Friday, July 4, 2008

Painting and Propagating

The hair "painting" adventure went well enough so I decided everything must look better painted! We had some floor paint that was left with the house and used for the upper deck and benches in the front. I put it to good use painting unfinished things around the yard. First I painted the cement bench we made. It is still kind of a crudely made bench but works better than blocks and boards, won't blow away in the wind and looks pretty darned good painted!
Next I moved on to the troll bridge. It is pressure treated wood, but I figure a coat or two of paint will extend its life and make it look more finished!


Finally the redone "Mad Max" shade bed. It looked a little plain in bare cement and now it looks really really good! It is near the troll bridge and cement table so the paint just ties it all together.

So here's a ginger bloom that is basically spent. Note the little sprouts coming vertically off the base of the flower. When I first got here I didn't know how to propagate these and now I do. I noticed that the bloom would weigh things down so my first attempt was to clip the bloom down and hope the shoots would root. I had partial success. The I tried snapping off the shoots and planting them but many did not survive.

Cut the flower stalk off at the base and then cut the shoots off.

I separate the shoots, stick them in water until they root, plant them in pots for a bit and then plant them out! So now instead of the plant sending up new shoots I have the new shoots and a bunch of suckers to propagate as well! A ginger factory of sorts...

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