Look out the Sheriff is back in town

We are back in our home after two and half months of renovations. Last week we moved back and we been very busy putting our home back together again. My wife is a collector of many things, I told her people who collect should never move.

This weekend I dedicated a couple of hours early in the morning to the garden. Where do I begin?
While the gardener is away plants like the bougainvillea, the porter blue flower and many others take over the garden, the snails roam freely and eat at will and the weak plants die of starvation or lack of sun from the bullies in the garden.

The idea is to take back one section of the garden at a time. Step one prune and prune some more

Front of the house a total Bougainvillea take over

After

Surprise, surprise my bromeliads have flowers.

The side patio took a beating this is where the workers came in and out of the house. I I need to replace the pebbles and restore the fountain.

Plants running wild

After

My work area needs to be organize.

After

Next section the herbs and tomato garden.

Lizards are Army Strong

I have an Army of lizards in my garden working 24 – 7 keeping the garden free of bugs.
Over the years that I been gardening in Florida, I have come to the conclusion that my best friends in the garden are the hundreds of lizards I have thru out.

Lizards are very territorial, and they will eat any bugs that dare to come into their territory. They will fight or chase any other lizard that would intrude in their spot.
In my garden their only enemy are stray cats. Lately our city has been capturing all strays in our neighborhood (they are taken for adoption to the animal service department) I can definite notice an increase in the population of this wonderful reptile.

Lizards seem to know that I am very appreciative of the job they do, when I am working in the flowerbeds turning over the dirt they are not shy to be around me waiting to see what comes out of the ground.

What is so great about gardening is that not only are we part of growing beautiful plants we are also creating an ecosystem friendly to all, birds, lizards and even bugs.

Curb appeal for under $100

This weekend I worked on transforming the front of the house we are temporally living in, and making it more appealing to potential buyers. In previous posting I told you that my family and I moved to the house next door, while our home is been renovated. I promised the current owner that I would make the front of the house more buyer friendly(The House if for sale).
The idea was to use as much of the current plants as I could, and keep the work under $100 dollars.
First, I took out the large white bird of paradise blocking part of the view in the front of the house, and transplanted it to the back yard.
Second I cut back the Tricolor Ti and Trinette bushes. The Trinette is not a plant I care for but there were so many planted that it was a crime to take them all out.
Third I planted some Lantanas and Mexican Heather for color, these plants are great for Florida gardens they are drought resistant and do well in full sun. I also added Sage Grass and a Palm in a container from my garden.
Most of the cost was for pebbles, mulch and plastic border, the three full grown Lantanas were a little expensive, ordinarily I would buy smaller plants for my garden but we don’t have the time the realtor wants to do an open house next week

Before

After

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Summer time and growing season

My garden has grown big time the last month that I been away. Yesterday I decided it was time to do some cut back and bring some semblance of order to the back yard. The blue porter flowers were totally out control.
The weather was pleasant early in the morning but by 10 am the sun was up the heat index was more that I could take, all I had time to do was clean the pond and cut back one of my small beds, next week I’ll go after the rest of the back garden.

Picture before

After

The home renovation goes on

As you all know, my family and I moved in late June to the house next door while our home was renovated. The idea was to be back home by Labor Day, the renovation was supposed to be for a new kitchen and two bathrooms. By now the job has grown and it has touched every room in the house. Every time my wife tells me “as long as we are doing this why don’t we do that” I cringe.
Labor day approaches the job is nowhere near completion and way over budget. Every morning the contractor tells me “Don’t worry I will be out of here by Labor Day, I have another job pending” words that don’t give any relief.

My cell rings at the most inopportune time during the day at work and it’s always the same “we need your authorization to do this or to buy that” I am at the point where I say yes to everything. My advise to any one considering a renovation is, “Don’t” buy a new house instead.

My garden has been abandon for the last two months, I simply don’t have the time or energy to go out there and spend time with my plants, there is contraction equipment and materials all over. They keep telling me that they will clean it up, but the way I see it I am going to need to start from scratch in about 50% of the garden.
During all this chaos my orchids are blooming.

Hi, Blogger friends! The family and I had a very nice vacation at Sanibel Island Florida. The weather was great and the island was fantastic.
Here are some pictures.

The wild life is all over the island.

Shelling is a popular past time in Sanibel (It's addictive; the wife and I picked our share)

Biking in the island is a great past time. The island has bike trails all over (who needs a car?)

Gardening in the island is a challenge; the best way to go is with native, drought resistant plants.

I came back to the real world this week and I wish I hadn’t. My house renovation project did not progress as fast as I had planned. My boss decided to come to Miami for his annual inspection visit, and my garden looks abandoned with overgrown plants, weeds, and many casualties from the heat and lack of rain. I shouldn’t complain, though-- I had a great vacation!

Going on vacation

My family and I are heading to Sanibel Island in the west coast of Florida for two weeks of R and R. The water sprinklers are on automatic, the potted plants are in the shade and I am hoping for some rainy days in between.
I’ll see you in two weeks.
PS – My contractor tells that my house should be done be the time we return.

A new garden gadget

My wife talked me into going to LinensNthings to shop for pillows today and I got a new gardening gadget. Who knew?
I did not know that LinensNthings sold gardening gadgets. I got a Garden Rocker, great to do gardening while seating it makes it easy to move in any direction and it’s great to reduce stress on the knees; it comes with packets for tools and can be adjusted in height. I got it for $19.99 the original retail price was $39.99. Not bad for a trip to get pillows.

Yellow alder, consider a weed by many but I love this yellow flowers and this plant is very low maintenance

Mango season is here

Delicious mangos everywhere, I don’t have a mango tree but my back yard neighbor does. Some of the mangos hang over my property (My luck) but the majority rot on the tree, to the delight of birds. He is not a mango person and the tree was there before he moved into the house. If it was me, I would give it to my neighbors but not everyone is that neighborly.

My Cactus Orchid had a record 87 flowers last night, the most ever in one night.

Butterflies are everywhere this time of the year.

My first Coneflower, I got the seeds on my trip to Vermont last fall. I didn’t think they were going grow in Miami but to my surprised it did. Is not as spectacular as the ones growing up north but I am happy with the result. Maybe they will do better during our winter.

Update on my house renovation. Things are moving along not as fast as I would like but I am told that this normal, my contractor tells me it will be done by mid August, will see.
My Garden looks a bit abandon and over grown, I going to try to dedicate it some time this weekend to weeding and pruning.

Happy 4th of July Everyone

Well, we moved and we are settled in our temporary home. The work has begun in our house and it is a big mess.
The moved was not as bad as I predicted, the only casualty has been my computer. For some unexplained reason it refuses to recognize any of the USB ports and that means no mouse or key board. After countless hours with Dell on the phone talking to some one some where on Planet earth but speaking something that resemble English (and my English with a Spanish accent did not make for good communication) I was told that the only solution was to restore my compute back to the original settings which means I loose all my documents and pictures. (This is the only solution these technical support people know how to do) Now I am using my old computer which I kept for this reason.

This morning I did a little bit of gardening very early in the morning, I cut back all my Pentas and Begonias, I pulled some weeds and transplanted a Palm tree that was in the wrong place and has been bothering me for a while. I discovered that my Cannas have been infested by this little bug that has eaten a lot of the foliage. By 9 am it was time to come in the heat and humidity was too much to take.

I hope every one in the US has a Happy and safe 4th of July.

Update on the family Red Head wood peckers nesting in my yard. The baby is looking out at the world outside while mom and dad are busy looking for food.