Nature and Gardening

From a recent walk I did in the Helderberg Nature Reserve, South Africa.

These birds are very social, and enjoy bathing in the morning sun together.

I finally managed to see a Little Ringed Plover (Flussregenpfeifer, lit. “River Rain Whistler) from up close! They’re so tiny and adorable, I love them! :-)

Got really discouraged because I barely saw anything in the nature reserve today but he really brightened my day. Thank you Plover!

[Image description: ridge of a sand dune at sunset, a shadowed mountain in the background. Numerous footprints along the dune ridge, with wind ripples in the undisturbed sand.]

Do you have a low light area that needs some foliage? Get a zz plant.

Do you often forget to water your plants? Get a zz plant.

Do you want something that will forgive you no matter how many times you insult it? Get a zz plant.

Seriously, these guys just want to exist near you as long as you're happy with its presence. They're like a dogs that just want a friend.

They're one of the easiest plants to keep because of their such easy care. They have low light needs so they can fill out a corner, so as long as it gets a little bit of light, it'll be okay. As you can see I have mine on the corner of my office desk, and where it sits is about 30 feet away from any window. This one lives off fluorescent light and gives me about a dozen shoots per growing season.

Something unique to the Raven ZZ plant is that new foliage pops up a bright lime green, and as those leaves age, it turns out to be such a dark pigment that they are almost black. I'm such a sucker for dark colored plants so this one was a no brainer to get! The raven cultivar is exclusive to Costa farms' "trending tropicals" line so they are sold at box stores almost always.

Zz plants are also a little funky in that their root system is composed of rhimozones. They look like giant bulbous growths under the soil that look slightly like a tumor. Their only real purpose is to store water; so with that said, zz plants do not require a lot of water at all! In fact, I treat mine just like it is a succulent or cactus. I just water it every month or so and have not heard any complaints from it yet. Likewise, since they do not need much water, they will be susceptible to rot if you tend to overwater plants. For that reason I like to add drainage to my soil mix, I have mine in a 1/3 mix ratio of perlite and most standard potting soil mix.

The other cool thing about propagating is that these guys can be propagated from almost any part of the plant. I stuck a few leaves in soil, a couple cut in half and a couple still whole (I had a whole stem get snapped off. Sad day) and they eventually all grew a rhimozone and now all have new leaves popping up! Only thing is.....it took about 8 months to get there. Theyre such slow growers when they're young!

Anyway, I love my zz plant, even though 99% of the time I forget it exists. And they're just fine with that :)

Originally, the succulent was the size of my palm. It had been doing great, but after leaving for a few days I came back to find it completely dried out except for the tip which still had a bit of green.

I can't stand when any of my plants die, I feel like I have failed them ☹️. So I took the tip, removed all the dried leaves and placed it in a new pot. The stem was dead too and the plant had zero roots in the middle of summer. I had to spray it with water constantly and be extremely careful until it rehydrated and grew some roots. Took a long time, but I'm glad it's healthy now!

This is the first year it flowers, hoping to get fruit this year.

African violets come in so many colors -- they were so popular the past century that I would wager to guess that your parents or grandparents probably bad at least one in their home.

They are generally considered easy care, as they are happy in the not so bright windowsills, but as any plant goes it cannot live in darkness. However, they do require their soil to stay slightly damp. It is easy to overwater these guys though so a great alternative is an African violet pot. This is a two-part pot that has water in the bottom portion, with the insert being an unglazed clay to soak up that water from underneath. A good alternative to this is a self watering pot. If you don't happen to have one, watering when the the top soil dries out on the top is best, but it's important to not get water on the leaves as they are slightly velvety/fuzzy and will hold that moisture and rot them. As a result, no misting or extra humidity is needed, they're happy in most housing humidity levels. Due to the slightly damp soil needs they can be susceptible to fungus gnats so it's always best to keep an eye out for those flying bugs.

A standard soil mix of potting soil/perlite mix 1/1 works great for these guys. I've noticed they appreciate that fertilizer added in the soil. It is easy to overwater them so the extra drainage added by mixing in perlite is always recommended in my opinion.

