We are moving

Hi everyone, my wife and I are moving to the house next door. No I am not abandoning my garden, is only temporary.
We been talking about remodeling our home of 17 years for a long time and we finally decided it was time. The house next door has been empty and for sale for while so we made a deal with our ex next door neighbor to rent the house during July and August while our home is been worked on. In exchange we will be show it to prospective buyers, our furniture will give the house a more live in look. I also agree to do some work in the front garden to give it more curb appeal.
I will continue to tend to my garden and visit all my friends in the Blog-sphere. I hope you will excused me if I don’t keep up with my blog. (I promised I will try) Tomorrow our local phone company promised me that they will transferred my DSL line (Will see)
See you soon.

Observations from my Garden

June in Florida = Rain. It has been raining for the last 14 days in a row. The mornings are nice but by mid afternoon the monsoon rolls in from the west and the sky opens up.
We are supposed to be in the middle of the worst drought in history and under severe water restrictions. With all this rain you would think that the Water People would ease the restrictions. But NOO, it seems that is not raining at Lake Okeechobee (The source of our emergency water supply) or so they say.
Personally I think is all a Government conspiracy against us gardeners and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wal-Mart garden department is also involve.
Too much rain is no good for a garden most of my plants are looking terrible, only the grass is having a good time, if you look closer you can see it grow.

This week I been seen a lot more bees around the garden, that is good news for everyone.

Update on the woodpecker that is nesting in old palm trunk. I can hear the hungry babies inside and mom and dad are kept busy shuttling with food.

Rain drops keep falling on my plants and DATATATA…..

Portrait of a 94-year old gardener

Meet my father. At 94 years young he is a full-time gardener. From sun up to sun down he tends to his large garden in Miami (not an easy task at any age in this hot and humid environment). My father was born in Cuba in 1913, the son of poor share-cropper and the oldest of seven brothers and sisters. My dad has been around plants all his life. As a child, he quit school to go work in the sugar fields of Cuba to help support his large family. After he married my mother, they both moved to the city but always our house had a beautiful garden lovingly tended by my dad.
Dad got his gardening genes from his mother who was an avid gardener. My grandparents lived in the country in a very modest home and my fondest memory of their home was of my grandmother’s magnificent garden. Visiting them as a child was an adventure that I always looked forward to. My father, grandmother, and I would spend hours in the garden, me doing what little kids like to do like looking for interesting animals and bugs while my dad and my grandmother would work and talk about plants.
When my parents migrated to the U.S. in the mid 1960’s, we settled in southern Connecticut and lived in a third-floor apartment but even there my dad had a small garden--he asked the landlord if he could garden the grassy part of the building’s parking lot!
In 1975, we moved to Miami and my parents have lived in the same house for these past 32 years. All the plants and trees in the garden were planted by my father and the gazebo and utility shed were built by him (carpentry is another of his hobbies). My father retired 25 years ago and since that day he has remained very busy every day, always occupied with a task, most of the time in his wonderful garden.
My father’s philosophy about plants and gardening is simple--share what you have with others and they will share their bounty with you. He seldom buys a plant at a nursery since most of the plants he has are grown from cuttings or seeds. Many of the plants in my garden have come from his, including an heirloom-rose bush he brought with him from our home in Cuba.
Our mutual love of growing plants and gardening has brought my father and me closer together. We talk every day and the conversation usually starts with, “Did you get any rain today?” Dad believes that rain water is like gold for a garden and no matter how much city water one uses, it is never as good as rain.
I get many funny looks when I tell people about my gardening obsession, but the way I see it, I come from a long and proud family of gardeners; growing things is in our genes.
Happy Fathers Day, Dad, and thanks for the gift of gardening!

Gazebo he built after he retired

Pictures from the garden

He grows sugar cane to remind him of his childhood

Tropical fruit tree called “Nizpero” in Spanish

His prized avocado tree

Rain Lilies are popping up all over the yard

You know we are in the middle of the summer rain season when you get Rain Lilies popping up all over the garden.

