Ready for hurricane season

 

I know we are half way through the season already, but I finally got the accordion shutters I wanted for the back porch.  For a long time I been thinking about getting shutters to enclose the back porch of the house.  I have regular shutters for all my windows, the benefits of accordion shutters for the porch are, one it gives me a place to store loose garden items during a storm, and second it protects the roof during a strong hurricane.   It forces the high winds to go around the house and not into the porch, during hurricane Andrew, many houses in Miami loss their roofs because of unprotected porches.

 

To make room for the shutters, my Areca palm had to go.  I hate when I have to get rid of a favorite plant, the Areca gave the garden a tropical look. 

 

 

 

 

I purchased a Glory Bush (Tibouchina lepidota) to replace the Areca palm.  This is my second Glory bush, I had one in a pot and it died in our extreme summer heat.  I hope this one does better in the ground.

 

I love the purple flowers, according to the description, the small tree can grow up to 10 feet and in my zone 10 climate it can flower year-round.  This plant is also butterfly friendly, a major plus in my book.

 

This Zanzibar croton was an added bonus, it was screaming take me home. (I had the perfect pot for it, a $1 garage sale find)

One month to go in the peak of 2013 hurricane season, and all is quiet.  Let’s keep our fingers cross.

Come and take a tour of my front garden.

This morning after sunrise the light was perfect for taking pictures.  Before I had time for a cup of coffee and wearing my pajamas I took my Nikon camera to the street to photograph the front garden (I did get a few strange stares from my neighbors) but as you know photography is all about the light.

I moved this birdbath from the back to the front yard.  I like the way it looks in the middle all the flowers.

The ground orchids are benefiting from all the rain lately.

I trimmed hard this Scarlet Red Cloak about a month ago and it took less than 30 days to get flowers again.  This plant usually blooms in late fall early winter, but this year I had blooms all year long.  

 

Thryallis are one of my favorite flowers in the garden.  Yellow flowers and light green leaves makes for a stunning combination.  This plant is easy to take care, relatively pest free and it comes back every year no matter what.  I have several throughout the garden.

Crown of Thorns thrive in sunny areas of the garden.

This noisy Blue Jay visited the garden today.

I worked on my vegetable garden this weekend, unfortunate our rainy season continues and is making planting impossible for now.

How do you tell is Fall in South Florida?

Labor Day in the garden

Today I celebrated Labor Day by spending the day working in the garden.  After two months away, is going to take some time to bring everything under control.  Today I filled out three garbage containers of cuttings and weeds.  (I have a couple of more days to go)

 

I relocated my St. Francis statue to the back of the garden and I was rewarded with all these rain lilies. (Someone up there liked the move)

 

Firebush (Hamelia Patens) this plant is not the best looking plant in my garden and the flowers are nothing to talk about, but if you want to attract butterflies and bees this is the one.

Firebush is native plant to South Florida and is popular with landscapers, the plant is aggressive and needs trimming a couple of times a year, but it blooms most of the year.

 

Planning for the Fall Vegetable season

Is that time of the year once again, for South Florida gardeners to start planning our fall vegetable gardens.  Yesterday I cleared out all the weeds and pullout what was left from last year’s garden.  This year I will be expanding a couple of the beds and going high (Pictures to follow)

 

Before

I am the ultimate optimist when it comes to my vegetable garden, every year I have mix results and every year I persist and hope the next season will be better.  The main reason for most of my failures can be attributed to “location, location, location”.  The long strip between my house and my neighbor's house is the only space I have available for the vegetable beds, unfortunate during the winter season this part of the garden gets limited sun exposure. 

After

Last year started all my plants from seeds, with limited success.  The carrots, peppers and salad greens did well.  The tomatoes, eggplants, broccoli and cucumbers perform poorly.  This year I’m planning to do 50/50, some I will grow from seeds and others I will purchase the seedlings from local nurseries, especially the tomatoes.

This yellow pepper plant survived the hot summer month and continues to bear fruits.  This is a first in my garden; usually these plants are all dead by early June.  

I’m back

I posted on this blog on June 30 that I was going to be away from the garden during the months of July and August.  This weekend I decided that I been away long enough, I can’t stand my garden looking like an abandon ruin.   As you all know, I was away vacationing on Sanibel Island for two weeks, and during that time the place was on its own.  I have automatic sprinklers throughout the garden, but that was not sufficient to keep the plant casualty count low.  It turned out that we didn’t have much rain during those two weeks, and it affected many of my potted plants, but it didn’t put a dent on the aggressive growing vines or the weeds.

Yesterday I decided to tackle the front garden, three full garbage tanks of weeds and cuttings later and four hours of work, and I remembered why I was giving the garden a rest during July and August.    

 

What's blooming in the garden during the month of August

 Powderpuff Tree

 Bees love these flowers

 The native Orange Geiger Tree

  Summer Bromeliad blooms

                             

 Wild white orchids

 

Finally these terracotta pots were the find of the year for me, a neighbor was having a garage sale and sold me all four pieces for $25

PS – Technically I kept my word not to visit any garden center during my absent from gardening, garage sales don’t count. (I know there are two weeks left in the month of August)

More Birds of Sanibel

Double crested Cormorant

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Great Blue Heron



Baby Osprey calling his for his mother

PS - My family complaints that I take too many pictures of birds, but I find them fascinating, specially see birds.

My Big Year in Sanibel

I rented a movie this week “The Big Year” with Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson and I loved it.  This movie is smart, funny with a touch of an environmental message and if you are a bird watcher this is the movie for you.  I recommend it.

After watching the movie I decided to start my own big year by counting the birds of Sanibel (More like the big week) Unfortunate I picked the wrong week.  The Army Corps of Engineers in their ultimate wisdom decided that Lake Okeechobee, situated in the middle of the state is over flowing, and to relive the pressure on the levies, large amounts of fresh water is been release into the gulf.  These levies are old and in need of replacement, but like everything that involves the Federal government there are no funds available. 

The effect of so much fresh water in the Gulf of Mexico has been devastating on salt water fish and it has cause birds that depend on the fish to move on. 

Brown Pelican

 

 White Ibis

 

 Snowy Egret

Royal Tern

 

 Ruddy Turnstone

 

 Looks like a Night Heron

 

 Willet

 

 Wilson Plover

 

 Cardinal



A few days in paradise, Sanibel Island, Florida

My family and I are spending our summer vacation in our favorite place in Florida, Sanibel Island.  I am looking forward to some needed R and R time with the family.  Crossing the bridge to the island feels like going through a stress cleansing  that leaves all your troubles behind in the main land (Worth the $6 toll).

I am looking forward to a few days of biking, hiking, shelling, nature photographic, (I’m using my new Nikon 18-300mm lens) bird watching, kayaking and beach time.  I also brought three books to read (If I have any time)

Sunrise at Sanibel

 

 Brown Pelican

Sea turtle, fresh tracks to a nesting site



 Beach morning glory

 

Box Turtle on the beach (did you know that this little guy can live to 100 years)