My Dad's Garden

My dad has never been much of a gardener but he is big on keeping things looking nice. And since he retired and moved to Alabama he has taken more of an interest in gardening. The woman who built their house did a great job in establishing the garden.

This is a gorgeous ornamental grass. I don't know the name of it because we don't grow it here in Florida but he has lots of it in his sideyard.

Another beautiful plant (or should I say tree) we can't grow in my climate is the Japanese maple. I can see why people love these small artistic looking trees. The color is fabulous, too!

Luckily, we can grow River Birch trees in my zone 9 garden. You just can't beat that flaking bark, and you can't walk by it without grabbing a piece.

Flaming Heavenly Bamboo. It puts on quite a display in the fall.

A well-known plant in the south, this Confederate rose blooms white on the first day and turns to pink on the second day. It's quite a conversation piece as the plant generally has both colored blooms on it at one time.

There's lots of natural rock in his yard of which I am very jealous since we have to pay for rock here in Florida. Here's a huge flat boulder, just perfect for displaying this potted ivy.

And, lastly, this is a great (and I mean GREAT) piece of garden art in the yard. The previous owner had this face carved into a dead tree trunk. If only I could carve wood!!

A Change of Weather

I wish I could say the change of weather was here in Florida but unfortunately it's still quite warm and unexpectedly humid for this time of year. These photos were taken in northern Alabama while visiting family.

The autumn parade of leaves was still in its infancy but there was still plenty of color to be found. Especially for us Floridians who aren't used to a lot of autumn color.

We visited Burritt House which is a living museum to the way life used to be in this neck of the woods. Outside one small cabin was a kitchen garden overflowing with herbs and vegetables.

A plant that's already gone dormant for the season still has a few colorful berries for the birds. These may even be rose hips. I'm not quite sure but the more I look at the photo the more it looks like a rose.

The temperature this day was a brisk 52 degrees. All bundled up in our jackets, it was a great change from the heavy humidity we've experienced lately.

I couldn't miss taking a snapshot of this adorable scarecrow surrounded by the changing season. It was the perfect autumn shot.

As was this one. A really cool concrete bench flanked by black pottery and a dusting of leaves on the ground.


Rich vibrant gold and red maple leaves are a sight to behold.

Especially when contrasted against the deep dark brown of the tree trunk.

It's always a joy to see the autumn leaves!

Early Morning Discoveries

I headed out into the garden early this weekend in an effort to control some weeds with a weed killer spray. I wish I could garden 100% organically, but my new garden is large (a couple of acres) and without the help of an unnamed weed killer, I wouldn't be able to keep up with the steady onslaught of weeds.

When you walk slowly and look down, it's amazing what you'll discover. As I briefly lifted my head, and looked out over my wildlife area the unusual flower of the Dutchman's Pipevine caught my eye. I can't really say it's beautiful but it is indeed, eye-catching.

I planted this vine along a fence in the hopes of attracting pipevine swallowtails to my garden. Here's a photo of both the open flower and a couple of other buds that will soon open. The flowerbuds look like small pipes, and I'm going out on a limb here to say that's probably where its name comes from. Definitely, very strange and other-worldly looking. I'm definitely glad I didn't miss these blooms. Next, was an unusual looking bee. Instead of a yellow and black bumble bee, this bee is black with white sides. It's kind of hard to see the white because she's sipping nectar from a white wildflower.
Then there was this GIANT of a strange fiery-orange bug scurrying across the ground. I made sure to stay out of his way since I defnitely didn't want him crawling up my leg.
And, then another gargantuan bug. He was kind of freaky and I think I was interrupting his mating ritual, so I moved on quickly. The back of our property is woods and you can see that we get a lot of strange and unusual looking critters.
And, lastly I made a grim and sad discovery. At first, I thought it was 4 butterflies sitting on the ground together and I was eager to see what they were doing. But it turned out this butterfly who had met the end of his lifespan. Three of his wings were separated from his body. I hope he enjoyed sipping nectar from my butterfly plants.

