Resetting The Patio For Fall and Winter || Digging Up Tropicals

That's a weird sensation. I was inside freezing. Freezing. I step outside and it's kind of hot out here. October in the Midwest. Hey, what's up garden friends? Jeff here. How's everybody doing? Doing well. I'm great. Kind of bored all those words together. Look at what a beautiful day it is. There's clouds and they're really nice, prettyl looking ones, too. Haven't seen a lot of clouds. It's just been haze for the last two months something too long. Okay, I'm just picking up right from where I left off in last Saturday's video. So, I don't know the video before the video prior to this one. Big palm trees. They're gone. So, I have this hole over here to fill, which I'm sure I'll forget to do. What I really am focused on right now, I actually wasn't even playing pick up the camera, but it was just one of those things where it's like, I want to get this done. And I know I'm supposed to bring y'all along for the ride with those things. So, uh I want to get this space looking good again. Why are you so sad, Turbo? What's wrong? You okay, BB? What's wrong, Turbo? Oh, you just sleepy. The afternoon sleepies. He gets those. Okay. There are a lot of palm trees here. They're all gone. Now, I want to move this windmill palm. It's either going to go right there or right there. And then I have this crab apple that's potted up over here. That is going to just be lovely to have outside for all the time between now and whenever the palm trees come back. I It'll lose its leaves, but it'll still be nice to just I don't know, just like a tree in a pot. It'll be nice to have something out here. The patio is just so big and dead. I was gonna say blleh and dead at the same time. Blood. It just looks gross during the winter time. So, that's the whole point there. The idea originally was to take this crab apple. It's a royal raindrops. Yes, royal raindrops crab apple. I was going to put it here in this corner for the winter time. And I was like, "Oh, that'll be nice." Like the seating area of the tree and there's some stuff planted underneath that. How nice and how cozy. And then I was going to put the windmill palm over here in this corner, but this corner can be a pain in the butt to move plants in and out of. And I think the windmill palm might make more sense to put over on this side. It's also still like right about the height where it just smacks you in the face when you walk in and out the store. Of course, about that crab apple is going to do the same thing. I have to have that angled just right. And I feel like it would be weird to walk out there and just have like a tree and a pot right there. Huh. Okay. I'm just thinking out loud at this point. So, I'm going to figure that all out regardless of whatever I decide to do here. I need to get some more stones. They're on the other side of the patio. I want to fill this space and just makes it easier to just slide the pots in and out. It gets hard moving the pots in and out when they're sunk into the soil. Those palm trees and things, you know, these are 31 or 32 in containers. I don't remember, but they get extremely heavy and they weigh themselves down. Look how good everything's still looking. Wow. Nice fall so far. I don't know if I'm even going to need the rest of these. This is um it's called like gold nugget slate, something like that. I can't remember. Okay, I already took the other pieces down there. I I bought way too much rock. Or maybe just the right amount. Depends on how you look at it. It's shiny, so it doesn't hurt to have extra. I love having shiny rocks around. So, that that's pretty much all there is to it. I just wanted a hard surface I can slide a pot on top of. There. Done. I've placed the others there. These are fairly level. I know because they don't wobble that much. No, I didn't put a level on them. There's a carpenter bee over there who's having himself a moment. I'll let him figure out what's going on. Not sure what happened to him. Doesn't seem like he's having a very good day, though. So, Oh. Oh, poor guy. Why do I feel bad for him? Felt bad for him anyways. I don't like watching him suffer. I don't think I set the rock down on top of them. No, cuz I put those two down like four hours ago and he just came crawling down. He fell from something. I don't know. I don't use pesticides. I didn't do it. That's not true. I use pesticides. Uh but not this time of year when I use them. It's indoors. It's on the house plants. It's not on the flowering plants. I don't use anything out here. And on the rare occasion that I do, I am extremely careful with how I use them. And I don't use them near anything that flowers. I try not to use anything systemic. used to what contact type things. Okay, I well I just got to get to the palm tree now. And actually, wait, hold on. Hm. I just remembered something that I don't really think is going to affect this video, but I got some stuff I got to do and then get this thing moved. Okay, by I have some stuff I need to do. What I meant was I needed to move some things around and obsess over minute details to a point that's not productive at all. I scooted this over. Now, I haven't scoot I scoot I scotched it. Here it is. It usually goes in this back corner, but I'm kind of wondering if maybe I just leave it towards the front here. Be easier to get out and then when you go in and out of the house, you're not hitting your face on the fronds. I kind of like the distance right there, too. Cuz otherwise, it's right here. I know it doesn't seem like that's that drastically difference, but to your face when you're walking out the door, it's a big difference. This guy just needs to put on like another foot of trunk and that won't be an issue anymore and this will all just be above the head. But as it is right now, uh I think this would be okay. I could prune it right here. Then these get smashed up against the side of the house and everything. I don't know. I don't mind it like this. Got this big gap right here, but that's okay. Y'all know I'll fill that in no problem. Or not and just leave it. I don't need to have something in that back corner that nobody can ever see, right? Yeah, that's nice. I can maybe scoot it back just a little bit further. Just like just a hair. Yeah, that's better. Right. And this the stone down there. This slides around so much more easily. It doesn't matter. I was hesitant because once I got it right there, I was remembering having flashbacks to having to get this thing out of that corner. And it's tricky. There's just a narrow spot to work with here, especially when the ground gets mushy and frozen. But it just glides right on top of that. It's perfect. And I've got a simple remedy to the fronds hitting me in the face. Oh, I should probably rotate this. Want to make sure that the cladiums and everything are facing the right direction before I start pruning on anything. Look at that. See that? See that? It just Oh, it just glides. You know what I should have done or should do in the future before I pot up some of these larger plants is I should