The butterflies are back for the summer

As the snow birds fly north for the summer, the butterflies are move in.  Today I photographed several Zebras and a mating pair of Gulf Fritillaries in my garden.  The Fritillaries are not very common around here, so this was an exciting find.

This week at the DragonFly garden

One of my neighbors put this container in the garbage bin, after a new cote of paint it is now hosting one of my hibiscus plants.

This is what is left of my winter kitchen garden, the heat has kill most of the plants.  Today I moved what was left to shady area away from the hot sun.

This Sticks on Fire plant has grown almost to the roof of the house.  I have many of these plants around the garden, but none get that reddish color they are famous for. 

 New flowers this week are these beautiful Hibiscus and the blue King's Mantle.

New to the garden are these pinwheels, it turns out they are my two year old grandson favorite thing in the garden. 

Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day to all, no work in the garden this weekend.  Time to relax and enjoy the wonders of nature.

First Mango of the season

Today I picked the first mango of the season, this year the harvest will be plentiful as you can see by the pictures below.   One of the trees is so heavy with fruits, that I had to put stakes on some of the branches.

 The Painted buntings continue to make my garden their home.  I have counted up to six in the feeders, two males and four females.  Today I spotted a Black and White Warbler in one of my birdbaths, a cute little bird, probably on the way north from his or her summer home in the Caribbean.   

More Hibiscus flowers in the garden.  I am a big fan of these flowers, I have ten different plants all in containers.  They are the perfect flower for my garden's subtropical theme.

Empty rain barrels

It has been so far a very dry winter in South Florida.  The last time we had a reasonable amount of rain, was at the end of January.  The water from my rain barrels is long gone.  I am using the tap to water my containers and watering the rest of the garden on a need basis, tap water is very expensive around here.  May is suppose to be the start of the the rainy season, I hope is comes early this year. 

Yesterday I did some gardening in the back garden.  I planted rose moss, periwinkle and Mexican heather.  Good plants that can handle our upcoming hot summer months.

Hurricane Irma destroyed my sprinkler system, this weekend I finally decided to fix it.  The work is tedious and I don't have any plumbing genes in blood.

Blooming in the garden this week.

Perfect for this weekend, this hibiscus plant came back from the dead.  After much TLC, this weekend she bloomed for the first time.

 Angel's Trumpets

 My favorite bromeliad plant turns pink this time of the year and is full of tiny purple flowers.  The rest of the year is olive green.

Birds in the garden this week.

The Gray Cat bird, I love this little guy.  These birds are not easy to photograph, they spends most of the day hiding in dense shrubs and trees.  Soon they will be flying north  for the summer. 

I started this winter with visits to the garden from two male Painted Bunting.  It looks like one the males got himself two girlfriends and the other male was sent packing.  (These pictures were taken from inside my home)

Blue Jays are the air traffic controllers of the garden.  They control what birds will eat from the feeders and they also sound the alarm when predators are in the area.