Repotting my orchids

This weekend was a chamber of commerce weekend in Miami, the weather was fantastic. The temperature was in the mid-seventies during the day, and sunny with a nice breeze blowing from the ocean.  This is the reason we love South Florida in the winter and why we put up with our summers.

It was a perfect weekend for gardening, but with weather like this who wants to stay home gardening? My family and I took full advantage of some of the activities going on in the area. Yesterday was the Chocolate Festival at Fairchild gardens; today we visited a U-pick farm and collected fresh vegetables, and tonight we are going out to dinner with friends to dine al fresco.

I could not let the weekend passed by without doing a bit of gardening. My collection of orchids was in desperate need of some attention.  I fertilized and repotted the entire collection; hopefully is not too late for more winter blooms.



This picture was taken with my I-Phone, my Nikon 3100 camera is not working, I have no idea what’s wrong.  I think I have to buy a new battery.

Good day for picnic

Today was a good day for a picnic, and my family I decided to visit the Deering State, a county park in South Miami Dade facing Biscayne Bay.  The Deering state is the former home of one of Miami’s early prominent families.  The home was built in the early 1900, and the grounds cover over 400 acres of enviromental and archeological lands.  The site was purchased  by the state and county when the Deering family put it up for sale, a tremendous asset for our community.

We had a bonus, two manatees were visiting the park also.

As long as!!!

I’m starting 2013 with a major project to the front garden and the house.  I commented a few weeks ago that my Queen palm is sick and I need to cut it down.

My wife suggested yesterday that “As long as” we are cutting the palm why don’t we pressure clean the roof of the house.

I responded that “As long as” we are pressure cleaning the roof, why don’t we paint the driveway

And “As long as” we are making changes to the house, I should change some of the plants.

 

These Ti plants are old and overgrown.

Too many Bromeliads in this corner, time to mix it up.

I don’t know what to do here, but I don’t like the way it looks

 

Goodbye Christmas

Today was a good day to cocoon in the garden.  The weather was a perfect sunny day with temperatures in the mid-seventies.  A great day to be out on the town, but South Florida is hosting the college football national championship on Monday night, and Miami is full of visitors.  Fans of the University of Alabama and Notre Dame have taken over our city; great for the local economy, but not much fun for the locals.  I am big fan of college football, but I have no dog in this fight.  I will be watching the game on TV (tickets are going for $1000 in the upper deck) and rooting for the Irish.



Today I took down the Christmas decorations.  What a relief they are all pack in the garage, until next year.

 

This Papaya is ready to be pick tomorrow.

 

The Monarchs are coming back for the winter.  Today I counted three flying around in my back garden.

Last post for 2012

The last pictures from 2012, these are some of the flowers blooming in my garden today.

 

 

The first tomatoes of the season

 This is my neighbor's mango tree, blooming early this year.  What is going on? These trees are suppose to bloom around March.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I hope 2013 brings happiness, health and peace to you and your families



Home again

Is good to be home again, I was traveling for my 9-5 job most of the month of December.  I don’t travel much for work anymore but this month we had a perfect storm of sick co-workers and employees on vacation, so it was up to me to go.  I spend more days on the road in December that I was at home.

My wife took care of the garden during my absent, she did a good job for someone that is not much into gardening.  We are in the middle of the dry season and daily watering is essential.    The vegetable garden did exceptionally well, except for the cucumbers, but that was my fault for transplanted the young seedling too early.   The bougainvillea’s and the brunfelsia plants exploded with blooms in December.

Today instead of pictures I'm trying another video, sorry the quality is not very good, film making is not one of my talents.

Christmas decorations are up

Today I spent most of the day decorating the outside of the house.   Every year I say, this is the last time I'm doing this, but every year all  my neighbors decorate their houses, so the guilt is on.

I will be away from the garden for the next ten days, traveling on business, I hope the wife remembers to water the plants.  
This post comes from my IPad, is a little different specially uploading pictures.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

From the DragonFly Garden

Sick Palms





MY Queen and Christmas palms in the front of the house are suffering from something that looks like black leaf diseases.  The new leafs are not healthy and both palms are dying, so I will be calling someone to cut them both.  These palms were planted by the builder back in 1990 when the house was built and were here when we moved in; I hate to see them go.  

All my bromeliads around the palms are cover with this black fungus, that is making growing anything in the front garden very difficult. 

 

Pictures from around the garden:

The birds were happy,

 

 

and the caterpillars were hungry. 

 

 

Flowers blooming this week   

 

The cucumber plants are growing fast and already have flowers  

The winter vegetable garden is ready

For the last couple of weeks I been working on my winter vegetable garden.  This year I’m sawing seeds and I purchased seedlings from my favorite organic herb farm in Homestead.

 

In this bed I planted white onions, (from home depot) purple kohlrabi and mix greens. 

 

In the middle bed I planted red bell peppers, Swiss chard and I’m sowing spinach (nothing yet).  By the wall I planted cucumbers.

These are broccoli seedlings; the plant in the center is purple basil.  The container in front has mix greens.

 

This year I’m planting all my tomatoes in containers and the cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets. Let see if I have better luck. 

The weather has changed the cooler nights are perfect for growing vegetables; the only negative is that the dry season is here.  It stopped raining two weeks ago and my rain barrels are almost empty.



Cleaning after Sandy

Hurricane Sandy passed by yesterday about 100 miles east of the Florida coast, but left us a mess.  We have been dealing with constant rain and high winds since Thursday; this morning was the first sunny day and a good time to survey the damage.

My Starburst and Brunfelsia trees suffered the most and I’m sure that will hamper the blooms this winter.  Late season storms like this tend to do a number on winter blooming trees.

I was thinking this week that, this year I was a little late planting my vegetable garden.  After all the rain we got this week I’m glad of my procrastination. 

To everyone in the northeast, be safe and take hurricane Sandy serious.       

Fall festival time

In South Florida we know is fall festival time when our summer 90’s temperatures turn into lovely 80’s fall weather.  Today I attended one of my favorite festivals, the Edible Garden Festival at Fairchild Tropical Garden.   This festival is a combination of a Halloween celebration and preparation for the upcoming vegetable gardening season.

Lecture on how to grow vegetable during our winter. 

 

The scarecrow contest is fun for kids and adults.  All materials must be recyclable items.  These were my favorite entries.

   

The vegetable season is here

Today I started preparing the vegetable beds by adding more soil.

 

 The seeds I planted last week are germinating.  I have tomatoes, broccoli and cucumbers

What’s blooming in the garden this week  

Milkweed 

 

 Thryallis

 

Miniture Ixora

 

 My Cassia tree is blooming

 

 Purple Allamanda