put furniture slides on the bottoms of the containers. That would be a great idea. I mean, I could see that also having some issues with Oh, it's got it's late. I don't like that. Okay, let's do the check. That's obviously that's going to have to go. It's going to be a problem. It's all right to prune these off. It's best to go ahead and leave them. Oh, I really need to sharpen my pruners. That should not have been that difficult. And then what about this one? Was that fun, Turbo? Thank you, palm friends. Thank you, palm friends. Can you get it? Here you go. Go get it. Have fun. And then how like going through right here, huh? That's not too bad. I could really just tie that up. Grab a piece of string and lift that one up. I think this bron needs to go too. It's not adding to the plant anymore. It's going to be back here in the shade. I don't see a reason to hold on to it. I'm not really worried about it getting a lot of sun or I'm not thinking it's going to get a ton of sun and help the palm tree grow very much. Well, now I feel like this one needs to go too cuz it's off balance. Now, this is the problem. Put the pruners down. Put the pruners down. Cuz I immediately was like, "Oh, well now I have to get that one." No, you don't. I mean, that one sticking off the side there does look kind of stupid, but I'll leave it. It's fine. As long as they're green, they're contributing to the plant. Windmill palms will hold on to a lot of fronds at a time. So, you really don't need to prune them heavily. That's really just the case with all palms. Pretty much just prune off things for aesthetics for the most part unless there's something else really bad going on. There we go. That just feels better. I feel better now. My soul feels better having the palm tree back over here. Okay. And then I'm going to do some more cleaning over here. I got to get all these stupid plastic things fixed on the wall. Uh, the umbrella fell over. And then the crab apple will go here. It's going to be a conflict with that basket, but oh well. Okay. Yes, I know it's dark, but uh it was hot. That's the whole reason had to come back later. It's cuz it was just hot, which is a weird feeling for this time of year. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of footage of what's going on out here during the daytime. But I'm just, you know, moving some stuff around over here. With the plants gone, I could not believe how toasty it is in this corner. It's like standing in an oven. I guess I already knew that. I had just forgotten. Look at the mess. Great big mess. I got the panels mostly stuck back up. I think this is the last season for those next year. Got to do something different. I'm not crazy about the plastic greens on the wall, but I do like them better than looking at sighting. So, I moved the crab apple over here so you can get the idea. See? Oo, nice. It's very, you know, tree aesthetic. And I have this crab apple right here, which is planted up all wrong. I didn't realize this when I planted it, but most of its growth is on this part of the canopy, but I planted it up. So, that side is the back of the planter. All the good stuff is over here facing the not so beautiful side of the canopy. Well, that's fine. I have choices with this. I'm either going to just set it right here or I guess it should go back in that corner. Right. It probably should. I'm looking back on things. I'm wishing I'd gotten two of the royal raindrops for the crab apples cuz this is just it's I don't it's not h say it's I don't like it that much. That's what it's it's ugly. It's ugly. I don't care for it. Some crab apples, crab apples, some crab apples are just not the most attractive trees. I find u some of them are absolutely beautiful, but then there are some that just well they're just they're unfortunate to look at. They're disappointing to the eyes, but I think that this still was a good option for what I'm doing over here. So, I'm I'll just it it'll go over there for now. Apparently, I didn't finish that clip. Um, which is going to make it awkward because well, now it's daytime. But there it is. Woo! Jurassic transformation. The panels won't stay up. They're done. They're absolutely done. So, I think I need to just come back here and just pull them down. I think that's the move. That's probably what I should do before I start putting too many other things back here. Uh, they just look like crap. I was thinking about doing acoustic paneling, you know, just like the wood slats that might look good here or a living wall. I've always wanted to do that in this spot, but if I do that, uh, I'll want to build a frame that actually supports it so it's not actually up against the house. Do a waterproof backing and everything. The problem is a living wall out here, it just it's not going to be that pretty for a good chunk of the year. Do you know what I mean? It's going to be just ble in the winter time. Realizing that this pot needs to turn. Need to rotate this cuz the growth of that crab apple that wasn't looking quite right. Is that better? Yeah. Okay, that's good. This guy over here. Oh no, you're just cooking in the sun. Little monstera down there. Look at how much these things shriveled up in a couple of days. That's nice. Actually, I need to just get this. You know what's throwing me off over here is that I had the extra large pot right here that had that palm in it. And I was thinking when I started this project said, "Oh, well, no big deal. I'll just pull everything out. palm tree people take it away and then I'll put everything back where it goes. Need to water that, don't I? Um, but a lot of these things were stacked up around that edenidia palm. So, well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It's fine. Everything's going to be inside in 2 weeks anyways. It's just mindblowing to me. That seems way too early. But first frost potential is generally what? October 15th to November 1st around here. So, that would be the time to go ahead and get it done, get everything moved in. I have some stuff going on uh the last week and a half of the month where I'm going to be very, very busy. So, I'm just going to move everything up very early this year, which I'm not thrilled about, but it's just probably the smart thing to do. The helies have they've had it. I don't think I'm going to try to incorporate them back over there. It would probably just be a lost cause. Try and get you back over here. Appreciate some more sun and the hibiscus, too, and start filling in some gaps over there, which I'm going to be changing up a lot over the next few weeks. So, I just don't want to spend too much time on it because once I take all these tropicals and I'm going to be doing all kinds of things, well, not a ton, but you know, I'm going to be working some evergreens and stuff over in this area. Like I said, I'd like for it to stay looking nice during the winter time. I want it to be a place that looks like a place you'd want to go and relax and just look good. And that should be doable. Fairly easy to do. Just have a few trees and some evergreens and maybe a