What's Blooming?

Our backyard is nowhere near what I have envisioned for it and won't be for quite a while but between weeds and scraggly make-shift lawn I love what's been blooming happily. So when I snapped pictures of our knuckle-busting scraping fun, I also turned around to capture a few of my bright happy flowers blooming along the fence.

While we mostly planted bee- and butterfly friendly flowers, and the hive is going gang-buster, we have not noticed an increase in bee activity in our yard. We spy the one or other girl buzzing about the weeds (Spanish Needle and Spiderwort, for the most part), but that's about it, in case you were wondering.

 My favorite corner - Bleeding Heart and a blue Salvia. The colors are crazy bright and contrast so sharply it makes my heart go pitter-patter every time I look at it.

Florida bumblebees are huge, easily measuring two inches, and they are loud. They are also absolutely "NUTSO" about the blue salvia (we also planted another purple salvia and red salvia since they do well in Florida soil, are drought resistant once established and bee/butterfly friendly).

Our Bleeding Heart vine is doing really well in its new corner. After languishing on its trellis in the pot next to our entrance, I moved it out into the backyard. Then I read it loved half-shade. Well, it is planted in full sun, gets more than 6 hours of full sun and is loving it. Weird.

Those darlings with the filigree flowers are a fairly recent addition and I'm madly in love with them. They are "Orange Bulbines" which are great for Florida gardens. Again, they are drought resistant once established which makes them easy to care for, and they are bee and butterfly-friendly.

This year our African Iris finally started to bloom - it's been two years since we planted them - and our red Hibiscus is growing strong. Our banana that I planted last year had her first 'baby' and we have big hopes for all our vines (trumpet vine, Confederate jasmine and Arabian jasmine).

So, what's blooming in your garden?

Pool Surround

Sure enough - I have prepped and primed molding waiting for two coats of white paint in the dressing room but of course, anything, -any-thing- sounds more fun and is a lot more interesting to do than, you know, painting trim.

Since it seems that I have caught the gardening bug, most of my latest endeavors have been aimed at the yard. There were certain areas that had me itching to do something about them. Case in point: the area around our pool. Last year, I whipped up our little  patio area from pavers found all over the yard, some edging and a couple of bags of pea gravel, and it has held up beautifully and provided us with a nice spot to sit outside in our back yard.

This year, during the big clean-up of the pool when we emptied it out completely and pushed it back about two feet, we ended up with a patio that felt more spacious and less closed in by the pool, but it also left us with a pretty bare spot of dirt between the pool and the patio.

See? That's really nothing worth looking at. An above ground pool is really and truly an eye sore but the benefits definitely outweigh that particular drawback.

One day (this weekend), however, I'd had enough of the crummy looks and decided to just do something about it. After a quick trip to the orange box, I returned with a small car load of marble chips and an armful of plants. I choose to go with Liriope and Ferns for some hardy planst that can deal with the poor soil, partial shade and the abuse they'd experience in those particular spots.

[Six bags later ...]

I alternated my plants, added a stepping stone to get to the pump for easy filter changes and clean feet and then covered everything with the pretty, sparkly, white marble chunks.

So. much. better.

This is much nicer to look at already, and I might even have an idea to ...ahem, prettify the big blue menace at some point.

After I was done and I began to coral the odds and ends we keep on the patio (bugspray, sunscreen, skimmer, etc.), I grabbed an old wire windowbox, zippy-tied it to the fence right between grill and pool and used that instead. It had never worked as an actual planter, not holding enough moisture to keep plants alive baking in the Florida sun, but it had found a new calling.

It's perfect!

No water can pool in there and provide breeding space for mosquitos (they are bad enough as it is already - no need to help them populate the world even more!), yet it holds our patio essentials nicely and works great as a holder for the skimmer with its long handle.

Sooo .... what to tackle next?

Make way, make way!

Lately - despite the summer heat, high humidity and pesky mosquitos - I've been feeling rather outdoorsy and needed to nurse my inner gardener. I don't have a green thumb per se, but I do enjoy digging in the dirt, planting and pruning and the challenge of experimenting with plants to find the one, the few who are able to thrive in what we consider "soil' here in Florida.

While I definitely appreciate a lush lawn, it's the one thing that comes at too high a price for us here in the Sunshine State. In order to keep your lawn lush and green and alive, you have to battle a fight to the death, constantely, and on all fronts. From bugs to drought to weeds, a nicely maintained lawn is always under attack. Bare dirt, however, just sucks. Pondering and exploring alternatives of groundcovers such as lowgrowing thymes and perennial peanut didn't really yield the results we were looking for either. Add to that the added difficulty of having to have a walkway cutting right across the front yard so we can get to the backyard gate and our trash cans, a significant drip line along the same line where nothing growns, not even Florida's hardy weeds, and a part-shade, shade setting and you're in for a real brain twister.