A week ago I asked where are the mosquitoes. Well they have arrived and they are hungry. Today I was out around 7pm with my dog Rosie and they attacked, oh well that is gardening in Florida during the summer season. You can’t go out it in the afternoon because the sun will toast you and if you go out at sunset the mosquitoes will eat you alive.

I have this wonderful plant that I don’t know the name; I got it from a neighbor who did not know the name either. Is one my favorite plants in my garden, is great ground cover for shade areas the color of leaves is beautiful and the small lilac color flowers are great contrast against the leaves. This plant grows from April to November then it goes dormant until the following year (this is a rarity in Florida where everything grows year around) The only problem with this plant is that snails love it too, as you can see by my picture and they love to hide under the leaves.

If any one knows the name let me know.

Orchid Cactus first bloom of the season

My Orchid Cactus bloomed this week for the first time this season; it will flower from now into the end of October. I consider the flower from this plant the most beautiful and exotic of my collection.
If you are not paying attention you can you miss the flowers all together because they open up 10pm and they are done by 10am the next morning.
For several years this cacti has been growing on the trunk of an old coconut tree. The tree died a few years ago from a lighting strike, but the cactus continued to grow. For the last two years I been predicting the end because the coconut trunk is rotting and the weight of the cactus will bring it down. I hope it will stay up at least to the end of summer.

Picture the night before it bloomed

Picture in early morning.

Picture before noon

Hurricane season begins.

Yesterday was June 1st; the beginning of the 2007 hurricane season, for those of us who garden in Florida is always a stressful time. Did all the efforts that we put in the garden this past winter was all for nothing. Twice already I have seen my garden destroy by one of these storms and had to start from scratch.
Every year we go thru the same ritual, the news media goes bunkers over how we all need to prepare and not be complacent. The state of Florida has tax moratorium for two weeks on all storm prepare items and the talk of the town is (Are we going to get hit or not)
This year I am thinking of buying an electrical generator. The last hurricane that passed by here two years ago was Wilma as a category one, the damage was minimum but it did a number to the electrical grid. I was lucky I was without electricity only two days but neighbors two blocks away were out more than two weeks. I can handle been with out air conditioning but I need my refrigerator.
The beauty of gardening in Florida is that plants are so resilient and most of then come back even after getting whack by a hurricane. This weekend we already have a storm forming in the Gulf, it has a name Barry. Thanks god is not expected to get much bigger than a tropical storm. It is dumping a lot of needed rain in South Florida, so no gardening for me this weekend.

The sun flowers are beginning to bloom this week. I planted the seeds about two months ago, my first time planting Sun flowers; they are a good fillers for my tomatoes bed.

Where are the mosquitoes?

Summer has arrived, the heat and humidity is here but where are the mosquitoes? Oh I know we are in the middle of a drought, no water, no larva, no mosquitoes.
You would not be able to tell by these pictures that we are in the middle of a drought everything is so green in the garden. We been lucky, those of us living at the tip of Florida have not experienced the lack of rain that the rest of the state has. If you drive 40 minutes north to Ft. Lauderdale the story is totally different.
The summer favorites are blooming the picture above is a good combination of the Blue Plumbago, the Chenelle Plant (I like the Spanish name better “Rabo de Mono” monkey’s tail) and the Blue Porter flower.

The Blue Plumbago reminds me of Hydrangeas but with smaller flower clusters. This shrub flowers all summer long and the blue color adds contrast to the garden. The only problem with this plant is that it is very informal and will not adapt to any look, it needs to be trim three or four times a year. Once establish this plant does well in drought conditions.

Also blooming in the garden this week this beautiful rose color orchid, you can see the Spanish moss in the background.

Phase two of my Garden begins.

After picture

Before picture

For the last two years I been working on my back yard garden and I kind of ignored the front. The house needed a paint job badly so I figured I wait until the house was painted.

