Laying a border with concrete caps stones - Part 3

Finally the border of the enlarged Pink Rain Lily(Zepheranthes rosea) bed was completed. The new bed is about three times bigger than the old one and aside from the nice new border will look even better once the Rain Lilies have grown and multiplied to fill it out. Then when they are in full bloom probably next year when the rainy season starts they will look absolutely stunning.

Completed boarder defining enlarged Pink Rain Lily bed

Here you can see the completed boarder and the difference in size between the old bed of Rain lilies and the new. Below is the bed of Egyptian Starclusters and Ti Plants I started which is parallel to the Rain Lily Bed.

Bed of Egyptian Starclusters and Ti Plants with boarder of old Poumuli trunks

Ti plant ready for transplanting

 If you look closely you can see the Egyptian Starcluster cuttings. I covered the ground with cardboard as a temporary ground cover/mulch. Ideally I would have liked to get lots of coconut husks and use that as a more permanent and much more effective mulch. But sometimes you must make do with what you have. In any case I try to recycle and reduce rubbish that is sent to the rubbish tip by composting or using large cardboard boxes etc in the garden.

Here you can see the use of a large tire and rocks to create the boarder of this flower bed along one side of the driveway. Along the inside edge of the low rock boarder (no concrete was used) are planted Red Ti Plants and Silver Dragon. Inside the bed are a variety of plants including: Calathea burle-marxi "Green Ice" and "Blue Ice", Torch Gingers, Chrysothemis, Indonesian Wax Roses and Ixoras.

Here is the other side of the driveway defined by old tires. I started covering them up with a rock boarder because I did not really like the tires and they were only intended to give some structure to the bed after which the plan was to put a rock boarder to hide the tires.

Above is a view of part of the drive way showing both beds. Another reason I wanted to cover up the tires is so that both borders would look the same. I also was waiting for the Silver Dragon to grow and multiply so I could plant more on the right side.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Laying a boarder with concrete cap stones - PART 2



In the past I have used old 2 x 4 and even logs to create borders which have proved effective in all practical aspects of having border (definition, anti-encroachment and protection) the only problem has been that in general they are not particularly aesthetically pleasing unless you get some decent pieces of wood or logs. 







Old Poumuli tree trunk being used to mark border of an area to planted with Ti Plants and Egyptian Start Clusters (parallel to the Rain Lily flower bed)

The other material that I have used to some measure which has been effective although not as attractive as I would like has been old tires. Although in this case tires were not an option either.

Scrapping out of Navua Sedge, Kyllinga polphylla rhizomes and other grasses in order to extend the Pink Rain Lily Zeperanthes rosea flower bed. The aluminium sheet in the foreground was used to kill off grass underneath.

Fortunately after a visit to Apia Concrete Products I decided to try out concrete cap stones. Although use as flower borders is definitely not their intended use I found that they were perfect. They were just wide enough to create a nice wide but not too wide border and low enough to not overshadow the plants. At $1.90 Tala a piece they were reasonable although given how big the flower bed was I did end up spending a bit on them. Over several months ACP staff got used to me turning up to procure 10 or 20 cap stones at a time which was all I could fit in the back of the Terius.


Pebble inspecting laying of concrete cap stones

 I started by laying out one edge, then the long outer boarder. I did not have an equipment to make the corners etc so I just used a board, laying it inside the bed and laying the cap stones outside. Then I used that same board to make sure I had a straight edge.

Use of board to lay concrete cap stones (I know cord and pegs would have been better)

I alternated between laying the boarder and digging out the lawn infested with Kyllinga polphylla and Kyllinga nemoralis as well as pulling up clumps of Rain Lilies to separate and replant, although I also had hundreds of seedlings from seeds I had collected and planted earlier in the year.

 .

Pebble inspecting works

Pebble inspecting works

 It was slow tedious work and I was working on other projects, garden and other so it took forever but little by little the border and bed took shape.