Best of all they are nontoxic, so a curious kitty will not be harmed by them. Best to keep them away from any plant, but not all cats listen nicely :)

They bloom quite often so deadheading regularly is important. Once the blooms start to fade its best to cut them down to encourage extra blooming and growth.

I've had mine for about a year and a half now. And I haven't moved it from my east facing window right above my sink. It's already given me three waves of blooms and their blooms seem to last quite a long time. As a result they do like to be fertilized every couple weeks or so once you see them showing their array of colors.

I am still newer to care for these so I don't have much else to add, so if you have additional facts or find that mine are inaccurate please feel free to add! :)

Located in inland southern California, zone 9b.

[Image description: split image, the top photo is four tomatoes on a cutting board, the bottom photo is hundreds of multicolor heirloom tomatoes covering a kitchen counter.]

This is my first time growing tomatos and I have heard different opinions on whether or not you should prune these suckers. What are your experiences and opinions? Looking forward to learning from you!

I saw this adorable swift baby looking out of its nest today. Never seen one that wasn’t flying so this was a great sighting! :-)

Prince of orange is a hybrid philo, unique in a way that new leaves will start out a vibrant orange and as they grow older they transition to a reddish hue, to eventually a dark green. This is a self-heading philodendron, which means it does not vine and will eventually continue to grow from the central stem. Eventually it will take up a couple feet of space, but they do not grow real quickly.

They do require a bit of humidity. In fact, this photo of mine is a good example of how the leaves may unfurl if it is kept in a lower humidity area, which is in fact where this one is stationed! You can see it most prominently on the top dark green leaf where it is slughtly malformed. With lower humidity, the leaves don't unfurl quite as elegant, and tend to look a little crumpled. The newer leaves you see here in orange are coming out very nicely because the humidity has been higher the past couple months here.

They tend not to be as super picky with their soil needs. A good overall tropical blend will keep them happy (1/1/1 mix of perlite or orchid bark, peat moss or coco coir, and standard potting soil.) They will also be happy with a 50/50 mix of peat or potting soil/perlite or orchid bark. Drainage is important. I water mine when the first one or two inches on the top soil is dry.

As with all plants, it does like light, but this one can survive in lower light environments. Direct sunlight will burn thia guy's leaves, but low light environments will not allow it to thrive. I have mine in a west facing window and it seems to be happier there than when it was in a north or south facing window.

Philodendrons also tend to get something called extrafloral nectaries. At first this seems scary when you see them; they look like little lighter round spots on the leaves that make you wonder if it has pests, or is being overwatered, or being fertilized too often. Luckily, it's completely normal and quite common for philos.

Another interesting fact is that philos tend to natutally occur a sticky sap-like substance on their stems or leaves sometimes from nectaries. This is not too unlike an example of honeydew, which is also a sticky substance that mealybug pests leave behind, however if there's no other indication or a pest issue and the plant looks otherwise healthy, then most likely it is nothing to worry about!

That's all I have for the prince of orange, let me know if you have additional knowledge to share or if mine happens to be inaccurate. I'm always wanting to learn more!

What was in front of me during my morning meditation.

A better question might be: would it be better suited for a "houseplant" community, since this is more gardening and general nature inspired?

I'm only a little bit afraid.

I spent most of the morning at Mogan Ridge West, putting in about 12 miles in all. Basically, I hiked the outer loop, though I did bushwhack about a mile and a half for variety.

We're definitely into summer hiking weather here, with high humidity, spider webs, gnats, and ticks. This trail also hasn't seen much use lately, so it's overgrown in grass in many areas. About half of it is gravel road, so you can combine unpleasant walking surface with increased ticks and chiggers.

Still, it was a pleasant walk in the woods and decent exercise. I met one other hiker about halfway and we swapped notes on which local trails were worth revisiting. Fortunately we were hiking in opposite directions so we didn't have to have the awkward conversation about whether to hike together.

More pictures on imgur.

[Image description: trail marker post with area map and arrows pointing in many different directions]

I ate one and it was delicious!

Strange goo on evergreen

It's been very overcast and drizzling the last few days and these little 'manders absolutely love it at night. Pic taken this morning around 12:30am est.

These salamanders were laid in January and are getting pretty close to being fully grown - 20 to 60 days in egg + 60 to 90 days to develop into adult form.