DragonFly Garden

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T10:08:00.001-08:00

The oldest plant sale in South Florida

2009-11-22T16:50:00.000-08:00

Today I visited the Ramble at Fairchild Tropical Garden. The Ramble is the oldest plant sale in South Florida, and is the event that all us gardeners wait for every year
The plan for today was to bring little cash and be very selective of what I was buying, and when the money ran out, it was time to go.
I did not count on a new technology, wireless credit card authorization machines. This year many of the plant sellers had these machines that made it very easy and tempting for the weak gardeners like me to buy with plastic.

Here is the list of plants that follow me home this year.
1 – Neo Royal Burgundy bromeliad, the color is magnificent I could not resist this one.
2 - Vriesea Zamorensis this sun loving bromeliad is perfect for my front garden.
3 – Elephant Plant (Bonsia Portulacario) I will be trying to do a bonsai with this plant.
4 – Sansevieria Cylinndrica “skyline” – This exotic succulent caught my eye and I had to have it.
5 – Horsetail (Equesetum Hyemale) – Another exotic plant that caught my eye, this one came with a warning from the seller, to keep it in containers and not to put it on the ground, is suppose to be very aggressive.

Next year the credit cards are staying home.

Garage Sale Day

2009-11-15T12:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the girls decided to do our yearly garage sale; it has become a tradition in my home to do a yearly spring-cleaning garage sale in the fall. The weather was perfect; the temperature was in the mid sixties in the morning, reaching the high seventies in the afternoon, no rain and not a cloud in the sky.
My only participation on garage sale day is helping taking the staff out and picking up at the end of the day. Yesterday was a perfect day to do some maintenance cleaning in the front garden.

It was time to clean up the bromeliads, every year around this time I take out the old plants so the new offshoots have some room to grow.

My winter herb and vegetable garden is done.

2009-11-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

I am finally done with my winter herb and vegetable garden, for the last couple of weeks I been planting the vegetable bed a little at a time. This year I added more than ever, for the first time I’m growing butternut squash, arugula and yummy peppers. Wish me luck with the squash, I don’t know how big is going to get, I am hoping it grows up the trellis.

This is the list of what I planted.

Vegetables
Eggplant – Black Beauty
Red bell peppers
Yummy peppers
Butternut Squash
Four different kinds of tomatoes – Red cherry, Yellow cherry, Celebrity and Better bush

Greens

Mix lettuces
Arugula

Herbs

Sweet and Italian basil
Parsley
Chives
Rosemary
Dill
Oregano

I’ll keep you posted of the progress, so far in two weeks the tomatoes are growing nicely.

Friday’s Blooms

2009-10-29T18:42:00.000-07:00

The South Florida Fall season is here, is difficult to tell by looking at the thermostat. The mornings are a little cooler but by midday the temperatures are in the high eighties. A sure sign that fall is here, is no more rainy days. It has been more than a week since the last time it rained.
There are certain plants that thrive during our dry season; the bougainvilleas are a perfect example.

I have a love hate relationship with bougainvilleas, love the flowers hate the maintenance, my solution “containers”

Also thriving in the dry season is the Mexican flame vine.

This is a transition time for some plants, it’s the beginning of the blooming season for some, and others are done for the year.

My wild orchids don’t like the cooler mornings so these flowers should be the last for this year.

The plumeria is another hot weather plant that is usually done by this time.

That’s it for this week, I am not working in the garden this weekend, it’s my wife’s birthday on Saturday and she expects my undivided attention the entire weekend, which will include some dining out, some entertainment and gifts.

I hope you all have a FUN and SAFE Halloween.

The Fall Edible Garden Festival at Fairchild Garden

2009-10-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

Today my family I attended the first annual Fall Edible Garden festival at Fairchild Tropical Garden. The festival is a celebration of the fruits, vegetables and the herbs we grow in South Florida, plus Scarecrows Contest and wonderful Halloween decorations through out the garden.

The weather did not cooperate with the festival, it rained most of the day but that didn’t dampen our spirits, we all had a lot of fun.

There were gardening lectures, cooking demonstrations, gardening demonstrations, vegetable vendors and plenty of food; and all among the beauty of Fairchild garden.

The Scarecrow contest was hit with the kids, all scarecrows were ecologically friendly and created by members of the community. Proceeds from the contest entry fees will support the conservation of native fish in our local lakes.

Halloween decorations through out the garden all made from garden materials.

The ghosts were made from palm fronds.

I also attended a photography class early in the morning, taught by a world famous nature photographer from Fairchild. See some of the photos I took on my other blog My Viewfinder.

Preparing the vegetable garden

2009-10-17T13:22:00.001-07:00

The weather was in the mid 90’s this morning, but cooler weather is on the way tonight. We are heading into the mid 60’s tonight and high in the 70’s tomorrow (finally fall weather)

Today I added home made compost to my vegetable bed, after four months of slow cooking in the backyard, it was finally ready for the garden. This is the first time I’m using home made compost and I am excited to see the results.

