GBBD for October 2008

Another GBBD at the DragonFly garden. The garden is looking green and wet due to the tremendous amount of rain we had this past month. The few flowers that survived the rain are a little droopy.

This month I am starting with the ever-faithful canna lily, which this year is blooming into fall months.

This ground orchid in the new kid in the garden. I purchased these two plants a couple of weeks ago, and are now part of my front garden.

The devil’s trumpet. Notice that it points up instead of down, unlike their close relative the angel’s trumpet.

Red crown of thorns, are a year round favorite.

The white and orange bougainvilleas are blooming again for a second time this year.

I found this small white orchid blooming in my re-hab orchid corner.

The last of the torenias are blooming this week, they will re-seed and be all over the garden next year again.

Herbs for cooking and the butterflies

Yesterday, I worked on my herb garden. This year, I added more butterfly-friendly herbs, like parsley and dill.

I planted three types of basil--sweet, purple, and spicy basil. Every year my basil gets leaf miners and the plants don’t last long; I hope this year will be different since I am using containers.

Other herbs in my garden are oregano, chives, thyme, and rosemary. The chives, oregano, and rosemary survived the heat of last-year's summer.

For the next month, while the plants are small, I’ll keep them covered. The September afternoon sun in Miami is a plant killer!

Correcting a mistake

Out with the honeysuckle in the front garden. What was I thinking, this is the most aggressive plant I ever seen. I am cutting it back and re-planting it in the back yard, I might regret it later but I have a thing about throwing plants away.

I replaced the honeysuckle with a red dipladenia also call a mandevilla. This vine does well in full sun; it blooms from spring to fall, is butterfly friendly and not very aggressive.

RAIN, RAIN and more RAIN!

It has been raining in South Florida for the last two weeks and today is no different.
We started the year with the worst drought in history and now, after the wettest September ever, we’ve actually ended the month with too much water. Our aquifer level is high and Lake Okeechobee is back to normal levels. The lake is the water source for the Everglades and the back-up reservoir for South Florida’s water table. Levels are so high that the local authorities are releasing water into the Atlantic to avoid flooding.
Still, our local government has announced that despite the abundance of rain, water restrictions will continue year-round. In my opinion this is a good thing. The public needs to understand that water is precious and must be conserved. As for my part, I am planning to install two rain barrels to catch rainwater from my roof.

Well today is definite not a gardening day but it is a good day to read blogs, catch up with my gardening magazines, and watch some college football on TV.
I hope you have great weekend and if you are a football fan—may your team win!

Work completed

As all of you know from reading my previous post, I took a vacation from work so I could spend it working in my garden. Here are the results. I completed all but one of the projects, despite the tremendous amount of rain we had for the last four days. (Just my luck that this time the weatherman was right when he predicted rainy days!)

The flowerbed in the front garden turned out differently from what I had first pictured in my mind but I am happy with the finished product. The palm in the center is a date palm and it came all the way from New Jersey, a gift from my cousin. In the rest of the bed I planted two ground orchids, a couple of red star cordyline, and a crown of thorns and fire bush bromeliads from my back yard.

I also created a small flowerbed to fill in between the two larger ones, a perfect place to put my wheelbarrow planter in which I planted blue daze, finishing the look by addding marigolds in the ground around it.
I am starting over with my coleuses. I planted new plants this year after pulling out most of the old ones. In my zone 10b, coleuses can thrive for years but after awhile, they get too big and break easily and, therefore, need replacement. To give the bed more color, I also added a couple of dracaenas.

My vegetable garden is ready for planting. I am waiting for cooler weather and for my local nursery to bring in a good selection of seedlings.
The birdbath looks much better with the small border, the marigolds, and sparkling clean water(shame on me for letting it get so dirty and unsightly!). I can tell that the birds like the new location out in the open, away from hiding places where the local cats could be lurking.

And finally my Zen corner. Here all I needed it to do was some cleaning and pruning. I also moved the two chairs that looked crowded, leaving just the wood bench. From this corner I can see both my back and side gardens. This is the place where I take my morning cup of coffee before going to work and where I unwind when I get home after work. So--what does everyone think of my vacation-time project?

I am taking a vacation to work in the garden

Yes you heard it right. I am taking a few days vacation and I am dedicating it to my garden. I am lucky that my employer gives me a month vacation every year with one condition... I have to spread the days through out the year.
I am taking off next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Over the next five days I am taking on several projects in the garden. My list is long and very ambitious. I know I won’t finish it, but for a weekend gardener like me, this is the only time I can take on big projects. The weatherman is predicting rain this weekend (but what does he know!!!)

Here is my to do list.

I want to do another flowerbed in this location in the front garden. This will give me a separation from my neighbor’s house. This flowerbed was supposed to be part of my last big project but I ran out time.

I need to get my tomato bed ready for planting. It is too hot to plant tomatoes now; we need the cooler weather of late October/early November but I want to be ready.

The coleus were looking great a couple of weeks ago before all the hurricanes passed by the neighborhood. I want to add new coleus' and I am thinking of adding some high grasses in the background.

This corner needs some work, I am not sure yet what I want to do here.

The birdbath in the center of the grass does not look good. I am adding a small flowerbed to make it look more interesting and I promise I will clean it up.

This water feature broke last week for the second time and I need to fix it.

Fall cleanup in the front garden

This morning I decided it was time to prepare the front garden for the coming winter.

This honeysuckle looks like it was a mistake for this location. I might regret it later because it is growing very fast and overpowering its corner of the garden.

Ground orchids, on the pathway to the front door.

The powderpuff tree looks recovered after I performed surgery last week when it suffered a branch tear from Hurricane Ike's winds.

Other pictures of the front garden.

In this picture you see my FIU Golden Panthers football flag. Florida International University is my college alma mater. My wife and youngest daughter are both alumni as well. This afternoon, the entire family will attend the football game against the University of South Florida, exciting because it will be our first home game this season and the inaugural game in our brand new on-campus stadium. “Go Panthers!”

The bougainvillea plant has been a disappointment this year with very few flowers and mostly green. This year I am planning on removing the front wooden gate and installing an iron gate. That just may be the end of my red bougainvillea plant!

GBBD September 15

Tacca Integrifolia

This week my tacca bloomed for the first time ever. Isn’t she the most fantastic looking flower? I am in total awe of this plant.

I have many ground orchids flowering in my front garden.

Fall is time for my bromeliads to bloom these beautiful red flowers.

My purple allamanda is doing well.

The pink and purple Ruellias are blooming all over the garden

The chenille plant looks great.

Damage from IKE

This evening I found a major branch from my powderpuff tree broken off by the wind gusts of hurricane IKE. We had wind gust all day of 30 to 40 miles per hour.

I hope I don’t loose the tree; the cut is major and too close to the base of the tree.

Any idea how I should treat this break?

Keeping an eye on IKE

Not much gardening at the DragonFly this weekend, we are keeping our eyes on hurricane IKE out in the Bahamas. Looking out for hurricanes is our favorite fall past time, second only to football.
This afternoon things are looking better for us in South Florida, but I don’t trust these storms specially when they are so close to us.