After tackling the sunny part of our front yard (read about it here) and really, really loving the black mulch, I decided to follow the same idea over on the other side.

I bought some more no-dig edging (LOOOOVE the stuff) to create the pathway, wide enough to walk and roll the trash can in and out comfortably (Yes, I did take them for a test drive to make sure it'd work). I've used that edging before and it works beautifully. No digging trenches - just lay down and stake into place. Very gratifying, I'm tellin' you.

I covered the planting area with the lovely lovely black mulch, and added two more plants I hope will do well in their new spot: pink calladiums.

There's definitely a pink 'thang' happening in my front yard right now, but even the husband likes it.

Here's another favorite of mine, happily thriving in a sunny spot of the front yard: a grass.

I love how lace-y and feather-y it looks. And of course it's pinkish-purple-ish!

We're getting closer to some actual curb appeal here at the Ugly Duckling. Next, we'll buy some gravel for our walkway for a more finished look and we're planning our fence.

Changing season

Since Friday's post you know that I needed a pick-me up. What better reason to swing by the blue box to browse the gardening section for some little lovelies for my yard?

Lowe's did not disappoint. In fact, I ended up the kid in the candy store marveling at all the clearance and sales tags in the gardening section. Woot! Even the distressed plant shelf was nicely stocked!

Distressed plant shelf? Well, I don't know about your big home improvement stores but ours here occasionally seem to hire people with not so green thumbs. Thus they end up with a bunch of plants that look mighty disheveled and/or shriveled, and they sell these poor abused lifeforms for very little money. Like a 10th of the original price low. Not always do I end up taking one of these patients back home with me; my own thumbs aren't overly green and certain kinds of plants become death row candidates in my care.

Others, fortunately, do thrive and since the canna lilies I bought for $10 a pop a few weeks ago seem to love their spot and don't object to my care, I picked up 2 of their distressed cousins. Canna lilies grow from bulbs, so unless the bulbs are rotten to the core, they will come back next year! I also decided to take an electric blue salvia home with me and a few other things to pretty up the outside of the Ugly Duckling.

My little plant arrangement next to our entry door had gotten a bit out of control. I'd unknowingly bought a bleeding heart -vine- and it's a really enthusiastic grower! I had to cut it back on a weekly basis and so it always looked disheveled and out of shape (and bounds). It's not like our house needs any help looking disheveled - far from it - so it had to go.

[Before: Potted plant out of control!]

At the blue box, I picked up 3 little yellow Mums (nothing says "Fall is here" like blooming mums!) and splurged on a cute, 2-tiered topiary. Then I got down and dirty and started digging up the existing plants. Crazy growing bleeding heart was earmarked to go into the backyard, along with the potatoe vine, and unknown trailing plant no. 3 got to hang around with its new buddy, the topiary.

[In Progress: Diggin' in]

Out with the old and in with the new - switching up the planter didn't take that long and only half an hour later, our front porch and entry looked much much better!

[After: So much better! All nice and tidy]

Just wish me luck I'll be able to keep this pretty poofy topiary alive!

New (plant) life

I so so sooooooooo want to garden yet there are many more and more pressing projects that need and should be completed first. However, with the idea of keeping the DIY spirit alive and kicking I do dig up some dirt every once in a while simply to make me happy. Well, and to keep the front yard from looking like ...you know ... somebody's donkey (or its behind).

[Before: Floridian desert life with Vinkas and Crape Myrtles]

August is just so not a month to plant anything, really. It's god-awfully hot, the sun burns down from a hazy sky and the occasional torrential rains wash out what little nutrients are left and mercilessly drown the more tender candidates. You also end up with a case of "fried brains" rather quickly.

I have my heart set on planting perennial peanut for an easy, low maintenance ground cover with cottage charm instead of a lawn (*yawn) but that will have to wait until the fall so the plants will have a chance to get established and survive this climate. Until then, dirt aka Florida sand and some mulch will have to suffice.

[More loot from the nursery]

After a scrumptious dinner the Little Man and I took a stroll through the nursery adjacent to the restaurant and ended up with a cart loaded with plants for a new planter bed in front of the house. We also picked up some no-dig edging for an easy way of laying out the bed.

[After: Still more of a desert but we're getting there]

I should have checked the weather forecast before starting to dig up the front yard but I just couldn't wait to get my hands dirty. In the end - 3 hours later - I was feeling somewhat nauseous and lightheaded and decided to camp out inside for a few hours. That's when I learned that the thermometer had hit the 98F mark with a heat index of 107F. Ugh, too hot!

The result was worth a little heat discomfort though. Some grasses, variegated liriope and Arabian jasmine later my little bed started to look quite nice. You know, when you ignored the mulched desert in front of it.

[After: All done except for some peanuts]

Now I need is a truckload of perennial peanut to bring the desert out front back to live.