Curb appeal for under $100

This weekend I worked on transforming the front of the house we are temporally living in, and making it more appealing to potential buyers. In previous posting I told you that my family and I moved to the house next door, while our home is been renovated. I promised the current owner that I would make the front of the house more buyer friendly(The House if for sale).
The idea was to use as much of the current plants as I could, and keep the work under $100 dollars.
First, I took out the large white bird of paradise blocking part of the view in the front of the house, and transplanted it to the back yard.
Second I cut back the Tricolor Ti and Trinette bushes. The Trinette is not a plant I care for but there were so many planted that it was a crime to take them all out.
Third I planted some Lantanas and Mexican Heather for color, these plants are great for Florida gardens they are drought resistant and do well in full sun. I also added Sage Grass and a Palm in a container from my garden.
Most of the cost was for pebbles, mulch and plastic border, the three full grown Lantanas were a little expensive, ordinarily I would buy smaller plants for my garden but we don’t have the time the realtor wants to do an open house next week

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Summer time and growing season

My garden has grown big time the last month that I been away. Yesterday I decided it was time to do some cut back and bring some semblance of order to the back yard. The blue porter flowers were totally out control.
The weather was pleasant early in the morning but by 10 am the sun was up the heat index was more that I could take, all I had time to do was clean the pond and cut back one of my small beds, next week I’ll go after the rest of the back garden.

Picture before

After

The home renovation goes on

As you all know, my family and I moved in late June to the house next door while our home was renovated. The idea was to be back home by Labor Day, the renovation was supposed to be for a new kitchen and two bathrooms. By now the job has grown and it has touched every room in the house. Every time my wife tells me “as long as we are doing this why don’t we do that” I cringe.
Labor day approaches the job is nowhere near completion and way over budget. Every morning the contractor tells me “Don’t worry I will be out of here by Labor Day, I have another job pending” words that don’t give any relief.

My cell rings at the most inopportune time during the day at work and it’s always the same “we need your authorization to do this or to buy that” I am at the point where I say yes to everything. My advise to any one considering a renovation is, “Don’t” buy a new house instead.

My garden has been abandon for the last two months, I simply don’t have the time or energy to go out there and spend time with my plants, there is contraction equipment and materials all over. They keep telling me that they will clean it up, but the way I see it I am going to need to start from scratch in about 50% of the garden.
During all this chaos my orchids are blooming.

Hi, Blogger friends! The family and I had a very nice vacation at Sanibel Island Florida. The weather was great and the island was fantastic.
Here are some pictures.

The wild life is all over the island.

Shelling is a popular past time in Sanibel (It's addictive; the wife and I picked our share)

Biking in the island is a great past time. The island has bike trails all over (who needs a car?)

Gardening in the island is a challenge; the best way to go is with native, drought resistant plants.

I came back to the real world this week and I wish I hadn’t. My house renovation project did not progress as fast as I had planned. My boss decided to come to Miami for his annual inspection visit, and my garden looks abandoned with overgrown plants, weeds, and many casualties from the heat and lack of rain. I shouldn’t complain, though-- I had a great vacation!

Going on vacation

My family and I are heading to Sanibel Island in the west coast of Florida for two weeks of R and R. The water sprinklers are on automatic, the potted plants are in the shade and I am hoping for some rainy days in between.
I’ll see you in two weeks.
PS – My contractor tells that my house should be done be the time we return.

A new garden gadget

My wife talked me into going to LinensNthings to shop for pillows today and I got a new gardening gadget. Who knew?
I did not know that LinensNthings sold gardening gadgets. I got a Garden Rocker, great to do gardening while seating it makes it easy to move in any direction and it’s great to reduce stress on the knees; it comes with packets for tools and can be adjusted in height. I got it for $19.99 the original retail price was $39.99. Not bad for a trip to get pillows.

Yellow alder, consider a weed by many but I love this yellow flowers and this plant is very low maintenance

Mango season is here

Delicious mangos everywhere, I don’t have a mango tree but my back yard neighbor does. Some of the mangos hang over my property (My luck) but the majority rot on the tree, to the delight of birds. He is not a mango person and the tree was there before he moved into the house. If it was me, I would give it to my neighbors but not everyone is that neighborly.

