Year around gardening can be exhausting

I am taking a few days off from the garden, as much as I love been outdoors playing in the dirt, sometimes a little time off is called for.  My zone 10b garden requires a constant oversight of plants and weeds and that constant oversight can be a little exhausting.  I am taking the rest of February off, this is the best month weather-wise in South Florida, a perfect time to explore what my town has to offer.  

This week at the DragonFly Garden

The Oxalis weeds are a little difficult to control, so I decided to let them be.

The starburst trees are full of flowers all over my neighborhood.  I like these flowers but the tree can be a bit of a nuisance. 

Mango season is not looking very good this year, must of the trees are not showing many flowers.  This time last year my trees already had small fruits and were full of flowers.

It is difficult to kill a bougainvillea plant.  This is my oldest bougainvillea, it has been in a container for over ten years.  Last month, while all my other plants were blooming this one looked like it was dying.  After much TLC, look at her now. 

 This is one of many Sticks on Fire plants around the garden.  This succulent is so easy to grow and is not bothered by our extreme weather conditions.

If you look closely you can see our local hummingbird looking for food.

Last week I filled two trash cans of old bromeliads, it was time for my least favorite job in the garden.  Taking out the old bromeliads and making room for the new pops for next summer flowering season.

This is what this area looked like last summer.

A Chihuly garden is not!!!

My dad was a collector of many things, but he loved to collect interesting glass bottles.  He passed away a year ago and I was giving the task of cleaning his two garden sheds, something I was putting off until last week.  There could be hundreds of glass bottles in the two sheds, cleaning these sheds is like peeling an onion (I am not even halfway done).  I don’t like the idea of throwing away something that my father collected and valued, but keeping his collection was out of the question.  Last week I started taking the bottles out, keeping some to give away to family and friends and recycling the rest.  Both my daughters took a few bottles to decorate their houses and I had an idea to place some of the bottles in my garden.  I like the way the glass brings color to the garden, especially when the sun hits the glass.  My father was the person responsible for my interest in gardening and now part of his collection will be a part of my garden, it will remind me of him every time I am outside.

Avocado tree on death row.

This avocado tree was a gift from a family member five years ago.   In five years, it has grown to what it is today, during that time it has produced no flowers and not one avocado.  As far as an avocado tree go, it seems content with its place in my garden towering over all the other trees taking space and not giving anything in return.   Last year after the avocado season ended, I put this tree on death row.  The only thing that would commute the sentence this year, is the production of at least one avocado.  This week I noticed that my neighbor’s avocado tree is already showing flowers and my tree has nothing.  

This week at the DragonFly garden

My garden working area needed some tidying up this week.

 Before

This small corner of the garden is my wild area, hiding behind all these plants is the hollow trunk of an old coconut tree.  My neighbor tells me that there an opossum living in the trunk. 

Hibiscus flower, photo taken with a regular lens,

Same flower, photo taken with my art lens.

All gardens need a small kitchen garden

Last year I made the decision not to do another winter vegetable garden.  My garden has become a shade garden over the years and my vegetable beds suffered for lack of sun.  This week while I was working on my side garden, I noticed a small spot of the garden getting about three hours of sun at midday.  A perfect place for a small kitchen, herb garden.  My nursery did not have many choices, but I was able to purchased parsley, basil, oregano, dill, swiss chard, spinach and couple of cherry tomatoes plants.  I don’t want to give up on the idea of growing food in my garden, but the only year around sunny area is the west-facing front of the house.  I need to convince my wife and some neighbors that green grass is a thing of the past.

This week at the DragonFly Garden

I took on a project to redo the long strip of garden in between my house and my neighbor.  This area has never gotten much sun all year round, the grass died a long time ago and it has gotten muddy during the rainy season.  It took 20 bags of river pebbles to have it looking like this.  I am using shade loving plants on one side, plants like ferns (more about ferns in future postings) elephant ears, coleuses, banana trees, and others.  The other side is a mix of different plants from all over the garden. 

Before

Begonias are doing well in the containers

 White hibiscus

The DragonFly Garden has its own weather station

What do you give the man that has everything for Christmas?  His own weather station, of course! My family knows that I have three obsessions in my life, gardening, electronic gadgets, and weather.  This Christmas, they got together and got me this miniature weather station for the garden (I had no idea this was a thing) The station outside transmit wireless to the display inside the house.  The station gives, temperature, humidity, (inside and outside) wind speed/direction, heat index, rainfall amount, barometric pressure, storm alerts and 24 hours weather forecast.  This is a very cool gadget, my wife thinks that it is weather overload, especially for South Florida where the weather doesn't change much, she is probably right but I like my new toy. 
       

This week at the DragonFly Garden

Two different Hibiscus flowers from the same plant. 

Bonsai Buganviella plant with flowers, one of my few bonsai successes.

Birds in the garden

I finally got a decent picture of the hummingbird

Mucking birds are common year-round residents, this one was watching me while I took pictures of the hummingbird.

This Prairie Warbler has been hanging around the garden this winter, I like the way this picture came out.

The DragonFly garden 2018, the year in review

2018 was a year of changes for me and the garden, I retired from my 9 to 5 job and became a full-time gardener.  The garden's fruit trees were productive and my collection of plants continue to grow. 

January -  I started the year with a new water fountain for my side garden, a Christmas present.   

February - This beautiful Hibiscus plant became my ninths in my collection of hibiscus plants, all in pots.

March - This year my collection of bromeliads continues to grow.  This is my favorite bromeliad, it blooms every year in March 

April - The butterflies were back, this year we had a record number of Zebras in the garden.

May - Like every May we had a very wet month, it rained the entire month.  My succulent collection did not fair well.

June - This year we had a record number of Mangos, from our two trees.

July -  Caterpillars invaded the garden during the summer 

August - A first for the garden, a family of squirrels moved into the neighborhood.  I am not sure if I am happy with these new neighbors. 

September - I have always been fascinated by the art of Bonsai and this year I received bonsai tools as a gift.  I am reading books and planning to take a class.

October - The snowbirds arrived in the garden.  This year we have several Painted buntings making my garden their winter home.

November - The Carambola / Star Fruit tree had a record production of fruits for the first time.

December - I changed the look of my front garden, I added more succulents and took out some bromeliads.

Happy New Year

Here comes the light

Today is the winter solstice, not a big deal for us in South Florida, but more daylight is always welcome for those of us working in the garden.  Early this morning we experienced the winter storm that is covering the entire east coast of the US.  The storm gave us rain and high winds with gust up to 40 miles per hour.  My garden is a mess, tomorrow will be a cleanup day.  

Below is my Brunfelsia Grandiflora (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow bush) I call this my Christmas bush, it blooms every year around this time.  

I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, I hope 2019 brings you all health and happiness.