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Garden Diary May 16, 2020 - Big Garden Changes in the Age of Coronavirus

I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, and I don't have time right now to post pictures, but here's a bit of what's been happening lately in the gardens.

I've been trying to get rid of a lot of my excess plants. Since I can't have my yearly plant sale due to the coronavirus, I've been giving away a lot of my plants. I won't give away the nicest or most valuable of them, so I'm looking at ways to have a safe sale with social distancing.

I'm trying to plant more edibles, so I've taken out some of the ornamentals to that effect. I still have a lot of ornamentals, don't get me wrong, but I'm planting edibles in and amongst them, and making special areas just for more edible plants.

In that vein, I'm completely redoing the courtyard. The figs are getting rather large now, and I need to give them more space to grow. I was going to repot the Marseilles VS, but with it being hard for me to get potting soil right now, I decided to use what I have left to plant another tomato and some peppers.

I had bought some seed starter mix from Dollar Tree -- won't ever do that again! Most of the seeds either didn't come up or came up and quickly died. I think it's contaminated with herbicide. I did manage to get a few of my pepper seeds to live, and one or two each of Homestead tomato and a variety of cherry I've never heard of before called Gardener's Delight. It seems to be a very popular variety, so funny I've never heard of it. Anyway, it was the last pack of cherry tomato left at Dollar General, so I'm going to try it. I'm also going to try to plant some seeds from some store-bought "gourmet" cherries. There are some tiny golds, a large red, and some tear drop shaped bi-colored that is very tasty. We'll see what happens with those.

Yesterday, I ripped out my Christmas Cassia (Cassia bicapsularis), which was way too gangly and ugly. I've been getting rid of butterfly larval plants and trying to plant more nectar plants, but this one was replaced with a firespike for the hummingbirds. I took out all the Asclepias and red shrimp plants from the butterfly garden earlier this year, with the intention of growing herbs, but so far, I haven't gotten around to that.

I added an elderberry for the bees and butterflies last year, and this year, it's blooming like crazy. Sadly, I had to cut back my large pigeon pea because it was being stripped bare by a rampaging squirrel. I don't know what to do about the squirrel. He's the first destructive squirrel I've had around here. I think the neighbor feeds him, which makes him think my yard is also free rein. I may eventually have to capture him and relocate him.

I cut back my largest Chaya yesterday also. I want to take out the banana that is behind it, and it was in the way. Hopefully, I will be able to get the banana out without doing much damage to the garden. It will be a big chore, and I'll have to bring my tender shade-loving tropicals inside until I can create more shade for them, but the banana has been "walking" for years -- getting closer and closer to the shade table, so it really has to go. Once it's gone, I'll put more chaya and pigeon peas in a more convenient place to create quick shade.

Enough for now. I'm just trying to keep a record. I don't really expect anyone to read this entire thing. I'll try to make some more interesting posts in the future.

Happy Gardening!

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