Puttering around the garden

We had a cool sunny morning in South Florida today, a perfect day to putter around the garden with no particular task in mind.  I have not been around the garden much lately, this is the first day in weeks that I am home for the day.  Is fun to discover so many surprises, the brunfelsia tree is full of flowers ready for the Christmas season. 

This is one of my favorite bougainvillea plants, the orange color is so bright.

Not many brumeliad flowers this late in the season, most of the brumeliads flower during the summer season.

I don't remember how this plant got to my garden, I believe it is a weed by the way it grows everywhere.  The combination of the white flowers and the dark leaves are outstanding.  (need help with the name)

I found these beauties in a tree in the backyard.  I like to plant orchids in trees and sometimes I forget they are there.

The first and only star fruit from my tree, my wife is excited.

One of my mango trees is full of flowers.  This tree always flowers early, but this year is very early.  I hope we don't have a day with lower temperatures and frost.

This side of the garden does not get much sun during the winter months.  Today I found the garden beds full of Spanish needle weeds, I pulled most of them but left a few for the bees. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

My garden has been on hold for the last two months, I don't have much time for gardening these days.  Between work and family issues the garden has low priority on my schedule.   I hope to get back out there now that the weather is cooler and the humidity has gone away.  This year I am not doing a winter vegetable garden, last year's results were disappointing, the harvest was not worth the time and resources I put into.  Some day in the future, when I retire from my day job, I will pick it up again.    

The winter birds are back again, I am enjoying watching the activity in my bird-feeders.  This year I am lucky to have two male Painted Bunting visiting the bird-feeder.   The hummingbirds are also back.  The hurricane damaged the firebush tree, the main source of food for the hummingbirds, but it has bounced back and it is full of flowers

This week at the DragonFly Garden

The garden in front of the house looks very different from last year. The yellow tap tree and the date palm are gone, I decided not to replace the lost trees.  For now I  am using bromeliads to fill in the empty spaces. 

 I need to put new grass where the yellow tap tree was, but for now the weeds will do

 Before

 After the county picked up the debris 

Wishing you a Thanksgiving full with peace, love, family and friends .

The garden's winter guests are arriving

Today I found the first winter visitor, a Prairie Warbler.  These birds spend the summer in southern US and  winter in south Florida and the Caribbean.  They forage for insects in trees and bushes.  I am glad to see this little guy in my garden,  the tree cover in Miami was reduced considerably by the hurricane and that affect their habitat.  

 This morning I worked on this corner of the garden.  Things are looking a little thin, but I am waiting for the end of hurricane season in November before I buy new plants and put down mulch (there should be a lot of free mulch available soon)

 This Chenille plant was one of the few survivors and is doing very well.

Nice surprise this morning, my key-lime tree is full of flowers.  I  didn't get many fruits last year, the tree was not doing well, but it has recover and is looking much better this year.

 I will be working on this corner of the garden next week.

Irma's recovery continues

I took a couple of days off from work this week to spend in the garden, I'm tryimg to make it presentable again.  Three days later, I am exhausted and in need of a brake.  The DragonFly is a small garden but when everything is upside down, it takes a while to get it back to normal.  

I lost so many bromeliads, most were crushed by down trees and branches.  I had so many that it hard to see the lost.   I need to buy a new table for the back, my old table was one of the few casualties from Irma.

 Today I tackled the garden by the side of the house.  It takes a hurricane to see how overgrown that corner of the garden was.

The Orange Geiger tree was knocked to the ground by the wind.  Today I straightened the tree as much as I could and cut the top branches that were bend.  I don't know if I want to keep this tree, the roots are not deep and it will probably come down again in high winds.

 The front of the house is a work in progress, the trunk from the date palm has to go, but I am not doing it.

The pile in the front of the house continues to grow and the news from the county is not very promising.  The job is so big all over Florida, officials are telling homeowners to expect several months before it's picked up.

IRMA the recovery

This is what it greeted me Monday morning after Irma left us, the garden was totally trashed.  It could have been worse and our friends in the Florida Keys and Florida's west coast were not so lucky.   

We were hit with a category 1 winds and possibly cat. 2 gusts, must of the houses and buildings in the area did well, not so much for the trees and people's fences.  I lost my favorite flower tree, the yellow Tap tree in front of the house and my date palm.  I have a couple of trees to straighten up and a lot of clean up.   The good news is that all my feces held and so did my tool shed.  

Is going to take a long time to get the garden back to normal, this might be a good time to reevaluate the entire concept for the future.  My back yard went overnight from a shade garden to a sunny garden.  Thanks to my wife, daughters and son-in-law for starting the clean up while I had to go back to work.  

 This is my orange Geiger tree, I want to save it but is not budging.

 The trunk of the date palm will need professional help to remove

 The debris in front of the house is all from the garden.  It will take a long time for the county to pick it up, there are so many piles like this all over Miami.

 Yesterday I had to put together the small patio off my dinning room, it gives me hope that soon the entire garden will look normal again.  The beauty of mother nature is that it always comes back

Let's not forget the people of the lower keys, they are suffering so much. Is going to take a long time for their recovery and to bring life back normal again.