Mosquito Issues and Starting a New Garden Area

I really wish my body would make up its mind. It's hot and I've been dreading this heat dome that's even the same as moving through. I stepped outside this morning thinking, oh it's gonna be terrible. It feels very nice. It's like the good kind of heat. I feel like I'm like being hugged by the warmth. Does that make sense? You maybe, you know what I mean. You know what? It's dry. That's what it is. It's a dry heat. It's nice. Have to let the hot water out of the hose. Got a few thirsty plants over here. A lot of hot water in here. Hey, what's up gardener friends? Jeff here. How's everybody doing? I hope you're doing well. I'm great. Watering, if you can't tell. We have a mosquito problem. Like to the point that it's absolutely unbearable out here. Lots of different methods for mosquito control. I'm not gonna pretend to be an authority on any of them because everything I'm trying, it ain't working. I've been doing the mosquito bucket thing. It's very popular on Instagram and everywhere. People are saying, oh do the mosquito bucket. If you don't know, that's just a bucket that you put some lawn refuse in or, you know, leaf clippings, whatever. You fill it up about halfway. Put some sticks in there that can be used as a ladder so critters can get out. Or put screening over the top so, you know, that way if a chipmunk or something falls and they can get out of the bucket. And you throw some mosquito dunks in there. Something with some Bt, which is Bacillus thuringiensis. It's hard to say sometimes. And then that will draw the mosquitoes in. They'll lay their eggs and it kills the larvae. Oh, and no more mosquitoes. Well, that's a bunch of crap. Worst mosquitoes have ever been. And I think it has something to do with the fact that I have three of these mosquito attracting buckets laying around my yard. I got an orthostation. I want to try that out and then maybe get some guppies or something to put in my little patio ponds. That will help with those too. This guy's getting a really big soak. Really big soak. Let me go look at those buckets. You can see what I'm talking about. I might need to replace the dunk that's in the bucket over here. Every time I've looked in it, it has had mosquitoes hopping around in there like right next to the mosquito dunk. Guess I'll take one over there with me. Just dropped the new one in there. Let's lift it up here. It'll be a little bit easier to see and see what's going on in here. Oh, there's springtails hopping around in here. Got a whole ecosystem of critters in the bucket. And yeah, I don't know if you're gonna be able to see them, but I see a few. There's mosquito larvae hopping around inside of here. And it's only had a mosquito dunk in there for about three weeks. So, you know, it doesn't work. Microblift is another option. I could add some microblift and just help take care of the mosquitoes. It just doesn't really make sense to me. I know that there's some kind of logic that my brain just isn't clicking with, but the concept of creative breeding habitat for the mosquitoes to get rid of the mosquitoes... Huh? Okay, we're playing the long game. I understand it from that perspective. You know, they won't be able to reproduce and then you'll have mosquitoes everywhere, but you're still attracting them in to lay their eggs, right? I don't get it. Peppermint oil. I like to dilute peppermint oil and spray that around the garden. That works very well temporarily for like, I don't know, 48, maybe 72 hours and things will be pretty much mosquito-free. And the backyard smells like peppermint. That's lovely. Have to dilute it though. Really need to dilute that stuff because it can be damaging to the plants. And it kills bugs too. So you can't spray it on flowers or anything like that. Need to do it at dusk when the majority of the pollinators are away. You have to be careful with it. I don't spray it with the intention of trying to kill the mosquitoes. It just masks our CO2 smell is what it seems to do so they don't go all over the place. I also heard coffee grounds work well. You tried the coffee ground thing? People take coffee grounds and they just, they put them in some foil and they burn them and then they swear mosquitoes aren't biting them. I don't know. Well, anyways, we're going to set up this ortho thing and then we'll do a bunch of other stuff and then I'll report back at the end of the video if I've noticed any difference at all. It says it takes about nine days and I have two weeks until this video comes out. So we're starting off with trying out this ortho thingy. So I'll show you in just a minute after I'm done watering. And then I don't know, yard work and some other things will be happening. I'm not sure what. I hadn't really planned ahead at all. It was just mostly that I'm going to do this. It's supposed to be very hot this week so I'm not going to do much this week but we'll probably pick up in a week and start maybe doing some planting. I have some stuff I'd like to get in the ground. Here's the ortho kit. It's a ortho home defense mosquito kill and prevent. I've heard a lot of people say this is pretty good. It has a lid up here that you can dial these numbers around so you can see what month. This is going to be for September. Right there. It has this floater piece. Let me set you up on the tripod here. Make life a little bit easier for myself. This is the floater piece. So there's a ring that goes on there. I'm supposed to take this to a spot that's in the shade where it won't be accessible to animals or children. I don't know where that's going to be in my yard. There are animals everywhere. Not children. Not often. But it just needs to be in the shade. Full day shade. Then you fill it with water and then there's a ring. I don't know. I'll show you. I'll say the most challenging part with this may end up being just finding the right spot for it because really you usually want these away from where you're hanging out because they're going to draw in the mosquitoes. That's the way my yard's set up. That's tricky to do. I'm thinking. Oh! Bye camera. My goodness. Oh, we're good. Still rolling. I think the microphone's even still attached. Okay. Well, hey. My tripod just broke. Good to know. Anyways, as I was saying, with my yard set up there aren't a lot of spots where things are far from where anybody sits because people are always sitting in spots that are near everything. Does that make sense? No, probably not. I was actually thinking back here might be a good area like into this brush but it's actually probably a more open area. Over here. This would work. I just had a crab straddle me by a cicada. Like right in here. I would think you want it to be kind of opened though. Wouldn't you? To help draw them in. I can't put it back on the lawn. That won't work. I'm going to screw it right now. It's just going to go right here. Nobody ever hangs out over here and it's in the shade. You know, I think this is going to be a good spot. I don't know if you guys can see it but I am actually being swarmed by mosquitoes over here so they seem to like it. There's a drain in the ground over here. You know, that's kind of mosquito heaven. There's a line