Newly laid border with extended bed planted

 I also had constant help from my furry assistants whose enthusiastic contributions ranged from closely supervising me, checking to see if the boarder was properly laid and even assisting with the planting by quickly fertilising the upturned soil before I planted the bulbs, a practice which resulted in much washing of hands with bleach and offended looks from the kittens when I complained and begged them to at least wait until I had planted the bulbs before they made their contributions.

Third corner added

  I had planned on getting some sand and relaying the concrete cap stones on it but due to time constraints and difficulties in getting the sand I ended up not doing this although ideally that would have been the best thing to do as I ended up with about 3 broken concrete cap stones due to small unnoticed bumps or in one case a small pebble which were harmless as they were until someone heavier than my feline assistants walked on and the weight of that against the hard packed earth was too much.

Pebble's assistant Puppywuppy inspects the corners

Additional Information:

Binomial Name: Zepheranthes rosea

Taxonomy: Phylum: Angiosperms – Class:  Monocots – Order: Asparagales – Family: Amaryllidaceae – Subfamily: Amaryllidoideae  –  Tribe : Hippeastrea   – Subtribe: Zephranthinae  – Genus: Zepheranthes – Species: Z. Rosea

Common names: Zepheranthes, Fairy Lily, Rainflower, Rain Lily, Zeypher Lily, Magic Lily, Atamasco Lily (English) kili’o’opu (Hawaiian) mo’u’upo’o (Tahitian)

Binomial Name: Kyllinga polphylla

Taxonomy: Phylum: Angiosperms – Class: Monocots – Subclass: Commelids – Order: Poales – Family: Cyperacea– Genus: Kyllinga – Species: K. Polyphylla

Common names: Navua sedge(English)

Binomial Name: Kyllinga nemoralis

Taxonomy: Phylum: Angiosperms – Class: Monocots – Clade: Commelids – Order: Poales – Family: Cyperacea– Genus: Kyllinga – Species: K. Polyphylla

Common names: ??? (English) kili’o’opu (Hawaiian) mo’u’upo’o (Tahitian)

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

 
 

Laying a boarder with concrete capstones - PART 1

A few years ago (2011) I planted a long narrow strip of Pink Rain Lilies, Zepheranthes rosea at the back of our old family homestead at Alafua which grew magnificently, spreading by seed and bulb division. When it was in full bloom it was a startling profusion of pink that was truly stunning and delightful to see.

Zepheranthe rosea with Ninja Cat Clan Kittens (From Front to Back) Stoney, Rocky and Pebble.

So of course I could not help imagining what a slightly longer and much wider bed would look like. One of the problems that I had with this bed was the lack of definition or boarders delineating it from the lawn. This posed both aesthetic and practical problems. Aesthetically it looked messy and raggedly. Although I am a big fan of the English Cottage Garden which only looks unstructured compared to the French Formal Garden, a large undefined bed of flowers probably does not quite fall into English Cottage Garden definition. More importantly though were the practical considerations.

There were three issues that made having a clearly defined boarder critical for practical reasons. The first was that it would clearly define the flower bed and enable people (little people especially) to see where the flower bed started to avoid the plants being walked on or even driven over. The second issue was that from past experience it has been difficult to police the mowing and having a boarder would not only clearly identify the limits of the lawn but also provide a barrier of sorts. The third issue is related to the pestilent encroachment into the bed by various grasses which I have been trying to eradicate.

Kyllinga polyphylla

The primary culprits are Kyllinga polyphylla and Kyllinga nemoralis both which I have resorted to eliminating by either a slow miserable death due to lack of sun by covering them with come old corrugate iron roofing. The other method has been using a straight edge spade to scrape them up and out. The first is a long slow but painless process (for me) while the latter while assuring faster results is rather tedious and strenuous at times.

Flower of Kyllinga polyphylla

I have used both methods, the second for areas adjacent to beds or to clear the areas that I wanted planted immediately and the first for the huge patches of Kyllinga polyphylla in the centre of the huge back lawn as well as some areas adjacent to various flower beds as well as some smaller patches of Kyllinga nemoralis.



