Thinning out the herd

The bromeliad herd that is, yes the time has come to face the overpopulation of bromeliads in my small urban garden.  My wife does not like them, I will admit that I have too many, and they are partially responsible for the over population of mosquitoes in my garden.  

My bromeliads did not get the memo about the one child policy at the DragonFly Garden.  Most of the plants will have two to three pups and that’s how I ended up with a garden mostly populated by bromeliads.  I try to find new homes with neighbors and friends, but is getting harder to place all the new comers, I could throw them in the garbage but that goes against my gardening genes.

 Did you know that Spanish moss is a bromeliad.

Fireballs are great for ground cover; this bromeliad was my first, a gift from my dad, and it is responsible for my obsession.  I use it anywhere I need to cover a bold spot, and at the bottom of tree trunks, the colors vary from red to green depending on the amount of sun it gets.

 Aechmea Blachetiana is a popular bromeliad with gardeners in South Florida, the blooms are spectacular and last from three to four months.  The leaves have deadly spikes, so I will need a hazmat suit before I work on this one.

My favorite garden pictures of 2013

 

I hope you and your families have a happy, healthy and safe NEW YEAR.

Merry Christmas from the DragonFly Garden

For the last six weeks the DragonFly garden blog has been a little quite due to the flare up of an old knee injury.  Is a little difficult gardening wearing a knee immobilizer, finally this week I was able to take it off and the knee feels much better.

 

I had no trouble using my camera

The Brunfelsia tree is full of flowers this time of the year, the three shades of purple in these flowers make the tree look like a Christmas tree.

The Solandra tree (Cup of gold flower) bloomed for the first time this year.  My tree grew from a cutting I got from a neighbor, and he got his tree from a cutting he smuggled on a visit to the Canary Islands.  The Solandra plants are native of Central America, and how they got to the Canary Islands.  Maybe someone smuggled a cutting from Central America.    

 The Azaleas are blooming early this year,

 

Miniature Bougainvillea flower

May the spirit of Christmas bring you and your families’ peace, love and happiness.  

Winter vegetable garden is in.

My winter vegetable garden is planted and already producing.  This year I’m emphasizing mix salad greens and herbs, previous experience taught me that mix greens do better in a low sun area. Located in a strip of land between my house and my neighbor, the location of my vegetable garden is not ideal but it is the only place I have available.  During the winter season when the sun is low in the southern sky, this area of the garden gets only a couple of hours of sun in the early morning. 
This year I planted, tomatoes, radicchio, broccoli, eggplant, Swiss chard, spinach, peppers, cucumbers, mesclun mix and romaine lettuce.  So far a few of these plants are doing well, others not so (the tomatoes as always are starting poorly)
This year we had an unusually wet early winter, I’m hoping that as the dry season takes over and the only water the garden gets comes from my watering can things will get better.

 

Rainy day in South Florida

Today I was able to trimmed the Cassia tree before it started to rain again, it has been raining on and off for the last three days.  This is not typical weather in southern Florida for this time of year, we should be at the beginning of the dry season.  My young vegetable plants are not doing well with so much rain.  (I will post about the vegetable garden next week)

FYI - I'm doing this post with my IPad, I finally figured it out, the jury is out on which is better a PC or the iPad 

Early morning light

Taking pictures is all about the light, and there is no better than early morning light.  This morning the weather was glorious and the light perfect.  I went out in the garden with my camera in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other, and my faithful companion Rosie.  Times like this is why I love gardening and the sweat and aching muscles are not important.   

Is pressure cleaning part of gardening?

This morning the weather was cloudy, windy and rainy, not ideal for gardening.  I decided to do one of my least favorite jobs, pressure cleaning my patio.  Our tropical weather turns the bricks black with mold several times a year and I hate the way it looks.

This is the view from our living room.

  

Yellow Cassia tree in full bloom

This is the second year my yellow cassia tree flowered, and so far this year the blooms are spectacular.  I like the color yellow in the garden and this tree never disappoints.  If you are looking for a fast growing tree in zone 10 or 11, one that blooms in the fall and is not too big, I recommend the Cassia Tree.  It is also plant food for butterflies.

 

This weekend I purchased a few plants to spruce up the front garden for the holidays.