on here. There's mosquitoes on my arm right now. It says max fill. Look at that. Get off of me please. I'm going to keep it just below that line and get that up. Yeah, that's good. Right there. That'll do. Direction say to shake this thing up which I had already done a little bit of that. I wish I had a tripod right now. Look at that. There's the contents. That's what's inside here. Shake the package before use. Tear at the notches. Careful not to spill any packaged contents. Remove the band. Remove the band? There's a powder. What band? What are you talking about? I need to just get this opened up first. Is there anything in that? I'm going to pour it and make sure. Okay, there's powder. I assume we want the powder inside of there so I'm glad I did that over the top of this. Shake the real package before use. Open the real package. Remove the band from refill package. Please note there is a powder and tablet on the inside of the refill package that will be needed at a later step. Take care not to spill the remaining powder. How would you not spill that? I don't understand. There's the tablets. How would you get this out without spilling that powder everywhere? Shouldn't that powder be packaged up separately? It's just in there loose. I still don't know what they mean when they say remove band. What band? Are they talking about this piece right here on the top of the pack? Well, obviously you have to remove that. I need to shut up and get this done. I'm being eaten alive right now. So it looks like this piece, you snap it on to here. Huh. Okay, that was very easy. Do it with the tab up so you can pick it up. Pour remaining powder and tablets inside the refill package into the water. And dispose of the empty packaging. Why couldn't I just put that all in there to begin with? Why did that have to wait until I had done... Whatever. Place the floater with attached band inside the station by gently placing it over the center columns flat onto the top of the water. It says to not let this part get wet. So I probably should have been more gentle there. Do not allow refill band to get wet as water will reduce the powder transfer to mosquitoes. Huh? So this is coated in some kind of powder, I assume, that we also want in the water. Okay, place lid on the center columns. Where'd the lid go? Here it is. Lid goes over these center columns right here. Does that snap into place or it just goes right on there? It says click. See that right there? Is that word? Click? I'm not getting a click. It's not clicking at all. I'm pushing down pretty hard. How could I be doing this wrong? I don't know. I messed with this for a while. I think the click is a lie. There's no click. Nothing is clicking. Why would it? That doesn't make sense. I think maybe if there were more tension right there, but this is... That's pretty loose. This guy right here, you dial it to the month. We're on month nine. And then that goes right there. That kind of clicks. Maybe that's what they meant. And then we'll paste the station cap. Stationary base. Okay. Got that. Every month replace the refill band. Need to make sure this has enough water in it. And, um, yeah. Well, hopefully it works because it's not a lot of fun being outside right now. We'll report back on this at the very end of the video. Probably won't be able to notice the difference, but I would like to be able to open it. At least he did. There's gonna be dead mosquitoes in there? I hope so. Nice place. T's Farm in Creamcourt. Check them out. They have a little bit of fall stuff. Price is really good. Those are 12 bucks a pound. They're huge. Okay. We're gonna go get more stuff now. Did you like those cabbages? Those are some nice cabbages. Cabbage. Just the cabbages. I said cabbages. And some kale. It was really one cabbage and then four kale. Beautiful big plants, right? I had to get them. I'm not ready for the fall stuff quite yet, but the deal was just too good. I don't usually find them that big for that kind of price. Between like 18 and 25 bucks when they get that big. Like 10 bucks a pop. I had to do it. I love those big giant cabbages. I don't remember what they're called. But they're not as hearty, right? The kales. Sometimes they'll make it through the entire winter. Not often, but it happens sometimes. So it was four of the kales and one of the cabbages. This is what I need to be doing right now. I don't want to. I'm having motivation issues today. It's just so nice out. It's like 87 degrees. Moderate humidity. There's a breeze because it's supposed to start storming and bring in a cold front. It's just gonna feel just absolutely dreadful. It's gonna be like 71 degrees tomorrow or something like that. Maybe 78. I don't know. It's gonna feel really cold because Labor Day, which was just a couple days ago, had everybody over, did a pool party and everything. It was, I don't know, 85, 88. It was a gorgeous day, but the pool felt like it was freezing because... Hold on, fighter jet. Did we miss it? I don't know where it is. Sometimes we get a lot of air traffic from the jets flying between Sky Air Force Base and back over towards this little private airport. Anyways, yeah, it was a gorgeous day, but everybody's gotten so used to it being so hot that it felt like it was freezing more so when you got out of the pool. And the pool was okay. It was nice. It was a great day. Did everybody have a good Labor Day? What'd you do? Did you grill? Watch fireworks? That's not really a Labor Day thing. It should be if you wanted it to be. Maybe people do that where you live. Hopefully had the day off, but I know a lot of us don't get that privilege. This is what I need to be doing. As I started out saying and I just, you know, it's just so nice out. I'm just kind of in a mood to do a whole lot of nothing. But there are some things need to be done. Some very easy and simple things need to be done. This right here, if you couldn't tell, some of you don't actually look. You just listen. This is Stump Out Stump and Vine Killer. Made by Bonite. It has a little brush inside the bottle and you brush it on top of where you cut the plants and it's supposed to help kill them back. I usually have good luck with it. For the control of woody plants, vines, and broadleaf weeds around homes, cabins, fences, walkways, and other non-crop areas. That's specific. Cabins. Very specific. I'm surprised they didn't also include sheds. Why didn't they include sheds? We're talking about cabins. Why not sheds? 