The Seven Roses Project

In Dec 2007, I bought a set of three bare-root roses from a warehouse store.

I planted them onto containers and wrote about How to Grow Bare-Root Roses in Containers at eHow. Eventually, I planted the pink one on the ground, beside our calamansi tree, but left the other two in their pots. I didn't fuss over them too much, the way a serious rose grower would, but I loved how every now and then I could bring in beautiful flowers from my own garden.

To celebrate spring this year, a local home improvement store offered shrubs on discount. The shrubs included hybrid teas and grandifloras. I couldn't pass it up -- I chose four.

This time I couldn't leave the roses in their pots because they would be harder to maintain than if I put them in the ground. So, now I had a project cut out for me.

I chose a sunny location in the front yard so that I'll see the plants all the time. With a plan in hand, I gathered the materials I would need to transfer six rose plants from their pots to the ground. I would need two bags of garden soil (they have organic ones now!), a bag of rose food, and concrete borders that matched the ones we already had.

I marked the area, peeled and rolled up the sod, and dug the holes one by one. Sounds easy when you say it like that, but that sentence took me three days in real life. And several pain relievers.

I enriched each hole with garden soil and rose food before I plopped the plant in (Florida soil is mostly sand). Then I positioned the borders and watered the entire plot.

Project complete!

The seven roses are: Intrigue (lavender), Queen Elizabeth (pink), Ambassador (orange), New Day (yellow), Scarlet Knight (red), Pristine (pale pink), and Eclipse (yellow-orange).

Like Fish In A Barrel

It started out back in 2009 as a water feature -- a half-barrel to catch the water that flowed through the rainchain from the roof gutters. We found a waterproofed half-barrel at a garden center, where we also bought the marginal aquatic plants, Dwarf Giant Papyrus, Powdery Thalia, and Pickerelweed. We got a lotus bulb but it never woke up.

Pickerelweed

We weren’t really planning on having fish in the barrel but stagnant water would mean breeding ground for mosquitoes. So, I assigned a couple of Goldfishes and a Platy from our aquarium to take care of the mosquito larvae that could populate the barrel. All went well until winter came.

January 2010 was fierce; it froze the barrel, together with everything in it. I was devastated, not only because the fish and most of the plants died, but also because it didn’t even occur to me that I actually had the means to prevent the imminent disaster.

Frozen water. See dead fish in the center of the photo.

The following winter, I was prepared. As soon as the weather cooled down, I put an aquarium heater in the barrel and made sure that the setting was just right – no ice cube fishies, but no fish stew either. Everyone survived.

Last summer, I added more fish. I introduced a few tropical livebearers, both male and female, and let nature take its course. The barrel is now teeming with Guppies, Platys, and Swordtails.

We had our first chilly morning a few weeks ago, and no, we didn’t forget to install the heater. We won't let Mother Winter mess with our pets again, even if they are fish in a barrel.

New Articles: Metal Tables and Papier-Mache'

New articles at my eHow Home & Garden:

How to Repaint a Metal Table

Metal tables, especially those used in outdoor gardens and patios, can quickly rust and deteriorate from exposure to the elements. They should be checked periodically for fading and corrosion, and then cleaned and repainted as necessary. Follow these steps for removing rust from an old metal table and repainting it to look like new.

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How to Make Papier-Mache' Hearts

One of the easiest ways to create decorative forms is with papier-mache' or paper mache. Using common materials like old newspaper, modeling clay and diluted white glue, you can create your favorite three-dimensional shapes and forms for decorating your home. Here are the simple steps for making papier-mache' hearts for Valentine's Day, Christmas, or just for fun.

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How to Make a Valentine Mobile

Mobiles are interesting décor items because they are dynamic and always in motion. Hanging your favorite items in a balanced, free-moving configuration can be attractive to infants learning about shapes and motion, as well as to art aficionados appreciating creative expression. Here are the simple steps to creating a Valentine mobile with bamboo sticks and lightweight papier-mache' hearts.

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My "tsukubai" Project

I wanted to build a water feature on the corner near the door to our patio. I deliberated on a lot of ideas: a small koi pond, a stillwater pond, a small fountain. I couldn't decide. Then I found a book about "Theme Gardens" and one theme that attracted me was the Japanese "tsukubai" or water basin.

The "official" tsukubai is composed of four rocks, a water vessel, water that flows through a bamboo fixture, and stones or pebbles to unify the whole setup.

The four flat-topped rocks are: a stepping stone, a kneeling stone, a setting-down rock on the right for a pitcher or teakettle, and a slightly higher rock on the left to set down a lantern or candle.

The water basin can be a hollowed out rock or a stone jar or basin. The pebbles between the rocks and the basin are symbolic of a sea in the middle of the rocks. And they serve to absorb the water spills.

The tsukubai is traditionally a water basin built outside a tearoom. Guests wash their hands there before the tea ceremony. It's also found outside temples for the symbolic cleansing of the spirit.

A Japanese-style water basin garden feature would be pretty easy to do, but I still had to figure out the logistics... the rocks and the jar, which were the main elements, would be expensive and difficult to work with.

All of a sudden, from out of the blue, everything came together. With the help of ArtificialRocksFactory.com and a clearance sale of fiberglass stone jars at a neighborhood Super Target store, I was finally able to build my tsukubai.

The article about the step-by-step process is now published in eHow.com:
How to Make a Japanese-Style Water Feature.

How-tos at eHow.com

A long time ago, there was Themestream.com. Then there was Webseed.com. After that I got picked up by eRef.com and WriteEdge.com, then Magi21.com. Of course, the whole time I was a mainstay at Suite101.com. Aside from Suite101.com, where my Introduction to Backpacking tutorial still resides, all the content sites I used to work for are now history. The stints were good while they lasted, but true to the volatility of the World Wide Web phenomenon, they, well, evolved.

Now there's eHow.com. I've been hired to be one of their resident "Experts" in the Home & Garden section. I love it because I get to write about how to do the things I enjoy doing. I've always been a home and garden person. I got it from my parents. They gave me the handyman handcrafter gene, and the opportunity to try my hand at anything I'd be curious about. I think it's just about time to share the knowledge and experience I've accumulated over the years.

So, where will you find me at eHow.com? Right here: Ruby Bayan

My two latest articles are:
How to Provide Adequate Lighting to Indoor Plants
How to Find Your Ideal Partner

Many more articles... I'll post the titles here as they get published.