Less green I see

That hard frost last month really kicked my psychological rear end.  The mango tree doesn't seem like it's going to come back.  The dwarf poinciana was just starting to leaf out, and now (almost two months later) there is no sign of life. We pulled out two huge ixora and will miss their constant flowering.  The bougainvillea are bare and bony.  We disagree on what to do about that.  I say cut it way back and either it survives or not.  Tom is less violent than me.   

I cut the crotons back, and one of the plants has new sprouts, but at the bottom.  I fear 12 years of growth is lost and we must start again. Sheesh! I'm not sure I even have 12 more years. The cabbage palms (native) survived just fine, but I notice some of the more exotic palms in other yards are still brown and limp. I'm beginning to understand these Southern plants a little after 12 years of befuddlement and wonder.  They are not meant for that kind of cold, and they like a little sand in the soil. How should I proceed to replace the dead, not knowing if the hard freeze was a fluke or a portent of things to come?  Native plants!

Gardening is different down here. I lived in the north for 62 years, and I appreciated the death and rebirth of the flora. I enjoyed and then managed the cold and snow as one must. Spring was pure magic as old friends poked up through the soil. They were hardy, magnificent, and I trusted them to come back.  Like I said, it is different here in Central Florida.  Still, the bromeliads, azaleas and cannas survived!  Actually, quite a bit might grow back, and it has been fun reimagining some of these garden beds.  I need to trust a bit more.  Everything is going to be okay.  

a bromeliad bloom

Out and about

You wouldn't know it to look at me, but my husband and I try to get exercise of some kind most days. Maybe we ride our bikes, take a walk, or work in the yard. Occasionally, we'll go to Cosco and pretend that's exercise because it's so damn big to walk around in. 

In the hot half of the year we go out in the morning, as early as we are able, to avoid the intense heat and potential skin damage. At this time of the year we can enjoy our mornings being self-indulgent because it's cool enough to go outside in midday or later. I'm not a morning person, so I prefer the cooler half of the year.

Yesterday we went for a walk at the nature preserve and I took these pictures.

Turtle

Many things on or near the lake

Roots

Vulture

I'm not sure what this is

Lantana

Looks like deadly nightshade to me

Bored

Oh gee, it's been a month since my last post.  I wish I could say I've been too busy to write, but that wouldn't be true. 

It's been hot, muggy and rainy here; however, that's true so many other places. I shouldn't complain. We've been having heat advisories, and then heavy rains that make the yard too mushy to work in. We're kind of trapped inside the house where it is cool until mid-September. It was fun for a couple of weeks, but now it's boring. I need to force myself to do inside things. Writing my blog is a good start. Maybe tomorrow I'll start to make a quilt for my grandson. There are any number of things I could be doing, actually. What's wrong with me?

Here are some flowers in bloom around the house right now.  How can one be bored when there are so many photo opps?

And now for the maintained garden beds

Yesterday I posted the drop garden meadow from our NYS home.  Today I will finish up this nostalgic love story with pictures of the more formal beds.  

The vegetable garden

I wish this was a better picture

This takes in a few garden beds, and 
looks back to the vegetable garden

the front of the house

my favorite photo of "the land"

July - sheer joy

one of the beds in front of the drop
gardened meadow

The wetlands way out back, with some
drop gardened purple bee balms

Drop gardening in NYS

When you have a ridiculous number of perennial flower beds, each year you have a lot of dividing to do. For many years I gave our extras to friends, neighbors, co-workers. But most people have limited amounts of space.We were lucky in that we had an acre and a half of land. At a certain point, I decided I'd take the divided plants I didn't want in the maintained beds and drop them on either side of the path in the meadow. These areas are referred to on the map of my previous post as areas 24, 26, and 29. 

I'd usually put down a little dirt, and then plopped the plants/roots down. Drop gardening, I named it. I watered them a time or two, and then just let them live or die. Many lived and naturalized. Here are some pictures of that area in all it's glory.

day lilies and red bee balm

From the back of the path looking towards the 
garage and house.

Foxglove, for crying out loud.  It loved to
naturalize and reseed.

From the path looking west towards area 26 and 29
and a little bit of the veggie garden

In this picture you can see the trumpet vine in front of the
garage, and my gorgeous husband.

The path going out to the wetlands. 
Area 24 on the left, area 26 on the right.

From the back of the meadow looking towards 
our little veggie garden.  Purple bee balm.

Day lilies, the wild kind you find in the ditch 
along side the road. We also had
hybrids in the maintained beds - later for that.

Sorry, I don't seem to have pictures of spring when the dames rockets were in bloom, and I don't think I captured the purple cone flower (which never did as well as the other drop flowers).  Oh well.  I know they are there.  

Remembering garden beds

We lived in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State for 39 years, moving to Central Florida in 2014. We didn't buy our first house until 1990. It was an old house on one and a half acres out in the country, adjacent to state land. 

Perennial garden beds were our passion for 24 years, and it seemed like each year we couldn't help but put in another, and then another. By the time we moved it was ridiculous. We left the new owners a hand-drawn map and a detailed summary of what was where. 

The end of August 2023

 I took these pictures when it was still August.  

Red Canna Lily

Brown eyed Susan

Crape Myrtle

Plumbago

Canna with banana leaf

Succulents

White Bird of Paradise

Bird of Paradise


Bromeliad


Dwarf Poinciana

The Super Blue Moon 30Aug2023