3D calls. Here you go, Turbo. It's hard to throw the ball from here because you got to watch the umbrella. Are you not going to get... As soon as I pick up the camera, go get your ball. OK, well, you don't have to. It was fun for me to throw it. So what we have here is a long list of the things that it works on. There you go. Screenshot if you want to. Goes on to another page. I'll hold it still. There you go. Take a screenshot. Imagine it works on all kinds of things. And then it's basically telling you don't use it on windy days. Make sure the area dries. Don't reuse your tools for other things, especially if you don't use them for cooking. You know, safety stuff. It's all in there. Not safe for edibles. That kind of thing. So keep it away from any edibles you might be using because, you know, it could drift over and that could be bad. You don't want to eat this. We're just using this for vines. I'm not worried about the spray application on here. So it just says stump. We're using on stumps today. Apply this product undiluted to kill stumps, prevent sprouting. Use applicator that's in the top to completely cover the freshly cut surface. That's the thing I have to keep in mind here is that my surfaces are not freshly cut. I actually cut out some trees about two weeks ago, but I ran out of this stuff. I just kept forgetting to buy it. I just realized that I have a water pistol. This isn't real. This is a toy. That's not real. Everything's fine because it's for water. Yeah, it's not. It's not gonna hurt anything. It's just for water. Yeah, so that's what we're doing here. See if I can find a tripod that's tall enough to use over there and get this done. Okay, I think I'm gonna need the hoary hoary knife. I need to make some fresh cuts for this to work, right? That's what logic would tell me anyways. Oh, I got this heliconia put back in its pot. There's some problems with the drainage on it. Take a pot and put a great big hole in there. Now it's straight in better. So these are my stumps. See my stumps? Yeah, there it is. Stumps. So this was a redbud tree. They're native and they're growing absolutely everywhere. They're just in the spots where you can't hammer on here. You're supposed to do this on fresh cut wood, which this is not. So I'm gonna come in here and rough this up. Making lots and lots and lots of little indentations on here. Want to get into the green. I really should probably get the saw. We're just gonna see if that works. And then just, you know, brush the stuff on. I poured a little bit onto the top. So it doesn't really stick to the brush very well. Oh, that's it. I made a lot of holes there. Hopefully that'll do the trick. The redbuds aren't too bad about re-sprouting. Sometimes they'll sucker a bunch. I'm more concerned as I have this alder back here. See all that? That's what I really need to dig into. Those are just relentless. Box alders need to be controlled. This isn't a box alder. It's just an alder. But they're very hard to get rid of. So I need to come in here. Like I said, really should do this when it's fresh. But I was out and I didn't realize it. I'm gonna get in there to all the stumps. Really try and get in there. I'm just using a serrated end this time because I noticed that that just seems to be working a lot better. Trying to make sure I'm getting down into some green wood on here. This is a plant where if you don't do this, it will come back. 100% will come back. They don't give a crap. Do you see how it just doesn't really come out all that well? So sometimes you need to pour it. But since I'm able to kind of focus this into these scars right here that I made, I think that that should be pretty good. Try and do this on green wood though. Don't be like me. Don't wait a week to get it done. The sooner you do it, the better. And it takes like six weeks. I don't really know if it's going to work. We'll just have to sit back and hope that that did something. Okay, well now I'm up here. That's fun. Quartz and hoses everywhere. Yeah, got this big space to work with now. That's fun. I would like to put something evergreen in here. But I haven't fully decided on what yet. But the gap must be filled. I don't like being able to see all that in the neighbor's yard. We'll come back and talk about this. I need to wash my hands. Whatever that was, something got in my hand. Hey, pumpkin. You want to say hi? How you doing? You're such a sweet pumpkin. Such a nice pumpkin. Yes, you are. Oh, that's one of Owen's eggs. My nephew left one of his Easter eggs over here. He loves to play with these things. Constantly playing with the Easter eggs. He used to. He likes to pop them open and then he can't come back to get it. He hands it to me and he says, Uncle, and I put it back together. So good to know that I'm attributing something useful to this world. Contributing something useful to this world. Look, the Vanderbilt. Isn't that a pretty flower? Maybe he can actually see it. There we go. Really, really gorgeous orchid. Love that one. Yeah, this vine killer. Vine and stump killer works really, really well on vines. Very well. It's what I've been using to try and eradicate this Clematis from my yard. The autumn Clematis. Never plant that. I didn't plant it. It's an invasive around here. Taken over. Really pretty, but obnoxious. So in this spot, options. I actually back it up so you can see the gap from further away. Yeah, it's a little bit better. You can kind of see the gap better now. Yeah, from further back. So remember those palm trees were only there for part of the year. You have this big open space. A lot of what's over here is deciduous. There is a magnolia, but I planted it as a baby. It doesn't have much size on it. I think it was like 18 inches tall when I planted it, maybe. And then we had a bad winter that knocked it down to the ground. This is all the height that that has on it. Oh, look, vines. That is a milkweed vine, which is a different thing that I contend with out here. But it's native. So sometimes I'll let a few of them go and do their thing every year. Anyways, there's only that evergreen. There's a Manhattan euonymus up there. That's a shrub. And then the, what is it? Feather falls carrots. But that's not what it is because it's a juniper. I didn't leave the tag on it. Feather. It's something feather juniper. Emerald feather. It's emerald feather. Found the tag. Put that back in there. I don't want to lose that. That's what I have growing back there behind the little lime plunge hydrangeas, which I may end up removing. Torn on it. It took him several years to really start to do anything. But it's just, it's not one of my favorite of the dwarf panicle hydrangeas. I really, I think like the bobos a lot better. And the bobos don't get much bigger than these. I don't remember what the size is on this, but it's not that small. Three to five foot spacing. This, there's a lot of mud on here. It's hard to read this. So let's say three to five feet tall and white. Yeah, I think bobo is a little bit smaller than that even. So need more evergreen, but needs to be narrow evergreen. And then some new hydrangeas. And I seem to put some hardy hibiscus up here. I love a blue spruce or just, you know, a blue juniper. Even there's some of my favorite plants. I don't have anywhere in my yard that gets enough sun except for really right here. Judging from how this juniper has been doing and the magnolia, I'd say there's enough sun right here. So some sort of columnar dwarf blue spruce. You know, there are some of the piceas that stay, you know, more like three to five feet wide and they go like 15 feet high. That might be good here. Those things are always complicated once they start because the drainage situation. See right there, that's a drain. So that drain right there is one of two up here on this hill. All the water from their yard comes down here into this drain, that drain, and then most of it actually goes over here to the hill and just floods