thirty-eight changes

To make room for some new plants that I'd ordered, I removed quite a few from my main tank. Several weeks ago I took out all the anchored hornwort stems and thinned out the amount pegged as floaters.

I took out two of my full-grown crypt wendtii. Moved the main group of them back to be just in front of the prefilter- possible because I pulled out the majority of rotala indica in this tank, too. I'm tired of constantly cleaning thread algae out of it.

I left exactly what you see here- seven individual stems- and relocated them to the edge of the hygro thicket. My hygro has really thin leaves and sparse appearance if you look at how others grow it- but amusingly that makes it look as if it's related to the rotala. I thought if I put the rotala stems to one side of the hygro, it would look like the same plant just new baby growth. And I think it does. I plan to cut each stem back as it gets taller to keep that illusion- maintaining the rotala stems always just a bit shorter than the hygros.

Shifting my crypts kind of exposed some of the anubias nana 'petite'- I'm still not sure how they will do in here long-term, but they are definitely trying- sending out roots into the substrate (so hopefully soon I can cut off those glaring neon rubber bands that were anchoring them down on pebbles).

Another big change is that I uprooted all the watersprite. Not sure what to do with it. I don't want to get rid of it, but I kind of like how the tank looks with it out of main sight. It's floating for now...

I sent some of these plants to other planted tank members. I like packing up plants even more than I like packing up books to swap. I put my plants in repurposed plastic packaging lined with damp paper towels, tape the edges shut and insulate them in newspaper. So far they have all arrived to their destinations safely- at least, those that I have heard back from. (I didn't send the rotala indica to anyone- that got composted).

tenner changes

I took this quick overhead shot a few weeks ago,

after removing most of the rotalas from the tenner. They just don't look so good in there. I left a half dozen stems that don't seem quite as stunted as the rest...

So then it looked like this for a while.

Little buce 'emerald green' is putting out a new leaf.

The lost one that I tucked into a crevice on the log came loose, but is holding on by a few root hairs.

They look so nice in here, and so awful in my thirty-eight, that I wish I could bring all the other buces into this tank. But I'm not sure how to do that without introducing BBA into the tenner. I've tried wiping it off, killing it with bleach, hydrogen peroxide, and three-day-blackouts. The other tank just has too much light for these plants I think, especially since I removed some of the hornwort floaters...

In here they are lovely. I'm sure glad I decided to put a piece of each in both tanks- since they are failing in the main one...

Unrelated pic of anubias roots- I like seeing how they follow the form as move down across the driftwood, making squiggles.

I like fall-

but it is sad to see the garden, small and unkept as it was this year, go to bed for the season.

Last pot of nasturtiums died this week. I have cut down the last of the coleus and celosia, cut back the leggy aster, started the long fall task of shredding leaves and mulching the beds and shrubs. A few things are still green-

this gerbera daisy flowered one last time- but I didn't get out there to get a pic of the pink flower. I will have to plant more of those in the front, take advantage of their second round of blooms.

The fine greenery of Argyranthemum lasts longer than anything it seems, but it is so delicate hard to appreciate unless you are up close. Maybe if I plant more of these en masse next year...

Asiatic lilies kept their pretty foliage for quite a long time, too.

Of course, I still have some sad-looking mums in the front (must deadhead them soon), nandina on the side of the house now, the rhodies and summersweet in the back and the hellebores green in the yard. Sweet pea is a bright green tangle in its corner still, too.

new betta

Last week I got a new betta fish for my tenner.

He is a bright blue double tail plakat, with a dark face. He has gorgeous color, but not the best form. I noticed this when I first saw him in the shop a month ago- although he looked healthy, always alert with fins open- his caudal peduncle seemed blunt, too short.

In fact when I got him home and have a better look (not distorted by curved cup sides) it looks bent- like he has a deformity or old injury- on one side there is a bulge

and on the other side a corresponding dent- which you can see in this dim, blurry picture. Also the red color in his tail and anal fin is uneven, splotchy- although his pectorals are a bright, vibrant red. The scales on his sides look a bit spotted- lots of them have darker centers. He is not a young fish anymore- getting grey under the chin and my guess is he has already lived half his life in a little cup. I feel kinda bad for that- maybe that's why his tail is bent- from cramped conditions?

Personality is different from my last two bettas. He is not shy at all! Doesn't flee from the camera, comes up close to the glass when a person is near. Learned quickly that the lid sliding open meant food, and so far he has eaten everything I offer- betta flake, micropellets, fresh fruit flies, garlic-soaked bloodworms. He flared his beard a bit at the nerites but so far has left them alone. He picks at stuff on the hardscape- I hope he is eating some limpets. Keeps cramming himself into corners and getting stuck in the plants- so when I replant the stems that come loose I leave a little gap there.

