A Yard In Fort Pierce

I started a new Stag Horn ( Platycerium bifurcatum ) today. I think it will look very good when it takes off. I took a piece that I had left over from a previous project and took my stapler and 2 pieces of 2 inch strap. I held the Stag Horn in place while I stapled the straps to a Sable Palm Tree. I have another piece of Stag Horn that is almost identical and I am going to place it on the Palm Tree that is right next to this one. First I have to clean up the palm tree so there is a spot for the Stag Horn. Then I will mount it the same way as the first one. Here are a few pictures of my new Stag Horn on a Palm Tree. You can see the neighbor tree I have to clean up too. Thank you , and enjoy!!

Well it has been about a month and a half since I planted my Areca Palm ( Dypsis lutescens ) privacy fence. You can read all the details of this project in my previous post : Click Here For $36.00 Privacy Fence. I decided it was time for an update so here we go. I am going to say that at the time I have about a 30%-40% success rate. There are a lot of dead looking Areca's but I will not call them dead until they are gone. Until they are gone I will continue to water them in hopes of revival. I also have a few Areca's that look pretty good, and of course some that are in the in between stage, go to the light or come back. Either way whatever state they are in I am still going to take care of them regardless until they all flourish. I have been spraying 20-20-20 fertilizer on them once a week for 2 weeks so far, still to early to report any results on the use of the fertilizer. When I started the project I had no idea that it was going to get so cold this year so I had to battle the cold spurts as well as my dog Boss peeing on them, trampling all over them and he even pulled 2 of them out of the ground, 1 of which was my best 1. I am sure you can imagine how that made me feel. We have to remain optimistic here so I am not worried, with some patience mixed in with some love and dedication I think it will be all right. Here are some pictures of the privacy fence.

Fresh from the mailbox, my new Tiger Fern ( Nephrolepis exaltata ) or Boston Fern. The Tiger Fern stands about 6-7 inches tall right now. The leaves of the Tiger Fern are amazing with their tiger like stripes and varegated look. This fern will be a treat if it takes. I hear that these are not the easiest ferns to grow. Here are a couple of pictures of the potted Tiger Fern or Boston Fern as it sits right now. I will keep you updated on the little guy. Enjoy!!

I was driving through South Beach Fort Pierce, Fl. the other day and the sun started going down. The sky looked amazing as always. Well this time I had my camera with me. I pulled over and snapped a few shots. Hope you enjoy!!

I have also received my Dwarf Cavendish Banana ( Musa acuminata ) tree in the mail. This is also another very tasty banana tree. Full grown this banana tree will probably get about 8 feet. The only negative thing I see with this banana tree is the fact that caution must be taken when handling as skin irritation my occur. Other than that it is delicious, and very hardy to zone 10. My next banana tree will be the thousand fingers banana. I will not get this until later in the year though. For now here are a few pictures of My baby Dwarf Cavendish Banana Tree. Enjoy!!

I have been waiting a very long time to get some banana tree's. Finally my Ice Cream Banana ( Musa acuminata ) came in the mail. The baby banana tree came in at about 9 inches and in a very small pot. I transplanted it into a 3 gallon pot that will be it's home for a while. I am stoked, if you have ever tasted this delicious treat then you understand why, if you have not tasted this banana yet I highly recommend it. Here are a few pictures of the baby Ice Cream Banana Tree ( Musa acuminata ). Enjoy!!

Today I took my Husky Cherry Red Hybrid Tomato and hung it upside down. That's right upside down. I had an empty kitty litter bucket laying around for a while just waiting for me to figure out what to do with. Well I finally figured it out, I am going to hang my Husky Cherry Red Hybrid Tomato plant in it upside down. Here's what I did: First I cut a hole in the bottom of the bucket. I just cut around the pre-stamped circle on the bottom of just about every bucket I have ever seen. The hole is about a 2 inch diameter. Then I took a piece of newspaper and cut a + into it in the middle. Then I slipped my tomato plant through the + in the newspaper until the newspaper was on the soil. You can use cardboard, newspaper, coffee filters etc... for this. The reason for doing this is to hold the soil in the bucket when upside down. After I was finished with that I set my bucket with the facing down on two different tables so there was a gap where the hole was. Then I slipped my tomato plant very carefully through the hole in the bucket. Then I filled the rest of the bucket with a mix of soils and perlite. Finally I hung the Cherry Red Hybrid in my Star fruit tree using a metal coat hanger. This is probably the best method for growing tomato's. I did not get pictures of the process but I do have pictures of the finished product. Here are the pics, enjoy!!