that side of the yard. But a lot of it does still make it over here. So I can't dig in that spot. I hadn't taken that into account. In my head when I've been thinking about this, I was like, oh, I got a lot of space here. But that's a lot closer to this wall than I thought. Which means the options would be to remove emerald feather. So I have a space that's bigger here for that blue spruce. Or just do what I usually do and say screw it, we'll squeeze everything together and it'll all work out. It always does. I would have to even be able to source one of these blue spruces though. Those columnar blue spruces, I just don't see them all that often. And when I do, they're pretty freaking expensive. So having a big spot to plant it, not that big of a deal. This ground up here is very, very difficult to dig in. It's very hard clay and rock. Lots and lots and lots and lots of rock. So digging a, you know, big hole for a larger tree, that's not even an option anyways. So I don't know, that might be something we could do here. I know in the foreground, if there's going to be room for a forum, which there really, really isn't going to be room. But we'll talk about it anyway, so it's fun to do. I have the two hydrangeas right here, which like I said, probably gonna swap these out with bobos. Maybe not this year, but eventually. And then I have a hardy hibiscus, watermelon ruffles. I would like to get that planted over here. I brought my shovel over because I was thinking I might. Go ahead and just do that right now. I would have to run drip to it, which isn't a big deal. I have a drip line right here that runs through here, so I'd have to put drip on it. It'd be easy to do. This area up here is really dry, which I think is why that juniper is doing so well there. I could always try a tailored juniper, because I love tailored junipers. I think it looks kind of awkward to just have one tailored juniper. Usually you only want to have a few of them. I don't have room up there for a few, unless we're to pull everything out, which I don't want to do that. But that might work. It's not that blue color. They do have much more of a dried up tone to their foliage, but I think that it would do well there, because it's really dry. I wouldn't have to run irrigation to it. I'll have to run irrigation to the hibiscus. That's not a big deal, though. What's nice about drip is you can mingle things, you know, to an extent. I think juniper would be fine, as long as it's a couple feet away from the hibiscus. It has the drip running to it. I'm only saying this, uh, maybe you don't know what I'm talking about. Junipers, where I live, they need to be more on the dry side. They rot very easily when you have humid, hot summers and lots of moisture. They just do better if they're in a spot that drains really, really well, and they're not just saturated at all times. So, yeah, that could be fun. Taylor junipers, they get big and round and get really tall, nice and narrow. Just wish they were darker. Pretty cheap and easy to get a hold of, relatively speaking, you know. I have a sting arm over here. It's kind of the same difference. The sting gets like 18 to 24 inches wide, I believe. It's just, it's just a beanpole. Maybe it's just 18 inches even. I mean, it's just really narrow. I just put one sting up there. It'll take years until it provides any privacy, though. Now, back over here to the kales and the cabbages. This is the cabbage I was talking about. So pretty. Isn't that just a gorgeous plant? These are the hibiscus watermelon ruffles. I had gotten to with the intent of putting one up there on the hill, probably trying to squeeze one in over here, but we have to wait until some things die back. I'm gonna reach in here and grab one of these guys so we can take it over there. I also have a bobo. I intended on using that in a pot. Yeah, this isn't really the time for transplanting. In a few weeks it will be, but we're not quite there yet. I could do it. It doesn't stop me from transplanting stuff all summer long. When we're this close to having that nice fall weather, it'll be the better time to do it. May as well just wait. There is one problem with the hardy hibiscus. They're kind of ugly, aren't they? I'm just not a fan of their foliage, but the watermelon ruffles, let me pull the tag out here so you can get a look at the flower on it. I don't really know how good of a look you'll get, but if it's not very good, we can put up here on the screen for you. I've talked about this one a whole bunch. Oh, that's a nice picture. That's a great picture. See why it's called ruffles? Watermelon ruffles? Because the flower petals are all ruffly. They need lots of sun. It says they're full sun, full sun. I'm like, no, this isn't a part shade situation. They like a lot of sun. Gorgeous flowers on this one. Hardy zones five and up. I'm just gonna pull these off in zone four even. I'm thinking, hold on, I'm recalibrating. That's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna work while I think here so I can explain some of the issues I'm dealing with. I don't know why that zoomed in, but that worked out. It's maybe a leaf touched something. Need to get some of these rocks out from in here. Probably didn't even need to get that out. I don't think I needed that at all. These are nice cobbles. These are from a pond that I used to have years ago. I had all these cobbles around the waterfall and then when the pond had to go, I went ahead and I brought them up here. I'm not really sure why they're extending all the way out here though the drain's back there. The whole point was to have these piled up around that drain. But that's really just not necessary anymore. Lots of spiders on these things too. There we go. These are huge. Really nice big rocks. It's kind of a waste to have these hidden back here in the dirt anyways. I can do something much nicer with these. If they weren't sitting so close to where I just put that stump killer. I wonder how these would do in the fish tank. I have a bunch of hill stream loaches that would love to flutter around on top of these guys. Yeah, look at that. That's a nice rock. Looks like there's some more over here. It's one of those things where when I dig up here, I just find so many cobbles. I don't remember putting them up here. I remember putting the ones back there. I remember putting some in the very front right here. This frontal area that you can't, you can't see it. But down here in the front, I remember putting a whole bunch right there. But I just don't know how they ended up right here. It's probably just one of those things where over the years they were getting tossed around from work that's going on up there I suppose. I don't know. Oh, this is a big one that's really in there. I might have to use the big shovel for that one. I don't know. We just twist it and turn it. There we go. All right, got some more rocks to play with. That's gonna make it a lot easier to dig up here now. Here's the issue. We're gonna say this goes four to five feet. I don't remember what the tag says. That's generally standard for these newer hybrids. It's usually four to five feet. Four and a half feet by four and a half feet. Yeah, cool. So that's