fountain. That'll be off for most of the winter time. But on those nice days when it thaws, you can turn it on. I'll put a remote on it. It'll be so great. Getting ahead of myself. Not even handling the task at hand and moving on to fantasy time. I think that's a good spot for these. I have another one. It's just a good shady location for them to hang out for a couple of weeks. They're going to fry just sitting in the sun. They can take a lot more sun than I think people give them credit for, but they haven't been getting a ton of sun. They get, you know, some morning light and some afternoon light. And that's about it. And it's usually somewhat protected and shaded, too. So, they could scorch. I don't think that that's the best way to do a thing, especially when we've gotten so much growth on them. They're looking so good. And I'm probably going to be giving one of these away. So, I'd like for it to stay somewhat decent looking. I would also like them to not take up that much space. There we go. Just hang out back there. That's good. This is a more awkward time of year because, well, in my mind, I'm wanting to get set up for fall and everything, but it just isn't time yet, right? Got to give that a little bit longer. Oh, is that not going to Oh, I didn't put that stone down far enough. And there's a lobster in the way. Of course. Why wouldn't there be a lobster in the way? There we go. Lift this guy up. I'm going try and scoot this back so it's more of the patio's open. That just makes it a lot easier to clean out here. And I think that that would look nice. Or that would look nicer. It's crooked. Uh-huh. Yeah, that's better. Okay, that needs a prune. Needs a good prune job. Do I have my snips out here? I have to handle this table, too. I have family coming over in a little while. Uh, probably going to be one of the last pool days of the year. They, you know, people might want to sit at the table. Oh, I was just looking right at my snips. They're right here. Right there. There they go. I had somebody commenting to me about how my tools always look so bad. I can clean these and have them looking spotless. They will look horrible again within 48 hours. It's the humidity and the moisture. I keep them inside oftentimes and it still happens. Just maybe takes a week instead of a couple of days. They get sharpened on regular occasions. I oil them and uh you know it just it is what it is. It's the nature of moisture and metals. These things happen. Just part of it. These have been bugging me. The droopy leaves. May as well cut them off of there. Probably cut them closer than that, but you know, doing things left-handed here. There we go. Get that droopy one out, too. That better? Yeah, that's a lot better. Taking up less room. And this is going to be getting a really big cut back when it's time to take it inside. Anyway, is uh as well as the zanthoma up here. This guy, I don't think I'm going to do this right now, but maybe at some point in this video, I'm going to cut this all the way back, lift it, and put it into a different container. It's gotten too big for this spot. I think it looks beautiful, but it's way too big for this spot. And uh I don't want to take this container in for the winter time. It's in a really pretty pot. So, I just need to pull it out and put it in something else. And you know, you get it. Just need to get it put back into shape for moving. I don't think we have any good spots over here for a nice big purple cabbage. But right next to this pumpkin and this coconut, that seems fitting with the blue in the background. That pumpkin's already starting to rot. That happens when they're in the sun. How are you guys doing? Moisture. Okay. Gotten a little floppy. Base had needed some basil. So, I said, "Oh, yeah. Go cut as much as you'd like." And uh well, not exactly how I would have done it. A little willy-nilly with the cuts. But it works. They're tough plants. It's fine. Trying to keep the basil over here in the sun. I know this lighting is just terrible. That's just the time of year, the angle of the sun. I set up this umbrella, which is crooked, but either way, I opened it up and I was like, "Oh, hey, look at all the wonderful shade that's providing." Now, it's not doing anything because the sun is so strong and low right now. It's not necessary that it's strong, it's very low. And when the sun's this low, it just goes right underneath the umbrella. The umbrella does absolutely nothing. We need water. I'm going set this over here so I can remember some water here in a few minutes. Look at that. Get some color over here. Right on top of a sea shell. Uhhuh. I have another one of those. And that karaopterus, that purple. Those are all going to end up being planted into the landscape in the fall. I know it's the fall, but it sure as heck does not feel like it. So, when I say fall, what I mean is once the tropicals are inside and they've had some frost damage on them, then I'll go ahead and pop them in the ground somewhere. Look at how wonderful this mum is looking. Isn't that just spectacular? I was going to try and carry these both with one hand, but I really don't want to damage the mum. Well, it's doable. My gosh, that is so freaking pretty. So so so pretty. I wish I had a variety name for everybody, but unfortunately I don't. Just get them from the nursery. I think they're from Ball Seed. Maybe pink something. I don't know. That's already looking a lot better. I know it seems weird just to have things piled around. That's just that's just the way it's going to be for a little while for a week or two. That's not a big deal. I'm trying to get things prepared to go inside. I don't want to move them in too soon. That is one problem. I hope that it cools off some because well, it's best to harden them off. It's not like it's going to be terribly cold in the grow space, but they just do better when they have the chance to experience a nice cold period before they get moved in. Even the tropicals, when I say cold, I mean some drops into the 40s. A few of those is great cuz I move them into the grow space where it's in the 50s. They're like, "Oh, we love life." You know, because the bar has been moved so low for them. I really wanted to move this fern over there, but I don't think there's a spot quite shady enough for it. So, into the house, I'll go with this one. I haven't repotted it. It's not I just don't think it's enough of an upgrade to bother repotting it. However, some fresh soil would make this much easier to care for. Something that holds on to some more moisture. That would be nice. Oh my gosh, that is so big and so pretty. And get this window cleaned up some and get it back into one of those corners. Oh, that's going to be so nice. gave my water an ice bath. The fridge isn't keeping things very cold right now. The We have a spare fridge in the garage. It's very old. It's from the '9s. I think it came with the house. Um, and that freezer part works, but the fridge itself, things are like 49 to 52°, so there's no uh animal products out there. We don't keep a lot of animal products in the