Well since my dog is helping me out so much in the yard I figured I might as well introduce him. His name is Boss Man, I call him Boss for short. He is a red nose pitbull mixed with cur which makes him a pit cur. He is 5 years old and is the best dog you could ever ask for, c'mon he does yard work! To me he is the best mix of dogs you can get, of course everyone knows how hard core pitbulls ( I am not going to say are because it is all how they are raised but I will say) can be. You just don't want to mess with them. However Cur dogs are the one of the smartest dogs out there. Now I have an extremely smart and hardcore dog, isn't that the idea of having a dog( To have a good friend watching your back). He loves to play games like, I throw the stick and then he goes and gets it and tries to run past me with out letting me take it, then I chase him around the yard trying to get it from him. This is a very fun game and it is just a game. I know what you are thinking, he will fetch but not return. This is not true, he will bring me the stick if I ask him for it but I enjoy the game as much as he does as it is a challenge to chase down a pit and take a stick from him. I have only taken the stick a few times but I have taken the stick, that is all that matters to me. Boss loves tangerines which is a little funny to me as I have never seen a dog eat citrus. Boss will jump up into the tree and pick his own fruit and peel it and eat it, however he prefers that I do all of the work and peel it for him which I don't mind because it is good bonding for us. In having Boss I have a very good friend, a very very good security system, help in the yard, and Boss is very good with the baby. When my baby Aaron Tyler is in a room ( any room ) Boss is laying in the doorway of that room acting as a security guard. This eases my mind very much. I just have to say that I could not ask for a better dog. Here are some pictures of The Boss!!

Today I went to my mother's house to help her plant some plants she had just brought home from a show in Miami. We were talking in the house and looking out the window at her Areca Palms. I was telling her how much I like the Areca's and she told me that she didn't really care to much for them. She said they were a lot of work clipping and what not. I told her what I do when I clip mine is I take the clippings in the house and place them in vase's around the house. The clippings usually hold up for 3-4 weeks before they start looking bad. Using the clippings is a very affordable way to decorate the house. I went outside to get some clippings from hers to show her but she already trimmed it. That's when I noticed all the seeds on the ground. There were thousands of them everywhere. I started collecting them and noticed a sprout. Then another sprout, and another. I ended up leaving there with 50-60 Areca Palm sprouts that ranged from 1" to 4". Here are some pictures of the little guys.

A really good friend of mine moved into a great house a while ago. There was a stag horn ( Platycerium bifurcatum ) that was wrapped around an entire tree trunk. The cool thing about it was that the tree was gone above the top of the Stag , so it looked like a Stag Horn Tree. Well the tree ended up falling over and they were moving out at the same time. It would have taken a serious piece of machinery to move this thing. They were just going to leave it behind. They said I could peel off some pieces if I wanted. Me and my buddy Brandan ended up going over there on our way home from the nursery expedition. There it was, this massive piece of stag horn laying on the ground. Of course the camera was left home that day. I did get some pictures when I got home though of the pieces. We pulled off about 10 pieces each ranging from very little pieces to large pieces. Well, I decided to do some utilization, I took that stump from the grapefruit tree I dug up to put in my Foxtail Palm. I cleaned the stump up with my shears and attached one of the pieces of Stag Horn to the front of it. Looks pretty good, then I mounted a metal bracket to the top to hang it from. Then I took another piece of stump and attached small pieces to it almost around the whole piece. This will be my tabletop stag horn. To top everything off, today was a very gorgeous day! Here are some of the the pictures, enjoy!!