I should be ready to plant in a couple of weeks, I am waiting for my local nursery to bring in the tomato and pepper seedlings, in the mean time I am covering the bed to prevent weeds.

Today I harvested the other banana tree, the last bunch of bananas were such a success that these are all spoken for.

See the pictures I took this morning of a hawk in my backyard – My Viewfinder Blog

Looking for fall weather

2009-10-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

Halloween is almost here and the temperature outside is in the mid nineties, this is the longest summer I can remember in recent history. By mid October the weather in South Florida should be cooler and is time to plant our winter vegetable gardens, not this year.

Today I did some work in the front garden and decorated our house for Halloween. In the old days when my girls were little, the Halloween decorations were a big deal around my house, now I mostly do it for the other kids in the neighborhood. It doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm for this holiday any more, and that’s a shame for the kids today. Trick-o-treat in a shopping mall is not the same.

I did some weeding and trimmed back my Starburst Pentas, I’m hopping for another blooming season this winter.

The Red Crown of Thorns mixes well with this Neoregelia bromeliad.

I found this palm growing in the front garden, I am not sure if it is a Sabal Palm or a Chinese Fan palm, whatever it is, I am going to try growing it in a container.

Moving furniture around

2009-10-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend the CEO of the DragonFly garden (my wife, I am only the gardener) decided to buy new furniture for our patio. It was a good decision, since our patio was furnished with an old wicker patio set that we purchased in a garage sale several years ago, we also had a large hammock that was too big for the patio.

In keeping with our recycling life style, nothing is wasted in our garden.

The hammock is in the garage and will be sold in our next garage sale. The old wicker set is now in my meditation corner.

I painted the old bench that occupied the meditation corner and it's now the home of our guardian dog Rufus.

Rufus old bench and is now the centerpiece of my new container garden.

I will be traveling on business all next week; I hope the CEO remembers to water my plants.

Drowning my sorrows in the garden.

2009-09-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

There was not going to be any gardening at the DragonFly garden this weekend. It was supposed to be American football all weekend all the time. Our three local teams, the Miami Hurricanes, FIU Golden Panthers, and the Miami Dolphins were playing Saturday and Sunday. All three laid a homogonous egg… they lost big time.
Today I had the day off from work, so it was a good time to go into the garden and forget about our disastrous football weekend.

While pressure cleaning the back patio I decided to make some changes to the back part of the garden.

Before, we used to keep our garbage cans there.

With the increase number of containers in my garden, I needed a place to display some of them. All I needed to do was buy a couple of bags of gravel; I had the extra garden blocks for the border and Voila!!! a new garden bed.

The amazing Dragon Fruit

2009-09-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

This is a dragon fruit, one of two produced this year by my night bloomer tree (also known as cactus orchid)

Of the hundreds of flowers that bloomed this summer, only two have gone to fruit. The flowers only bloom at night, and pollination must be done by nocturnal living things, such as bats and moths.

The dragon fruits is consider a miracle fruit, they are highly concentrated with Vitamin C, minerals and a high on fiber. These nutrients are known as antioxidant which usually help in the prevention of the formation of free radicals that cause cancer

12 hours in the life of a night bloomer flower

10 PM

Midnight

6AM

Morning the next day

What to do with driftwood in the garden

2009-09-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

I found this driftwood on the beach at Sanibel Island this past summer; I knew it belong in my garden, but where?

Picture before,

I was not happy with the way the back garden was looking, especially around the water fountain. Aha!!! a perfect place to put the driftwood.

I moved the bromeliads back around the water fountain and set the driftwood with air plants in the center.

The kalanchoe plants were moved to where the bromeliads were and I added three peach crossandras for color.

I got a strange look from my next-door neighbor, he probably thinks that I am nuts, moving plants around every couple of weeks. What can I do, I’m never satisfied, that’s what makes gardening fun.

Friday’s bloom, all white flowers

2009-09-18T06:20:00.000-07:00

No much blooming in the garden this week, must of my plants are looking a little tired, the summer heat and the daily rain are taking its toll.
I noticed several white flowers this Friday

White periwinkles

White rose

White pinwheel

Poisonous plants

2009-09-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

Recently I planted a beautiful plant not knowing what it was. All I knew was that the leaves were a deep red wine color (when fully grown) and that it would look great in my garden. It turned out to be a Castor Bean plant, a very deadly plant to animals and humans. Thanks to Jake at the Northeast Florida Paradise blog for identifying the mystery plant.
I Google the Castor Bean plant and found out that the beans are poisonous if eaten by animals or humans and they can cause death, that warning was enough for me; for sure it had to go.