house, period. But none of that's out there. But I keep the water out there. I pulled it out cuz I want something ice cold. And nope, no luck. My water is not too cold. No, the tap water is not cold at all. It is still nice. You know, one thing about having this very long summer, not calling it fall just yet, is that the ground water is still nice and toasty. So, the hot water heater, it's barely having to do anything. Everyone can take a shower one after another in like a sequence. Everybody's got hot water. I know these gladiolas look terrible. I think I cut them at the wrong time. I must have missed the window and they didn't. I think it must have been too soon. I'm thinking. I don't know. I don't know. I was just so happy that they bloomed for me this year that I got excited and I cut the stocks and I did it too soon. The area where I have them planted, it's just not a spot where you can really see the blooms and enjoy them. So, I thought we'll bring them in. And that that turned out great. You trying to eat my feet? You're not going to like them. Not going to like them at all. It's cooled off cuz I really do want something ice cold to drink. Yeah, that's pretty good. Take it outside in its own little ice bath. Hey pumpkin, you want to say hi? Is my flash on? What the heck? I'm sorry, pumpkin. Let me blend my pumpkin. So sorry. Say hello. Give everybody a kiss. Come on. Give me a kiss, pumpkin. Come on. Don't embarrass me. There you go. I was supposed to kiss her. Quick update. Finished my puzzle. If you know what I'm talking about, I talked about last week's video. TV's on in here. I'm not turning it off cuz I'm just popping in real quick. See it? There it is. Oh, it's so pretty. is 3D and I don't know how well that's going to show on camera, but that made it not fun. Not fun at all. It's very annoying when your puzzle pieces change colors when you move them. All right, back to it. Whatever it was, don't remember what I was doing. Still have this Alberta spruce. I guess it just doesn't really matter as long as the tropicals are out here. I'm not going to have a great time placing out something like a spruce or the grasses and stuff like that. It just it's going to look odd. So, maybe I should just just leave it for right now and finish cleaning off the table so people have a place to sit and we can give that a few more days and I'll poke around and play around some things some more. You know, maybe I can put this foxtail over here. Clean that trunk off, too. There we go. Oh, wait. Turbo. Oh boy. Oh boy. It's your favorite. It's your favorite. Go get it. There you go. Yeah, that makes it all better. Just wanted something more height over here to add some dappled shade to these guys because these aren't plants that have experienced this amount of sun. Do you have meieie bugs? You can't go inside with meie bugs. It's a rule I have this year. If it's got meie bugs, it's not coming in cuz I'm tired of it. I'm going to be spraying for them regardless. But yeah, I don't want to take in a massive infestation. I think it was just dirty. I'm going to move this hibiscus into a different container if it'll lift out of there. There we go. That'll work. I'm just going to drop that down into that one. I think that's going to be better. And then can take this. I should water this first. But this also, I know we think hibiscus need a lot of sun, but this one has been used to getting afternoon shade. and it's not going to be getting a ton of light in the grow space. So, I'd rather it just stay more accustomed to not getting a ton of light. I grow that for the foliage because of the iguana and the tortoise love love to munch on hibiscus. Thrx really doesn't matter where I put the thrax. This is going to be one that goes in earlier. as soon as we have nights dropping below say 45 that's going to have to come inside about stay sheltered even though they can take the sun that one has started to yellow up since it started to get more sunlight I'm done with these guys these diploidenas they were being well actually maybe I could take these in I don't know I'm going to think about that I was thinking about popping this wire vine in the front of this container that the Alberta spruce is in but it would make a lot more sense to use an evergreen, a vinka or an ivy. This is sold as an annual around here, but I'm pretty sure I know there are different types. I'm pretty sure it's just looks like the perennial type. In the meantime, hi pumpkin, you're still hanging out up there, aren't you? That's a good spot. I think I'm going to want this in one of my little IKEA green houses. I'm going to set it up there. My violet, I just got watered yesterday. You done draining? Probably. Man, I got to get this window cleaned out. So much going on over here. That ice maker's up here taking up a lot of space cuz the ice maker in here stopped working. Don't know why. It just it just started working again. I I don't know. Now that fridge is like 4 and 1/2 years old. Its warranty just expired a few months ago. So, of course, it's probably going to break now. The way they seem to build things on a timer where they fall apart as soon as the warranty is over, right? Can't prove it. Just, you know, connecting some dots here. I need to pull this into the shade cuz all of these guys need to be potted up, but I have not had time. All the palm tree pickup stuff happened. I know for y'all it's been over a week, well, a week exactly since that video came out. For me, it's been about 48 hours and their pickup day fell on some days where I just had a lot of stuff going on. So, you know, there are things that are falling through the cracks. So, the best thing to do is just keep those things in the shade. And you can swim if you're high. Go swim. You're free. Not that he ever waits for permission, but apparently today he was. Not mad about that. Try and limp things along with the shade. Croin blew over as I'm probably need to point that out to I'm sure you could tell. I think we're going to fill this in. May as well. I'm not going to be putting the queen palm back in there next year. So, it would make sense to just fill it. What's the It's stuck on something. It's hung up on that bamboo fencing over there. And for right now, I'm good with that hole cuz it's one less thing I for my nephew falling into. Poor guy. Yeah, it's going to be okay. So, this was hanging from my Robelini palm and it got knocked down during a storm and I couldn't get it back out until I moved the palm. Uh, I don't want to move this back out into the sun. Wonder if is there a nice little spot that I could hang it inside here? Might need to grab a hook. of some kind, but that would work. Be pretty sheltered in there. There we go. I'll give that a really good rinse. A nice watering. Platoserums. Stagghorn ferns. They are tough. I know you having the best time of your life. Is it the best day ever? You got to go swim. Go swim. Get in there. Go on. Go on. Go get in. Go in. I'm not getting them with you. I'm busy. You see me talking to the people? I can't get in. Stagghorn ferns generally pretty pretty tough. I'm just talking about your regular old type that you find around. There are some really neat forms out there. Couple of which I have that are very small. Maybe I'll show those off and we can talk about them this winter when we're in the grow space doing videos. But uh right now they're so little there's not much to look at. Dang. Didn't take you long to start growing at an angle. You've been on this table for about 3 days. Look at that already. Oh, I forgot. Turbo broke the pot. Well, good thing it's a mongave and they're tough and that won't really matter. I'm going to set it right here in the opposite direction and um put that right there right now. I have a whole bunch of gorilla glue in the house cuz I need to You know what? Actually, nephew is coming over. Let's not put sharp broken things on the ground where you can touch them. I have that really big pot that broke last week that I need to glue back together. I'll make sure to handle that at the same time. This doesn't need anything in it. These TA pots can't be outside during the winter, so not going to bother replanting that one. This guy I may as well take in. Want to make sure it's cleaned up and ready to go. And probably could use some fresh soil. If it needs fresh soil, it's going in here. These are all things that need compost or fresh soil or just need to be pruned back for a dormcancy. All right, spruce. Where I'm going to stick the spruce. No matter where I put it right now, it's going to look awkward. So, I don't I don't need to put this much thought into it. I'm really overthinking things. I love him so much. Just tell me you can get in the pool. Makes him so happy. All right, I think this is a good stopping point for right now. I would have liked to have just skipped all of this and moved on to what I would like to be doing in this video, which is repotting some of the tropicals that need to go inside and then cutting things back and just putting up the fall through spring plants out here. Like I said, I'm having family over and I couldn't just leave everything in shambles. So, I got all this stuff cleared out of here. You know, there's a couple exceptions, but for the most part, everything's cleared out from right there. Seating is somewhat put back together. Nobody's going to sit over there right now. It's way too hot over there in the afternoon. And, uh, you know, that entryway is defined again. And then everything has been watered. So, I'd say this is good for right now. and hopefully at some point in this video can come in and actually start pulling the tropicals out and replacing them with some things I would like to have out here uh like I said fall through springtime. It's just been one of those things where it's going to be a slow progression. You know, it's just easier that way. I don't see a reason to pull everything and then switch them all out at the same time, make a gigantic mess when I don't need to do that. And I don't necessarily move all my tropicals in at the same time either. It generally just goes by what's the most cold sensitive and what's the largest. So, like the Eureka pump's going to have to go in with the first batch because it just has to go furthest in. Not want to have to maneuver it around things. Uh, chances are the foxtail will do the same. Oh, you are thirsty. It's a thirsty plant. We need rain so bad. I'm sure that's a broken record to everybody at this point. But we really do. This is just getting ridiculous. The amount of watering and the dry air. Not used to it. It has been months since we've had a good amount of rain. We've had occasional rain. I think it's rained at least where I am at my house three times since late July. Uh, that's not great. Uh, well, you're all I'm going to towel him off. We'll pick up later and do the things I was just talking about. Hopefully. Okay, here we are. It's been a couple of days. I was doing a lot of other things for mostly for the channel actually. I like to bulk film in October. That way there's some outdoor content to put out during the winter time. I think that's nice cuz during the winter, you know, we're all stuck inside and everything's all black. It's nice to have the glimpses of nice weather. In the winter time, I also got this all fixed up for the most part. I got my springtails hanging out over here that pull them out for a project that'll be in a video in I don't know, maybe a month. This is the same springtail culture that I originally had on this channel, which well would have been prior to February 25th, 2021. This is pretty old. And I have gone a very long time without giving these guys food or water and they survived. But the culture got small, I know. So, I open this up. So, I have it over here in a slightly warmer spot. Not hot, but a warmer spot. And I put some food in there and some filtered water to help, you know, revive the colony. Fern, other things. Got the plants all shoved into the IKEA tabletop greenhouse here. And you know, just tidied. Always nice to have things tidied up, right, pumpkin? Right, Bl. Where you going? Where you going? What's on your agenda today, Pumpkin? Heading to the edge because this is closest to the cookie jar. But we're not doing cookies this morning, pumpkin. Sorry, you wouldn't eat your breakfast. You don't eat your cat food. You don't get the cookie food. Sorry, pumpkin. Picky eater. Anyways, what's going on? Let's see here. Microphones. Did these charge at all? I don't know. Oh, yes, they did. Good. Oh, I feel like such a idiot. I filmed say five four or five videos yesterday and didn't realize that the noise cancellation was on on those microphones. So, the audio is good, but if I'm near the water over there, it's just I prefer to just not use noise cancellation because you don't have that weird effect of the sound being drowned out in the background. You know what I mean? It doesn't matter. Over here, I've done some work. I came in and I cut back the lime zinger zanthoma. It had just it was too much in this space and I need to cut it back because I need to pull it out and get it potted up into something that's more practical to take inside for the winter time. I don't want to take this big container and for the winter time. Same thing with this bromeilad here. I would like to, you know, pop a an evergreen in there and just let it sit and look nice all winter long. Which also means I need to pull these cordalins out that are in here. or cordin, cordellini, don't care how you say it. The tea plants, they are beautiful and I have enjoyed them. Got some nice growth on them this year. I I don't know if I want to take them inside for the winter or not. The only reason I even do take them in for the winter is because they attract me bugs. And I know that sounds backwards, right? It is kind of backwards, but it's nice to have something that I know the millie bugs will flock to. So, if I have them, I know where they will be. And then those are plants that I can treat the systemic and spray. Uh but the problem is when millie bugs do get on the cordalins, it's hard to get them off. So I can spray them and