If it wasn't zero degrees and windy it would have been fun walking and looking at the lights that hang from the buildings in downtown Rochester.
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Bamboo
Update:
My original bamboo i got in Kentucky but these pictures were taken in West Virginia.
On two of the trips i took for work, i went to the southern part of Kentucky. While down there i noticed bamboo trees growing by the rivers. So on the last days of each trip i dug a few small trees up and brought them back home. The first ones i brought back died, but since they don't have seeds like other trees, new shoots came up from the dead tree roots. The biggest trees i saw in Kentucky were around 40 feet high and 3" around.
The ones in my back yard aren't quite 40' high yet. Hopefully they make it through the winter.
My original bamboo i got in Kentucky but these pictures were taken in West Virginia.
On two of the trips i took for work, i went to the southern part of Kentucky. While down there i noticed bamboo trees growing by the rivers. So on the last days of each trip i dug a few small trees up and brought them back home. The first ones i brought back died, but since they don't have seeds like other trees, new shoots came up from the dead tree roots. The biggest trees i saw in Kentucky were around 40 feet high and 3" around.
The ones in my back yard aren't quite 40' high yet. Hopefully they make it through the winter.
Oakland Hills Golf Course
For work one day i got to go onto the north course of Oakland Hills. Although not the south course where they've played the PGA tournaments.
Hanging Plants
Well by the time i get home from being out of town i might just have tomatoes. They started blooming and getting pretty big.
3 weeks in West Virginia
Work called and i left for West Virginia, for a 3 week trip, on December 27th. So for the 2nd year in a row i was working out of town on New Years. Luckily during the time i was down there, West Virginia was having unseasonably cold weather, with lots of snow. And i found out that down there when it snows 3" school is usually canceled. But as always it was lots of walking, around 100 miles, and during that time i saw lots of cool stuff. I really enjoyed the mountain views, they were everywhere and looked great covered in snow.
Here's what i looked like most days, trying to stay warm.
I also learned that there are TONS of deer in that state. In fact West Virginia has led the US in number of car/deer accidents; Michigan is number 2. They were everywhere and unlike Michigan where they could walk around in farm fields, it was either stand in the road or on the side of the mountain.
Not lots of farms or cattle but there was the occasional cow with an itchy nose.
Measuring out the line
After a couple of weeks in the Super 8, my clothes pile did get a bit messy.
A cold early morning
Apparently where people in this town paid for water. No it was not a double wide.
Instead of burying pipes like gas lines they sometimes just laid them on the ground. Here's their hi-tech solution to crossing a river. Screwing a wire to 2 trees.
Scary land owner that definitely had lots of guns. And had no problems telling the DNR how things were gonna work.
The coolest guy in West Virginia.
And of course he lived on...
Incase you can't read it, the hand painted sign says "Neurosurgical Assoc" on "Knawl Creek Rd" I'm not joking this place was out in the middle of nowhere. If you hadn't already guessed, Knawl Creek road isn't a major highway. It isn't even paved, its gravel. I didn't want to even think about what kind of equipment they used to use in their redneck neurosurgery that got performed in that place before it collapsed.
"Honey my central nervous system's still hurtin' me" "Well time to go down to that neuro-something-or-other down on Knawl Creek"
Typical road names were either "lick", "hole" or "hallow" (pronounced "haller") It took me about 4 months to realize what people were talking about when giving directions and said "ya ya'll want to turn left down at the second haller off a Mud Lick road"
This was a burned down house. But after offering a big reward like that i'm thinking any day now they'll have their suspect. You could have bought the house for around $400.
Fresh bear tracks crossing the road we were walking. We guessed they couldn't have been more then 3 or 4 hours old since it just snowed that morning. That's my boot print next to it, just to give a sense of their size.
Straightforward sign
Here's what i looked like most days, trying to stay warm.
I also learned that there are TONS of deer in that state. In fact West Virginia has led the US in number of car/deer accidents; Michigan is number 2. They were everywhere and unlike Michigan where they could walk around in farm fields, it was either stand in the road or on the side of the mountain.
Not lots of farms or cattle but there was the occasional cow with an itchy nose.
Measuring out the line
After a couple of weeks in the Super 8, my clothes pile did get a bit messy.
A cold early morning
Apparently where people in this town paid for water. No it was not a double wide.
