Rain Barrels

It's no secret we garden a lot here. I do my best to plant native and drought tolerant plants, but when there is a drought.....plants still need water to survive. After seeing how high our water bill went last year from watering our plants, we opted to cut back drastically and see who survived. I'm happy to say most did make it, and I nurtured and babied a few who just needed the extra pampering.

This year, we were pretty excited when my Dad(Bubba) backed into the driveway with two Rain Barrels. He works locally with a man who is a native gardening extraordinaire. It was the highlight of our week, and the Boy is already planning how he wants to paint them. Now we just need to get some gutters up, and they'll be even more efficient!

~One of Two Rain Barrels



~Top of Rain Barrel



~Spicket on bottom to hook hose up to!!

Rooting Hibiscus

I found some great tutorials online for rooting hibiscus plants. I've been wanting to do this for awhile, so I just went ahead and did it. For anyone looking to do this, I used these two sites: Rooting Tropical Hibiscus and Hibiscus 101.

I did three varieties. I have 6 different varieties in my garden, but I chose to do the three hardiest. In six to eight weeks I should know if they took. I don't have anywhere left to plant hibiscus, so I may have to give them away!

Happy Fall Y'all

It's been awhile.

Almost a month ago we were very close to moving back to Maine. I mean, we were so close that I could taste the crisp fall air. Things didn't work out, and I'm taking that to mean it was not the right time.

I'm not unhappy to still be here in Florida, as there are some good things here too. I think I am unhappy in this particular part of Florida. But, we are still homeschooling the Boy, which is leading us to new groups to join up with. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I'll have some more to share soon. Of course, as always, it is going to focus heavily on the garden. I'm not sure what I am going to do with this space at the moment, but for now I'm content.

At my front windows

I've mentioned the peacock that lives in our neighborhood a few times on this blog. Lately he has taken to visiting us every morning. He nibbles at a few of my plants in the backyard, then travels to our front door. After awhile, he just paces back and forth on our walkway looking into the windows at us. He is beautiful, and my poor cat doesn't understand why there is a bird bigger than him looking in.

Garden Mulching

We've been working on cleaning up the garden a bit now that it's too hot to do a lot of gardening. Plus, with all the rains it seems the weeds are winning some type of battle against us. We ripped up a ton of grass and weeds and put a layer of heavy cardboard down. We then mulched fairly heavily. There is a lot more work to be done including putting some type of boarder to separate the grass from the mulch line.






One of my favorite parts of our garden is the multiple honey bees and butterflies who visit. They especially love our porterweeds.

Quirky

One of our crazy squirrels stealing something to eat. Normally, I wouldn't post this. But, the noises he was making were too cute not to share.

Moving Forward

First, thank you to everyone who sent such nice emails. Sometimes it feels like I am writing to a huge open space. Thank you for taking the time to email me!

Because I don't have a lot to say, I wanted to share some new pictures from my garden. We've been getting some much needed rain.

~Bell Peppers


~Crepe Myrtle


~Snail


~Pink Pentas


~White Plumerias

Surprises in the yard

Here are some unexpected finds in our yard from the past week. It's been getting warmer here, so outdoor time is a bit more limited. We make the most of the mornings and evenings this time of year.

A shell the Boy found while digging a whole to plant some seeds.



He split it in half of course, to see what was inside.



This picture does not do this rainbow justice. But, we could see almost both sides of the rainbow from our front yard. It was beautiful, but aren't they all?



Our first passionflower. We bought this plant with fruit already on it, but finally a flower.

Unexpected

I'd say about one half of my neighborhood is vacant and for sale. It's pretty much like that in the majority or my area. The economy has not been kind. I really don't know too many of my neighbors even though we've been in this house 3 years.

We've been doing some major gardening and transplanting the last few days. I can't even remember when we did what. We had just finished planting a new tree in our front yard and were getting ready to water. At some point, someone had left us a beautiful pot with a very sad looking plant in it. The plant is definitely alive, but needs some care. No one was around, and there was no note. I'm not sure if we even were home when they came, or perhaps they didn't want to speak and just left it by the front door.

Either way I do not know what it is. But, I'm going to try to find out and get it to bloom again. It really made me smile that someone left it for us. I just wish I could thank them.

More for the garden

Ever since my Son and Husband made me my arbor, I've been on the hunt for a fast growing vine. After much research I decided the Passion Flower Vine was my favorite. Not just for it's beauty, but for it's butterfly attracting qualities.

