Saltwater

So, had a few trials and tribulations but everything is doing pretty good. The yellow goby has fattened up and cured himself of ick last week, he is a strong little fellow, I of course almost had a heart attack when I saw those four little dots.

All the original hermit crabs and snails and emerald crabs died, I suspect it was a combination of starving to death along with an immature tank although there is no way to know for certain because my water was testing fine.

I started to add essential elements by kent and have upped the calcium significantly. I estimate I'm putting in about 1/4 of a teaspoon 4 times a week. I had to add more saltwater plants because the others melted, I suspect it was a lack of iodide, which the essential elements should be helping with.

I have since added another emerald crab, a feather duster (who fell into the rocks and disappeared, I have no way to know if he is still kicking), two scarlet reef crabs, a blue legged crab, and 2 snails, margarita and the little one with the snorkle.

All my red brown algea that was lightly covering everything has disappeared and the rocks are turning some amazing colors.

All in all, I don't know exactly what I'm doing, but I'm apparently doing something right.

Stepping Stone

I've been carrying around this stepping stone kit for ten years.....and finally, here it is.

Everything is pretty banged up from our travels, but still functional. I had some concrete stain I used to make it darker.
The glass pieces weren't originally this small.

After sitting for an hour. I had never done this before and had no idea how it would turnout.
And the finished product, I waited to long to scrub the stone, so there is to much concrete covering the glass, but it still looks pretty. I'll know next time to not use such small pieces and to pay more attention to how fast it sets.

Garden Additions for May

I wish I had taken pictures before I tore out the collard greens and trimmed the rosemary and lavender, they were absolutely huge.


Last year I failed miserably at cucumbers and in this bed, I've added more mulch and its holding water much better. The chives, huge onion and grapevine are left over from last year,everything else has been planted in the last month.

A friend gave me this grapevine last year, and I barely kept it alive by sticking it in here, Not optimum conditions I know, but we'll see how it does.

You can't tell, but this onion blossum is almost 4 inches across.

This is the rosemary and lavender after the trim, I got 12 huge bundles from them that are drying in the trailer. I planted two Clementius , one in dark purple and one in light purple and the trellis a couple of days ago, of course between the shock of moving and a heavy rainstorm,I didnt get a picture of the huge gorgeous blooms before the fell or were beaten off.

Backside of the same bed,looks like the lavender needs a trim again already.

I planted these onions in January and they have bulbed up nicely. Someone told me the trick this year of pulling the dirt away in order to get them to....wish I had known that last year, I would have had more then just green onions.

Last year this bed was full of elephant ears out in the open, I figured why not just go full sun and plant hostas, Needs some more, but it will have to wait till next month.

Still alive!

I added my first saltwater fish three days ago. The water is testing great and the little guys color is coming back nicely.

I can't say the same for the two bullseye mushrooms I added. They are melting because of the highlight....and there is nothing I can do.