Peaceful Kingdom

The lazy days of summer are settling in, and the DragonFly garden is turning into a peaceful kingdom.  The gardening duties are down to a couple hours of maintenance in the early morning, while the rest of the day is spent taking pictures and admiring the scenery. 

The bees are gorging on the plentiful nectar from the Blue Porterweed flowers.

The butterflies are back.

Zebra Longwings

 Julia

 The Monarch butterflies are laying eggs on the Milkweed.

 New residents arrive every day, as the Milkweed disappears.

 A family of Blue Jays; patrol the air, keeping predators away.

 Lizards keep order on the ground.

The army of mercenary lady bugs; have moved on to battle enemies in other gardens.

The snail rebellion was crushed and driven underground, when the king put his foot down. (Pictures are too graphic to be shown on this blog) 

All in all, life is good in the Kingdom (unless you are a snail)

Happy Father’s Day 

First day of Hurricane Season

 June 1^st is not a day for celebration around here; it is the beginning of the hurricane season.  From this date forward and for the next six months we have to keep an eye on the weather forecast and pray that no storm comes our way.  The experts predict a slow season this year, because of the “El Nino” weather pattern in the Pacific, unfortunate hurricane science is not an exact science, and all it takes is one coming near to our neighborhood.

The end of May and the beginning of June is also the start of the rainy season in South Florida.  My rain barrels are now full, after a week of heavy rain, the grass is growing fast and the mosquitoes are back in full force.

What’s blooming in the garden this week?

The Rangoon Creeper (Jasmin Mansano) is in full bloom, and this year is putting on quite a show.  This is the most aggressive plant I have in the garden, but without question it is the most beautiful and fragrant flower in the summer garden.  It is also a vivid reminder of my grandmother’s garden in Cuba, the person responsible for my gardening gene. 

Not many butterflies around the Firebush this year, it has been attacked by some bug that is keeping it from getting flowers (Any idea what this is??) but no worries I have enlisted a battalion of lady bugs and they are at work everywhere. 

The red miniature Ixora is looking great.

The Heliconias are back.

This Dayflower plant was a gift from another gardener.  It is a native wildflower in Florida and by the looks of it, a popular one with pollinators.

Happy Mother’s Day

Is all about the moms this weekend, no work will be perform at the DragonFly garden.

I like to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to my wife, my mom, and to all the mothers reading this blog

The end of the growing season

The vegetable growing season that is, the hot May sun is putting an end to what is left of my vegetable garden, the hot afternoon sun is frying the plants.  I had another year of mix results; the salads greens were plentiful this year, while the tomatoes and pepper were disappointing.   The arugula and broccoli did well, but the eggplant was a bust.  Win some, loose some, I am not sure if I’m doing it again next year.

Around the garden this week:

The Zebra butterflies are back for the summer.

The Rangoon Creeper is blooming again.

These mangos are from my neighbor’s tree, on my side of the fence. 

A mix of bromeliads, succulents and annual plants

A mix of bromeliads, succulents and annual plants is what my street garden is made of.  Today I finished making some changes to the front and preparing the garden for our annual Easter bash.

A can of yellow pain will do for now, originally I wanted to replace the wood fence with a metal gate and fence but it’s not in the budget this year.  As you can see, I took out the big bougainvillea and planted two new bougainvilleas   in the containers by the gate.

The large bromeliad by the driveway is no more.  I replaced it with the old water fountain planted with succulents that was in another corner of the garden.  Originally I wanted to pull out most of the grass in this part of the garden and plant more succulents, but gardening time is limited for me at this time. (Retirement is around the corner, there will be plenty of time then)

I kept some of the pops from the bromeliad in the front and planted them in a container.  The areca palm that was here is now in my back garden.

Other changes, these bromeliads are going to grow nicely in the trunk of this date palm

This week in the garden, the fragrant lady of the night (Brunfelsia gigantean) is in bloom and the garden at night is a delight.

Look who was walking in my fence early this morning.  This opossum was carrying her baby to a new hiding place; I guess she forgot the time and was surprised by daylight

HAPPY EASTER 

Let the sunshine in

The last few weeks have been busy at the DragonFly garden.  I was trying to get all my spring pruning duties in, before the hot summer weather appears and gardening becomes a part time task only done in the early morning and at dusk. I think this year I went a little crazy with all the trimming, but some corners of the garden were looking a little wild. (I have a reputation for been a neat freak)

It all started with the Cassia tree that was knocked down by the wind a month ago.   I also pruned hard the Brunfelsia tree, the Starburst tree, the Fire Dragon bush, and for the first time the Mexican Flame vine.  The bougainvillea by the front gate is history, and so is the Aechmea Blanchetiana bromeliad in the front of the house. (More on some of the new changes in the front garden on my next posts)  The garden looks a little bare and the sunshine is coming through, but this is Florida and it will grow back in no time at all.

Fire Dragon bush before

After

Mexican Flame vine before

 After, I hope it grows back, fingers crossed

 

 There was a bougainvillea on top this gate (Gone)

This bromeliad in the front of the house, history, more on my next post.

The Brunfelsia tree is already coming back

Starburst tree

The Cassia tree one month later

Pictures from the garden this morning

Disclaimer:  No birds nest were harmed in the makeover of this garden