everything, but they have a texture to their foliage that's similar to well even the collocacius where somewhat hydrophobic. You can see that right here. So a lot of the sprays don't stick well unless you use a sticker. Doesn't really matter cuz pretty much anything I've ever used for me bugs needs to coat the millie bugs. There aren't a lot of things where they can walk across and then it'll kill it. And there are, but those are things that are really toxic. I don't want to use those things. So, I think that the next best thing to get done out here, probably the last thing for this video would be to get in here and pull these guys out and plop an evergreen in there. May as well go ahead and pull the bromeilad out, too. It's just looking so good. And these bromeilads, they can take a good amount of cold. They can take a very light frost. Not all broilads, but this one I have just noticed last year. They're pretty sturdy. So, that could stay there for now. Maybe I'll maybe that Yeah, let's just do this. This is going to be enough. That'll be enough to get done. I also got some more planting done over here. Got this container handled. Everything's all potted up in there and looking nice. I had wanted to put a spruce ball in here, like a blue spruce. So, I thought that would look really nice with the yellow twig dog wood and then the uh boxwood in the back. But their root balls are so big. I never see those plants at a small size or a size where they have a good amount of folure growth, but they don't have a massive root ball on them. I wasn't going to be able to squeeze that in here. And they're very expensive. I don't know. I don't know where if that's the same thing where you are, but for me, they're usually like a hundred bucks. I'm not looking to spend a hundred bucks on something to add as an accent plant in the bottom of a perennial container. And uh I don't think it would enjoy the watering that this is going to need. I think it' just be too much for it during the winter time. So there are a lot of reasons to just, you know, scratch that whole idea. But it just makes me happy having that done. It looks so good, doesn't it? Not expecting any growth out of this at all this year. Everything's just in there. And next year hopefully everything will come back and we'll get some growth out of it. That's that that's the plan, right? And then is there even a point? Cuz as long as I have the tropicals out here, which they will be out here for a little bit longer, not even going to be able to tell where I've put any of the evergreens, but I do need to get that lime zinger pulled out and potted up into something else, right? May as well do that while there's still some warmth left today. It is so nice and crispy. It's 59 degrees right now. I should have on pants, but I just wasn't thinking it was going to be this cool. So, that's not how I started off my day when I was getting dressed. And it's fine. See, in the sun, it feels much much much warmer than that. Just, you know, finally just a little bit of fall. It's going to warm back up. It's just a couple of days of cooler weather. We'll be back up into the 70s and 80s, I think, in a day or And it'll be that way for another week or so. I don't know. Is that looking good? Okay. Doesn't really have to look good. I mostly just want to get these moved out of the way and moved into more sun. There's not a lot of sun left over here. Pretty much the only full sun spots are right here around this palm tree. And that's what those mangavees really do need. They need all that light. As much of it as you can give them. Oh, okay. You can get feel white. There we go. Okay. I think that should be the last one. All right, this needed to be done anyways. Need to get in here so I could clean everything up. Oh my goodness. Oh, that guy got heavy. It is wet. That needs to be moved. I forgot had that new sprinkler in here that does handle this area. It comes across and waters everything on the steps. Oh, that's too much water for them. That's better. That was a two-hander. Move that over there to hang out with some agave. All right, an orchid in here, which I'm have to take a close look at. And I don't know if that's dust or spidermitites, but I am seeing a lot of pests in here. So, that's going to need a heavy cleaning before it goes anywhere. It did a good amount of growing, though. Look at all the growth this orchid's had since it's been out here. Been very happy. Oh, the limezinger xanthosoma. this elf in here that was in here. It had spidermitites on it. So, that was another reason I saw that. I was like, "Okay, let's just go ahead and cut that back. Get all that out of there." I never planted this ginger in here because, well, this really wasn't a point. I'm going to try and lift that out. Oh, there we go. And that's why I love just dropping plants in their containers. It makes life so much easier. Add that to my giveaway pile over here. Here I have a long line of plants that people come and take if they want them. This mum, it really needs a reset. That's going to take a while. Why does it have so many dead buds in it? That can happen with these guys. Oh, you've got another color grown in you. I just love that. I love when there's multiple tones in a not really. That's sarcasm. I don't like that. These things happen. I'm going to set it over here just because that's where I ended up taking it. No good reason why. I didn't really even need to move that, but I figured be nice to have some of the clutter out of the way so I can see better what I'm doing over here. Set you down here. Oh, I have all the things from the birthday party piled up over here. I even realize that all the toy crabs and lobsters and everything. There's another one down here. and find a tote to put those in. And I'm sure they'll end up out here again next year cuz you know my nephew, he's just a baby and that's the whimsy and the fun of children. I like having those things out here and I'll take that any day over like gnomes. There are some that look nice, but I don't know. That's just not necessarily my thing. This brown stuff out. Okay, set this down here. This is going to need to be blasted very heavily. It looks like a really happy, healthy orchid. So, would like to hold on to it. All right. Where am I going to start with this guy? Think the root slayer shovel would be useful with all of this. Oh, to water this hibiscus. Need to do that. I don't know where I left my shovel. It's not over here. Anybody seen it? Take these guys in soon. More we start to have nights that are frequently down around 50 and below. I like to take the coconuts in cuz it seems not that they're going to die as soon as it gets that cold. But that is when the pests start to hook onto Oh, hold on. We have to stop and have a moment. Look at this. Look at the flowers on this yucka. Isn't that beautiful? Absolutely beautiful. Don't normally have yuckabloom this time of year, but this is a variety that I haven't tried before. And maybe it's normal for it to do that. I don't know. I can come in here and just going to try and gently chop this