While I enjoy taking a trip to big box stores garden center areas, there is nothing like going to a locally owned nursery. The vast array of plants, not to mention the knowledge of the staff cannot be beat. So, yesterday we took a drive out to a local one to pick out some plants.

They only had one of the vines left, so we grabbed it. It had a couple surprises on it too.




We also picked up a Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow plant. I'm still not sure where to put it. I need to keep it away from my neighbors with the new puppy though. The berries are highly toxic and I don't want a puppy to accidentally take a bite out of it. Of course, that leads me to the plant I grabbed at previously noted big box store.





When I grabbed the beautiful Jatropha, I was unaware that it is poisonous as well. I'm not sure why it says nothing on the tag about this fact, but the Boy is very aware of not eating plants in the garden. With the exception of his blueberry and mulberry trees, He really just loves to water and plant everything else.





Jatropha is also being used for some very positive environmental causes.

Fresh Coconuts

We've been enjoying fresh coconuts here recently. I mean right from the tree fresh, not the dried brown ones you sometimes see at the grocery store. I was skeptical the first time our friend sent some home with my husband. I mean, in Maine we just didn't grow coconuts.

This is our second year of fresh coconuts. We kind of have a method down, because coconuts are not easy to break into. First we drill a hole, for the straw to go through. We drink out the sweet coconut milk, which is very watery. Then my husband cracks it open usually with a hammer and we eat the coconut "jelly".














In trade for these, we pick some mangoes off of our mango tree to give our friend. I cannot remember where he grew up, but he enjoys mangoes when they are green and almost hard. We have more than enough mangoes to go around, so we love sharing them. He eats them as is and makes chutneys. I'll have to try making fresh chutney myself one of these days.

Arbor Day

Happy Arbor Day!

Thanks to a fellow gardener, my Husband, son and I headed out to a local Arbor Day festival. Not the type of festival most people would think of, but a festival full of the most helpful master gardeners and native trees. I learned a lot about Florida gardening and trees from a wonderful master gardener. He gave us great advice of finally ridding our yard from the invasive Brazilian Pepper Tree. We of course couldn't leave without a couple new native plants. He helped us pick out a lovely Dahoon Holly Tree, and a hummingbird attracting Firebush.

We haven't planted either yet. We spent the day sawing/trimming/cleaning up our Cabbage Palm. They aren't very spectacular, but do look much better cleaned up.

I'll leave you with a link that is fitting for Arbor Day, I think.

Family Made Arbor

We've been talking for a short time about putting an arbor up in our garden. Not really for anything more than to grow some vines on, and make it even more butterfly friendly. After searching around, we didn't see much that we liked. Or, things seemed to cost a lot for no apparent reason.

My husband and son made an arbor on Monday. They bought the wood, painted it, and put it all together. It was finally in it's resting spot last night. I cannot say how much I love this. All I can see is how beautiful it will be with tons of flowering vines. I also am loving how proud my son is of his building skills. Here are some pictures. Once I pick up the vines I am looking for(I have a specific vine in mind), I'll add more pictures.

Thankful for my Husband

Over the past weekend, my Husband built me a raised bed for planting. It is exactly what I wanted, and looks even better than I imagined. The Boy was a huge help, and loved helping. The first and only plant thus far is a Desert Rose. I'm sure more will be planted soon!

Blueberry Tree

We added another fruit tree to our yard. It is right next to our Mulberry tree. Since I grew up in Maine, blueberries used to be one of my favorite parts of summer. I used to go out to an area behind our house with my Gram to pick blueberries. We'd bring home a bucket or two each trip, and would make blueberry biscuits with some of them. Or course, we'd eat them fresh too.

I've missed blueberries since living in Florida. They are very expensive to buy, and usually shipped from across the globe. So, I've been buying more locally grown fruits. When we found the blueberry tree, I was skeptical. I've always thought it was strictly a northern plant. Thankfully, the University of Florida has come up with some tropical blueberry varieties.

Blueberries need acidic soil. So, after some advice, we planted it with peat moss, pine needles and pine bark. I believe our soil still needs some more acidity so we are picking up a soil test kit today.

Here are some photos of our new "baby".

Tomato Plant

We were pretty excited last night. Alongside some delicious black bean and avocado burritos, we had something fresh from the garden. Clearly, I'm proud.

From plant~



To the table~



First Slice~



Ready to serve~



It was only one, but there are a few more getting ripe at the moment. Most delicious tomato we have eaten, not including the ones from our local farm!