I am back

For the last couple of weeks I have been on the road traveling for my employer. Is good to be home again, pulling weeds in the garden. Traveling is hassle these days, between airport security, flight delays and bad food. Who needs it!!! My last stop was the city of New Orleans. I have visited the city many times before, but this was my first time since Katrina. Downtown is as normal as any other city, but if you drive a few blocks out you can tell that nothing normal. The number of empty lots, boarded up houses and the lack of people are striking. I can relate, that was the way it was in the Southern part of Miami for many years after Andrew. Spring has arrived to New Orleans; the mansions in the St. Charles Ave area are as beautiful as I remembered. The pictures were taken with my new I phone (my new toy)

Daylight Savings Time

I am loving daylight savings time, now I can garden everyday instead of cramming it all on the weekend. I get home from work around 6pm, which gives me two hours of daylight. It also has the added benefit of been a stress reliever after a long day at work.

Today I trimmed back my banana trees.

And had enough time to take some pictures of what’s blooming around the garden

The winds of March

The winds of March or in Spanish “Los vientos de cuaresma” (the winds of lent) are here. For the last week we have been experiencing strong windy days, strong enough to cause damage to trees. (None in my garden)

Saturday was sprinkler day, one of two days I get to water my plants every week. It has not rained for a couple of weeks and the dry season is in full swing.

These Monarch caterpillars are having breakfast in my Milkweed.

By afternoon is all gone.

I planted Milkweed in five different areas of the garden. Monarch caterpillars go through plants like this in one day.

This morning my wife and I went to a farmer’s market to buy veggies, and look what I came home with.

I had the perfect place to plant this ground orchid (Phaius Rabins Raven)

More color please

Word came down from the office of the DragonFly CFO.



I want less of this!!! (The CFO doesn’t like bromeliads)


I want more of this.


Change of plans for this corner of the front garden, originally I was going to plant bromeliads. but my wife made it clear that they are not her favorites. So roses it is.

This is what I have to deal with every time I plant anything a foot down. There are about two feet of crush rock below my garden; the developers put it there before they got the permits to build. Originally this area was swampland and part of the Everglades.
Roses are my wife’s favorite, I like them too, but South Florida is not an ideal place to grow them, they need a lot of TLC. The tall one in the back was in pot, the other three I purchased at Home Depot this morning.

My first movie
This is my first attempt at using the movie feature in my camera. You won’t see this movie at the Oscar’s tomorrow night.

Starburst or Shooting Star

The Starburst trees are bursting with flowers, finally after a couple of years of poor performance due to cold weather, they are blooming again. Traditionally they bloom around Christmas but this year the early cooler weather delayed their blooms.

This is my tree; the only problem I have is all the suckers it sends up. The tree can be a nuisance, but the flowers make it worth it.

That's my neighbor’s tree; it was a sucker from my tree.

Is mango time!!!

All the mango trees in Miami are full of flowers, it looks like is going to be a good mango season.

I don’t have a mango tree in my yard, and every year around this time I wish I had one. May be this is the year.

Today my work in the garden consisted of fixing my sprinklers (not fun at all). We are in the middle of our dry season, this month so far our area is seven inches below the normal rain levels. We are under water restrictions and can only use the sprinklers twice a week.

GBBD February 15, 2011

These are the blooms at the DragonFly garden this morning as I walked through the garden with a cup coffee in one hand and the camera in the other (Life is good!!!!)

I hope everyone in blog-land has a magical week.

Are Florida state parks on the endangered list?

This past week, my local newspaper had a story on the future of many of Florida’s state parks. Our newly-elected governor has proposed a budget that paints a bleak picture for the state as a whole and particularly its state parks. It is estimated that under this budget one third of all Florida’s parks will be closed, especially the least-visited. Four of those parks are located practically in my back yard. Today, my family and I decided to visit two of those parks before they are lost to the budget-axe.

The Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park.

This 2300-acre park is located in Key Largo, the northernmost Key; it has the largest tracks of West Indian hammock and is also home of many protected species of plants and animals.
In the 1980’s, this land was going to be developed into a massive Mediterranean-style condo complex that would have destroyed the hammock. Many local citizens fought the developers and won, including the woman the park was named after.

The park has over six miles of nature trails, most of them paved and accessible by bicycles. Self-guided nature trails provide information about the park´s ecosystem and wildlife.

Windley Key Fossil Reef Gealogical State Park

This park is near Islamorada, the second Florida Key. Formed of Key Largo limestone and fossilized coral, this land was sold to the Florida East Coast Railroad, which used the stone to build Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad in the early 1900s. The quarry was used until the 1960’s to produce exquisite pieces of decorative stone called Keystone.

Today, visitors can walk along eight-foot-high quarry walls to see cross-sections of the ancient coral and learn about the quarry and its operation, an important part of Florida's 20th century history. Samples of the quarry machinery have been preserved at the park.

The park has approximately 1.5 miles of trails that wind through a tropical hardwood hammock. Along the trails, visitors are able to observe over 40 species of trees and plants that are native to the Florida Keys.

Our newly elected governor, Rick Scott, facing a state budget deficit of $3.6 billion dollars even before taking office, has forged ahead to propose a new budget with an additional $2 billion in tax cuts for home owners and Florida corporations, ballooning the deficit to $5.6 billion. The answer is to “balance” the budget with stop-gap measures such as closing these parks.

Scott tells me that as a homeowner in this state I can look forward to approximately $500 in tax cuts for the next two years. Polifac, a non-partisan organization, published an article today stating that the tax cut will really average to $214 for each homeowner for the next two years. If governor Rick Scott is reading this blog, please keep my $214 in tax cuts and use it to keep my parks open as well as properly fund education the way the children of Florida deserve!

Super Bowl party

Tomorrow we are having family and friends over for a super bowl party / barbecue. This morning I worked on getting the garden ready for the guests.

This corner of the garden needed some spruce up; I moved some container plants around and added some mulch.

I got this plant from a neighbor today, he didn’t know the name but I think is kind of cool. Does anyone know the name?

My one and only Azalea plant is in full bloom. I got to get me more Azaleas for the garden; they are fast becoming my BFF flower.

About the Super Bowl, I have no skin in this game. I am not a fan of Pittsburgh or Green Bay, but it is the Super Bowl and a good excuse for a barbecue. I am hoping for a good game and funny commercials. Someday my Dolphins will return to the Super Bowl (wishful thinking)