not gonna be able to go right up here in the front. I don't really want it up here in the front. This is a mid plant. Which means that that needs to go right where the evergreen would go. And that's not gonna work. Worst plant you can put some place for screening. I'm just absolute garbage. Because these don't come up for the spring summer until where I live. Usually like late May. This year is different. For some reason they came up in early to mid-April. Very unusual. It's had a really warm spring. But usually it's not until May. Usually late May. And they don't usually have any size on them really until mid-June. So it would be until mid-June if there's nothing right here. I've had people ask me in the past why I don't transplant these giant red cannas that I had back here up against the back of the house. Why I don't dig those up and plant them back here. It's because I don't want to wait, you know, until June or July for them to be big enough to provide some privacy right here, you know? That just doesn't really make sense. I don't know why I would do that, right? It would look cool. So that's a good reason. But for privacy, nah. You would want shrubs if you're going to use something deciduous. Something that flushes out early in the year. Hibiscus tend to flush out early in the year. This is not hibiscus. Neither is that. I meant to say hydrangea. Hydrangea flush out nice and early. Hibiscus do not. Whether it's the machetos type, which is what this is. Or the syriacus. The, you know, Rose of Sharon's. They take forever to flush out. But these guys, they flush out nice and early. And they come in alternate sizes. So hydrangea. Sure, that'd be great. But why not just go evergreen? Evergreen makes a lot more sense, doesn't it? But it's gonna have to be small. So maybe I don't put this here. I really want it over here though. I think maybe I just do it anyways, right? We just put up towards the front. Who cares? I think that might be fun to be able to walk through here and just have a wall of giant ruffly flowers right in your face. And if it's tucked back here, you're not really gonna be able to see it that well from around the yard either. So I can bring it up and plant it right around... Let's say... I'll come over this direction. Come from there. And then I would have that gap right there. Because this guy needs a little bit of room to grow. This one doesn't get all that wide. So I really could like right about here. I could put that maybe a little bit further back. Right there. Yeah, I might be able to make that work. I can't plant anything right in here anyways, because this is drainage. There's French drains and pipes and all kinds of stuff right there. Might even be right there. That's kind of not the best I could probably do with that. That might look nice. I would normally wait in a narrow bed like this to plant until... You want to go biggest to smallest and generally work your way from the back to the front. But I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get an evergreen for this spot this year. So, you know, screw it. Yeah, I think that might work. That may work. And also you can prune these just fine. You know, just cut off whatever you don't want on them. That's not a big deal. So we'd have evergreen, hibiscus, evergreen. Probably leave the space open. So I'd like for this bayberry to go ahead and fill the space back out. Yeah, let me just keep brainstorming narrow evergreens to put right here. My only issue is doing another juniper is that there's a juniper right there. And I really would be nice to have more diversity with the evergreens out here. I have the spruce and then I have the emerald green giant over there. And then this guy. So, you know, getting a blue spruce, a really narrow one right in here. I think that would just be awesome. Be so pretty during the wintertime. But I got to do a lot of research and then be able to source it. There are all kinds of evergreens and all different shapes and sizes that you can find online. You can find information about online. So if you go onto like Isley's website, tons of stuff to look at. But being able to actually get the plant, that's a different story. That took freaking forever. About an hour, something like that. You just, it's like you're excavating a dinosaur, right? Little by little, pebble at a time. Hate digging up here. Got it done though. Which is awesome. I didn't think the hole was gonna be big enough. But I jumped down because I was like, this is, this has got to do. And it might maybe be up just a smidge, but I don't think it is. Better up a little than down too far. I also, one of the reasons it took so long is because I came up here and I removed the hydrangeas because I just, I don't like them. If you don't like it, don't keep it. Little lime punch. Gave them a shot. Not a fan. At least not in this spot. Doesn't work for me. These are water lubbers. And this soil up here drains incredibly fast because all that gravel. This is, you know, all drainage up here. It's not the most ideal spot for one of these Machotos types of hibiscus. People say hydrangea because we've been going back and forth, been talking about the two. But like I said, I can just run a drip head right to it. It'll have its own drip emitter and that'll solve that problem. And then I want to make sure I'm adding in organics to the planting hole. Just using land and sea compost. That's what I have. I'm going to be putting a whole bunch of that in there because these hardy hibiscus, they do like things. Very, very, very organically rich. They are completely fine with having a very moist, that's what I was trying to say, a very moist soil. And you should be mixing this in with your native soil, not just backfilling the hole with it. But it's fine. It's going to drain swell. This will all blend together height wise. Yeah, I think that's pretty good. Awesome. I did almost just completely screw it when I finished up here because I was like, I don't want to do this ever again. It's getting pretty dramatic here. It wasn't that bad. But do I want to try and do that a foot back from that with another plant? I don't know. Well, I'm going to have to. I don't want this big open gap here. These things take forever to come up during the year. Do you think that that's going to look pretty? I know I have this space open back up for probably bobo hydrangeas. They stay a lot smaller. Bobos? The tag says 0.76 meters to 0.9 meters. I don't really know what that means. I know it means that not quite three feet by three feet. Now, I've seen bobos pushing four and a half feet, so I don't know about that size descriptions are given. But the point is, bobos stay smaller. And I like bobos. Let me go show you a bobo. Turns down to a drip, just a little, a little trickle. Like that. Set that right there. I really want to make sure that this is very well saturated. That water is going to wick away from the root ball. There we go. Bobos. This is a bobo. This one has a lot of heat stress from the summertime. But, you know, got it in clearance, so I can expect that. Not a big deal. They'll look great next year. Here's a picture. Beautiful, right? Especially if it were to focus. It doesn't want to