Ye Olde Garden

Weekend purchases

One Frostproof Gardenia (planted as of yesterday next to the front door), one ageratum, 3 Ballerina Compact White Gaura, 2 Purple Pastel Salvia Greggii, 2 White Salvia Greggii, 2 Desperado Texas Sage, 2 Violet Salvia Greggii, 1 more 18-count flat of Coleus Wizard Mix, 2 Pink Salvia Greggii, 1 Royal Raspberry Salvia Greggii, 1 Cherry Brandy Gaura, 2 Black Pearl Ornamental Peppers, 1 Scented Geranium Orange Fizz and 1 Lorapetalum of the purple-leafed kind.

On mail order from Burpee, Salvia Farinacea Sea Breeze and Diana Blueberry Dianthus seeds.

Ye Olde Garden

Lessons in gardening

Lessons learned:

  1. Don’t put out Impatiens seedlings out in the sun. Despite copious amounts of watering, the tender leaves faded, threatening early seedling demise. I immediately moved the impatiens flats into the shade of our photinia hedge, which seems to have improved their outlook.
  2. Dianthus seeds do not need tray starting. However, since we are talking about starting an uncommon or rare dianthus seed here, I did not want to take any chances. The seedlings would have probably started just as well in Jiffy pots or in the 3″ pots they are currently inhabiting. As they are now, they are slow to adjust to the sudden transition from indoors to outdoors. I am hoping they will perk back up soon. It’s been a week since I moved them outside…
  3. Fresh salvia cuttings need to stay in shade for a period of 1-2 weeks during spring. Getting full sun tends to dry them out too quickly. Also, it helps to direct their energy to rooting and leafing, so pinch off any buds that develop. The cuttings I took from Hot Lips all budded, so I had to nip those right away. Luckily, the cuttings took root, and they are now residing outdoors to harden and grow. I have also half a dozen red salvia greggii cuttings that I’m waiting on to root, before they can share the sunlight with the other babies.
  4. If you see a plant you want at the store, don’t hesitate to snap it up right away. Especially Nepeta (a.k.a. Catmint). We saw several Walkers Low specimens at Covington’s a week or two ago, and were dismayed to learn they had been sold out on another visit yesterday. If it looks good, chances are it will sell right away. With this pleasant spring weather, consumers are flocking to garden centers in droves and picking up the prettiest plants currently in full bloom.
  5. Take pictures of your garden frequently. I can’t stress this enough. The garden looks different every day. Flowers are ephemeral, lighting differs, new foliage continuously appear on old plants. And your perspective will change throughout the day. Beauty is fleeting, and a picture captures a single moment in time to preserve it forever.
Ye Olde Garden

New beds, new plants and a new weapon

I couldn’t resist picking up some Passionate Blush Gaura and Japanese painted ferns at Home Depot this weekend. I also couldn’t resist snapping up a bicolor sage, Salvia coccinea, which was mismarked as Lady in Red. This particular sage has broad, somewhat fuzzy green leaves with large salmon and white-colored flowers. After doing a little reading on Salvia coccinea (Scarlet sage), I’ve discovered that it is a promiscuous seeder and more attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies than the greggii. I’m looking forward to seeing this grow wild in our flower beds.

My man and I started on the courtyard beds, digging up alongside the house and laying down stonework. The hard clay soil softened since the rain, so it was easier to till than I thought. We dug up about 6 feet of earth and framed out two beds with stone. The herb garden will have to wait since we need a better grade of soil to fill the raised bed.

Dissatisfied with my soapy water approach, the man decided to pick up a bottle of Bayer Advanced insect repellent earlier in the week. He sprayed the coleus in earnest, though I am somewhat apprehensive that we saved the little plants in time. The hosta near the back wall was nearly eaten to the ground. We may have to purchase the hose attachment version to attempt a more aggressive means of protecting the bed.

I also transferred the dianthus seedlings into 3″ pots this weekend…what a pain that was. The Burpees tray did not relinquish the seedlings easily, and it ended up a messy affair to extract all of the plants to put into 18 pots. I’m not looking forward to removing the impatiens.

Technical

Unblocking brute force on WHM

I thought at the time it was a good idea to enable brute force sensitivity in WHM on the server. But apparently with the numerous attempts daily, I sometimes find that I am locked out unnecessarily. I had forgotten to whitelist my IPs so that I was inevitably included in the lockout.

Anywho, I learned that I would have to delete the cphulkd tables that contained the offending IPs before I could access my WHM again. Initially I tried disabling cPHulk using the following code, but to no avail:

/usr/local/cpanel/bin/cphulk_pam_ctl --disable

So I used PuTTy to SSH into the server and used MySQL to remove the blocked IP tables.

mysql> use cphulkd;

Expected result: Database changed.

mysql> DELETE FROM `brutes`;
mysql> DELETE FROM `logins
mysql> quit;

Consequently, I was able to get into WHM, enter the Security Center to modify cPHulk Brute Force Protection, and whitelist my IPs.

Ye Olde Garden

Battle plan

A good general knows when and how to turn the tide of battle in his favor.

Armed with the recipe for a DIY insecticidal soap, I resolved to reverse my fortune on the garden battlefield and take action against the whiteflies destroying the coleus and the young hosta. I had a leftover 5 gallon plastic jug used to store raw garlic. I then combined 4 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of generic brand lemon-scented liquid dishwashing soap in said container and began shaking. Once it reached a frothy consistency, I grabbed a used Febreze spray bottle which had been doubling as my seedling spritzer, emptied it, and poured my secret weapon into it. Into the cool morning I marched and started spritzing the ravaged coleus. It seems that only 2 of the survivors were hardly affected, perhaps because of their longer exposure to sunlight. But they received the full bath, as well as the 2 Gold Standard Hostas that had been sitting in the bed. The hosta in the back (again, one that does not receive any sunlight) had been targeted mercilessly, having lost most of its new leaves to the attackers.

I surveyed the lawn to see if my previous day’s efforts had taken root. I had tackled the issue of the raggedy, browning lawn and turned loose the broadcast spreader. With a bag of Scott’s Turf Builder Bermudagrass Seed, I overseeded the front and courtyards with seed, in an effort to eradicate the patches. I realize that my efforts might be hampered to the amount of dead and tall grass, plus any hard soil that had not been previously raked. But I was resolved to get the task done and perhaps reseed at a later date in May to patch any remaining holes in the lawn. Let’s see if that 85% germination rate claimed on the label comes true!