In the Garden

Happy Tuesday!

I missed posting on both of my blogs for all of last week! What! I actually had stuff planned but my brain shut down after it went into overload. I did manage to write an article for NatureCoaster.com. I’m a guest writer for the publisher of the online magazine and try to post something about local happenings every few weeks.

Back to the subject of this post. In the Garden. 2018 was hard on me. Having two stress fractures in my left foot really slowed me down. It took quite awhile to recover and I think I am just now back to my old energy level. (still need to lose 6 pounds!)Then there was the complete and utter devastation of my back yard. Oh. Yes. That might be a bit of an exaggeration. But putting in a swimming pool—a small pool—touched every part of my formerly beautiful backyard. Big digging machines really do a number on landscaping. And we have barely scratched the surface of putting it all back together.

But now that my energy has returned and a sort of spring weather has emerged, I’m quite determined to get back out to my gardens and having them beautiful again.

And I want to interject here. We have not had a frost this winter. We’ve had very cold temps. I’ve worn my “sleeping bag” coat and warm wooly boots several times. (But that’s cause I’m a wuz when it comes to cold weather. Hey, I moved to Florida for a reason!) If we had had a frost, most of the following flowers would be DEAD!

So I strolled out to see what I could see and do what I could do on this past balmy February Saturday afternoon.

I took a few minutes to trim and fertilize the two Don Juan roses. Which is what you do to roses in the south right around Valentine’s Day. This is a picture from last summer. They don’t look like that now! But there should be some blooms in about six weeks!

Fertilized the azaleas. There are differing opinions on when it’s the perfect time to fertilize. Some say to fertilize after they bloom. My fertilizer bag lists the first time to fertilize is February 1st. So that’s when I do it. Despite my neglect, they are looking amazing! I took these pictures on Saturday. Beautiful!

My lovely blue bottle garden. Neglect doesn’t bother blue bottles or ferns!

These poinsettias were on my front porch for the holidays. I’ve placed these tropicals very close to the garden shed so I can quickly put them inside if there is a frost warning. In March I’ll put them along the fence line. And there’s a good chance that they will bloom again next year and I can put them back on the front porch!

I replaced the poinsettias that were on the front porch with these beautiful petunias. I’m usually not a big fan of petunias but there wasn’t much else for pots at the garden center when I bought them a couple of weeks ago. (and I really needed to get those holiday plants out of there) Turned out that they were the right choice. So beautiful!

These vincas are “volunteers”. I planted them originally many years ago. I pull them out just like they are weeds when they start looking tired. And just like weeds, they keep reseeding–all over the place. (never give up, never surrender!) Unlike weeds, I love to see their happy little faces!

This is another one that reseeds–not quite as rapidly as the vinca. I move my pots of impatiens around the shady flower beds where ever I might want some color, Eventually I have plants! They aren’t quite as hardy as the vincas so I keep several pots of these and put them in the garden shed if a frost is predicted.

Spider plants and philodendrons are supposed to be indoor plants but grow like crazy here outdoors. This philodendron started out in a little pot that my mother-in-law didn’t want. She was going to put it out for the trash. Yikes! NOOOO. I set the pot out by the shed, ignored it, and that pot went wild!

These spider plants were here when I moved into this house. They are a little aggressive and go crazy out of control. So they get pulled and tossed quite frequently!