focus. Well, there's the flowers right there. They don't need to look at the picture. Let's look at the flower. Okay. Didn't realize I had my focus locked. So hopefully you could see everything that was going on over there. Or any of it. Bobos tend to bloom across the entire plant. So you end up having a pretty ball of flowers. Pufferfish is kind of the same. That's why I like bobos. Because you just, you get flowers from top to bottom. It's very even. They stay smaller. These are hardy three through eight. That's generally the case with paniculata. Minus 40, three through eight. Yeah. And there's the size right there. There you go. Yeah. So I'm gonna say four by four. Even though that's not what that size would indicate. Usually when I see them, they're about four by four. For older, more established ones. This is a spot where if there's going to be a hydrangea here, we're going to want that to have flowers from top to bottom. Or they need to be something that you can limb up and plant underneath. It's a very narrow area to work with right here. There are some ground cover type hydrangeas that'll be out next year and more commonly available. I'm just not really all interested in doing those up here. I just, I'm a big fan of the Bobo and the Spring Sizzle. Which I don't, well I have a Spring Sizzle that looks like crap. It was sent to me in July and the whole thing's just bad looking. So if I were to do Spring Sizzle, I'd order new ones. But they have a really nice stiff stem on them. Thick stem. They hold upright very, very well when you have bad weather. And they're really good at holding their red in hot climates. So if you live in a warmer climate like I do then the Spring Sizzle is a great option. Spring Sizzle does get bigger though. So it's going to be kind of like the Little Lime Punches where they'll be like right up here. Not a big deal. Just cut them down as far as you want to. They bloom on new growth and just let them have whatever space you want them to have. Just have to prune them more. The Bobos, I'd probably plant them just to let them go do their thing. I will try and re-home this one. Maybe. I don't know. It's just, it's never been a great plant. These are the little Quick Fires, right? I really like the Quick Fire Fabs. They're awesome. They bloom nice and early during the year. And then I love the Strawberry Vanilla or Vanilla Strawberry. I don't really remember which one it is. But you know, those are great. Mine scorch a lot during the heat though. It's unfortunate. Berry White. That's a beautiful one. I'm not crazy about the Limelights. I know that they're really popular. Maybe, I don't know. I just don't really like the green on them for some reason. I like green flowers but not in that hydrangea. Quick Fire, Quick Fire Fab. And then the Firelight. Firelight's one of my favorites. Firelight is, for me and my garden, the first one of the year to put up leaves or just push out any foliage at all. And then the first one to flower. Bobo's supposed to be one that blooms really early and so does Spring Sizzle. So I think either one of those would be good options for that hill area up there. Okay. Took a moment to clear my head. The blue is first thing doing that Festigiate type. That does sound nice. But I also remembered I need to double check the size of that Emerald Feathers Juniper up there. They go 8 to 12 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide. So I don't think I need another Evergreen up there. Oh, the breeze is kicking up. Feeling nice. Might be bad for the audio but it feels nice. Yeah, that's only about a foot and a half wide right now. But that goes out right there. I think that's really gonna be perfect as an Evergreen for this spot. So right around here, there'll be a gap. But this is gonna fill out. Especially now all the stuff's been pruned out of the middle right here. So what I should probably do then is go bobo, bobo. And then I could do a Spring Sizzle right here. Which will be taller. About the height of this fence. That'll fill that area. And it'll be deciduous. So I'll be able to see through there during the wintertime. But that's okay. This is not deciduous. So I want to make sure that Spring Sizzle is set back. I mean one just because it's gonna be taller than everything. But also because, you know, I don't want to put taller plants in front of the shorter plants. That didn't make any sense. And then, you know, maybe next year and for the next few years, while it's bugging me having the space open, I can go ahead and pop the Kianas up there. Something like that. Do things that will just, you know, grow quickly and fill that space in. But it'll take a few years. If I were to pop a Spring Sizzle in right around there. So a couple feet back from this hibiscus right there. It's gonna take it, you know, three to five years to fill in that gap right there. And during that time, this is also going to go up several more feet and come out a few more feet also. And I want something in this spot that the sun will come through during the springtime. That's something that I realize is important for this hibiscus right here. Keep on saying hydrangea. Hibiscus. Because the ground needs to warm up to wake these up at a dormancy. So if I have an evergreen planted directly behind it, and this right here, I could always limb this up just on the bottom part. Which I will probably do. I like to limb things up so I can plant stuff underneath them. If I have an evergreen right there, that sun's not going to make it through as much to warm this space up. But in the morning and then in the afternoon, you know, whenever it's by the oak tree, it'll be shaded. And then, well, right now it's about noon. So it's just now coming out from around the oak tree. And it's even more intense during the summertime. So I think there'll be plenty of sun right here for this. But I just don't know if that would be the case if I were to have an evergreen planted directly behind it. And then rolling back to that fastidious blue spruce thing, I think it'd still get pretty big. And digging a hole up there for it would just absolutely suck. You get a smaller one, that's fine. But then you got to wait an eternity for them to reach the right size. It'd be pretty to have something blue up there, which I could have done with a juniper. Could have done a blue arrow or skyrocket or something like that. But this is what I had, so it's what I planted. And I think that that's okay. I'm all right with that. I'm not going to dig this up and replace it with a blue juniper. I'm just not crazy about junipers enough for that. They make me very itchy. So I don't want a ton of junipers up here. I should have mentioned that when I was spitballing the idea of a tail or two, is that adding more junipers makes sense as far as just the soil up here goes. But as far as my sanity and my skin, not so much. They make me very itchy. My skin just like burns like fire for, you know, a day or two after they rub up against me. Which my leg is already kind of feeling it from this right here. I had a piece of cardboard in there, but some of it got through somehow. I guess I wasn't paying attention. So I don't know. I think it sounds like a plan. So I have one