Sunday, June 27, 2021

Garden June images

June, the month that brings positives and negatives to South Florida gardens.  The positives  are the abundance of wild life visiting, specially butterflies.  The negatives are obvious, it is the start of the rainy season and with it comes the hordes of mosquitoes making gardening a very uncomfortable hobby.   





The rain also bring wild rain lilies all over the garden, more flowers from the bougainvilleas and it is the time for the African lilies to put on their show. 



This year I had so many mangos to give away, that I had to put a free mango sign on my sidewalk. 

What do you give a father that gardens?  Garden decorations, I loved my gifts this year



I hope you all have a happy and safe Forth of July


 

Saturday, June 05, 2021

Gardening in the shade

Over the past few years my gardening experience changed from sunny to shade.  Before all my fruit trees and those of my neighbors matured to full grown trees, my back yard was a sunny garden.  These days my choice of plants are mostly shade loving plants.  This past week I planted Caladiums in one of my semi-shaded beds.  I have to confess that I have become a fan of shade plants, there is more green and the garden looks fuller.  The shade also makes gardening in the South Florida weather more enjoyable. 
 




This year I let the Blue Porter Weed plants grow all over, they are great pollinator plants




I found a gardening show on Amazon Prime call Gardners World.  This show is produce by the BBC in Great Britain, very popular with British gardeners.  The show main presenter Monty Don does the show from his own magnificent garden, giving information and tips on the do and don't of different plants.  Other presenters visit public and private gardens throughout the British Isles.  The one hour show is on in Britain from spring to fall every Friday night.  One result from watching this show has been that now I am hook on using cuttings and sowing seeds.  The shows on Amazon Prime are about four years old, for newer shows you have to subscribe to BritBox a subscription service for all BBC shows.



Mango season is in full swing, we are eating these delicious fruits everyday and so do our squirrel friends, so far we have enough for everyone.  All the mangos on the last picture are from my neighbor's tree,  all those fruits will soon be falling on my side of the fence. (My neighbor does not care for mangos)