It's January?

This is the warmest January we've had in several years and the garden is loving it!  There are plenty of growing and blooming plants to enjoy  for the first winter in recent memory.  A few overnight freezes did take down some of the most tender tropicals but they will return as soon as we experience reliably warm weather.

Alternanthera dentata 'Purple Knight'

Now is the perfect time to do all those gardening jobs that require heavy physical labor.  The temperature is cool enough that the gardener won't melt while shoveling amendments into the soil yet warm enough that there will be butterflies and other garden creatures to provide companionship.

Orchard Orb Weaver

Several late winter blooming shrubs are still holding on to their budding flowers.  A few of their branches were nipped by the cold but there is hope in my heart that this will be the year I can see them in full flower.

Eranthemum pulchellum 'Blue Sage'

This January's garden has plenty of foliage left in it unlike the last few years.  This is partly because of the mild weather not killing everything but the hardiest evergreens down to the ground and partly because more cold-hardy plants have been incorporated into the beds to give winter structure.

Odontonema callistachyum 'Purple Firespike'

Having most of the garden spared from the ravages of winter is a wonderful treat to enjoy.  Along with that enjoyment comes responsibility however.  There is more to trim, weed, edge and feed.  Less down time for the plants means less down time for the gardener.

It's wonderful to be back to year-round gardening in central Florida!

A Cold Calculating View

As I walk around the garden these days I do so with a view to assess what has worked well during this cold winter season.  I want to be sure to place more of these plants to help keep some structure going at all times of the year.

Sweet Alyssum, Lobularia maritima, is still blooming and reseeding on the sunnier side of the garden.  It and the Pansies, Viola x wittrockiana,  make a great winter annual combination.  There are lots of little seedlings of something sprouting up in that area.  I sure hope they aren't really weeds.  Since there were blanket flowers and some other butterfly attracting flowers there this past spring, I'm waiting to see what they turn into before pulling them.

Two baby Cardboard Palms, Zamia furfuracea, live along the path and amazingly they both have come through the cold unscathed.  The oak canopy must offer them just the right amount of protection.  This is just another example of micro-climates within the same gardening zone.  Often, I see plants that seem cold-hardy or heat-tolerant in another garden only to find they don't react the same way in my garden.  In this case the opposite happened.  I saw freeze-dried Cardboard Palms in another garden and thought for sure mine would never make it as my garden tends to be in a cold pocket.  The tree coverage seems to be the key to helping these little cycads survive.  The Neoregelia 'Burgundy' are doing quite well placed in front of the Sweet Almond bush.  The poor Sweet Almond, Aloysia virgata, while not seemingly affected by the cold, has had it's leaves pierced and beaten by an overabundance of falling acorns.

The Birdsnest Fern, Asplenium nidus 'Osaka', and Holly Fern, Cyrtomium falcatum, have earned their spots with their ability to not show even a smidgen of winter stress.  Definitely, I am on the look-out for more of these.

The Abutilon is still blooming and producing new leaves.  There seem to be many cultivars of this plant, different colors, and different flower sizes.  I do like the light peach color with dark red veining of this one, but I'm going to be on the look-out for some other colors too.  After the last December freeze some of the larger leaves turned yellow and dropped off.  You would never know it now as it is full of new green growth and weathered the January freeze just fine.  Sometime in February, when the promise of spring is more sure, I plan to take cuttings and spread this cold survivor around in other places along the path.  As an added bonus, the hummingbird visited this plant quite often this past fall.

Lots of Florida gardeners are singing the praises of Camellias this year.  This, Camellia sasanqua 'Shishi Gashira', is blooming in the backyard garden.  Two more Sasanquas have been purchased to add to this area, another 'Shishi Gashira' and a 'Mine-No-Yuki.'  The second one has a ruffly white flower which I'm hoping will be showing up in future posts soon as it is presently covered in buds.

I am thoroughly enjoying the glorious Florida weather we have been experiencing this week.  It sure gets the gardening juices flowing. 

Life in the Garden

There is only a little plant life left around the Path but the bird population has been as active as ever.  Keeping the feeders clean and filled is keeping me active outside and gives me a focus for the camera.

For some reason the cardinal pair are camera shy.  As soon as I step outside of the screened porch, camera in hand, they will fly away.  If I am working with the shovel or clippers, they ignore me.



They are so faithful to come by the garden many times throughout the day.  Shooting through the screen is challenging but  it is the only way to capture them in a photograph.

The titmice are much less concerned with my presence and my camera.  I just love when four or five of these will flutter through the sprinkler on a warm day.  Those days will be coming again soon.

In past years I have put out thistle socks with nyger seed to attract the goldfinches but have never had a one visit while I was looking.  This year, several have visited the regular feeders.  I have decided my new visitors must be winter visiting goldfinches because of their song.  I used this website to try to ID them.

