Pictures from the garden

This morning we had the first sunny morning in over a week, a perfect time to take pictures in the garden.

Most of the flowers from the plumeria tree are on the ground, after three days of constant rain.

The combination of the purple allamanda and the white mandevilla gives color to this corner of the garden.

This female Monarch butterfly is taking a break after laying eggs allover my milkweed bushes.

Here is one of many Monarch caterpillars in the garden, devouring my milkweed bushes.

The Mexican flame vine has outgrown the trellis; I definite need a stronger structure to keep this aggressive vine happy (a project for cooler months).

Bougainvillea flowers at the right time of the morning when lighting is perfect for a picture.

Happy 4th of July

I hope everyone in the US has a happy and safe 4th of July holiday, for us in South Florida is going to be a rainy weekend. Every year is tradition for our family to go to a park near the bay for a picnic and to see fireworks put on by the city of Miami. We hope this year is no exception

This morning I went to Home Depot to buy light bulbs and look what I came home with. I told myself that I was not going to buy any more plants during the summer months, especially annuals. This is the perfect time of the year to take a break from the garden, working outside is hassle and planting new plants in this hot summer sun is not ideal.

Last month I lost must of my annuals during my two-week vacation, and some of the garden beds were looking a little poor, so I did what all gardeners do, I forgot all the difficulties and got new plants (Mexican Heather, Pentas, Dahlberg Daisy and Coleuses) all strong summer annuals for my 10B zone.

Back to the Jungle

All it takes is two weeks for an unattended South Florida garden to become a Jungle during the summer.

I came back from my vacation yesterday and I found my garden in complete chaos, overgrown, full of weeds and a few casualties from the heat. Is going to take a couple of weeks before I can get the place back in shape. I started this morning with the front garden but the heat and mosquitoes were intense, all I could do was a couple of hours of work.

One nice surprised was my banana trees, all three adult plants had fruits, I hope they don’t ripen at the same time.

Lazy days in Sanibel

The weather has been perfect all week, no rain, and the days are sunny with a nice breeze from the gulf. My typical day starts with bike ride around the island (I am been careful, the shoulder is not back 100 percent yet) follow by a day on the beach shelling, taking in the sun, swimming in the gulf, and ending the day with a walk on the beach at sunset. I do think about my garden sometimes, (a jungle by now) but like a parent of little kids is good to get away.

It took a few days, but I am beginning to unwind, I am checking my email from work less and less (thousands curses to the inventor of the Blackberry) I can see myself as a permanent Sanibel resident living the life of a beach bum, tending a small garden of course.

Yesterday was my birthday, the big 57 (1825 days to go before retirement, age 62 is the target). My family took me out to dinner to the Bubble Room in Captiva one of our favorite restaurants on the islands.

Blogging from paradise, Sanibel Island, FL

This morning my wife and I woke up in paradise, the Island of Sanibel in the West Coast of Florida. For the last 20 years my family and I have been coming to this island for our summer vacation (a couple of weeks of well deserve R and R). Our two daughters will join us this weekend after their school year is over, both are teachers.

This year we are mindful of the terrible environmental disaster happening a few hundred miles west of us in the Gulf of Mexico, we are all hoping that this wonderful island is spared such calamity. The Coast Guard has told local officials that the chances of this area been affected by oil is less than 10%, but with so much of the oil spill on the news, the drop in tourism is noticeable on the island.
If anything positive can come out this disaster, is that drilling offshore is not the answer to our energy crisis, and we most demand from worthless politicians to find alternative ways. There is so much Mother Nature can do to keep fixing our mistakes.

Here is my wife practicing our favor Sanibel sport of Shelling, we spend hours walking the beach looking for shells, I don’t know why I do it, but once I get going I can’t stop. After gardening it is the most relaxing activity I can think of.

What does bromeliads and weeds have in comments?

Both thrive in the summer hot, humid and rainy weather of South Florida. These are some of the bromeliads thriving in my garden this week; I will spare you pictures of the weeds.

