The big Easter event is here.

Every year we host many family and friends for an Easter garden party.  This year we have 45 people coming, (Our biggest) I been getting the garden ready for the last two weeks and my wife and daughters have been cooking for the last couple of days.  The weather is cooperating; the forecast is for a sunny day and temperatures in the low eighties.   This is my favorite event of the year, perfect for a garden party.  The weather is pleasant, the mosquitos are not here yet and the flowers are blooming

 

Blooming this week in the garden:

The Mexican Flame Vine.

The white and pink Angel’s Trumpet trees.

All the bougainvillea’s in containers.   

  

The Butterfly Bush.

 

Visitors to the garden this week:

The shy Cat Bird, I was lucky to be at the right place and the right time with a camera.  They are one of my favorite birds; they spend the winter in Florida and summers up north.  These birds love to take a bath and play in garden’s water fountains, they are fascinating to watch.

 

There are many Monarch butterflies around the Mexican Flame vine.  These flowers not only attract Monarchs, but also many Zebra butterflies and lots of bees.

 

We had a large number of Dragonflies flying around the garden this week.

 

I hope you all have a HAPPY EASTER 

Daylight Gardening Time.

Daylingt savings time is my favorite time of the year.  During the week, I usually get home from work around 6:30 pm, that gives me about an hour and half of daylight to work in the garden. 

This week I continued to prune trees, pull weeds and move plants around.  

Before

 After

  

Harvest time.

This year the vegetable garden has done ok but not as well as I expected.  The salad greens are doing well and I harvested many peppers and carrots.  The tomatoes and broccoli have been a disappointment. 

 

Sweet Pea Tomatoes

Papaya Fruits

 

These birds, visited the garden this week. 

Red Bellied Woodpecker

 

Red-winged Blackbird

Lenten season is time to prune the trees.

My grandmother and my father always pruned their trees during lent.  The word passed down from older generations in my family, was that the best time to prune trees, was after the first full moon during lent.  I don’t know if there is any validity to this tradition, but who am I to question my ancestors.

Yesterday I pruned the Brunfelsia and Starburst trees, and next week is the Allamanda and Fire Dragon bushes.  



 

Before 

These flowers are blooming in the garden this week.



 

The birth of a butterfly

We have a centenarian in the family

We had a great celebration in our family this week; my dad turned 100.  One hundred years of a life well lived, difficult at times, but full of love and happiness.  

My dad was the oldest of seven brothers and sisters, born to a poor family in Cuba.  He lived through the Great Depression, worked for an American company at the Guantanamo Bay military base during WWII, and owned several businesses.  At age 54, he, my mom, and I fled Cuba to the United State so I would not be raise in communist country.

My father is also a writer of poetry, a man that had very little formal education, but loves to read and write.  Last year he announced that he was writing a book about his life; we all can’t wait to read it.  I am blessed to have both my parents living. My mom is ninety years old; they have been married for sixty-two years.  Both my parents live alone, with little help, in the same house they purchased forty years ago.

We had over ninety family members and friends gather at a local restaurant today to celebrate dad’s birthday; he loved the party and the Mariachi Band that came to sing happy birthday. 

Happy Birthday Dad.  

 

My Father’s Garden

My father is also an avid gardener; he is the person responsible for my gardening genes.  At 100 he still works in his garden.  Every morning he goes out into the garden to pull weeds, rake leaves, and tend to his plants.  I believe that this love of plants and nature has kept his mind sharp and has given him a healthy body.