Weeding, Pandora radio and couple of beers

Not a bad way to spend a morning in the garden.  Today I took on the garden by the front door, this is the first impression new visitors to my garden get and it needed a touch-up.  After doing some heavy weeding, thinning out the ground orchids and moving a few containers around, it looked like new.   

Spring arrived to the land of eternal summer (The Plumeria tree is in bloom)

I am planning a big project for this corner of the garden.  Today I was supposed to start pulling out this giant bromeliad, but I ran out of gas before I could get to it. (May be I’ll hire someone to do it)

This Neoregelia is one the newest bromeliad in my collection, full sun and water in the cup is all they need. (That’s why I love these plants)

Bad news to report, I dropped my Nikon 3100 camera and broke the LCD display.  Is going to cost me over $200 to fix it, I will without my camera for two to three weeks.  All these pictures were taken with my point and shoot camera.  

The winds of March

The winds of March came blowing through my garden this weekend, and my yellow Cassia tree came down.  My favor flowering tree in the garden, I hope it recovers.

 The Cassia in full bloom last Fall

 The Cassia tree was not the only casualty, the old yellow bench was too weak for the strong winds.  I had to make some changes in the back garden, the windmill replaced the bench and I replanted a mango tree where the windmill was.    

I planted this mango tree in a pot last year and it didn't do well. 

360 Video of the DragonFly Garden

We had a glorious early spring Sunday morning today, a good time to do a video of the back yard.  The garden was so peaceful (except for barking dog from my next door neighbor) The potted bougainvilleas are bursting with flowers, the white begonias are in full bloom, and the bromeliads  are taking advantage of the added sunlight.

Birding at Fairchild Garden

Yesterday I joined a group of birders for an early morning tour of the garden.  This was my first time birding and I must say, it was fun, relaxing, and fill with great camaraderie.  The expert birders in the group were happy to share their knowledge with novices like me, and after a while it felt like we were hanging out with old friends.

Fairchild will be holding these tours every Saturday morning for the next two months.  March and April is the time when migrating birds visit the park for a brief pit stop on their journey north.

 I took my camera with my telephoto lens but the birds were too fast for my inexperience eye.  I was able to identified, Yellow-throated Warbler, Gray Catbird, Northern Cardinal, Red-bellied woodpecker, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, (My favorite) Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Monk Parakeet, Mourning Dove, White Ibis, Green Heron, Tricolored Heron and Egyptian geese.

 Egyptian geese are native to Africa south of the Sahara in the Nile Valley.  They were considered sacred by the ancient Egyptians, and appeared in much of their artwork.  These geese are not native to North America, but are becoming popular in park ponds, golf courses in Texas and Southern Florida.  Must were imported as decorative birds. Those that have escaped private ponds or aviaries have established hardy feral populations that seem to be growing in numbers. This family has taken residence at Fairchild Garden.

The Africa Redhead Agama, is not welcome anywhere in South Florida, this cute little guy I am told preys on smaller Florida native lizards.  

 When are we going to have a law in this country that stops the importation of exotic animals?

Saturday was my lucky day, the Bromeliad society of South Florida was having a sale at the park, and look what I came home with.      

Birding was fun, and I’m definite coming back.

Honey Bees are welcomed.

It is no secret for those of us out in the garden every day, that honey bees are in trouble.  A few years ago my Miami garden was buzzing with bees, the early morning was a glorious time, you could hear and see hundreds of bees flying from one flower to another.  Today you can count the number of bees visiting the garden and sometime is difficult to find one.

The causes are well known to everyone, loss of habitat, the use of pesticides, colony collapse disorders are many of the reasons.  What can we individual gardeners do?  Georgia Tasker wrote a excellent article in the fall edition of The Tropical Garden magazine about what we can plant in our gardens to help the bees.

This weekend I did my part to help our bee friends, this blue porter plant (one of the bees favorite flower) a volunteer in my front garden and the powder-puff tree are bee central at the DragonFly.   The key to attract more bees is to have a variety of flowers, kind of like a cafeteria for bees.  Yesterday I planted more bee friendly plants like, blue daze, milkweed, white pentas (they prefer the white one) and coleuses. 
Pesticides are another reason for their decline.  My garden has been pesticide free for many years, unfortunate not my neighbors.  Convincing others to stop using pesticide is another way we can help.  

“Bromeliad wars” fighting the spikes.

The last two weeks has been a garden war against the spiking Bromeliads (I have the scars to prove it) I took on the overgrown bromeliads in the front of the house; it was time to make some changes in this corner of the garden.

Work in process

 

It turns out that the trunk of the fig palm is a perfect place to grow bromeliads

 

 

The bougainvillea and wood fence will be gone soon. 

 I planted more Sansevierias in the corner; it’s going to look great with wall in the background

Does anyone want some free leftover broms??

Miami’s Kampong Tropical Garden

Yesterday I visited a garden in Miami I did not know existed.  The Kampong Tropical Garden, located in the middle of busy Miami near the Coconut Grove neighborhood.  The grounds where the garden is located, was the original home of Dr. David Fairchild in the early 1900’s.  The property was designated a national historic site, and donated in the sixties to The National Tropical Botanic Garden.  A not-for-profit institution, dedicated to tropical plant research, conservation, and education.

The Kampong (a Javanese word for a village) is one of six tropical gardens in the US, and the only one located in the mainland, the other five are in Hawaii. The garden has a tremendous collection of tropical plants, flowers and fruit trees, and is open for tours by appointments only.   

 Large Banyan tree

 Baobab or Dead Rat tree from SE Asia

 Star Fruit or Carambola

 The Asok or Sorrowless tree, the flowers bloom from the trunk of the tree.

A different variety of the Starburst tree 

 The original house Dr. Fairchild built in early 1900’s stands today.  Additions with a S. E. Asia flavor were added by Dr. Kay Sweeney; she purchased the property from the Fairchild estate and is responsible for donating the site to the National Tropical Botanic Garden.

 The property fronts Biscayne Bay, not much unspoiled waterfront land like this is left in metropolitan Miami