out of this container. I have a feeling the roots from everything will be pretty well grown together, though. But I just need to come down and just slice it. There we go. E, I can hear it. Things are happening. Typically, I would use the hoy hory and just cut around. That would be good enough, but this is I know it's going to have roots all the way down there to the bottom. I didn't think the hy hory would be quite good enough to pull that off. Still pulling off loose ends in here. I wonder, did I get down far enough in there? It feels loose. had a split on this cordalin in here. Don't know how that happened. I don't think I did. It could always just tie that back together. I think it would probably be okay. But, uh, I'm seeing signs of mites on these two, so I don't think they're going to go in. But, I'll give them a blast and we'll see what they look like in a couple of weeks. Let's see. All right. This would be a good time to get out the hory hooray though because I could probably get in here and loosen some stuff up better. Come on. Yeah, the roots are all intertwined in here. Come on. All right. Well, this is being stubborn. I think I'm going to need two hands for this cuz I don't want to move the pot around too much. So, this pot has been fairly sturdy. I just don't want to push it. Trying to get as far down underneath that root ball as I can. There we go. Something's happening. Got that half up. I'll try and get it up from the other side. I can Oh, that was probably horrible on the audio. I'm so sorry. You can feel with your fingers when you're underneath the bulbs and get down there and scoot and lift. Just There we go. All right. Hey, that was pretty easy. Not too bad. Look at that. That's a nice little clump. Bring this over here and add it to my pile of things that need to be repotted. I can take this out of the frck. Got a repot. This needs a repot, but it's in the soil. Everything else is just sitting in loose mix right here. I figure that's better than nothing, right? Okay. Whoa. See all that dust in the wind? Okay. I'm going to pull this out and just have a nice close look at the foliage and decide what I want to do with it. Look at the roots on this thing. It was happy. Does seem like a shame to let that go to waste. So, I think I'll go ahead and I'll get this sprayed down heavily off in the driveway before I pot up so that I can get down around the roots and everything and then pop it into a container. Like I said, it is good to have those around. Are you laying in the dirt? Well, I guess I can't blame you for that. I did put dirt all over the spot where you like to hang out. And you're a dog. You don't care about laying in the dirt, do you? No. You're nasty. But a good boy. Okay, I'm going to go grab a plant to put in here and uh find some soil and get this all cleaned up. Cinnamon spice dua. Isn't it pretty? I love these. Talked about them a lot. I'm sorry. Sugar and spice. Yeah, I was going to say cinnamon because the inner bark has that really rich, warm brown tone to it, which is why I assume that it had that name. Sugar and spice, but cinnamon spice would make more sense, wouldn't it? That has nothing to do with the name. These are really nice, though. Look at the Well, you don't I thought that was a picture of the full plant. It wasn't. Uh 10 to 12 ft high, 3 to 4 ft wide, so they're nice and narrow. They don't take up a huge space. And I just think they're really nice looking evergreens. Hard to find. I had a difficult time getting these this year. And last year, I was having trouble, too. So, I ordered some and uh got two of them in, one of them in looking too hot. I don't know. They're sitting side by side. It's just, you know, the nature of arbs, I guess. Don't like when those things happen. So I could, which I've done many winter planters, just put this in there and then back fill with soil around it. But these I save these. I have another one. They're very I don't want to say root bound, but um I think I'm going to have trouble getting water to it in that black container. So I'd want to make sure that's lifted up if that's how I were to do things. This can be tricky. It can be a tricky decision because this plant's not going to root out at this point moving forward, right? It's just going to hang out in there until spring and then it'll start to push some roots out. So, I can put a whole bunch of soil in here around that root ball, you know, take the pot off and then the water when I put it in there is going to take the path of least resistance, which is going to be the soil that doesn't have roots and things in it. So, a lot of the water is going to go away from the root mass. Whereas I leave it in the container and I can target water better, but I run the risk of not being great at target watering and it getting underwatered. H I don't know. I usually find it's best to just go ahead and with the evergreens at least and just get them into a fresh mix regardless of what's going on. And with this one only because well they're just so prone to drying out. So having moist soil around its roots is still better than it just plastic around the roots. Does that make sense? Oh, maybe just bumping it up into a larger catcho might be the way to go. Is it big enough for that to make a difference? Uh, not really. I would not bother with a potting up that's that small. Want at least an inch and a half to two inches on the outside. Huh. Although this is really just about the perfect size container to put in the middle of this pot. And then it'll be insulated, too. Can you see what's happening? I can't see my screen. That Oh, it's just reflection. My bad. Never mind. Anyways, okay. Maybe that's what I'll do. Let's pop it in this guy. Then there'll be a nice gap of air between the outside and the inside or really try and get some soil in there. That'll inflate the roots some. All right. I think that should be good. Really important with any plant, but especially these orbs to make sure that you don't have any air pockets. Useful to take a chopstick sometimes and push down underneath there, but this root mass was pretty sturdy, so I doubt there were a lot of pockets that any air could have gotten into. There we go. That looks so much better. I know it doesn't really look right with the menagerie of tropicals in the mix, but just remember those won't be here for all that long. I have one more plant and it's a be. This is a Horseman cedar and I think that that would just be the perfect plant to put into this container right here. Right. Or maybe that should go in something red or green. Well, it's already pulled out of its pot, so I want to get it planted up. The Hordzman, if you don't notice, this is going to be like the blue Atlas cedar, except with this one, instead of getting what, 70, 80 feet tall, however big the regular Atlas eaters get, these will max out around like 8 to 12 ft somewhere in there. And they have just a really beautiful structure for the winter time. And they're typically pretty sturdy plants as long as they don't get too wet during the wintered ones. Yeah, I like that. Look