Rainy day in South Florida

Today I was able to trimmed the Cassia tree before it started to rain again, it has been raining on and off for the last three days.  This is not typical weather in southern Florida for this time of year, we should be at the beginning of the dry season.  My young vegetable plants are not doing well with so much rain.  (I will post about the vegetable garden next week)

FYI - I'm doing this post with my IPad, I finally figured it out, the jury is out on which is better a PC or the iPad 

Early morning light

Taking pictures is all about the light, and there is no better than early morning light.  This morning the weather was glorious and the light perfect.  I went out in the garden with my camera in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other, and my faithful companion Rosie.  Times like this is why I love gardening and the sweat and aching muscles are not important.   

Is pressure cleaning part of gardening?

This morning the weather was cloudy, windy and rainy, not ideal for gardening.  I decided to do one of my least favorite jobs, pressure cleaning my patio.  Our tropical weather turns the bricks black with mold several times a year and I hate the way it looks.

This is the view from our living room.

  

Yellow Cassia tree in full bloom

This is the second year my yellow cassia tree flowered, and so far this year the blooms are spectacular.  I like the color yellow in the garden and this tree never disappoints.  If you are looking for a fast growing tree in zone 10 or 11, one that blooms in the fall and is not too big, I recommend the Cassia Tree.  It is also plant food for butterflies.

 

This weekend I purchased a few plants to spruce up the front garden for the holidays.

Edible Garden Festival at Fairchild Tropical Garden

This weekend I visited my favorite festival at Fairchild Garden, the Edible Garden Festival.  October is the time in South Florida for planting vegetable gardens; this festival brings in many local nurseries specializing in vegetable and herb plants.

The Redland Herb Farm is my favorite seller at the festival; all the herb plants are organically grown and come with excellent tips from the proprietor Carolyne Coppolo.

Fairchild was looking magnificent on this fall weekend; the weather and temperature were perfect for an outdoor festival.

Lately I have been a little lazy with my garden duties, between weekend college football and my nine to five jobs there has been little time for the garden.   My vegetable and herb garden are coming along and should be ready by next week, stay tune.

Field trip in search of Orchids

Yesterday I visited RF Orchids in Homestead Florida a combination of orchid store and tropical garden.  I received a gift certificate for my birthday and yesterday was the perfect day to go and pick a couple of orchids.  They have an amazing collection of orchids for sale and beautiful grounds to walk and spend some time; it makes the visit very enjoyable.  Come with lots of dollars because is hard to walk away without buying.

 

 

These are the two babies that came home with me.

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.