Crape Myrtles in bloom!

I wish these crape myrtles were in bloom longer. They are so pretty! I have 3 purple crape myrtle trees in my back yard, and my neighbor has a pink one, which I can also see from our backyard. I love when they bloom they are so pretty.

They seem to bloom mid-July, last year I remember them blooming in August. I'll have to keep track of how long they stay, after the purple falls off, it's just a green tree the rest of the year.

Garden Update

Summer is here, and my sweet potato plants have really taken off! They are starting to overgrow my other plants, so I need to get out there and trim them back, but it has been so hot!

My aloe plans are really doing well, they are getting so big!

Also, excuse the long grass, planning on cutting it this afternoon after the heat dies off a tad.

Side Garden Update

The side garden is doing well. We've gotten a ton of rain lately, so I haven't had to worry about watering the new plants.

The sweet potato plant has really taken off! I need to watch it, because I've heard they can take over the garden. It's trippled in size since I've planted it.

Front Yard Border

BEFORE

I decided to add the same wood log border to the front yard garden area that I used in the back yard side garden, to make the space more defined. These are before and after pictures, as you can see I also did a lot of trimming, and up-rooted a few plants that I didn't want in this area any longer. The bougainveillia is no longer blooming, and the hibiscus doesn't have as many flowers, because I gave it quite a good trim, but hopefully in the long run this will look better.

I still want to remove the ferns on the right near the house, and replace them with something else. I will update when I do.

Now I just need the grass to grow!
AFTER

Front Yard Refresh

BEFORE

I added 4 new crotons and some new mulch to the garden area in front of our front porch. I think it makes a big difference, and looks much better! I like the tropical look, so I picked the tropical croton to go along with the existing birds of paradise.

AFTER!

Side Garden Almost Done!

The garden in the back yard on the side of the porch is almost complete! I am almost finished planting the new plants. I just have a few more left to go. We added edging, landscape lighting, and mulch. Now I'm just waiting for the grass to grow in the back yard and it will look much better!

I planted the 2 trinettes, 3 bright green sweet potato plants & 2 purple queens for ground cover, and I'm still deciding on the 2 calladiums in the picture (still in the containers). The trinettes should get tall enough to cover the air conditioning unit., which will look much better.

One of the hawaiin ti's I transplanted didn't quite make it, so I replaced it with a croton, which goes nicely with the other 2 croton plans I had recently planted.

I think I want some smaller plants in front of the 3 crotons, but I'm not quite sure what I want yet, I think I have enough to start with.

Now I'll have to wait and see how well these plants do under my care! ;). I hope they survive!!

Flowers Flowers Everywhere!

The Jasmine are in full bloom! They are so pretty, and smell great too. These Jasmine are growing over the trellis which covers part of the porch.


My hibiscus plants are also blooming big red flowers. I have one in the front yard and one in the back yard. The flowers are slightly different, so they must be slightly different species of hibiscus. They are both doing really well. The one in the front yard (1st pic) was really damaged, so I'm glad to see it's making a great recovery.

Bougainvellias are back!

My bougainvellias are making a great recovery after being damaged by the freezes over the winter. This one is in full bloom with pretty bright pink/purple flowers.

These two were significantly damaged from the freeze, but as you can see new leaves are starting to form, and one is even starting to bloom flowers!
I have 5 bougainvellias in the front yard, which I thought were all dead, but all but one is starting to show new green leaves. I'll be sure to cover them next winter if it freezes, so they don't have to go through this all over again.

Back Yard Porch Side Garden - Work in Progress

Back Yard Porch "Side Garden"

After transplanting the Boleros from the front yard to the back yard's "side garden", I decided to stick with the tropical plant theme, and have added a few new plants. I also found some wooden edging that we put down today. This is still a work in progress. Some of the plants are still in their containers waiting to be planted, and I still have to re-mulch. It's coming along nicely, so I decided to take some pictures to show its progress.



Petra Croton, Euphorbia, and Trinette


I planted 2 Petra Crotons which are very pretty and colorful. They are also drought tolerant. This is a picture before the edging.








After edging (kind of bad lighting for a picture with all the tree shadows). I also added 5 Euphorbia, also known as Crown of Thorns around the tree which bloom red flowers in the summer. The last picture shows 2 Shefflera "Trinette" plants, which compliment the 2 Crotons, are very tropical, and are easy care plants....or so they say! If you look closely, you can see my Pineapple plant sitting in a pot on the table on the porch too!

Fruit and Flowers

Oranges from Orange Tree


We have an orange and a grapefruit tree. Our fruit has a great taste, it just has a lot of seeds, so it's better to be used for juice. Here are some pictures of some oranges that I picked and cut this weekend.

Hibiscus Flowers
This is the first bloom of the Spring. I'm happy to announce, my hibiscus has bloomed. The red flowers are so pretty when the entire bush is full.

Pineapple Plant

Pineapple Plant


I've decided to plant a pineapple plant using the top of a pineapple. I have removed the top, and now I'm letting it dry out for a few days before planting. To remove the top simply twist off. Remove any remaining fruit that is attached to the bottom, and some of the leaves on the bottom so there is about a 1 inch stem to plant. My pineapple top already had roots, as shown in the 3rd picture. I will plant it in an 8 inch pot, and will post updates as it grows!

Weeds

This weekend, I decided to complete the dreadful deed of weeding. We have bahiagrass which is dormant in the Winter months, but comes back very well in the late Spring, early Summer. So, during the winter, there isn't a need to mow the lawn, because the grass doesn't grow. However those pesty weeds decided to take over. Instead of just mowing them down, and give them a greater chance of re-seeding from the cuttings; I dug them up. I pulled what I could, and used a shovel to make sure I was getting the roots of the others that were too hard to pull with my hands. I filled 3 black garbage bags with weeds! Although it was a dreadful task, I'm glad it was done. Hopefully I prevented the weeds from regerminating.

I also planted a croton petra this weekend, I'll take pictures soon and post.

Southwest Florida's Water Shortage

The water management district has declared an extreme water shortage for several counties including Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located. They are enforcing the one day per week irrigation restriction that was enacted May of 2006. In addition, people who have automatic sprinkler systems will no longer be able to use them. They are allowing hand watering only. We do not have a sprinkler system, so this will not affect us. However, I am going to try to be more water-conscience, and pick plants that are drought resistant, so they can withstand no water for long periods of time.

I'm hoping we can start a rain water collection system, for when it does start to rain, that we will be able to use to irrigate our landscape in the future.

Cordyline Bolero

I just transplanted 3 bolero plants from my front yard to my back yard. I've never transplanted this type of plant, so I'm hoping it does ok.


Transplant 1


Transplant 2



Transplant 3






This bolero is almost dead, I'm hoping it comes back from the freeze.


I just trimmed the dead leaves from the freeze on this bolero. The same thing happened last year, and it came back just fine. I'll track it's progress here.