at that. That's a good pairing. And then I'll put a I have a new gen boxwood I think that I'm going to put in there. That would probably be a good plate for that. If I could find a good looking red twig dog with already had some collar on it. Wouldn't that just Oh, that'd be perfect. Oh, look at this. See that? That's a perfect fit. Oh, it's great. Grab my soil. Something I should have done before I swept the steps off, but hey, whatever. I still have to come in here and rinse it all off anyway. Some of that in the bottom. a couple of inches down there cuz this one Well, it really was due for a repot. These tend to, I noticed, do better. They They want a well- drained soil. Gritty soil actually. If you can get them a gritty mix, that's even better. When I have these cedars in containers, when I have too much grit, I'm sorry, I keep losing track of what I'm talking about. When I have too much grit, uh, it will drain too fast. So, even though they like things nice and gritty in the ground, they don't have to. You can grow them in all types of soil, but if you have some grit, they seem to prefer that. I just think it drains too quickly in a container. Ah, there we go. I like that. It's going be real easy to lift out of the container. I think I should top dress this. I'll probably just slide some of that white gravel out from the bromeilad planter and put that in here for the winter time. I think that' look good. Get darker stone might look better, but I don't know. With the whites right there, right? Oh, hey, kitten. How you doing, floof? So, yeah, just imagine that with either the boxwood. Boxwood right there. Or something with some red in it, I think, would be good, too. I just I don't see a lot of red twig boxwoods for sale around here, which I find to be red twig boxwoods. That's not a thing. Red twig dog woods. I have the sergeant pepper down there. So, I suppose I do have the option. I don't really want to because it's in its first year of growth. Let's go look at it. Thing we do have the option with the sergeant pepper to prune out some red twigs and just keep them in the pot, but they haven't really gotten all that red yet. The Arctic Fire that has the best red on it. Yeah, I'd want this to have a few more year Well, really two years growth and then you can cut them, right? because they lose that brown after a couple years. So, every other year or every year you want to go in and prune out the old That's a That's a whole thing. Yeah. Doesn't have enough color on them yet. Anyways, you can barely even see this cuz the variegation blends in with the filtered light so much. Isn't that beautiful? They held on to that pink all summer. I was not expecting that. Usually when things have pink in their variegation, that's something that goes away pretty much as soon as the heat rolls in. Nope, not the Sergeant Pepper. It holds on to it. That is a beautiful shrub. All right, that's enough. Need to stop now cuz I still got to put this all together, get it edited and filming content to put out during the winter time and then need to got my garage and get that cleaned up next week and move my plants in. So, I got a lot to do. So, yeah, try to keep this one pretty simple, but productive. I'm glad to be moving into some of these things. It's It's nice. You know, usually I wait and I don't do anything out here until I've moved all the tropicals inside and then there's a huge mess to clean up. It's Yeah, I think it's good to be doing this as I go. There's less of a shock. It's more of a smooth transition from one to another, right? So, all this is going to be gone, but there also be the Alberta spruce and have some color over there and I'll be swapping out some shrubbery. So, it's obviously not going to look anywhere near as nice, you know, November through May, but it's going to look better than it ever has before because there at least be something out here. And I'm keeping everything close to the doors this year because that's going to make keeping things watered so so so so much easier. Water plants. I just open up this door. I can stand here and dunk dunk dunk. I can't quite reach that one, but you know what I mean. and just come right out here with a bunch of buckets and get everything watered and go back in the house because a lot of the time when I'm watering plants during the winter, you know, it might be 14° outside. I don't have water out here. Also, this is within range of the hose I use to fill my fish tanks during the winter time, which is perfect because that means that if I don't feel like hauling around buckets or filling up lots and lots of watering cans, and I can just screw the thing in over there, the thing into this thing. Oh, hello. Hi. It's mostly my hand, but you see some reflection there. and just pop that hose out here and give everything a little drink, right? Yeah, that's going to work out well. This isn't going to stay out here. I I know this is probably ridiculous, but I was thinking about maybe doing a Japanese maple hanging basket or some type of weeping cedar or something because it'd be nice to still have something hanging there during the winter time. But the more I think about just imagine how quickly that's going to dry up, right? I can line that whole thing with plastic and still it's up there. It's exposed. If it's 14 degrees outside, but we have wind chills maybe of like negative 10, then whatever is in there is just going to be toast. So, yeah, I'll just I'll just pull it down. Maybe hang a bird feeder or a lantern, something. Who knows? Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. This is a fun time of year because I'm transitioning and getting to have fun with the things that are going to be fall, winter, and spring interest and still getting to play around with the tropicals because this is really the checkpoint when I'm pulling everything up and seeing how they ultimately did throughout the winter time and getting ready to prep them up to not winter, how they did during the summer. You know what I mean? All right, it's time to go. Hey, hope everybody's doing well, having a great day, great life, and everything's just going absolutely beautifully for you. And of course, as always, and most importantly, everybody, keep up. Oh, I forgot to give a hardiness stat on the Hordesman. And I don't remember. I want to say it's a five or a six, but I could be way off with that. I don't know. Monrovia says 6 through nine. So, yeah, I would believe it. That is kind of risky in a container. But I have another just regular cedar that I kept out here all winter. Two winters now. Didn't touch them. Didn't even water them. It It's just one. and it has been just doing great. But, uh, it was also up against that rock wall, so maybe that provided some extra warmth and insulation. That's something I have to remember with these. But, I do have this wind usually blows this direction during the winter time, so it's somewhat sheltered right there. And, you know, can always scoot things just right inside the door if I think that there's going to be any troubles. Okay. Yeah. Bye. Bye. [Music]