I have no idea what kind of bugs these are, but I'm sure they all serve a unique purpose in the wild and I'm glad to have them around to discover.

A Simply Wonderful Day!

Here's a little fall color in my garden!

At long last, a taste of fall has arrived in Central Florida. Temperatures for the past two mornings were in the mid-60’s - HOORAY! While I will temporarily revel in the delightfully refreshing coolness of the morning, I won‘t get too used to it because the humidity will be back by Friday. But nonetheless, it was a most welcome announcement that our “endless summer” is beginning to give way to autumn.

Later that day I was driving down the road with my sunroof open , happy as a lark enjoying the spectacular weather when a funny thing happened. All of a sudden, I found my car automatically turning into the nursery. Oh, “Perhaps a few mums and some fall vegetables - collards, lettuce and broccoli are needed for the garden,” I said to myself. As I was walking out with my cart full of “new stuff,” lo and behold, I discover my neighbor Nancy just arriving. It’s funny how a slight change in weather seems to reenergize us Florida gardeners.

This year I managed to keep up with my garden chores through the hottest months, so I find myself in pretty good shape. However, there’s always something that needs tweaking. Like the roses. They need a slight pruning to get them back in shape and a burst of fertilizer to get them blooming. Then there are the leggy impatiens that are screaming at me to give them a haircut. I just fertilized my poinsettia (which is looking really good) for the last time this year. And, the small bed around the mailbox is in dire need of weeding, reshaping and replanting. That will be my main fall project. But for now, I’m going to just hang around outside and enjoy the weather!

It's Not Quite Fall Yet!

With temperatures climbing into the low 90's, fall hasn't arrived in central Florida yet. Although, the weather report promises a low of 65 and a high of 85 by the first of October, I'll believe it when I feel it.A slight change in the temperatures and the humidity can be felt, especially in the morning and evening. But for now our skys are sunny and bright blue with whispy clouds.

And, the only autumn color to be found is on the leaves of colorful foliage plants.

Wildlife Around the Garden

This Anhinga hangs his wings out to dry in the sun. He's perched atop a tree that was blown into the lake during a hurricane back in 2005. We had three storms that summer, and I can't recall which one toppled this tree. Turtles also love to sunbathe on the trunk of this tree.

And the Great Blue Heron also uses this same branch for a perch. Now the branch is just barely out of the water due to so much rain this summer.

Our resident red-shouldered hawk sits on the peak of our house scouting out his next meal. This past spring he hunted continuously, and we suspected that he had a brood of young'uns to feed. Now he is less visible. He's great at keeping the snake population down, but we've also seen him carrying baby birds (ugh), squirrels, rodents and frogs. A gorgeous bird!


The Osprey circle over the water in search of their next meal.


And, here's a lazy gator sunbathing on the same fallen tree that the bird in the first photo sat on. Click on this photo to enlarge it, and you'll see that his mouth is open. Perhaps he's waiting for some unsuspecting creature to swim right in. Either that or I caught him in the middle of a yawn.

I couldn't leave this cute little "wild" animal photo out. She's our plant-crushing cat who just happens to fit perfectly inside this clay pot. Never mind the fern that's being flattened and squeezed to the side. Luckily, the plant survived this 7 lb. light-weight kitty.

Landscape Update - Front of House

The Gardening Gone Wild blog hosts a "Garden Bloggers Design Workshop" to share gardener's experiences in landscape design - what worked and what didn't work! I've been wanting to do an update on my new garden (2007), so I thought I would join in with her post.

2007 - I was fortunate to have a clean slate with this garden. My past gardens (5 all together) were already established and I tweaked them to include my favorites. But all of them had plants that needed trimming on a regular basis and that is one garden chore that I absolutely do not like. So I was determined not to plant any shrubs that needed haircuts.

One negative for this new garden was the soil. Florida is known for its sandy soils but this "builder's sand" was devoid of any organic materials. My first step was to enrich the soil with peat humus and compost.



