The urban tree canopy

Between my neighbor’s backyard and my garden, we have the thickest tree canopy in our neighborhood.  We both love tropical fruit trees and our two small gardens can count on over twenty trees.  It is sad to see that our city landscape is losing its tree cover, most homeowners see trees as a nuisance.  My next-door neighbor already complained to me that my Plumeria tree is too messy, especially in the fall and I should think about cutting it back,  I explained to him, that Plumeria tree is keeping his house cooler in the hot summer months and helping him with his air conditioning expenses (I don’t think he believed me)

We have lost so many trees due to hurricane strikes and out of control development that our situation is critical.  The local government is trying to replace those trees that were lost, by planting hundreds of trees on the street right of way and by giving trees to anyone who wants to adopt a tree free of charge.  More needs to be done, we need to educate our neighbors of the importance of our trees, how they clean the air around us, cool our homes and neighborhood, attract wildlife, increase the value of our properties and help our planet against global warming.

The saga of my Avocado tree.  A few months ago, I wrote on this blog that I was ready to cut down my avocado tree if it didn’t produce any fruits this year.  Well, it got the message and so far, I am counting around 10 avocados.  This week I had to stake the tree, a storm with heavy winds almost knock down the tree to the ground.    

Mangos are on the way.

Summertime is here and so are the zebra butterflies

I have my garden back

After several weeks of construction outside the house, I finally have my garden back.  First, we did the house roof, next came the painting and last we replaced all my rain gutters.  Needleless to say, my neatly compact garden did not fare well with workers coming in and out.  I tried to minimize the damage by moving plants out of the way, but that was not possible for those planted on the ground. 

Today I finished redoing the front garden.  As you all know my front garden faces west and we get hit with the hot Florida afternoon sun.  My choices are limited for this area, but you can't go wrong planting miniature ixoras, lantanas, and milkweed (food for the butterflies)  My ground orchids, have been there for years and are not bothered by anything.

My Fireball bush did not do so well during the construction, I had to dig it out and replanted in another spot.  I hope it survives. 

For color in a hot Florida summer, I recommend Purslane, it will bloom all summer long and is not very fussy about water

In the back of the garden, I took out an old trellis that was fallen apart and left everything else the same.

My rain barrels are back online, in time for the rainy season.

Happy Mother's day to my mom, my wife, my daughter, and all the mom's out there 

Florida road trip

This past week my wife and I, took a road trip around Florida.  First, stop the Kennedy Space Center in Melbourne FL.  Our second stop was the Merritt Island wildlife refuge near the Space Coast, we ended our trip at the EPCOT flower and garden festival at Disney World.

I am a big fan of space exploration and science fiction; In the forty plus years that I have lived in Florida, this is the first time I visited and tour the space center.  I can’t believe that it took me all this time to visit the Cape.  I loved the space museum, with all the rockets, the history of our space program and the actual space shuttle Atlantis.  My favorite part of the day was the actual tour of the launchpads and the impressive assembling building.  Today some of these buildings and launchpads are lease to private industry (Boeing and Space X) I don’t know if this is good or bad, but when NASA was in total control of our space exploration, we did great things.  I am coming back, hopefully on a launch day.

The visit to the Merritt Island wildlife refuge did not disappoint.  The refuge was teeming with birds, it was great to see so many spoonbills.  A first for me, I spotted a Glossy Ibis.  

 The EPCOT flower and garden festival was started by Disney 25 years ago to bring more visitors to the parks during the spring offseason.  The festival has evolved over the years and today it is as much about the food sold around the park (where the money is) than it is about the flowers.  If you like topiaries, Disney gardeners are masters at it.  I enjoy my yearly visit to the festival, I recognize that is not as grand as it used to be, but it continues to be a beautiful site.

Gardening in a construction site

We have decided to do some renovations to our home, and that will put some stress on the garden.  First, we are adding a new roof to the house.  There was nothing wrong with our old roof, except that it was over twenty years old and nowadays in Florida insurance companies are refusing to insure homes for hurricane coverage unless the roof is new.  As long as we were putting a new roof, we decided to paint the house and put new rain gutters.  I expect damage to my plants especially those near the house, but it can't be helped.    

The first casualty was my giant sticks on fire plant, it dropped to the ground and broke in several pieces.  From one plant I now have three.

Flowers in the garden this week

This is the second time the Angel's trumpet plant has flowers this year.

Springtime and the Plumeria tree is full of flowers

Not very smart of me to put new grass in my back garden in the middle of house renovations.  My three-year-old grandson wanted a place to play when visiting.

Into the wild, trekking in Everglades National Park

This past weekend I visited Everglades National Park, this is one several visits I make to the park every year.  I wanted to go before many of the birds visiting during winter, start to leave for their summer homes.  The water levels in the park seem higher than in other years at this time.  I don't know if this is good or bad, they say that high water levels prevent some bird species from nesting and too dry hurt other birds and animal.  The ecosystem in this park is a tricky balance and us humans are responsible for the imbalance caused by climate change and many stupid off the park manmade projects.  It will take lots of funding and the will to fix these problems, unfortunate I don't see that our current federal and state governments have either. 

Snowy Egrets are year around residents of the park

Another regular is this Great Blue Heron

I love the Anhinga birds, they are a great fisherman.  This mom was feeding three chicks.

Drying up and relaxing in the sun after a long day taking care of the kids.

Every winter you can find thousands of American Coot ducks in the waters of the Everglades.  This year I did not see many, it could be that some have already moved north to cooler weather.

The American White Pelican is a migratory bird, they are found in the park during the winter months.  I was lucky to find this group in a small lake off the road, they are usually in areas that are not that accessible.

The Black Vulture is part of the cleanup crew.  They are not cute but they like to pose for pictures.

Gators is what most tourist visiting the park want to see, every year I come to this corner of the park and here they are the same group of gators.  I am beginning to think that they are props, none of them moved an inch.

I am not very good at identifying fish but someone suggested that this was a Florida gar.

The marina in the Flamingo area was host to a group of about ten Manatees, it was good to see these gentle giants in such numbers.

The River of Grass is one of my favorite wild places on this planet.  A healthy Everglades is essential to the survival of all us in South Florida.   I find it incredible that many of my fellow Floridian have never been to the park and have no interest in ever going.