My Cactus Orchid had a record 87 flowers last night, the most ever in one night.

Butterflies are everywhere this time of the year.

My first Coneflower, I got the seeds on my trip to Vermont last fall. I didn’t think they were going grow in Miami but to my surprised it did. Is not as spectacular as the ones growing up north but I am happy with the result. Maybe they will do better during our winter.

Update on my house renovation. Things are moving along not as fast as I would like but I am told that this normal, my contractor tells me it will be done by mid August, will see.
My Garden looks a bit abandon and over grown, I going to try to dedicate it some time this weekend to weeding and pruning.

Happy 4th of July Everyone

Well, we moved and we are settled in our temporary home. The work has begun in our house and it is a big mess.
The moved was not as bad as I predicted, the only casualty has been my computer. For some unexplained reason it refuses to recognize any of the USB ports and that means no mouse or key board. After countless hours with Dell on the phone talking to some one some where on Planet earth but speaking something that resemble English (and my English with a Spanish accent did not make for good communication) I was told that the only solution was to restore my compute back to the original settings which means I loose all my documents and pictures. (This is the only solution these technical support people know how to do) Now I am using my old computer which I kept for this reason.

This morning I did a little bit of gardening very early in the morning, I cut back all my Pentas and Begonias, I pulled some weeds and transplanted a Palm tree that was in the wrong place and has been bothering me for a while. I discovered that my Cannas have been infested by this little bug that has eaten a lot of the foliage. By 9 am it was time to come in the heat and humidity was too much to take.

I hope every one in the US has a Happy and safe 4th of July.

Update on the family Red Head wood peckers nesting in my yard. The baby is looking out at the world outside while mom and dad are busy looking for food.

We are moving

Hi everyone, my wife and I are moving to the house next door. No I am not abandoning my garden, is only temporary.
We been talking about remodeling our home of 17 years for a long time and we finally decided it was time. The house next door has been empty and for sale for while so we made a deal with our ex next door neighbor to rent the house during July and August while our home is been worked on. In exchange we will be show it to prospective buyers, our furniture will give the house a more live in look. I also agree to do some work in the front garden to give it more curb appeal.
I will continue to tend to my garden and visit all my friends in the Blog-sphere. I hope you will excused me if I don’t keep up with my blog. (I promised I will try) Tomorrow our local phone company promised me that they will transferred my DSL line (Will see)
See you soon.

Observations from my Garden

June in Florida = Rain. It has been raining for the last 14 days in a row. The mornings are nice but by mid afternoon the monsoon rolls in from the west and the sky opens up.
We are supposed to be in the middle of the worst drought in history and under severe water restrictions. With all this rain you would think that the Water People would ease the restrictions. But NOO, it seems that is not raining at Lake Okeechobee (The source of our emergency water supply) or so they say.
Personally I think is all a Government conspiracy against us gardeners and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wal-Mart garden department is also involve.
Too much rain is no good for a garden most of my plants are looking terrible, only the grass is having a good time, if you look closer you can see it grow.

This week I been seen a lot more bees around the garden, that is good news for everyone.

Update on the woodpecker that is nesting in old palm trunk. I can hear the hungry babies inside and mom and dad are kept busy shuttling with food.

Rain drops keep falling on my plants and DATATATA…..