Kyllinga nemoralis

As for herbicides I abhor them so that has never been an option. I have heard of some natural herbicides such as coconut oil and other natural products being used instead of chemicals but was not able to get any and in any case I want to do a bit more research on them for any potential side effect to the other denizens of the gardens and surrounding areas of bush such as the resident Wattled Honeyeaters and Cardinal My, not to mention the squadrons of honey bees.

 

No herbicides are definitely not an option. If you want to know more about the dangerous and disastrous impact of chemical herbicides and pesticides from human health to environmental impact I have included some links below you might want to look at.



Stoney contemplates the proposed enlargement of the Rain Lily bed

So I wanted the boarders very clearly defined to give some structure to the bed as well as to protect the plants both from damage and incursions as well as to make it easier to maintain. The first thing I did was stake out the general area I was looking at extending the bed to. I wanted to make it the full length of the veranda but the presence of a lemon tree meant that that was not possible (especially since I have an aversion to cutting down trees unless absolutely necessary).

Additional information:

For more on Kyllinga nemoralis and Kyllinga polyphylla read my earlier post: Intriguing Plants - Weeds and Flowers

For more information on pesticides visit the following:

http://www.pan-germany.org/download/fact_paraquat2.pdf

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110214115442.htm 

Binomial Name: Zepheranthes rosea

Taxonomy: Phylum: Angiosperms – Class:  Monocots – Order: Asparagales – Family: Amaryllidaceae – Subfamily: Amaryllidoideae  –  Tribe : Hippeastrea   – Subtribe: Zephranthinae  – Genus: Zepheranthes – Species: Z. rosea

Common names: Zepheranthes, Fairy Lily, Rainflower, Rain Lily, Zeypher Lily, Magic Lily, Atamasco Lily (English) kili’o’opu (Hawaiian) mo’u’upo’o (Tahitian)

Binomial Name: Kyllinga polphylla

Taxonomy: Phylum: Angiosperms – Class: Monocots – Subclass: Commelids – Order: Poales – Family: Cyperacea– Genus: Kyllinga – Species: K. polyphylla

Common names: Navua sedge(English)

Binomial Name: Kyllinga nemoralis

Taxonomy: Phylum: Angiosperms – Class: Monocots – Clade: Commelids – Order: Poales – Family: Cyperacea– Genus: Kyllinga – Species: K. polyphylla

Common names: ??? (English) kili’o’opu (Hawaiian) mo’u’upo’o (Tahitian)

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

 

Rain Lilies and kittens

I know that in the the song it is"rain drops on roses" but I have no roses although I do have whiskers on kittens and lots of Rain Lilies (Zepheranthes). The rainy season started and a whole bunch of the Pink Rain Lilies sent up flower buds
and then bloomed.

When this pot flowered I brought it inside and put into a blue ceramic pot for a couple days as well as photograph it.

It was a bright sunny day and at first I thought that I might have problems with the photographs but these actually turned out alright.

The camera kept insisting that I used the flash but I think that these turned out quite nice. I admit I had to do some manoeuvrings with tables and books to get the right angles and keep all the unfinished renovations out of the picture.

Although I planted patches of Pink Rain Lilies in anticipation of spectacular swathes of pink flowers. I also planted little clumps in holes in the front lawn where some clumps of an undesirable species of grass had been dug up from. Some of these sent up a few flowers too. While not a swathe of colour they were still quite eye catching.

The kittens were running around outside having fun after the rain on both occasions and just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

The tortoiseshell is Jasper (formerly Jasmine) while the ginger is Ichigo and the Mackerel Tabby is Dee Dee. Tweedle the other Mackerel Tabby did not feel like being photographed as she was busy climbing a tree.

 They do not even look like they are posing. Talk about professional models.
I should sign them up.



Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.