bobo, which I can put up here. I could actually... Could I just do one bobo? Just do one bobo hydrangea hibiscus and then a spring sizzle behind it? I don't know if I need to do two. They get more variety up here if I just do one bobo. The Manhattan euonymus eventually... It is already taller than the bobo, but eventually it'll get even taller. It is planted behind everything, but right now it's coming forward. I'm giving it time to just do its things. It had a really bad winter die off a few years ago. And then I'm gonna try and hedge it so it's just a green wall back here behind everything. Yeah, I don't know. It's fun thinking about these things. This would need to go right around here, I'm thinking. Instead of planting in either one of the holes that are already open, planting it right in between those. Yeah, that might be good. I just have a little ball of pretty white flowers right there. I'm not going to plant this right now because this is a spot that is very just like right in your face. So I want to have this well, well, well thought out. I don't want to just put it in the hole because I'm anxious to get this area planted. I want to make sure I'm doing exactly how I want to. I don't have a lot of planting spaces left where I can do things with sun plants either, so I want to really be sure this is what I want to do. You know what I mean? I'm sure it's upsetting to some people that I dug these up, but guys, they're just, they just didn't look good up there. I don't know. The Bobo may also be a total flop in that location, but I just, I kind of doubt it. Something tells me that it's going to do really well. The Bobos typically are just really strong, sturdy growing plants. I don't really have anything left that I like need to do right now, and I don't like making up chores for the channel. It's contrived and silly to do. I have a little palm that I need to replant. Are you okay? It's swiping at me. I don't like to walk past you. Here's another angle. I know we saw all this stuff right here, but just imagine that all that white from the ground up and that Bobo hydrangea and the beautiful reddish pink on those watermelon ruffle hibiscus right there, and then having a tall, really, really bold structure of a hydrangea behind it. It's a very unique hydrangea, so I think that it would look really nice back there. Color-wise, I think it would be really nice to have hydrangea, hibiscus, hydrangea. I know. There's so many hydrangeas back here. I just freaking love them. These flies are biting me. What the heck is that about? Oh, you just saw my nasty broken toenail. I'm so sorry. Dropped a boulder on it, and then two and a half months later, dropped a giant pot on it. So it started to heal or really grow out, and then broke it again. I was all worried. I was like, oh no, is this a fungus? And it's not. The doctor. I almost said the vet. The doctor was like, no, no, no. It's not a fungus. You're good. But I'm still treating it with like a topical twice a day because I just wouldn't. You have that kind of trauma to your nail. It's easier for fungus to start growing. That was a whole lot of stuff you didn't ask for. I'm sorry. Here's that palm tree I keep talking about. That area. I got this tree potted. It's a sable palm. Supposed to be pretty cold hardy. We will see. It's called Oregon Hybrid, which I think is a little bit of junk, but you know. I don't know. You've watched that video unboxing special sable palms or special cold hardy palms. I think that's what it was called. If you want to know more, if you would like to know more about it, I think it might be a scam plant. That area up there, I was walking past it trying to look at it from all the different angles and I was thinking something red could look good up there too. That might be a nice spot for maybe an elderberry of some kind. So maybe not doing the spring sizzle in the background, maybe doing an elderberry. They tend to flush out nice and early in the year, which is something I was telling y'all that is important to me. They put way too much soil in there. Oh, no. Look at that. That's perfect. There's a lot of color with those plants. The pollinators really enjoy them. I also really just love that spring sizzle and I wanted an excuse to plant one up there. Can't have them both. And y'all know me, I might try and have them both, but it's not a good idea because those elderberries take up a lot of space. Now there is an elderberry, I don't remember its name, that is more, it's kind of that fastidious growth that's more narrow. But I already have that juniper up there that has that very narrow growth on it. So I think that might end up just looking weird with too many of those narrow plants up there. You know what I mean? Like it's very, very, very contrived when you get to the point where all your plants are just skinny little totems. Sometimes it's best to try and vary your shapes. Everything looks better with some variety, doesn't it? There we go. That should be good for this plant for a good, I don't know, two years maybe? Actually, the way most sables grow, probably one year, but I don't know. I think that that one might be a slow grower. Yeah, so, I don't know, maybe a black-laced elderberry up there. There's a lot of green going on up there. Getting some of that red would look really nice with that hot water out of the hose. I usually do in the pool. I've only had the hose off for a moment, so I wouldn't think the water would already be this hot. I don't know. What do you think? Comment down below, let me know. I really think having that color contrast is the right move for overall appearances, but I'm not going to be able to have my beautiful spring sizzle. They say you can't have your cake and eat it too, and that's true unless you're really dedicated to pruning. I could make it all work up there. I just have to stay on top of pruning. I don't know about the elderberries with the pruning. I haven't planted a ton of those before. Usually when they get planted, just kind of wave them and let them do their thing, but the panicle hydrangeas, I mean, you can make those fit most spots, and they limb up really, really well. The right ones. I mean, I wouldn't limb up a bobo too terribly much because it's already a dwarf, but, you know, the spring sizzle, if it gets about eight feet tall, limb up the bottom third of that. Keep things nice and open, but that doesn't do any good for the elderberry, so I don't know. Never mind all that nonsense. Meant nothing. Even some echinacea. I just, you know, there are lots of plants I'd love to grow, but I don't have the sun point. Wait, look, this heliopsis. Lovely, right? Can't grow them in the yard, though. Way too much water and shade, so those things have to keep in pots, but up there, things get morning sun, they get a little break for a couple of hours, then they get more intense sun later on in the day, but you see what I'm saying? Some red up there would be really, really pretty, but we'd get that red from the flowers on that spring sizzle, though, so there's that. And the stems on the spring sizzle, they're thick and they have a reddish tone to them. That might work. And the black lace elderberry, it has a very, very similar