In the past I painted the house myself, so I been thinking about it for the last two year and finally decided that I am getting too old for that kind of a job, so a couple of weeks ago I hired a crew to do it.
After many promises that they would be very careful with my plants and that the job would only take a week, I hired these guys that came highly recommended. We made a deal that the job would be done the week we were on vacation. When I returned from Colorado I found the job half done and all my plants around the house were all trample or painted on. (So much for taking care of the plants)

The front yard garden is going to be a long, a very long project. For now I am putting some drought tolerant plants around the house. I planted Lantanas, Mexican heather, Golden Shrimp, Red Fountain grass and Red Star Cordyline. The Ti Plants and Thryallis were in the front of the house, they took a beating from the painters but they will come back.

I also transplanted the Fireball Bromeliads from another part of the garden and planted them around the Palm tree. This area is very difficult to grow anything and it gets plenty of sun (the more sun the more red they get)

The Crown of Thorns have been in the front yard for a long time, they take the heat and sun very well and they flower year around.

This side of the front yard would have to wait. My neighbor also hired the same painters to do his house. I live in a zero lot home where your neighbor’s home comes up to your property line (This Florida idea is to put more homes in small lots)

Lantanas

The long term plan for the front garden, is to turn it into an English/Tropical combination; I envision a small white picket fence with lots of perennials, some local favorites, less grass and a different tree at the center. Now I have a black olive tree that is too big for the property and it takes away from the garden.

Back to reality

My wife and I came back from our vacation (Holiday) yesterday after spending a week in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The weather was great, low 40’s at night and high 70’s during the day with sunny days and no rain. I think the traveling Gods were with us.
The main purpose of our the trip was to have some rest and relaxation and explore the trails around Aspen, CO in search of wild flowers, unfortunate the trip was a bit early in the season and we were left a little disappointed with the wild flowers in bloom at this time. But never the less, for those of us that live in the tropics, going to the mountains during spring time is an eye popping experience.
I was told by locals that the best time for wild flowers is July and August. This year May was the only time I could get away because of work and besides I got such a great deal on the airfare $158 round trip on TED (United Airlines low fare carrier) from Miami to Denver. Note TED was great the service was good the plane was on time and the bags were not lost. We even got a free movie, it can’t get any better than that.

Personal note on Aspen Colorado, the last time I was there was 25 years ago when I was a skier (back when my knees could take the pounding) back then the town was a mix of the rich and famous and long time locals. Today if feels like the rich and famous won and the locals are gone, the Real Estate value is measure in the several millions of dollars, no one with a normal salary can live in town.
When you talk to the workers in the hotels, stores and restaurants they all live in neighboring towns some have commutes longer than my (two hours each way is very common)
It is such a shame to walk around town during the off season and see all those beautiful homes empty with owners that only come once or twice a year during the ski season and then you see the real people that make a town alive leaving after work. It is a shame because in my opinion Aspen is one the most beautiful western towns in the Rockies.

Dandelions everywhere

Alpine Phlox (so I am told)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Happy Mother's Day to all the gardening mothers in the blog sphere.
My wife and I are taking a well deserve R and R trip next week. We are heading for the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. We are staying in the Aspen area and will be taking daily hiking trips in search of the famous wildflowers of the Rockies.
Stay tune for pictures.

A friend email me the history of mother's day very interesting.

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/howejwriting/a/mothers_day.htm

Red roses in time for Mother's Day

I am wild and crazy about my Coleus.

OK I know, I am overdoing my posting about Coleus, but they are for this year my favorite plant. I am growing them all over my garden and the color and contrast it gives the garden is fantastic. This past year our winter was very mild so all my plants came thru and I didn’t loose one.

The best thing about Coleus is how easy they are to propagate from a small cutting you can have a beautiful plant in weeks.

Some of my plants take a hit from the afternoon Florida sun. That is why I am putting many in containers and moving them to areas of the garden where they get some shade.

The flowers are not that attractive so I remove them to get better looking leaves ( the reason why we own Coleus)

Except for this one, the flowers are as good looking as the plant.