Preparing the vegetable garden

2009-09-12T15:00:00.001-07:00

Today I started working on my winter vegetable garden, on advice from my wife I decided not to expand the vegetable bed. My idea was to double the size this year, but she is right, I barely have anytime to take care of the garden as is. (I need more time, if I could only be semi-retire)

I moved the herbs to the other side, pulled weeds and turned the soil. In a couple of weeks I will add compost and everything should be ready for planting in early October. As you can see, I keep all my herbs in containers, and not many survived the heat of the summer this year, so I need to shop for more.

I decided to transplant the key-lime tree to a container that way I can keep it manageable.

These three key limes are the total production for the first year. Good for one glass of lemonade.

This paintbrush croton followed me home from Home Depot (this happens all the time).

DragonFly Friday’s bloom

2009-09-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

My Internet connection has been out for more than a week, thank god is back.

This Friday I have several blooms in the garden.

Kings Mantle

Yellow ground orchid

Buttercup

Coleus

Pentas

Allamanda

Thryallis

Another dead bonsai

2009-09-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

This is the third bonsai that I've killed. I love the art of bonsai but I don’t think it’s for me. Maybe someday when I retire and have more time on my hands.

Another Saturday in the garden

2009-08-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

Today I took on the banana corner, which is what I call this area of the garden now; it used to be my meditation area until noisy neighbors moved next door. As you can see in the picture below, the place was out of control, and it was time to simplify.

I took out a plumbago and honeysuckle bush. As for the honeysuckle, it got the three strikes rule. I planted it in three different areas of the garden and today I finally realized that it does not belong in my small garden.

It was a hot and humid day today and the plumbago put up a fight.

I have five ladyfinger banana plants, the two older ones have bananas and they should be ready for picking in another month, probably around the same time. Mix with the banana trees are the heliconias

The decorative banana plant in the container was rescue from a neighbor’s garbage can.

This plant was a gift from fellow gardener, we don’t know the name but fully grow she is a beauty, it grows about six feet and the foliage is a deep red.

I am planning to paint the bench, but that will have to wait for cooler weather in October.

New logo for the DragonFly garden.

2009-08-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

The garden has an official new logo; I found this cute dragonfly in a store on Sanibel Island.

These rain lilies are in full bloom this weekend, they only bloom once a year but when they do, they put on a show.

August is my least favorite time of the year in South Florida; by the time it comes around we are all so sick of the heat. Every year we tell ourselves that this is the hottest August ever, and this one is no exception.
This morning I was in the garden from 7 to 9am , I did some weeding and trimmed some bushes but by mid morning it was time to come inde to the AC.
This week I was so busy at work that I did not have any time to visit my favorite blogs, I am hoping to catch up this weekend.

I am back in my garden.

2009-08-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

After two weeks away, I found some pleasant surprises and some not so pleasant.
Apparently it rained quite a bit during my vacation, the rain barrels were full and the garden was a little waterlogged.

One of the pleasant surprises, was finding this wild orchid full of flowers. It kind of resembles the famous ghost orchid from the Everglades, but is not.

My coleuses also did very well during my time away.

On the not so pleasant, I planted these bromeliads before leaving on vacation. I made the stupid mistake of planting them under a tree that drops a lot of leaves and flowers. The number one rule about growing bromeliads is to keep the center clear of debris, if not the plant will rot. In two weeks I lost three plants.

Goodbye Sanibel

2009-08-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning is time to go home, my family and I had great time on the island.
Monday is back to work and the routines of life, but we will have many memories from this magical place.

After two weeks away from my garden, I don’t know what I am going to find, I hope there is minimum damage

There is more then beaches at Sanibel Island

2009-08-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

My favorite activities during my vacation at Sanibel Island are biking the many trails and walking the natural preserve trails.

The Bailey track is a popular trail near the beach, teeming with many birds and an occasional alligator.

A beehive took over an owl’s nest.

New this year in the Periwinkle preserve, a trail dedicated the birds and butterflies. (I don't recommend it in the middle of the day, it was so hot)

Here we are biking on the rabbit road trail.

Sunrise and the shelling was easy

2009-08-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

Early bird gets the best shells. Sunrise, combine with a low tide is the best time to go shelling.

Catch of the day

This dolphin was swimming close to the beach.

Brown Pelicans shilling after breakfast

Searching for wild flowers in Sanibel Island

2009-08-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

About 75% of the Island of Sanibel is a wild life preserve, so finding wild flowers is not very difficult.

PS- Thank you for the suggestions on island restaurants

On vacation from Sanibel Island on the West Coast of Florida

2009-08-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

I am seating on the terrace of my condominium, looking at a beautiful Gulf of Mexico, having a Margarita and bloging. Life is Good!!!!!!!

Sanibel is famous for their beach; and this section of the beach on West Gulf is always deserted.

Shelling is a sport in Sanibel and one of my favorite activities.

This fisherman was very lucky this morning. The fish was released after the photo-up.

The Ibises in their natural habitat