Thank you for all the nice comments, I’m doing better from my injury, but my only activity in the garden these days is that of taking pictures.
My family and I are taking our yearly summer vacation to Sanibel Island in the west coast of Florida next week, so I will be away from my garden and blog for a few days

Lazy Wednesday

Yesterday on my afternoon bike ride, I fell off the bike and landed on my right shoulder. This morning I could hardly move my arm. Driving to work was out of the question, so I called in sick and now I have one of those rare days when I have nothing to do but stay inside (under heavy medication) and read blogs. I though of going to the garden and pull weeds with my left arm; but the weather outside is hot, muggy and rainy.
Before the rain, I managed to take some pictures.


Peacock Ginger are back for the summer


Rain Lilies before the rain

PS – If you are asking how did you fell off the bike? This is what happened, a FOOLISH 57-year-old man trying to recapture a long-long ago youth, biking in a place where he shouldn’t have. I have a mountain bike, and as you know there are no mountains nor hills in South Florida, but there are construction sites with very high piles of dirt. I tried to conquer one; I made it to the top but didn’t make it to the bottom, not on my bike anyway. So that’s the story, I feel very foolish and I thank god it wasn’t worst. Calling my wife to pick me, and my broken bike up, was as painful as the fall.

Around my neighborhood

The Royal Poinciana trees are in full bloom. This year the trees are putting on a show like never before, I’m told the colder winter has something to do with it.

This park is near my home and is where I bike after work everyday.

The man made lake has a seven mile running and bike trail, and there is a large collection of Royal Poinciana trees all around the lake. Biking this week has been pleasant to the eyes.

Today was a cloudy day, great for biking not so good for photo taking

Beehive Part Two

Good news, I found a beekeeper interested in my bees. He came last night from Homestead Florida about 30 miles from my home. Alfredo keeps several beehives in his small farm; he also teaches beginner classes for those interested in having bees.
May be I’ll take the class some day when I retire from my day job.

The process of taking the bees was surprisingly simple, he came around 10pm when the bees were all home and sleep. All it took was a little smoke from the smoker and the job was done. The poor bees woke up this morning in a totally different place; I hope they can find their way around.

I want to thank you for all your suggestions and comments, I am relive that these bees were saved, this time I was determined not to use an exterminator.

Monarch Butterflies

Since I planted Milkweed, the garden has become Monarch Butterflies central. The only problem I have is that I can’t keep enough of these plants around. The caterpillars eat them up in a

matter of hours.

This is how this area looked last week.

This is what it looks now, when they finish with the leaves they go after the stock.

Milkweed are resilient plants, they grow back fast.

Beehive in the garden

Last week a beehive moved into one of my birdhouses in the backyard. I have mix emotions about this new neighbor, I always been a big fan of bees, they are incredible insects and so important to our gardens. They are also very dangerous to have around, when they get spook watch out.

Several years ago a beehive moved into a top corner of my roof. We coexisted for a while, until one day when the bees decided that the dog and I were not welcome in that corner of the garden. Walking under the hive felt like been under attack by kamikaze planes. The cute bees ended up costing me over $1000 in exterminator fees and fixing expenses for the roof.
This time I don’t want to use an exterminator, so I been calling beekeepers in the area to see if the want the hive, but no takers so far. I was told by a beekeeper that wild hives are problematic and difficult to get.

For now I will share my garden with the bees, but this is a temporary arrangement, sooner or later they must go. I am hoping I can find them a good home.

The winter has arrived!!!

The summer season is here (our winter), this morning the temperature was 93 degrees at 11am in my garden and the humidity was high. Working outside under these conditions is almost impossible; I limit my time in the garden to a couple of hours in the early morning and at sunset.

Today I spend the morning weeding my front garden and cleaning up some of the bromeliads, the pinwheel bush and ornamental grass are looking good together.

Many of the winter annuals like impatiens and petunias are dying of sun exposure; I usually plant rose moss and Mexican heather for summer color.

While working in the front today I noticed this dragonfly watching me from my powderpuff tree

A nice surprise

This beautiful flower bloomed last night on one of my cactus, totally unexpected