I wanted to plant low-growing plants so that they wouldn't be growing up over the front porch. The finished design included: Indian hawthorne for its ease of care and pretty spring flowers, Fashion azaleas for their bright reddish-orange color and long-lasting bloom time (Oct thru April), Blue Daze for its mounding growth and blue flowers, African iris for its bloom and adaptability to poor soil, Bush Daisies for some yellow color in winter, a Tabebuia tree for beautiful yellow spring flowers and lots of variegated and regular liriope as a filler.
I was pleased with the overall look when I finished it, and amazed at how quickly everything grew in this very hot area with lackluster soil.

Now, two years later here's a look at the front flower bed and what worked and what didn't work.
What worked - the Indian hawthornes are lush and in need of a slight trim to keep them compact (I don't mind trimming things once a year), the Fashion Azaleas also have done well. I planted them in the shape of a triangle and they have grown together nicely to form a hedge like look. The liriope have all thrived as well. And the Tabebuia tree is growing faster than I had anticipated and looks great.

What didn't work - There were some dissapointments and some changes that had to be made. The biggest dissapointments were the Blue Daze and the Bush Daisies. After thriving at first, both seemed to begin to dieback and look rather unsightly, so I yanked them out and replaced the Blue Daze with more liriope and the Bush Daisies with crotons and purple pentas. So far the replacements are doing well.

The African iris performed well but I had to replace them with a lower growing plant (Blanket Flowers - Gallardia) because they were blocking the other plants from receiving water from the sprinkler system. I relocated them to a new location and planted the blanket flowers which I love, and they seem to thrive in the heat and humidity of a Florida summer. I also added two yellow knock-out roses in the center of the azaleas and they are making themselves right at home.
Even for gardeners who've been at it for awhile, it's still trial and error to see what looks good and what will perform in a particular area. But putting the design together, tweaking it and watching it develop is the best part of gardening!

Back to School

My daughter's best-friend's mother (who knows I'm a gardener and also loves to garden herself) asked me this past spring, if I would be interested in helping her plant a memorial garden dedicated to two teachers who died during the school year.

I was a little hesitant because I already have two yards that keep me plenty busy, but I knew she'd be on her own if I didn't help out. So, we got busy digging up grass, shopping for and planting new butterfly plants. I'm happy to say that our ambitions spilled over onto the existing butterfly gardens as we spruced them up alongside students in the Environmental Club.

Here's a view from outside the chainlink fence looking into their existing butterfly sanctuary. You can see a bit (fence and arbor) of the new memorial garden in the background.


Following our extremely cold temps last winter the passionvines (and most of the other plants) were frozen to the ground. By May, they were back and producing beautiful passion flowers.

Below are a few photos of the new memorial garden. We added lots of butterfly plants including cosmos, pentas, marigolds, lantana, porterweed, as well as mammoth dill for the ladybugs.

We even added a section for the senses. There are a variety of fragrant herbs and textures in these beautiful planters that were in the existing garden but not in use. It took a mob of us to move them into location, even after we emptied the dirt out of them.

The children in the school painted clay tiles (small and large) as a tribute to the teachers and we glued them to several painted posts throughout the garden. One family contributed this wonderful butterfly that was (I think) the perfect addition.

We were oh, so lucky that the birds were messy eaters as their scattered sunflower seeds began to sprout all over the existing butterfly garden. They were a great addition for the kids and we were (again) lucky that they bloomed before the end of the school year. Also, included in this photo is beach sunflowers which also came back with abandon following the freeze and some red fountain grass.

This is a view of the existing garden from inside the chainlink fence.

The children also grow a mixture of flowers and vegetables, some in hydroponic containers and others in raised beds.

This year they planted lots of zinnias, alongside their three-sisters garden (corn, beans & squash).

They enjoyed great success with their peppers, green beans, radishes & tomatoes. The teacher believes it was the "worm juice" she harvested from her wormbins that made the difference. It was a true joy to see the kids picking their harvest and snacking on it as they worked.

So, now that we are into the month of August, you can be assured that I am looking forward to going "back to school" to see how the garden fared through the hot summer, and to help get it ready for the fall planting. I am glad I said "yes" to helping out with this project. It was so much fun and very rewarding!