Mostly in the three days following Thanksgiving, I have done little to nothing, mostly we've been binge watching the two seasons of Troppo. Friday I dug up my poor whitefly infested camellia that I have tried in vain over the years to rid of the pest. It is stunted, not really growing and hasn’t bloomed in the last two years and the year before I got one flower. I have used insecticidal soap to no effect, then tried another stronger insecticide but still on the ‘safe’ side and nope. Clearly it does not like where it’s planted. So I dug it up, put it in a pot with good dirt, gave it some fertilizer, and rubbed the back of every single leaf with my thumb and next plan to do Steve Reed’s trick with rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab.
The next day I dug up the japanese azalea from the same bed which, while it hasn’t died like the first one, looks to be barely hanging on. It also does not grow or bloom. It’s now also in a pot with good dirt and fertilized. Both these plants were terribly root bound when I bought them three and four years ago and despite having basically bare rooted them and spread out the roots and put them in the ground, they have failed to prosper. So I’m hoping they’ll recover and grow in pots where they’ll get more attention.
Sunday I finally transferred the growing pile of fallen branches, continued damage from hurricane Beryl, things that broke and died but did not fall, to the back of the truck to move over to the burn pile, something I had refrained from doing because I want to take all the metal to the scrap yard, the aluminum and steel cans and other scrap, about 6 tubs worth, but it just hasn’t happened. Then I hammered nails in the studs in the barn as high up as I could reach and hung the tomato cages to get them off the floor and out of the way and used the leaf blower to clear the garage, barn, and concrete apron part of the driveway. And Minnie finally got a long walk, her first of last week I think.
Now the holiday weekend is over and I need to get back in motion. It’s been getting down in the 40s all last week and overcast, only warming up to the 50s but today is sunny and supposed to get up to 70. I’ve been out doing some much needed watering. Three winter bloomers are still blooming.
