Saturday, June 8th, 2013: The sun came out! Tropical Storm Andrea took her time blowing through Southwest Florida, and we got a week of straight rain and storms. On Saturday morning, there was blue skies and sunshine, so I took advantage of the good weather and spent a lot of time in the garden. I [...]
It’s been raining *all* week. (And I’m not being dramatic.) There wasn’t anything to do in the garden besides walk around and hope that the new plumeria cuttings (which were supposed to dry out completely after being planted!) can pull through this soggy, dreary weather. Some of the plants seem to enjoy the rain, but [...]
First of all: look what bloomed this week- mystery passiflora #4. It’s HUGE- the buds were the size of really huge plum tomatoes/lemons and the blooms are about 6″ round. They are crazy cool, in a “is that a *REAL* plant and did I really grow that?!” kind of way. Even Tom was impressed. And [...]
On Friday, Tom and I made the drive four hours north to visit Epcot Center at Walt Disney World. My parents were up there with Gracie on vacation, so we decided to drive up for the day and spend time with them. It was a happy coincidence that the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival happened [...]
You might remember that last year I got a little obsessed with passiflora, and wound up getting ordering four different varieties of them from Hirt’s. All four of the plants took off as soon as I repotted them, and grew like crazy. However, only two of them bloomed. One of them (I believe it’s a [...]
A few years ago, Tom got me a pair of airplants for Mother’s Day. I think they are super cool even though they are the least interactive and demanding plants I have ever cared for. I knew air plants bloomed, but I figured that the ones we had were maybe post-bloom or something. I basically [...]
Last week one of my kitties, Delilah, passed away somewhat unexpectedly. She and I had been together for sixteen years, so losing her absolutely devastated me. I was just gutted (and I still am). I am still processing and grieving, and I really haven’t had the heart to do much of anything besides the basics. [...]
Now that I’ve been gardening for a bit, and started growing a very small amount of the food that we eat (veggies), I’ve really started to think a bit more about what’s on our plates and where it comes from. This “awareness” is not completely new to me. When i was about 15 I made [...]
A few days ago, I found a half-popped popcorn kernel in a cup on Gracie’s desk. I didn’t think too much of it, because she’s always collecting odds and ends to tape into her journals. I was surprised, however, when she brought the piece of popcorn to me and told me saved it because [...]
Today If ever there were a spring day so perfect, so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze that it made you want to throw open all the windows in the house and unlatch the door to the canary’s cage, indeed, rip the little door from its jamb, a day when the cool brick paths and [...]
Tom downloaded images off his camera today and there were a bunch of the garden, so I thought I would share some of them: For Christmas, Tom got me a peony plant- it was basically a root sticking out of a tiny pot of soil. So I transplanted it, put it in the sun, and [...]
One of my absolute favorite things in the garden is when I spot new growth. It can be anything- seeds starting to sprout, new buds forming on exiting plants, a little spot of green on a branch, a tiny fruit starting to form. This is a pot of “sprouts” that I found growing in the [...]
So, I have a confession: I didn’t know how to harvest sunflower seeds until a few weeks ago. I mean, I knew the seeds were *in* the center of the flower, and the flower itself had to be done blooming and be dried before the seeds could be removed, but I had no idea *where* [...]
It’s definitely spring! No matter how many seasons I go through in my little garden, I always *forget* how busy autumn and spring can be in a Florida garden. For most of winter, my basic task was watering, and a little planting, and a tiny bit of pruning. This week, that all changed- I went [...]
When I first started gardening, I was OBSESSIVE about being out there every.single.day, rain or shine, winter, spring, summer, and fall. I checked every plant, monitored every leaf and bud, counted and marked every seed I planted. I watered daily- some plants just a few drops, some a light mist, others a little more. I [...]
Here are some really crummy iPhone photos of my garden taken at exactly the wrong time of day. But I figured I might do a quick overview of what’s happening out there. When Tom’s not quite as busy, I’ll have him go out at sunset with his good camera and take better shots. But in [...]
Whenever I talk to people about my garden, the one thing they always seem surprised about (besides the fact the entire thing is in containers) is that I get a lot of plants via mail order. I’ll admit, when I started gardening, the idea of ordering a plant and having it sent in the mail [...]
I’ve been thinking a lot about pollinators lately. I have a few plants outside (beyond the screened in lanai which holds the bulk of my garden) that require pollination and NONE of them have grown fruit/veggies this season. Just last year (or maybe it was the year before?) I was getting tons of peppers and [...]
I have a “First Kiss” Hibiscus in my garden that I picked up several months ago at Home Depot. The blooms are an apricot color, and the longer they are open, the paler they get. If we get a cool snap, sometimes the blooms will last two days (usually Hibiscus only bloom for a day). [...]
Saturday, January 19 2013: I didn’t mean to spend a lot of time in the garden today but I wandered out there and wound up spending more than an hour pruning, soap-treating for pests, fertilizing, misting things, shifting some plants around, and taking general stock of what’s going on. I need to move one of [...]
