Winter gardening

Winter has arrived and so far it has been one of the best in recent years.  The temperatures this January had been mid sixties in the morning with high in the seventies, perfect gardening weather.   I am trying to take advantage of these beautiful days, there is so much to do before we go back to our normal weather pattern.

This corner of the garden needs more color and less bromeliads, the Pentas are new and are good pollinator flowers. 

Bottle art an inexpensive way to add color to the garden beds.

 

The front garden was out control and in need of some changes.  I decided to simplified the flowers beds and not mix so many different plants.

Flowers giving color to the winter garden

Update on my vegetable/herb garden.  So far the three tomatoes plants and all the herbs are doing great, the arugula and spinach were a bust

End of the year visit to Everglades National Park

It has become a tradition in my family to visit Everglades National Park before the end of each year.  This year the park was not as crowded as before, the pandemic  has done a number on winter tourism in South 

Florida.  One positive outcome was that, we had many of the trails all to ourselves.

This year the water level in the park was higher than usual during the winter season.  Some of the Everglades restoration projects at the northern border of the park have been completed, increasing the natural flow of water coming to the park from the central part of the state.

Park experts, like higher water levels.  They create more food for birds, specially during nesting time.  This Great Egret is happy, higher water is no problem.  I noticed that there were not that many birds in the park this year, may be they didn't get the memo about the extra water. 

I am not a big fan of reptiles, but the fact that the Everglades is the only place on earth where Crocodiles and Alligators live side by side is very cool.

Gators love to sun themselves, the higher water levels reduces the spaces where they can enjoy the sun.  This one is using part of the hiking trail and he doesn't care.

The Everglades is not all water marshes, there are tropical hardwood hammocks scatter throughout the park. Mahogany hammock is one of my favorite trails in the park, it doesn't feel like you are in the Everglades. 

Flamingo is the end of the paved road in the park, next to Florida bay, and where you find plenty of Osprey  birds.

 Thank you for reading my blog this past year

 I hope you all have a Happy and Healthy New Year