Monday, June 16, 2014

Adopt-a-Tree and help the environment

This yellow hibiscus is my flower of the week.
Every year our county government (Miami-Dade County) gives away two trees per household.  This tradition was started after hurricane Andrew when the southern part of the county was almost entirely deforested.  This weekend was the first give a way of the year and I was there early to claim my two trees. They had shade, flower and fruit trees,  I was only interested in the fruit trees and came home with a mango and a longan tree.
Mango











What is a Longan tree???

 Dimocarpus longan, commonly known as the longan, is a tropical tree that produces edible fruits.  The tree belongs to the soapberry family, to which the lychee also belongs.  It is native to Southern Asia, the longan ("Dragon Eye"), is so named because it resembles an eyeball when the fruit is open. 












I am not done planting fruit trees; my next acquisition is a lychee and a star fruit tree.  I don’t know where I’m going to put them, but I’ll figure it out. So far I have three mango trees, an avocado tree, several dragon fruit trees, a key lime tree and a date palm.












After twenty plus years living in this house, I finally gave in and screened the back porch.  I am not a fan of screens but the older I get the less tolerance I have for mosquitoes, now I can seat in the back porch with a cold beer after work and enjoy my garden. 




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have such a beautiful home and garden. Reading your blog makes me miss home (Miami) . . . .

I've never heard of a longan tree. Pretty cool. That's also a generous program Miami-Dade has going on. Do a lot of homeowners take advantage of it?

Meta/roses. said...

You are doing a great job making your garden into a lush oasis.
I love your back porch too. Great place to sit and enjoy your garden.