End of the season

Today I pulled out all the vegetable plants except for some herbs, peppers and the sweet pea tomatoes.  The hot sunny days are here, announcing the end of the vegetable season.  This year once again I had successes and failures, but it won’t keep me from planning next year’s garden.

It's an addiction

Yesterday I visited my local Home Depot; I was looking for a sprinkler head to replace a broken one.  I come home with fifty dollars’ worth of plants (I need therapy)

I replace a dying pinwheel plant with a new hibiscus. 

I couldn’t help myself with this white Mexican petunia, I have pink and purple but not white.



 

How could I resist this neat begonia, on sale for $6.99?

 

More flowers blooming in the garden this week.

The heliconias are putting on a show.

 

Red Hibiscus

Cactus flowers

Cactus flowers

The end of the vegetable season, these are the last of my carrots.    

Hibiscus queen of the tropics

This yellow hibiscus is my latest addition to my collection of hibiscus plants in containers.   Hibiscus plants have been part of my garden since the beginning, is impossible to garden in the tropics and not have one of this beautiful plants.  Over the years I moved my hibiscus from planted on the ground to containers, I find they do best and last longer.

 

I found this mushroom looking thing in one of my garden beds, hard as a rock.

Blooming this week, my mango tree, the keylime tree, roses and dill.

 

Visitors 

Cypress or Eucalyptus Mulch?

Like must gardeners I buy a large amount of mulch every year for the garden.   I used to buy cypress mulch until I read the article below in the Naplesnews on the pros and cons of different types of mulch.  This year I switched to Eucalyptus mulch, yes it is a little more expensive but i'm satisfied that all the mulch sold locally is grown in plantations for this purpose.   So far I’m satisfied with the way it looks and hopefully it will last longer.

Cypress: Cypress mulch is made from Bald Cypress and Pond Cypress trees, both of which grow in Florida’s wetlands. Tests indicated a low settling rate and good color retention after two years. Unfortunately, approximately 60 percent of the mulch sold at retail garden centers is Cypress and many people consider it ‘native’ mulch. That may very well be but production of Cypress mulch contributes to the devastation of our ecosystem. Because the trees are harvested from our natural wetlands, using it in the landscape is not considered Florida-friendly.

Eucalyptus: Most Eucalyptus trees are native to Australia, and are grown on plantations in Florida for the express purpose of mulch production. Studies showed Eucalyptus had a moderate settling rate, meaning it lasts longer in the landscape than pine-straw, but not as long as pine bark or cypress. Eucalyptus is also one of the mulches that showed the least change in color after a two year period.

Friday I woke up to this mess in the garden.  During the night a weather front passed through the area with up to 50 miles per hour winds.  The garden was ok, only a little messy.  

 

Blooming this week.   

The Yellow Buttercup attract many moths and bees.

 

 Blue Porter flowers are in full bloom

 

The Plumeria tree is coming back to life

  Mexican Petunias

Kayaking Miami Canals

I’m taking a few days off from my nine to five job this week.  Today my daughter and I rented a kayak and cruised the Miami canals. 

Mangroves are an important part of our ecosystem, unfortunate they are not in great shape.  We need to do a better job taking good care of them.

No, this is not my home; some people sure live well in this city.

 

We reached Biscayne Bay, you can see downtown Miami in the distance.

The big Easter event is here.

Every year we host many family and friends for an Easter garden party.  This year we have 45 people coming, (Our biggest) I been getting the garden ready for the last two weeks and my wife and daughters have been cooking for the last couple of days.  The weather is cooperating; the forecast is for a sunny day and temperatures in the low eighties.   This is my favorite event of the year, perfect for a garden party.  The weather is pleasant, the mosquitos are not here yet and the flowers are blooming

 

Blooming this week in the garden:

The Mexican Flame Vine.

The white and pink Angel’s Trumpet trees.

All the bougainvillea’s in containers.   

  

The Butterfly Bush.

 

Visitors to the garden this week:

The shy Cat Bird, I was lucky to be at the right place and the right time with a camera.  They are one of my favorite birds; they spend the winter in Florida and summers up north.  These birds love to take a bath and play in garden’s water fountains, they are fascinating to watch.

 

There are many Monarch butterflies around the Mexican Flame vine.  These flowers not only attract Monarchs, but also many Zebra butterflies and lots of bees.

 

We had a large number of Dragonflies flying around the garden this week.

 

I hope you all have a HAPPY EASTER 

Daylight Gardening Time.

Daylingt savings time is my favorite time of the year.  During the week, I usually get home from work around 6:30 pm, that gives me about an hour and half of daylight to work in the garden. 

This week I continued to prune trees, pull weeds and move plants around.  

Before

 After

  

Harvest time.

This year the vegetable garden has done ok but not as well as I expected.  The salad greens are doing well and I harvested many peppers and carrots.  The tomatoes and broccoli have been a disappointment. 

 

Sweet Pea Tomatoes

Papaya Fruits

 

These birds, visited the garden this week. 

Red Bellied Woodpecker

 

Red-winged Blackbird