The garden's winter guests are arriving

Today I found the first winter visitor, a Prairie Warbler.  These birds spend the summer in southern US and  winter in south Florida and the Caribbean.  They forage for insects in trees and bushes.  I am glad to see this little guy in my garden,  the tree cover in Miami was reduced considerably by the hurricane and that affect their habitat.  

 This morning I worked on this corner of the garden.  Things are looking a little thin, but I am waiting for the end of hurricane season in November before I buy new plants and put down mulch (there should be a lot of free mulch available soon)

 This Chenille plant was one of the few survivors and is doing very well.

Nice surprise this morning, my key-lime tree is full of flowers.  I  didn't get many fruits last year, the tree was not doing well, but it has recover and is looking much better this year.

 I will be working on this corner of the garden next week.

Irma's recovery continues

I took a couple of days off from work this week to spend in the garden, I'm tryimg to make it presentable again.  Three days later, I am exhausted and in need of a brake.  The DragonFly is a small garden but when everything is upside down, it takes a while to get it back to normal.  

I lost so many bromeliads, most were crushed by down trees and branches.  I had so many that it hard to see the lost.   I need to buy a new table for the back, my old table was one of the few casualties from Irma.

 Today I tackled the garden by the side of the house.  It takes a hurricane to see how overgrown that corner of the garden was.

The Orange Geiger tree was knocked to the ground by the wind.  Today I straightened the tree as much as I could and cut the top branches that were bend.  I don't know if I want to keep this tree, the roots are not deep and it will probably come down again in high winds.

 The front of the house is a work in progress, the trunk from the date palm has to go, but I am not doing it.

The pile in the front of the house continues to grow and the news from the county is not very promising.  The job is so big all over Florida, officials are telling homeowners to expect several months before it's picked up.

IRMA the recovery

This is what it greeted me Monday morning after Irma left us, the garden was totally trashed.  It could have been worse and our friends in the Florida Keys and Florida's west coast were not so lucky.   

We were hit with a category 1 winds and possibly cat. 2 gusts, must of the houses and buildings in the area did well, not so much for the trees and people's fences.  I lost my favorite flower tree, the yellow Tap tree in front of the house and my date palm.  I have a couple of trees to straighten up and a lot of clean up.   The good news is that all my feces held and so did my tool shed.  

Is going to take a long time to get the garden back to normal, this might be a good time to reevaluate the entire concept for the future.  My back yard went overnight from a shade garden to a sunny garden.  Thanks to my wife, daughters and son-in-law for starting the clean up while I had to go back to work.  

 This is my orange Geiger tree, I want to save it but is not budging.

 The trunk of the date palm will need professional help to remove

 The debris in front of the house is all from the garden.  It will take a long time for the county to pick it up, there are so many piles like this all over Miami.

 Yesterday I had to put together the small patio off my dinning room, it gives me hope that soon the entire garden will look normal again.  The beauty of mother nature is that it always comes back

Let's not forget the people of the lower keys, they are suffering so much. Is going to take a long time for their recovery and to bring life back normal again.

Dragonfruits anyone?

It has been a while since I had time to work in the garden.  Between family vacation, a hectic work schedule and harsh summer weather, there was little time for gardening in the past couple of months.  Today I got up early, before the sun came up and put in a couple of hours in the front garden. There was a need to do some weeding, cutting back some plants and general cleaning up.  The overgrown plants was bothering me every time I walked into the house.   

This week at the DragonFly Garden

These flowers were at peak this week

Every year these orchids put on a show. (I need some help with the name of this white beauties)

The next batch of bananas.

My new garden cat, he was born here and stayed around.   Now I am feeding him, so I guess he is my cat. He doesn't have a name yet and is a little shy.  He doesn't let me touch him, but we are working on it.

When I came home from vacation, I found two Dragonfruits in the Plumeria tree.  We get many flowers every summer but few fruits.  The flower are only open for one night and must be pollinated by moth in the middle of the night. The chances of getting a fruit are not that good.

Summer green everywhere

A new garden resident.

My new garden man cave

I was complaining the other day, that I needed a working bench for outside my garden. Look what I got for fathers day,  I finally have my own garden man cave.

This week at the DragonFly Garden

The hot July summer is doing a number on many of my plants.  The good news is that we are getting daily rain storms, soaking the ground and keeping the garden green.  The only plants that don't mind the heat and the rain are the Bromeliads.  This is one of my favorite bromeliad flowers. 

  

Ruellias do well during our hottest months

Every now and then I get one day flowers from my cactus collection.

My garden is full of Blue Porterflower weeds, it is an invasive plant that as some point you have to pull them out or they take over the entire garden.  One positive about this plant, bees love the flowers.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY