the raised beds are in

The plan for today was to put in the vegetable raised beds, this morning at Home Depot I made a last minute change. The original idea was to do 3 wooden raised beds, but after figuring the time it would take, I changed to cement blocks.
Cement blocks are not very pretty to look at, but they are easy and fast to put in and better for the environment. I have extra paint in the garage, and might paint the outside later.
During the next couple of weeks I will be buying the soil and the beds should be ready for planting sometime at the end of September.
Today I also added a 32 gallon water tank to my rain-barrel, now I have a total of 164 gallons in reserve [I'm ready for the dry season]

To all our friends in the northeast, good luck and stay safe.

Is time to make the donuts

This morning was one of those days, I had planed tons of work in the garden, but my 58 year body did not want to get out of bed. It rained most of the night and I was hoping to have that excuse, but by 7am the rain was gone and it was time to get to work.
If I want to have my new vegetable garden up and running by October 1, I better keep up with the schedule. On today's agenda was taking out the dead grass and get the soil ready for the raised beds.

My local U-pick farmer is already turning the soil and getting the land ready for planting.

I am planning three 4 x 4 raised beds and fill in the rest of the space with containers, originally I was going to put raised beds where my coleuses are now, but this area has shade all winter long and vegetable are not all that fun of shade (this project is getting to big, may be next year) Flowers of the week, these orchids are blooming and they are gorgeous.

I harvested the last of the bananas today, when these dwarf bananas are ripen they are the sweetest bananas you can ever taste.

Back in the garden after a two weeks vacation

Yesterday we came home from a two-weeks vacation on Sanibel Island, before I left; I moved all the plants in containers to the shade, set the automatic sprinklers on and crossed my fingers.

Two weeks for a garden in the tropics is a lifetime, as you can see everything is overgrown and plenty of weeds to keep me busy for a couple of weeks. I was surprised that most plants made it without any problems. I lost a couple of annuals but it was nice to see new bromeliads and orchids blooming, and plenty of rain lilies (according to my neighbor it rained everyday)

I harvested another banana tree today, one more to go.