Tiny carolina wrens love all the brown in the garden now.  They are finding lots of cover these days.  These small birds have the biggest voices.  I love hearing them sing their loud songs. 

I've cleaned and restocked the hummingbird feeders every three days but I haven't seen my little female ruby-throat that frequented the garden all summer and fall.  After the December freezes I've read reports of hummingbirds visiting feeders in other yards in my area so maybe she has moved.  I'm keeping the feeders clean and filled with sugar water in a 4:1 mixture just in case she or another  hummer should zoom by.

The plant life here at My Garden Path is challenged right now, but the wildlife I love to attract is still finding shelter, food and water and rewarding me with their presence. 

Winter Veggies

Vegetable gardening is a real challenge.  Honestly, I don't know how farmers are able to stand the stress of it.  Sometimes there is not enough rain, then there is too much.  The temperature is usually perfect until the flowers form, then it gets too hot or too cold.  The weather is one thing, but then there are the garden pests and diseases.  Growing vegetables is not easy.

The fall garden started off with a lot of promise.  The seedlings sprouted just as they should and soon flowers bloomed and then fruit began to set.  I know this is a normal process, but to me it was quite amazing.

The cherry tomatoes were the first to produce giving me a handful of harvest just about every day.  The larger "slicing" tomatoes had just begun to produce a few green tomatoes when the first of the December freezes hit.  Those tomatoes were picked green and ripened on the kitchen window sill.  Now, the tomatoes you see in the above pictures are just about ready.  I sure hope the next cold wave will not hit until they have a chance to vine-ripen.

 

A mix of lettuces were planted  and have been providing the base for most of the salads for our dinners.  I've never grown lettuce before but I plan to have some in all my future fall/winter gardens.  It grows fast, looks pretty and flourishes in the cold.  Oh, and so far, no pests or diseases.

 

Here is an eggplant putting out blooms!  This is one of two eggplants left over from the spring garden.   The "spring garden" was not very successful.  There seem to be more flowers on this eggplant now than the first time around.  This is not a cold weather vegetable so I will be very surprised if I actually get any eggplant to harvest. 

 

I may not be able to feed the family from my farming efforts, but it sure is fun dabbling in vegetable gardening.

Selective Sights After a Cold Winter's Night

The garden thermometer under the big double-oak showed 29 degrees this morning at first-light. 

Smiling Pansies

As a native Floridian who has never lived anywhere else, I remember cold winters like we have been experiencing these last few years.  However, I had been lulled into forgetfulness by the decade or so of milder winters occurring prior to 2008.

Bamboo, Multiplex 'Fernleaf'

I've lived on the same piece of property for 25 years now.  When the children were still small my gardening efforts were limited to a few hedges of ligustrum, viburnum and lots of azaleas.  All of those plants are cold-hardy and have never been fazed by winter.

Budding Azaleas


A few hibiscus bushes and pass-along bromeliads were in the landscape but I don't remember winter ever ravaging them like it has recently.

Native Saw Palmetto

The last four years have afforded a slower lifestyle that fueled a new interest in gardening.  Yep, just in time for a cold winter cycle to hit.



Flowering Maple

All the beautiful tropicals and butterfly nectar and host plants that drew me that first spring of 2007 gardening have taught me much.  Old stand-by plants once considered "boring" are now appreciated for the structure they provide during just such times as these.

African Iris

Oh, the tropicals and other tender perennials will always be loved and grown in this garden, but more thought is being given to a reliable frame-work to define the garden during the dormant months.

Shrimp Plant

This thought began after last January's eleven days of freezing temperatures.  By April, the thought was hidden beneath the exuberance of seeing those tender plants returning.  Soon, the thought of providing a form that would be cold-hardy was completely forgotten, or at least, ignored.



Sasanqua Camellia 'Yuletide'

A few reliable garden residents are rewarding my initial effort and refueling my resolve to follow-through better this next gardening year. 

My blog title says "Learning and Growing in a Florida Garden" and, albeit slowly, I am.

In-between

While the garden is between frosty weather episodes these flowers have brought their joy.

Lovely lavender only grows well here during the cold season. 

Once the humidity of a Florida summer cranks up it wilts and withers,but now, it is spiking up beautifully.

A reliable bloomer most of the year, African iris is sending up shoots of new buds. 

Sweet Alyssum and Belinda's Dream mingle their perfume adding a sweet scent to the morning walk-about.

With a scent that is a little less sweet and a little more peppery, the White Out rose is doing her best to provide wintery white blooms.

Smelling like almond cookies baking in the oven, the sweet almond bush is loving the cold. 

(While tender potted plants and seedlings have been brought into the protection of the porch and a few in-ground tropicals have been covered with old quilts, the above flowers have been on their own.  Other plants left unprotected have already turned brown and begun their winter hibernation.  It's nice to have a few things doing well in the winter garden.)