Friday’s bloom, all white flowers

No much blooming in the garden this week, must of my plants are looking a little tired, the summer heat and the daily rain are taking its toll.
I noticed several white flowers this Friday


White periwinkles

White rose

White pinwheel

Poisonous plants

Recently I planted a beautiful plant not knowing what it was. All I knew was that the leaves were a deep red wine color (when fully grown) and that it would look great in my garden. It turned out to be a Castor Bean plant, a very deadly plant to animals and humans. Thanks to Jake at the Northeast Florida Paradise blog for identifying the mystery plant.
I Google the Castor Bean plant and found out that the beans are poisonous if eaten by animals or humans and they can cause death, that warning was enough for me; for sure it had to go.

Preparing the vegetable garden

Today I started working on my winter vegetable garden, on advice from my wife I decided not to expand the vegetable bed. My idea was to double the size this year, but she is right, I barely have anytime to take care of the garden as is. (I need more time, if I could only be semi-retire)

I moved the herbs to the other side, pulled weeds and turned the soil. In a couple of weeks I will add compost and everything should be ready for planting in early October. As you can see, I keep all my herbs in containers, and not many survived the heat of the summer this year, so I need to shop for more.

I decided to transplant the key-lime tree to a container that way I can keep it manageable.

These three key limes are the total production for the first year. Good for one glass of lemonade.

This paintbrush croton followed me home from Home Depot (this happens all the time).

DragonFly Friday’s bloom

My Internet connection has been out for more than a week, thank god is back.

This Friday I have several blooms in the garden.

Kings Mantle


Yellow ground orchid


Buttercup


Coleus


Pentas


Allamanda


Thryallis

Another dead bonsai

This is the third bonsai that I've killed. I love the art of bonsai but I don’t think it’s for me. Maybe someday when I retire and have more time on my hands.

Another Saturday in the garden

Today I took on the banana corner, which is what I call this area of the garden now; it used to be my meditation area until noisy neighbors moved next door. As you can see in the picture below, the place was out of control, and it was time to simplify.

I took out a plumbago and honeysuckle bush. As for the honeysuckle, it got the three strikes rule. I planted it in three different areas of the garden and today I finally realized that it does not belong in my small garden.

It was a hot and humid day today and the plumbago put up a fight.

I have five ladyfinger banana plants, the two older ones have bananas and they should be ready for picking in another month, probably around the same time. Mix with the banana trees are the heliconias

The decorative banana plant in the container was rescue from a neighbor’s garbage can.

This plant was a gift from fellow gardener, we don’t know the name but fully grow she is a beauty, it grows about six feet and the foliage is a deep red.

I am planning to paint the bench, but that will have to wait for cooler weather in October.

New logo for the DragonFly garden.

The garden has an official new logo; I found this cute dragonfly in a store on Sanibel Island.

These rain lilies are in full bloom this weekend, they only bloom once a year but when they do, they put on a show.

August is my least favorite time of the year in South Florida; by the time it comes around we are all so sick of the heat. Every year we tell ourselves that this is the hottest August ever, and this one is no exception.
This morning I was in the garden from 7 to 9am , I did some weeding and trimmed some bushes but by mid morning it was time to come inde to the AC.
This week I was so busy at work that I did not have any time to visit my favorite blogs, I am hoping to catch up this weekend.

I am back in my garden.

After two weeks away, I found some pleasant surprises and some not so pleasant.
Apparently it rained quite a bit during my vacation, the rain barrels were full and the garden was a little waterlogged.

One of the pleasant surprises, was finding this wild orchid full of flowers. It kind of resembles the famous ghost orchid from the Everglades, but is not.

My coleuses also did very well during my time away.


On the not so pleasant, I planted these bromeliads before leaving on vacation. I made the stupid mistake of planting them under a tree that drops a lot of leaves and flowers. The number one rule about growing bromeliads is to keep the center clear of debris, if not the plant will rot. In two weeks I lost three plants.

Goodbye Sanibel

Tomorrow morning is time to go home, my family and I had great time on the island.
Monday is back to work and the routines of life, but we will have many memories from this magical place.

After two weeks away from my garden, I don’t know what I am going to find, I hope there is minimum damage

There is more then beaches at Sanibel Island

My favorite activities during my vacation at Sanibel Island are biking the many trails and walking the natural preserve trails.

The Bailey track is a popular trail near the beach, teeming with many birds and an occasional alligator.

A beehive took over an owl’s nest.

New this year in the Periwinkle preserve, a trail dedicated the birds and butterflies. (I don't recommend it in the middle of the day, it was so hot)

Here we are biking on the rabbit road trail.