My last post

After 15 years of writing my garden journey on this blog, the time has come to end the blog.  The journey will continue and I will share the pictures of my garden on my  Instagram account ( @dragonflygarden ) this is an open account so I invite your to follow me.  When I started this blog 15 years ago I was a garden novice and my garden was an open canvas.  The canvas has change many times over the years and the garden looks so different today from what it was back then, but isn't that the point of gardening, continuous changes that never end.  

 I would like to thank you all for following The Dragonfly blog over the years and for your thoughtful comments.   I wish you all a healthy and HAPPY THANKSGIVING 

Stay well be safe and keep on gardening. 

After mango season comes pruning time

This year I had to pruned one of my mango trees hard, it was getting too big for my garden.  This will problebly means that next year I will not get too many mangos from that tree.  I also gave my avocado tree a good trim, this year we didn't get any fruits.  I am not sure if it had to do with the lack of rain during the winter season, but looking around to other trees in the neighborhood and many have few avocados this year. 

One of my neighbors was redoing his garden this week and called me to see if wanted a couple of concrete benches and a old Spanish Tinajon (needs a little paint). I never say no to free garden decorations.

The Firebush tree is back, full of flowers after a hard pruning last month

The summer rain makes the garden so lush,  the different shades of green are so vivid..

The four Caladium plants I introduced to the garden last month have adopted well.

There is always a Bromeliad blooming somewhere in the garden.

This Monarch butterfly picked an unusual place to pupa. She was born on the 4th of July

 

Garden June images

June, the month that brings positives and negatives to South Florida gardens.  The positives  are the abundance of wild life visiting, specially butterflies.  The negatives are obvious, it is the start of the rainy season and with it comes the hordes of mosquitoes making gardening a very uncomfortable hobby.   

The rain also bring wild rain lilies all over the garden, more flowers from the bougainvilleas and it is the time for the African lilies to put on their show. 

This year I had so many mangos to give away, that I had to put a free mango sign on my sidewalk. 

What do you give a father that gardens?  Garden decorations, I loved my gifts this year

I hope you all have a happy and safe Forth of July

 

Gardening in the shade

Over the past few years my gardening experience changed from sunny to shade.  Before all my fruit trees and those of my neighbors matured to full grown trees, my back yard was a sunny garden.  These days my choice of plants are mostly shade loving plants.  This past week I planted Caladiums in one of my semi-shaded beds.  I have to confess that I have become a fan of shade plants, there is more green and the garden looks fuller.  The shade also makes gardening in the South Florida weather more enjoyable. 

 

This year I let the Blue Porter Weed plants grow all over, they are great pollinator plants

I found a gardening show on Amazon Prime call Gardners World.  This show is produce by the BBC in Great Britain, very popular with British gardeners.  The show main presenter Monty Don does the show from his own magnificent garden, giving information and tips on the do and don't of different plants.  Other presenters visit public and private gardens throughout the British Isles.  The one hour show is on in Britain from spring to fall every Friday night.  One result from watching this show has been that now I am hook on using cuttings and sowing seeds.  The shows on Amazon Prime are about four years old, for newer shows you have to subscribe to BritBox a subscription service for all BBC shows.

Mango season is in full swing, we are eating these delicious fruits everyday and so do our squirrel friends, so far we have enough for everyone.  All the mangos on the last picture are from my neighbor's tree,  all those fruits will soon be falling on my side of the fence. (My neighbor does not care for mangos)

 

Second makeover for this corner of the garden

Two months ago, I took out the Rangoon Creeper vine covering the yellow trellis.  I filled up the place with bromeliads, potted plants and started a search to replace the Creeper.  This part of the garden is the first thing anyone sees when visiting my back garden.  I was not happy with the way it looked, a new makeover was need it.  I planted a Bleeding Hart vine to replace the Rangoon Creeper, I also moved my collection of potted Bougainvillea  plants into the space and added a bistro set I found on the street (It happen to be exactly the same as one I have in another corner of the garden. 

This is what the place looked before, like a fool I left the trunk of the old Rangoon Creeper in, it only took a couple of weeks for the shoots to come up all over the newly planted bromeliads. It took me a couple of days to dig out the old trunk.  I kept a couple of the bromeliads and the rest were put outside by the curbside for anyone to take.

New plants in the garden

Bleeding Hart Vine

Banana 

Passion Flower  Vine

     Thryallis

The resident squirrel hanging outside her new condominium.  Only in South Florida do squirrels make a  nest in palm tree. 

This is a Resurrection Lilly (ID with a new phone app) I don't remember how this plant got to my garden, but it has become one of my favorite.  This is one of the few plants in the garden that burst out the ground in spring and dies back in the fall.  The flowers are nice but the leaves are striking.  

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY