Monday, September 3, 2018, Labor Day: Brugmansia...another try

Back in June, I "wounded" the Brugmansia to stimulate new growth. In August (see August 12 posting), I noticed a nice healthy sprout at the site of the wound. Today, I cut off that sprout and put it in a carafe of water to see if I can get it to propagate. My last attempt was not successful, but hopefully, this very young sprout will fare better. The Brugmansia stem that "followed me home" down in the French Quarter back in 2009 was put in a gin bottle and grew to a very large plant. I brought this plant home when I left NO and tried planting it in the back yard. It did not survive the first winter.

Sunday, September 2, 2018; Peppers, resume watering

I harvested some bell peppers and some Santaka peppers today. I followed the advice I found on line (https://food.unl.edu/freezing-sweet-bell-and-hot-peppers) regarding how to freeze them. Yesterday I harvested some orka, blanched them and put them in the freezer as well. Today I harvested another four okra. I will probably harvest and freeze the okra until I leave in a few weeks.

Bells and Santaka as harvested

Bell peppers seeded and strip cut before freezing

Santaka peppers washed and stemmed before freezing

On Friday, August 17, John (landscaping) came by and said he thought I was over watering the backyard and that was why the beech died and the west boxwoods were not doing well. He suggested I turn off the irrigation system for a few days. I turned it off that day. Over the next couple of weeks, we got so much rain that I never turned the system back on. Today I noticed the raised beds were looking a bit dry. I turned the system back on, reducing the shrub watering from four times per week to two times per week.

Wednesday August 29, 2018; Garage door lock

Last year, the power door lock on the middle garage door (the one used all the time) failed. It would not retract completely to allow the door to open. It was replaced by Overhead Door company on August 3, 2017. The cost was $128.

Today, when I went out for my walk, it started raining so I returned to the house to get my rain coat. I found the garage door would not open. The way it behaved, I guessed it was the same issue...it was. Unfortunately, the keys to the garage and the house were in the garage, which I could not get into. I had to call Morgan and ask to borrow his key to my garage. This got me into the garage and sure enough, the power door lock was not retracting fully.

Last year, while the lock on the middle door failed, they had to order a replacement. I asked the technician to move the lock from the east door over to the middle door so I could use the middle door. When the replacement came in, they put it on the east door. So, the lock that failed today was not the one installed last year, but was one of the originals installed back in 2015.

I looked up ordering one and installing it myself. I found I could buy one for about $75. I then went out to see if there was any reason I could not install it. If so, then I would again move the one on the east door over to the middle door and order a new one for the east door. The only issue I could see with respect to removing the old lock was getting the lock screws off. I came to the conclusion I could not get these off. Therefore, I called Overhead Door, told them my story and asked if they could order a new one and have someone come out to install. They said they would but it would take seven to ten days for the new one to arrive.

Saturday, August 25, 2018: Window Shades and Acalypha hispida (chenille plant)

Noticed today that the Marvin window shade that failed in May and replaced as failed again. The last time the bottom of the left track pulled out. This time the cord attached to the bottom of the left track popped out. Disconcerting. I sent an email to Mike (window guy) and will call him on Monday. Will encourage him to have it repaired or replaced before I leave town in September.

I had taken the Acalypha hispida (chenille plant) outside a couple of weeks ago, thinking it would enjoy the warm climate. Earlier this week I noticed it was obviously not getting enough water and had shriveled up. I brought it back inside and watered it thoroughly. It has recovered nicely and is 10" tall, two or three times the height of when I brought it home from the MoBot.

Friday, August 24, 2018: Chimney Update

Three weeks ago, when I returned from my trip to Iceland, I found I had lost the chimney cap on the southwest chimney. This is the second time this particular cap has been blown off. The first time was about seven years ago and they people who put it back on (Irish Construction) did some repair tuck pointing. It obviously was not a permanent repair as two bricks came down with the cap (narrowly missing my sunroom windows) and another brick appears to be sitting loose on top of the chimney.

Anyway, since then, I contacted two companies about repairs. One company (English Sweep) I have talked with before. The other company (St. Louis Chimney) was one I had not talked with until now. Both companies said they would send out an estimator. English Sweep set up an appointment for a couple of days after I called. St. Louis Chimney said they would have someone call to establish an appointment. The English Sweep guy came out and took a bunch of notes and photos. He warned me that they were very busy and it might be October before they could fit me into their schedule. However, he said since this is such a "small" job, he would talk with his boss and see what they could do. Several days later, I finally got an email saying they had decided they were too busy and would not make an offer. They did give me three other companies I might want to contact. They were:

• Galati & Sons Tuckpointing
• Mirelli Tuckpointing
• Gress Masonry

I called all three of these companies and they each seemed willing to come out and give me an estimate. All three companies seemed capable and said they could get to the job before I left town again in late September. They all provided me with estimates. The estimates were:

• $1,700.00: Mirelli who suggested removal of any loose rows of bricks at the top of the chimney before reinstalling the cap
• $2,950.00: Gress who suggested some kind of strap to secure the cap and included the cost of tuck pointing the entire chimney plus repair of the limestone sill which was damaged by the falling bricks. If I agreed to the tuck pointing, I would get a five year warranty
• $3,480.00: Galati who said they would reset any loose bricks, reinstall the cap and repair the window sill

I had almost forgotten about the St. Louis Chimney people when I got a call from Chris this past Monday asking if he could stop by and take a look at the job. Chris and friend came by and on Wednesday sent their estimate for $450.00. Their approach was to "re-install the current chimney cap by tap con screwing the cap to the sound masonry" to prevent future decapitations. The caveat placed on this estimate was that they would have to evaluate the condition of the chimney when they got up there and there may be some additional cost for tuck pointing. I immediately accepted their proposal (before they could withdraw it) and today called and talked to Chris. He said he would target doing the job on August 30 (next Thursday), but would get with me on August 29 to confirm.

Monday, August 20, 2018: Cabbage bugs

Joyce came over today to harvest some basil. While chatting with her I noticed just how much damage has been done to both the cabbage and the kale. The kale is essentially eaten down to the stems. The cabbage has also been well chewed on. I got out the Bayer Natria insect, desease & mite control spray. It lists kale and cabbage as valid applications. We'll see if there is a improvement. The instructions say to reapply every 7 to 10 days or after rain fall.

Kale

Cabbage

The peppadew peppers are really doing well. I found a web site that says:

"Peppadew™ is the trademarked brand name of peppers from a pepper plant called “Piquanté.”

The trademark on the name is held by Peppadew International Ltd of South Africa.

The Piquanté bush grows up to 1 1/2 metres tall (5 feet), bearing up to 50 to 60 chiles per bush.

The peppers ripen over a four month period, with peppers lowest on the bush ripening first. The peppers are small and round, only about 2 to 3 cm tall (1 inch), with bright red thin flesh walls. They look like a cross between cherry tomatoes and small red peppers."

The peppers now are green with a crunchy skin.

The santaka peppers are now starting to turn red. I think I will dry them and make a chili powder.

Sunday, August 19, 2018: Barley

Cleaning up around the pond, I found the barley bale I installed on April 5 was completely gone. I put in a new bale in the same location, in the stream between the upper and lower ponds.

Friday, August 17, 2018: Too much water

Earlier this week, I sent an email to John (landscaping) telling him my beech was dead and the boxwood along the west fence are dying. Today he stopped by. He looked at the beech and the boxwood. His hypothesis is that they are getting too much water. He pulled one of the dead boxwoods out and said "yep, too much water".

We looked at the irrigation settings. There are three areas programmed. The "A" area includes all the shrubs zones (1 through 8), "B" is the grass zones (9,10,11,12) and "C" includes the two raised beds (zone 13).

Zone 1-8: 10 minutes M, W, F, Sat
Zone 9, 11,12: 10 minutes T, T, Sat
Zone 10: 5 minutes T, T, Sat
Zone 13: 1 hour M, Th, Sat

He suggested reducing the number of days on the shrubs (Zones 1-8) by one day, so I eliminated Saturday. He also suggested completely turning off the system for a couple of days, so I did that and will leave it off over the weekend.

As for the boxwood, there are still five or six that look healthy. John suggested he has another client that he could offer these to and replace them with more Yews. He will also replace the beech.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018: Santaka Peppers

I was noticing progress of my peppers today, especially the Santaka. I grew these from seed and planted them too early this Spring. I had six plants growing inside and with one plant surviving the move to the garden outside. However, this one plant is bearing a lot of fruits. This is my first experience with Santaka, which supposedly has a Scoville Heat Units (SHU) of 50,000 (essentially the same as cayenne, but 20 times that of Jalapeño and 50 times that of Peppadew).

Capsicum annuum. Open Pollinated. Plant produces good yields of 2 ½" long by ½" wide hot peppers. Peppers grow upright in clusters and turn from green to bright red when mature. Plant has green stems, green leaves, and white flowers. A variety from Japan. They are cone-shaped, bright red when mature, and the skin is thin and wrinkled.

Santaka plant

The peppadew and bell peppers are also doing well. I have two peppadew plants and three bell pepper plants.

Sunday, August 12, 2018; Brugmansia

Back on June 12, I decided to "wound" the brugmansia to see if I could stimulate new growth. Today, I noticed the arrival of new growth at the site of the wound.

June 12, 2018 fresh wound

New growth on August 12, 2018

The technique works!