Portrait of a 94-year old gardener

Meet my father. At 94 years young he is a full-time gardener. From sun up to sun down he tends to his large garden in Miami (not an easy task at any age in this hot and humid environment). My father was born in Cuba in 1913, the son of poor share-cropper and the oldest of seven brothers and sisters. My dad has been around plants all his life. As a child, he quit school to go work in the sugar fields of Cuba to help support his large family. After he married my mother, they both moved to the city but always our house had a beautiful garden lovingly tended by my dad.
Dad got his gardening genes from his mother who was an avid gardener. My grandparents lived in the country in a very modest home and my fondest memory of their home was of my grandmother’s magnificent garden. Visiting them as a child was an adventure that I always looked forward to. My father, grandmother, and I would spend hours in the garden, me doing what little kids like to do like looking for interesting animals and bugs while my dad and my grandmother would work and talk about plants.
When my parents migrated to the U.S. in the mid 1960’s, we settled in southern Connecticut and lived in a third-floor apartment but even there my dad had a small garden--he asked the landlord if he could garden the grassy part of the building’s parking lot!
In 1975, we moved to Miami and my parents have lived in the same house for these past 32 years. All the plants and trees in the garden were planted by my father and the gazebo and utility shed were built by him (carpentry is another of his hobbies). My father retired 25 years ago and since that day he has remained very busy every day, always occupied with a task, most of the time in his wonderful garden.
My father’s philosophy about plants and gardening is simple--share what you have with others and they will share their bounty with you. He seldom buys a plant at a nursery since most of the plants he has are grown from cuttings or seeds. Many of the plants in my garden have come from his, including an heirloom-rose bush he brought with him from our home in Cuba.
Our mutual love of growing plants and gardening has brought my father and me closer together. We talk every day and the conversation usually starts with, “Did you get any rain today?” Dad believes that rain water is like gold for a garden and no matter how much city water one uses, it is never as good as rain.
I get many funny looks when I tell people about my gardening obsession, but the way I see it, I come from a long and proud family of gardeners; growing things is in our genes.
Happy Fathers Day, Dad, and thanks for the gift of gardening!

Gazebo he built after he retired

Pictures from the garden

He grows sugar cane to remind him of his childhood

Tropical fruit tree called “Nizpero” in Spanish

His prized avocado tree

Rain Lilies are popping up all over the yard

You know we are in the middle of the summer rain season when you get Rain Lilies popping up all over the garden.

A week ago I asked where are the mosquitoes. Well they have arrived and they are hungry. Today I was out around 7pm with my dog Rosie and they attacked, oh well that is gardening in Florida during the summer season. You can’t go out it in the afternoon because the sun will toast you and if you go out at sunset the mosquitoes will eat you alive.

I have this wonderful plant that I don’t know the name; I got it from a neighbor who did not know the name either. Is one my favorite plants in my garden, is great ground cover for shade areas the color of leaves is beautiful and the small lilac color flowers are great contrast against the leaves. This plant grows from April to November then it goes dormant until the following year (this is a rarity in Florida where everything grows year around) The only problem with this plant is that snails love it too, as you can see by my picture and they love to hide under the leaves.

If any one knows the name let me know.

Orchid Cactus first bloom of the season

My Orchid Cactus bloomed this week for the first time this season; it will flower from now into the end of October. I consider the flower from this plant the most beautiful and exotic of my collection.
If you are not paying attention you can you miss the flowers all together because they open up 10pm and they are done by 10am the next morning.
For several years this cacti has been growing on the trunk of an old coconut tree. The tree died a few years ago from a lighting strike, but the cactus continued to grow. For the last two years I been predicting the end because the coconut trunk is rotting and the weight of the cactus will bring it down. I hope it will stay up at least to the end of summer.

Picture the night before it bloomed

Picture in early morning.

Picture before noon

Hurricane season begins.

Yesterday was June 1st; the beginning of the 2007 hurricane season, for those of us who garden in Florida is always a stressful time. Did all the efforts that we put in the garden this past winter was all for nothing. Twice already I have seen my garden destroy by one of these storms and had to start from scratch.
Every year we go thru the same ritual, the news media goes bunkers over how we all need to prepare and not be complacent. The state of Florida has tax moratorium for two weeks on all storm prepare items and the talk of the town is (Are we going to get hit or not)
This year I am thinking of buying an electrical generator. The last hurricane that passed by here two years ago was Wilma as a category one, the damage was minimum but it did a number to the electrical grid. I was lucky I was without electricity only two days but neighbors two blocks away were out more than two weeks. I can handle been with out air conditioning but I need my refrigerator.
The beauty of gardening in Florida is that plants are so resilient and most of then come back even after getting whack by a hurricane. This weekend we already have a storm forming in the Gulf, it has a name Barry. Thanks god is not expected to get much bigger than a tropical storm. It is dumping a lot of needed rain in South Florida, so no gardening for me this weekend.

The sun flowers are beginning to bloom this week. I planted the seeds about two months ago, my first time planting Sun flowers; they are a good fillers for my tomatoes bed.