Instead of burying pipes like gas lines they sometimes just laid them on the ground. Here's their hi-tech solution to crossing a river. Screwing a wire to 2 trees.
Scary land owner that definitely had lots of guns. And had no problems telling the DNR how things were gonna work.
The coolest guy in West Virginia.
And of course he lived on...
Incase you can't read it, the hand painted sign says "Neurosurgical Assoc" on "Knawl Creek Rd" I'm not joking this place was out in the middle of nowhere. If you hadn't already guessed, Knawl Creek road isn't a major highway. It isn't even paved, its gravel. I didn't want to even think about what kind of equipment they used to use in their redneck neurosurgery that got performed in that place before it collapsed.
"Honey my central nervous system's still hurtin' me" "Well time to go down to that neuro-something-or-other down on Knawl Creek"
Typical road names were either "lick", "hole" or "hallow" (pronounced "haller") It took me about 4 months to realize what people were talking about when giving directions and said "ya ya'll want to turn left down at the second haller off a Mud Lick road"
This was a burned down house. But after offering a big reward like that i'm thinking any day now they'll have their suspect. You could have bought the house for around $400.
Fresh bear tracks crossing the road we were walking. We guessed they couldn't have been more then 3 or 4 hours old since it just snowed that morning. That's my boot print next to it, just to give a sense of their size.
Straightforward sign
How to Grow a Banana Tree
This is only the second summer that i've had my banana tree after receiving it from Amazon in February of 2011. I've been surprised by how well it survived and grew this past year. Here are some of the previous pictures and posts where i've written about it.
Banana Tree - 2011
Banana Tree Update - 2011
Banana Tree Planted - 2011
Winter Seeds - 2011
Now it was time to move the banana tree from my living room, where it had been sitting all winter, to the backyard. It was a pain to move outside, it weighed about 100 lbs. I'm surprised the bucket didn't break. But the tree was alive, healthy and all the leaves looked green.
but then...
The phrase about March "comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb" didn't really seem to be true this year. The end of March was cold and so was April. The temperatures dropped down to the 30's at night. My banana tree died. I guess that's why there aren't a lot of banana trees in Michigan.
So i cut it down to a stump.
As it warmed up during the month of May, two new shoots came up. So i decided to transplant it from the big green bucket to the ground. You can see the new banana tree shoots on either side of the stump.
So hopefully in the next month i will see one or maybe two new banana trees growing in my backyard.
How to Grow a Lotus Plant Indoors from a Seed
Taking everything i learned from last year:
American Lotus
Sprouting Lotus Seeds
Lotus in the Sun
Final Lotus of the Year
I'm trying to grow some lotus plants inside again this winter. But rather than a big pot with mud i figured i could try placing them in clear plastic cups inside of a fish tank. That way i could see how the tubers or roots are growing too.
The 3 keys to growing them:
Heat - underwater heater, stays right around 88 degrees
Sun - by the window and grow light
Humidity - Saran wrap over tank
Here's the setup. There are 2 Asian Lotus seeds and 2 American Lotus seeds.
I think it took about 5 days for them to break through the seed shell, and 4 days to grow to this point. The Asian Lotus seeds sprouted first.
The roots starting to form.
A week and a half later they had grown quite a bit bigger.
Several leaves.
The first tuber and more roots.
Second tuber a week later, so it appears to still be growing.
We'll see if they continue to grow or die like the many others that i tried growing indoors.
American Lotus
Sprouting Lotus Seeds
Lotus in the Sun
Final Lotus of the Year
I'm trying to grow some lotus plants inside again this winter. But rather than a big pot with mud i figured i could try placing them in clear plastic cups inside of a fish tank. That way i could see how the tubers or roots are growing too.
The 3 keys to growing them:
Heat - underwater heater, stays right around 88 degrees
Sun - by the window and grow light
Humidity - Saran wrap over tank
Here's the setup. There are 2 Asian Lotus seeds and 2 American Lotus seeds.
I think it took about 5 days for them to break through the seed shell, and 4 days to grow to this point. The Asian Lotus seeds sprouted first.
The roots starting to form.
A week and a half later they had grown quite a bit bigger.
Several leaves.
The first tuber and more roots.
Second tuber a week later, so it appears to still be growing.
We'll see if they continue to grow or die like the many others that i tried growing indoors.
Bamboo in Heavy Snow
At least once or twice every winter here in Michigan we get a day of really heavy snow. Even though this has been one of the warmest winters in a long time, i woke up a couple of weeks ago and saw this in the back yard. There was a snow and ice storm and the bamboo was completely bent over and almost broken.
But the bamboo is strong. I went out, shook off the snow and the trees immediately started unbending and straightening up.
Here are links to previous posts about growing bamboo in my backyard in Michigan:
Here's what it looked like a few days later, good as new.
But the bamboo is strong. I went out, shook off the snow and the trees immediately started unbending and straightening up.
Here are links to previous posts about growing bamboo in my backyard in Michigan:
- Bamboo - Transplanting from West Virginia
- Bamboo 2 - First Winter
- Bamboo - 2011 - Winter and New Shoots
Here's what it looked like a few days later, good as new.
Final Lotus of the Year
Well as of right now the lotus plants are in the basement for the winter.
I didn't want the roots to freeze so i brought them inside. When it warms up enough in the spring i'll take them back out.
Here's what i have previously written about trying to grow them:
Sprouting Lotus Seeds
Lotus Update
Lotus in the Sun
Anyway going back a few months ... I was down near the Ohio border again for work and saw the lotus fields. Here they are in August, in a channel off of Lake Erie.
A view of all the lotus beds.
There were millions of them.
The view from the causeway.
A view of one of the rivers near a power plant to the north, flowing into Lake Erie.
Here's what the area looks like from above. The water is Lake Erie, the highway is I-75.
Back at my house the hot 90 degree summer days really made them grow big. The sun, heat and humidity outside caused them to take off. Here was one of my first aerial leaves before it opened up.
There were around four aerial leaves per pot.
The lotus effect on the leaf.
Back down near Monroe, Michigan i found a place where you can see them up close. It's visible from I-75 but you have to loop around to get there.
The leaves there grew much bigger then the ones in my backyard.
The seed pods which grew from the center of the flower.
By this time a lot of the seed pods had turned brown.
A couple of them broke off their stalks.
But there was a ton of them. If you figure that each seed pod has around 20 seeds on average, you can see how many seeds are here.
Although like i said earlier, seeds aren't the main way that these grow. They spread from the tubers in the mud, like how grass in your yard spreads.
Here they are in September. The leaves are turning brown and starting to go dormant.
The ones in Monroe had already turned brown.
This is right before i cut the leaves off, drained the water and moved them to the basement.
I'm expecting great things next spring. Hopefully all the energy is stored up in the tubers and will cause the plant to shoot up bigger then they grew from a seed this year.
I didn't want the roots to freeze so i brought them inside. When it warms up enough in the spring i'll take them back out.
Here's what i have previously written about trying to grow them:
Sprouting Lotus Seeds
Lotus Update
Lotus in the Sun
Anyway going back a few months ... I was down near the Ohio border again for work and saw the lotus fields. Here they are in August, in a channel off of Lake Erie.
A view of all the lotus beds.
There were millions of them.
The view from the causeway.
A view of one of the rivers near a power plant to the north, flowing into Lake Erie.
Here's what the area looks like from above. The water is Lake Erie, the highway is I-75.
Back at my house the hot 90 degree summer days really made them grow big. The sun, heat and humidity outside caused them to take off. Here was one of my first aerial leaves before it opened up.
There were around four aerial leaves per pot.
The lotus effect on the leaf.
Some close-ups.
Back down near Monroe, Michigan i found a place where you can see them up close. It's visible from I-75 but you have to loop around to get there.
The leaves there grew much bigger then the ones in my backyard.
The seed pods which grew from the center of the flower.
By this time a lot of the seed pods had turned brown.
A couple of them broke off their stalks.
But there was a ton of them. If you figure that each seed pod has around 20 seeds on average, you can see how many seeds are here.
Although like i said earlier, seeds aren't the main way that these grow. They spread from the tubers in the mud, like how grass in your yard spreads.
Here they are in September. The leaves are turning brown and starting to go dormant.
The ones in Monroe had already turned brown.
This is right before i cut the leaves off, drained the water and moved them to the basement.
I'm expecting great things next spring. Hopefully all the energy is stored up in the tubers and will cause the plant to shoot up bigger then they grew from a seed this year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)