Drowning my sorrows in the garden.

There was not going to be any gardening at the DragonFly garden this weekend. It was supposed to be American football all weekend all the time. Our three local teams, the Miami Hurricanes, FIU Golden Panthers, and the Miami Dolphins were playing Saturday and Sunday. All three laid a homogonous egg… they lost big time.
Today I had the day off from work, so it was a good time to go into the garden and forget about our disastrous football weekend.

While pressure cleaning the back patio I decided to make some changes to the back part of the garden.

Before, we used to keep our garbage cans there.

With the increase number of containers in my garden, I needed a place to display some of them. All I needed to do was buy a couple of bags of gravel; I had the extra garden blocks for the border and Voila!!! a new garden bed.

The amazing Dragon Fruit

This is a dragon fruit, one of two produced this year by my night bloomer tree (also known as cactus orchid)

Of the hundreds of flowers that bloomed this summer, only two have gone to fruit. The flowers only bloom at night, and pollination must be done by nocturnal living things, such as bats and moths.

The dragon fruits is consider a miracle fruit, they are highly concentrated with Vitamin C, minerals and a high on fiber. These nutrients are known as antioxidant which usually help in the prevention of the formation of free radicals that cause cancer

12 hours in the life of a night bloomer flower

10 PM

Midnight

6AM

Morning the next day

What to do with driftwood in the garden

I found this driftwood on the beach at Sanibel Island this past summer; I knew it belong in my garden, but where?

Picture before,

I was not happy with the way the back garden was looking, especially around the water fountain. Aha!!! a perfect place to put the driftwood.

I moved the bromeliads back around the water fountain and set the driftwood with air plants in the center.

The kalanchoe plants were moved to where the bromeliads were and I added three peach crossandras for color.

I got a strange look from my next-door neighbor, he probably thinks that I am nuts, moving plants around every couple of weeks. What can I do, I’m never satisfied, that’s what makes gardening fun.

Friday’s bloom, all white flowers

No much blooming in the garden this week, must of my plants are looking a little tired, the summer heat and the daily rain are taking its toll.
I noticed several white flowers this Friday


White periwinkles

White rose

White pinwheel

Poisonous plants

Recently I planted a beautiful plant not knowing what it was. All I knew was that the leaves were a deep red wine color (when fully grown) and that it would look great in my garden. It turned out to be a Castor Bean plant, a very deadly plant to animals and humans. Thanks to Jake at the Northeast Florida Paradise blog for identifying the mystery plant.
I Google the Castor Bean plant and found out that the beans are poisonous if eaten by animals or humans and they can cause death, that warning was enough for me; for sure it had to go.

Preparing the vegetable garden

Today I started working on my winter vegetable garden, on advice from my wife I decided not to expand the vegetable bed. My idea was to double the size this year, but she is right, I barely have anytime to take care of the garden as is. (I need more time, if I could only be semi-retire)

I moved the herbs to the other side, pulled weeds and turned the soil. In a couple of weeks I will add compost and everything should be ready for planting in early October. As you can see, I keep all my herbs in containers, and not many survived the heat of the summer this year, so I need to shop for more.

I decided to transplant the key-lime tree to a container that way I can keep it manageable.

These three key limes are the total production for the first year. Good for one glass of lemonade.

This paintbrush croton followed me home from Home Depot (this happens all the time).

DragonFly Friday’s bloom

My Internet connection has been out for more than a week, thank god is back.

This Friday I have several blooms in the garden.

Kings Mantle


Yellow ground orchid


Buttercup


Coleus


Pentas


Allamanda


Thryallis

Another dead bonsai

This is the third bonsai that I've killed. I love the art of bonsai but I don’t think it’s for me. Maybe someday when I retire and have more time on my hands.

Another Saturday in the garden

Today I took on the banana corner, which is what I call this area of the garden now; it used to be my meditation area until noisy neighbors moved next door. As you can see in the picture below, the place was out of control, and it was time to simplify.

I took out a plumbago and honeysuckle bush. As for the honeysuckle, it got the three strikes rule. I planted it in three different areas of the garden and today I finally realized that it does not belong in my small garden.

It was a hot and humid day today and the plumbago put up a fight.

I have five ladyfinger banana plants, the two older ones have bananas and they should be ready for picking in another month, probably around the same time. Mix with the banana trees are the heliconias

The decorative banana plant in the container was rescue from a neighbor’s garbage can.

This plant was a gift from fellow gardener, we don’t know the name but fully grow she is a beauty, it grows about six feet and the foliage is a deep red.

I am planning to paint the bench, but that will have to wait for cooler weather in October.

New logo for the DragonFly garden.

The garden has an official new logo; I found this cute dragonfly in a store on Sanibel Island.

These rain lilies are in full bloom this weekend, they only bloom once a year but when they do, they put on a show.

August is my least favorite time of the year in South Florida; by the time it comes around we are all so sick of the heat. Every year we tell ourselves that this is the hottest August ever, and this one is no exception.
This morning I was in the garden from 7 to 9am , I did some weeding and trimmed some bushes but by mid morning it was time to come inde to the AC.
This week I was so busy at work that I did not have any time to visit my favorite blogs, I am hoping to catch up this weekend.