My five-year-old looked close once when he was drifting just under the surface, his dorsal fin brushing the little roots of polyrhiza- "what's the fishy doing, mommy? It looks like he's blowing bubbles!" Yeah, he was making a bubble nest already. I think a happy fish.

I haven't decided on a name yet...

aponogeton flower

The oldest aponogeton crispus is flowering in my tank!

It started several weeks ago with this long, slender stalk that reaches out of the water.

Crazy to see something growing out of the tank.

I haven't seen this occur with my aponos for almost two years- it was a complete surprise.

I couldn't leave the lid of the tank open, and turns out the flower is supposed to stay emersed until it forms seed (several weeks)

So I gently moved it to trail the other direction, and come out at the gap where the filter outflow is.

you can see the stem going along the top here the other way, in this dim picture I took when the lights were going down.

I have brushed it with a feather a few times, not sure if it is sufficient to make it set seed. It would be really cool to get seed from it and grow some new ruffled swords.

borage!

This plant is still going strong in my garden.

It even has a few flowers- and what do you know- the bed with borage flowers is the only one where the squirrels don't dig. Hm.

Like the chard, it keeps on going after the other plants have given up for the year-

You can see here even during the reconstruction of my beds, most of it remained undisturbed. There on the right between the borage plants is the cantaloupe vine dying of something.

Have to love any plant whose individual leaves are bigger than my hand.

garden space

I made a new garden bed, and redid the oldest one.

First, outlined a new space against the stump that used to be a wild cherry tree (sad, but it was rotting. Heart of the base eaten up by something, leaves dying and branches coming down all the time). Layered it with cardboard to smother the grass. Then it got filled up with shredded leaves and garden soil and compost.

The longest, oldest garden bed I have is problematic because I can't reach the back of it, and am loathe to step on the soil. So I dug two short trenches to divide it into three beds with paths between them horizontal to the house wall. Picture of the work-in-progress with scrap wood laid out in pieces.

Overhead shot of all the garden- new stone-edged bed on the upper left, work-in-progress on the right. This old bed was also taller than it needed to be, so I removed the top rail of the makeshift wall, cut it into smaller pieces, and made new sides for the shorter paths. Shows how strong my first garden bed wall was, that it was difficult to take apart! In some places I gave up trying to undo nails or screws, and just used a saw to separate things. These new garden bed edges are even better made- at least, I had a better idea what I was doing. And someday I will redo the entire thing properly, with nice cedar planks. Someday.

I had a bag of sand sitting around and poured that over the little paths, before filling them in with mulch (from the old cherry tree- it actually smelled heavenly when they were shredding it up).

Seen from one side now my garden looks a bit quaint with the stone edges.

From the other side it is much tidier, with wooden corners.

In the middle there are still some rather unattractive, makeshift parts. But I hope it will be so full of lush plants, nobody will notice what the boundaries are made of. And I do want to find something that can grow tall and climb on that blank white wall- without its roots stealing from the garden plants...

end of season

Here's what was still growing end of last month, in my garden.

Peppers. I had already potted up a second bell pepper to bring into the house for winter, simply because it was growing straighter than the other one I kept in a pot on the deck all summer. That one was leaning crooked, looked funny.

Then I saw this plant making narrow, long peppers- which must be jalapeños or serranos, either one of which I'd love for cooking beans and lentils. So I potted up one of that, too. Now I have four peppers overwintering in the house, and that's the limit.

Some herbs came back with a flush of new green after the heat waned: thyme

oregano

here a sage plant next to a young pepper- which is now dead, but the sage still thrives.

In fact sage stays green and nice-looking so long into the coolness of fall, I'm starting to think I should use it in the landscape- I've got so much seed. And I love the blue hues in its foliage.

Parsley looks like nothing- because we have been eating it!

Now that many bugs have died from cold- no more attacks of whitefly, and the caterpillars that plagued my broccoli are all gone- the plants are growing new leaves

and some are even forming tiny heads.

And now that I don't really need its services anymore- driving away problematic bugs- the marigolds have taken off and produced tons of blooms.

Especially the red one, which is my least-favorite. Of course.

Without much care is the swiss chard. Soon I will eat it again.

I planted more chard from seed, they are just coming up. But the soil around them keeps getting loosened by digging rodents (grrrr) so I don't know if they will grow well.

And here's a tiny thing I'm happy to see is still green- the rosemary I started from a cutting. Go, rosemary! you can make it through the coming winter I will bury you in leaf mulch above your head.