to mention the fatal mistakes I’ve made. All is not lost, in fact through it all I may not be the black thumb I claimed to be.  Green Thumb…here I come!

Old, abandoned buildings: Cool or creepy?

Creepy or Cool… I say totally INSANELY Friggin AWESOME! I absolutely love old creepy, cool, dirty, abandoned, ancient buildings of all sorts. Right up my alley!

2011©Jennifer Martinez

Yes, I’m new to WordPress Blogging, so I’m not sure why but these “article ideas” started popping up today and although it has NOTHING to do with our garden… I absolutely could not resist posting.

So thanks WordPress for giving me a reason to post pics of one of the most spooky places in Okinawa, Japan… The Haunted Takara (Royal) Hotel. Located outside the Nakagusuku Castle Ruin.

2011©Jennifer Martinez

The castle is over 700 years old. Next to it sits the half finished hotel.  Construction was stopped abruptly 30+ years ago due to the strange occurences and beyond reason deaths of numerous workers.  I’m thinking this is one site that will remain unfinished and untouched.  With the exception of the mark of so many fantastic graffiti artists:)

***I haven’t been inside but there are many photos online of other bloggers that have been inside. ***

Return from Oura Wan

2011©Jennifer Martinez

Home to our garden after a 4 day, 3 night vacation to Oura Wan Beach on Camp Schwab.  Worried? Yes, but not enough to let it spoil our trip.  If our soon to blooms died while we were away, then it wouldn’t be our first flower funeral.

The difference here is that I’m genuinely attached to our new plants like babies.  However, right now they are more like troubled teenagers, they don’t know which way to grow… they’re just growing.  And as the parent,  I made plenty of mistakes. Mistakes I shall remedy the next time around.

The difference between my flowers and my actual children:  the perennials will start over next year, the kids will live with our mistakes forever… {insert going insane, pulling my hair out smiley face here :0}

 

Alyssum first bloom ©Jennifer Martinez

Burpee Mixed Flowers ©Jennifer Martinez

Burpee Mixed Flowers ©Jennifer Martinez

Burpee Versatile Mix ©Jennifer Martinez

Cosmo getting ready to bloom ©Jennifer Martinez

Cosmos ©Jennifer Martinez

Cosmos ©Jennifer Martinez

Our First REAL Bloom – Zinnia ©Jennifer Martinez

Oura Wan Bay_2011 ©Jennifer Martinez

Snowdrift Marigolds Leaves ©Jennifer Martinez

Snowdrift Marigolds Leaves ©Jennifer Martinez

Sick Marigold ©Jennifer Martinez

Snowdrift Marigolds with Mites ©Jennifer Martinez

Viola ©Jennifer Martinez

We think it is a Coreopsis… ©Jennifer Martinez

The Strong Survive? We Shall See

Alyssum Carpet of Snow

First to bloom were  the Alyssum and they seem to be holding up well so far.  The seed packet says they are spreading plants and are good for use as a ground cover.  Once they take off I have a feeling we may not be able to see the pots anymore!  We shall see.

2011©Jennifer Martinez - Shot on iPhone 3GS - Collage designed on Diptic App

Viola Helen Mount

After all other Violas drown in flooded pots from Tropical Storm Maeri, we were left with a sole survivor (below left).  For a few days it thrived. This plant has sprouted taller than expected and is very sturdy.  The stem is very stiff and strong like a tree trunk.

Not capturing a photo during the week after the storm is disappointing to me, because it was truly a beautiful plant.  Honestly I took its rapid growth for granted assuming if it’s this pretty today just think what next week will bring. By the time my camera snapped it was too late.  The leaves had started turning a lighter colored green and thinning out.  It’s not looking good for our survivor.

But… we shall see.

2011©Jennifer Martinez - Shot on iPhone 3GS - Collage designed on Diptic App

The small specks of green growth (above right) are new violas sprouting  in the same soil. Replanting plans got put off by our daily life and we never got around to emptying these dainty tin pots.  Before we new it new life had shown its beautiful face!

Snowdrift Marigold Stems Turn White

After researching what could possibly turn a flowers stem white, I came up short. Rephrasing that 10 times or more and searching through tons of articles all contradicting each other, I quit.  Not the first time that internet research has failed me.  Makes me think it’s time to take a trip to an old-fashioned place we call the Library.

2011©Jennifer Martinez - Shot on iPhone 3GS - Collage designed on Diptic App

What I was able to determine is that one of the following is probably true:

1. Too much water
2. Not enough Water
3. A case of Root Rot (moldy soil and roots, etc) which is a huge possibility due to the humidity in Okinawa, however the soil seems well-drained and dry 2 inches below the surface.
4. Mites (which are nearly invisible to the human eye) are destroying our prize marigolds.

We will keep a close eye on our previously favored plants and try to determine what is causing this ugly white stem. Hopefully we can solve this problem before it’s too late.  But again, we shall see.

Note to self: No more playing favorites.  All flowers are created equal.

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Resist the Urge

Two days without watering with the hose & the rain has come again… big time!

It’s been tough since planting last month. The rain has fallen extensively since Typhoon Songda and then Tropical Storm Maeri.

Previously watering once or twice per day due to the heat quickly drying out the soil. Until we noticed leaves turning a lighter shade of green and a few edges starting to brown.

2011©Jennifer Martinez - shot on iPhone 3GS

Honestly, I am unsure what is normal when growing plants and flowers, but instinct and a bit of internet research tells me they need to dry out a bit.

Rain and then hose water maybe too much.  Granted we only watered with the garden hose on days when the rain was a mere sprinkle, but who knows… We definitely don’t want to drown our new sproutlings.

Resist the urge to water, at least for a few days.

2011©Jennifer Martinez - shot on iPhone 3GS

Moving out of the Danger Zone

2011©Jennifer Martinez - shot on iPhone 3GS

The only thing to do was try to dump the water out without spilling too much soil and prop the pot up to allow the water to drain out faster.

2011©Jennifer Martinez - shot on iPhone 3GS

All Natural and Weeding, again…

2011©Jennifer Martinez

Since the last time Justice and I weeded our garden, it has been through Typhoon Songda, Tropical Storm Meari, and a weeks worth of continuous wind and rain.  Also twice per week lawn trimming which I’m assuming spreads new weeds on top of what already resides in our garden beds.

No biggie. We will pull you out again and again! 

We have decided not to use any chemicals in this first garden season.  Keeping it all natural for now.  Which could be the end of our garden due to so many pests here. I am curious how the Okinawan people tend to their plants.  (Since everyone seems to have a garden in the front yards, even the office buildings in the middle of the city have gardens!) It seems to me weeds grow alongside their flowers naturally.  Maybe that’s the way to do it.  Just let nature do its thing and see what happens.  If anyone has input I’d love to hear it.  The more I learn the better.

2011©Jennifer Martinez

We have yet to purchase our rocks.  Once we find some decent rock we will finally get to lay out the weed control paper that we bought months ago.  No point in pinning it down if the wind is just going to blow it away. Further more, there’s no sense in making the garden all super beautiful & costly if all of our flowers die in the end anyway.

Enough with that negativity. If it happens, we will simply start again. & Again…& again until we get it right! Oh, I need grandma to tell me how to grow flowers!

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