foliage to the hibiscus right here, too, so that's something to keep in mind. Not that there's a stark contrast between the hydrangeas and the hibiscus, you know, it's just green versus that one's more of a reddish tone. A reddish hue to the foliage on the watermelon ruffles hibiscus. Now, are the flowers going to clash between the watermelon ruffles and the spring sizzle? I hadn't even thought about that. I think they kind of would. Well, the thing is that they're not going to turn red until mid to late September around here, so up until that point, it's going to be red to a white, to a whitish blush color on the flowers. Really, that's just going to make this stand out even more. If I put a black lace elderberry back there, this is going to disappear, but the flowers will stand out more. See, these are all the fun things we get to think about when it comes to gardening. There are people who get annoyed with all the back and forth and the stream of consciousness, but I think it's useful to hear these things because these are things you have to think about when you're planting up a garden space. I disagree in this situation. When I'm planning out a garden, people say you're overthinking it. No, no, not overthinking it. You're appropriately thinking it. Appropriately think the situation, plan it out so you don't end up pulling out your hydrangeas just wasting all the time you put into having them in that spot. That's what I was trying to say. The more the breeze kicks up, the more my nose and my throat are starting to itch. They're blowing something nasty around. By they, I mean the wind. That's what I'm trying to say here. Black lace elderberry would still be really pretty, and it's only going to clash when there aren't flowers on the hibiscus right there. Black lace elderberry can also take a little bit less light, so I could pivot back further, closer to that fence right there. I'd do black lace elderberry and still do that. My pillow would do the thing. My pillow would have her cake and eat it too. Or egg whites and avocados. Let's not do carbs, right? We can make better choices than that. Okay, I think we've exhausted that topic. You get it. Gonna be planting some things out there. Gonna do some plant shopping. Gonna get that spring sizzle. See if we can find a black lace elderberry. I should have grabbed that one a few weeks ago where it was. I think it was the video prior to this one. No, yes, maybe. Pretty sure it was prior to this one, and they had them on clearance. I didn't get it. I should have gotten it. All right, final verdict on the mosquitoes. It has been almost two weeks. And I said to give it, I think they said seven to nine days. See if it would do anything. Now, I have seen mosquitoes flying into this. Oh, it's got a lot of water in it. What's going on here? I see dead mosquitoes. Not a lot. And I see mosquitoes flying right around it. I don't see any larvae, which is good. I'm probably not supposed to let this get very wet, but I don't know. That was somewhat out of my control. I, okay, come over here. There's a moth and a couple mosquitoes. There's a few over here in the center. Uh, yeah, I'm not really seeing. Oh, oh, and look at that. Can you all see it? I can see it. You see the white stuff wiggling around in there? I don't even think those are mosquito larvae. I don't know what the heck are those things. I hope you can see them. Can you guys see what I'm looking at? You see that little guy? Going around in there. They almost look like some kind of crazy fast moving planaria. That's not what they are. Those aren't mosquito larvae. Mosquito larvae typically flick around in the water columns. I don't know what's going on down there. And again, I don't know if you can even see it because I can barely even see my screen because of the sun. Well, so this is harboring some kind of insect. Larvae of some kind down in here. Not sure what it is. They're kind of cool looking. So I don't know. Unless those little squiggly guys are some sort of nymph form of mosquito larvae, which I don't think that that's the case, then maybe this is working because I don't see any mosquito larvae hopping around here. And I guarantee you that if I had set one of these up without the powder, there would probably be mosquito larvae in it. I just I don't know what those little guys are. I wish I could get a better shot of them for you because like I said, they're kind of cool looking. Well, I don't want to spend too much more time on that because I don't know if you can see what I've been able to see here. That made no sense at all. Don't know if you can see them. I won't know until I get this up onto my computer to edit it. Well, there's a few mosquitoes in there. No mosquito larvae. So what's the success for there not being mosquito larvae in there? I'm currently still surrounded by mosquitoes. So and I haven't noticed any difference in mosquito bites or anything in the last couple of weeks. They're still everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. So I'm just I don't know. I've just been using the spray on my legs. Well, I don't know. I can't really say much about it. Other than I think they might be laying eggs in there and they aren't living unless those little white things are some form of mosquito larvae that I'm not familiar with. I don't think they are, though. What's this say on my window? Multi window close. Did I just lose my camera? No, we're still filming. That was weird. It's had a pop up on my screen that I've never seen before. I don't know what I meant. Well, I consulted the Google and all I learned was that those probably weren't on mosquito. A mosquito larvae typically you find at the surface of water and flicking around inside the water column, not normally crawling around. But I was like, hey, maybe there's a different instar, a different stage of growth before they get to that pupil stage and turn into a mosquito. But no, that's not what those are. I don't know what they are. Whatever they are, it's something that the mosquito stuff doesn't kill. I don't know. That's all I can tell you. I think I showed you. This is the spray I've been using. The packaging's changed. It's an old bottle, but works fairly well. It's safer to use. Hey, that's enough. I feel like I rambled. Like I said, I don't want to create projects I don't need to do right now. It feels forced and fake, so why do that? But we got to talk some things out. Got to do some nerding out with the plants. Let me know some of your thoughts and opinions of things that you do in really narrow spaces, maybe some spaces with some really tough soil. Favorite hydrangea varieties. Maybe you know of some, you know, really cool evergreens or something like that that could go up there. They would have to be very, very, very narrow and very tall, which already kind of has some going up there. So I may not want to do it, but I still find those things fascinating. Hey, I hope everybody's doing well. And a great day, great life. And it's going absolutely beautifully for you. Such a good boy, Turbo. And of course, as always, and most importantly, everybody, keep on growing. I think it's time to bring these back. They're done. They're looking ragged. Bye, bye.