Butterfly drinking water fountain.

By putting a few small rocks in a birdbath, I created a water fountain for butterflies, bees and other insects.  I didn't know that certain species of butterflies sip water from damp areas, the rocks prevent the butterflies from falling in and drowning.  I got this tip from a butterfly expert at the Flower and Garden Festival in EPCOT last week.

This week at the DragonFly Garden

The summer heat arrived this weekend, 91 degrees on Saturday and 95 today (a record).

The vegetable garden is done for the season; I pulled out my tomatoes plants and most of my lettuce. The only plants that will do well during the summer months, in this sun drenched corner of the garden are bromeliads.

This is what arugula looks like after two days of temperatures in the 90’s

Lots of white flowers in the garden this week, the gardenia bush is in bloom.  The two white bougainvillea plants are blooming for the third time this year.  

Well that’s it from the heat and humidity of South Florida.  As our summer winter approaches, my gardening activities will be limited two a couple of hours in the early morning. See you soon.

The EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival

This past weekend my wife and I visited the Flower and Garden Festival at EPCOT Center in Orlando.  Every year we tried to go for a couple of days to enjoy the flowers and get ideas for the garden.  This year I found the festival a little disappointing, not as many displays as in years past, the flowers looked a little tired and not too much originality in the presentations.  Disney should change the name of the festival to the Food, Flower and Garden Festival; they keep adding more food kiosks selling delicious foods from around the world at very expensive prices.  I understand that these kiosk are profit center that attract more participants to the festival, but the flowers are the reason must us come to visit.

One of my favorite displays is the Urban Farm area, with great ideas for those of us urban farmers what be.

The popular butterfly house is a hit with everyone

And to keep my wife happy, the evening ended with a free concert by John Secada

Visiting the Epcot flower and garden festival

Today we arrived at EPCOT at WDW for the Flower and Garden Festival

More pictures to come

White succulent flowers

This morning I found these blooms among my collection of succulents, is a pity that these beautiful flowers only last one day.

That's a good dog!

Rosie—garden companion, protector of birds, chaser of stray cats, and member of our family passed away today.  She showed up at our doorsteps 14 years ago, a dirty puppy, full of ticks and proceeded to choose us for her family.  We had a bumpy ride during the puppy years, especially when her Australian Cattle Dog genes would surface and she would attempt to herd our family like cattle.  The ride became a long journey of love and appreciation; she became the perfect dog for our family.

Rosie was a fixture at the DragonFly Garden from the very beginning of this adventure.  She took her duties of “Guardian of the Garden” seriously, never allowing stray cats in, protecting all the birds that came to our feeders.  She never caused any damage to the plants and was always by my side as I tended them.  I will miss you, Boo; may you find plenty of cows in Heaven’s Garden to herd!

The annual Easter garden party

The Easter holiday is our turn to host our family and friends for an outdoor Easter party in the garden.  Last year we had over forty guests, this year we expect to top that number.  I have been a busy gardener getting the place ready for the event.   

This week at the DragonFly garden.

I decided the clean up this palm tree, it turned out to be harder than I expected. (I will never let anything climb up the trunk of any my trees)

My Mexican flame vine is in full bloom.

The mangos are almost ready 

This week I had two painted bunting visit the garden.  This is a rare event for my garden, these birds winter in southern Florida, but cities are not their habitat.  The picture was taken from inside my house.

HAPPY EASTER