Cleaning after Sandy

Hurricane Sandy passed by yesterday about 100 miles east of the Florida coast, but left us a mess.  We have been dealing with constant rain and high winds since Thursday; this morning was the first sunny day and a good time to survey the damage.

My Starburst and Brunfelsia trees suffered the most and I’m sure that will hamper the blooms this winter.  Late season storms like this tend to do a number on winter blooming trees.

I was thinking this week that, this year I was a little late planting my vegetable garden.  After all the rain we got this week I’m glad of my procrastination. 

To everyone in the northeast, be safe and take hurricane Sandy serious.       

Fall festival time

In South Florida we know is fall festival time when our summer 90’s temperatures turn into lovely 80’s fall weather.  Today I attended one of my favorite festivals, the Edible Garden Festival at Fairchild Tropical Garden.   This festival is a combination of a Halloween celebration and preparation for the upcoming vegetable gardening season.

Lecture on how to grow vegetable during our winter. 

 

The scarecrow contest is fun for kids and adults.  All materials must be recyclable items.  These were my favorite entries.

   

The vegetable season is here

Today I started preparing the vegetable beds by adding more soil.

 

 The seeds I planted last week are germinating.  I have tomatoes, broccoli and cucumbers

What’s blooming in the garden this week  

Milkweed 

 

 Thryallis

 

Miniture Ixora

 

 My Cassia tree is blooming

 

 Purple Allamanda

No plants were wasted

Last week I pulled 10 yellow crotons (don’t know the common name) from my daughter’s front garden, and brought them to my place.  I don’t like to throw away perfectly good plants, even if they are not to my favorite, so I planted four around the back garden and the other six I put them in containers to give away.

 

I must admit the yellow crotons in the middle of all the green gives the garden a nice look, especially in the early morning when the sun is coming up. 

This week I received my order of vegetable seeds from Annie’s Heirloom Seeds, they were recommended by a friend.  This year I’m trying something a little different, I will try to grow must of my vegetables from seeds. 

 

In this part of the country we don’t have green houses to germinate our seeds, so the best place is a shady area to keep them away from the hot midday sun. I’m trying to grow tomatoes, broccoli and cucumbers, the rest I will plant later direct into the vegetable garden. 

 

Other pictures from the garden this morning