A Delightful Day

After far too long, an entire day was available for me to spend in the garden.  And what a beautiful day it was.

Cool temperatures and clear skies brought enjoyment to even the most mundane of gardening chores.  Florida Fall colors greeted me as I moved around tending to trimming and weeding.  The red berries of the native rouge plant, Rivina humilis, are so prolific they make up for the spots of fungus on the leaves left by the incessant rains of last month.

Tillandsias enjoyed all that rain and are now showing off their fall colors.  These have to be the easiest plants to care for in my garden.

The red firespike, Odontonema strictum, is at the height of its glory.  The fact that freezing temperatures kill it back is actually a good thing.  Winter weather keeps this monster from taking over the whole garden.  It always grows back quickly as soon as the ground warms in spring and is ready for late summer blooms that last until that first frost occurs.

Opening its blooms right on time for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season, is the Christmas cassia, Cassia bicapsularis.   When all the yellow blossoms are open this little tree is quite a spectacular sight.

One of the gardening chores urgently needed was righting the sweet almond bush, Aloysia virgata,  which had been blown sideways during a recent windstorm.  While propping and staking it, I decided to trim it up into a one-trunked tree.  Hopefully, that won't prove to be too much for it to handle all at one time.

These sweet smelling flowers are present all year but in the spring and fall they are more abundant.  The more this little tree is trimmed the more it produces its sweet perfume.

Nothing is better than a delightful day in the garden!

New Grass or New Garden?

After picking up all the oak leaves from our front yard this year, we discovered that yet, once again, all the St. Augustine had died.  Well, there is one small patch still growing just on the other side of the azaleas in this photo.  Innumerable pallets of sod and plugs have gone in over the 20 something years we've lived here.  Each time we replace grass I try to make the planting beds larger so we have less  grass to deal with. 

Yes, we have an irrigation system.  Yes, we have fertilized.  No, we don't spray insecticides.  Yes, I find this photo embarrassing. 

We began enlarging the front garden by bringing in a load of compost from the county recycling center.  More will be brought in later but for this project just one truck load was enough. 

My 'muscle' unloaded the truck and spread the compost for me.  I love him.  I removed the liriope border that had been behind the white caladiums and in front of the Asian jasmine to use for the new border.

One of the ilex schilling bushes was removed and replanted further down the driveway.  A swatch of Asian jasmine was removed and placed in the center of the new garden area.  The 'White Christmas' caladiums were the reason this project was not done earlier.  I was waiting for them to sprout so I could see where they were and could move them.  They were grouped together on one side of the new pathway. 

Eucalyptus mulch was applied between the stones of the path and oak leaf mulch was put down in the planting area.  Yes, we picked up the leaves and then put them right back in the same place.  But, NEXT year this area will self-mulch.  Yay!

Most of the plants were just relocated from other parts of the yard.  So, the only new purchases were the stones for the path and a gardenia tree which is blooming its head off and scenting the new entry path.  I did plant some caladium bulbs which had been purchased a few months ago and were already sprouting.  I hope to see them lending color to this area very soon. 

Just as I finished this project a rain storm began.  What perfect timing to water all the new plantings.

The bushes need to be trimmed, the windows need to be washed, and the front door needs fresh paint.  But I think I'm going to put  enlarging more front garden areas at the top of the list.  It's just so much fun!

Fragrance in the Garden

As I take my morning walk through the back garden to check on the ripening of the grape tomatoes, fragrance is in the air. 

Japanese Honeysuckle, lonicera japonica,  gives off the sweetest perfume which is why I bought this plant on purpose without knowing its invasiveness.   I haven't had a problem with it being overly agressive yet as I just bought it in April.  I understand from reading, after the purchase, that it is spread by the berries it produces.  So, it probably will be pulled and replaced.  Probably.  Oh, I hate this.  Maybe I will just quit reading up on plants, or maybe I will only buy plants I have read about and know what to expect.

Jasminum nitidum, Angelwing jasmine, grows as a shrub at My Garden Path.  These flowers are lightly scented, not as strong as some other jasmines.  It usually makes it through our winters but this year it is starting fresh from the roots.  This is the cover for one of the rain barrels so I hope it grows fast!

Of course, my lovely roses are full of sweet, fragrant blooms that flavor my morning walk-through with delight.

The African Blue Basil is just starting to bloom.  I keep this in a pot so I can protect it in winter.  It is perennial but not at all cold tolerant.  Does it ever smell wonderful even with just a few beginning blooms! The leaves have a fragrance just as other basils do but it's the flowers that really put out the fragrance. 

Lovely Mirabilis jalapa, known as four o'clocks because of the timing of the opening of their blooms, greet me along My Garden Path at 9 o'clock AM.  My plants are as mixed up as their caretaker can be, I guess. 

There are several fragrantly blooming shrubs in my garden.  These have all been added just this spring.

Osmanthus fragrans, Tea Olive has flushed with blooms for a second time since being planted.

The Sweet Almond bush, Aloysia virgata, is blooming in dappled shade even though it is supposed to like full sun.  I'm hoping it will be happy here as I really don't have a large area for it anywhere else.  I really want to put a bench or chair here so I can enjoy the vanilla almond scent while watching the grands at play. 

These buds haven't opened and released their fragrance yet, but I  wanted to include this lovely native shrub in this post.  Simpson's Stopper, Myrcianthes fragrans, is growing in semi-shade in my boggy area.  So far, it seems like a happy shrub.  This shrub is actually very pretty and is a great wildlife attractor.  Plans are for more of this shrub to be planted along the fenceline in this area. 

Oh!  I almost forgot the grape tomatoes!  There are just enough ripe ones to use for a salad tonight.  These are the first ones ready.  I'm hoping they will stand up to the heat that's already here and keep producing.  It seems that this might be a short tomato season for me.