In The Weeds

Wow - This summer really got away from me! I woke up one morning and all of the sudden the pool garden looked like this:There truly is a garden path in there somewhere. My husband and I looked each other and said "Ahh, a frost will come eventually and take care of this sticky little problem for us." All those weeds are just too much to think about without the aid of a machete.

Fortunately, there are little bits of joy to be had around the garden lately, if you look for them. This week the weather finally cooled and Floridians seemed to come out of their long air-conditioned hibernation to spend some time outdoors. Everyone was outside mowing their lawns, taking walks (I took two! Wha? Wha?) and putting up Halloween decorations. I took the opportunity to do a little gardening, or more accurately, pull a weed or two and look for plants that didn't croak on me after a long summer of neglect.

Ahh, my gingers. A few survived the squirrels and one even bloomed, although I couldn't get a good picture of it. I still love the leaves, especially at this angle from the bottom looking up.
Some coleus, hiding under the gingers. Both were taken as clippings from my Mother's house.
The camellias are really budding this year, and a few have started to bloom. YAY!!


The last hold out blossom on the crepe myrtle bush. Note about crepe myrtle: You can dig up some of those really annoying seedlings that always come up in the spring and replant them! I keep them in a pot in a shady area for the first summer and then replant them where I want them the following spring. It is a slow process, but I've had success with it. Nothing like a free plant.

I thought for sure the that the Globba Ginger were goners after our deep freezes this year, but sure enough I now have about 10 plants and they are all blooming nicely. I wish they were taller, but other than that I totally love them.
Knockout Rose, knocking me out.

A single vinca, grown back from last years planting. This time last year, the vinca looked like hell and I took them all out. This year, the seedlings I let live are gorgeous. Go figure.

The mighty attack cat, hunting her prey. She always looks at me like I'm intruding on her world when I work in the garden. It is very much her's most of the week.

In the Garden this Evening. . .

Camelias are blooming already.

I should have more ginger blooms by now, but the squirrels did their damage. There quite a few buds, so I should see more soon.

Camellias and Spiders

I have camellias! I came home from work and from across the yard I could see the flowers blooming. I also have this little buddy:

The Nursery Nazi came over not too long ago. Since she studies garden bugs for a living, she took a look at my yard. Fortunately, she said "Looks good. You have lots of banana spiders, so its good." I'm guessing it is because it they eat so many garden pests. Since she came by, I've be a bit more tolerant of the spiders, my organic pesticide.

We've already had a mild frost this week and expect another shortly. Not too much damage so far, but I can't help thinking that this may be the last of the gingers for a while. I'll take picures while I can . . .

Another camellia from the butterfly garden.

Do these sprouts know what season this is? I think they are iris bulbs.
Do they normally come up in the fall?

The Highs and The Deep, Deep Lows of the Butterfly Garden

The camellias were very, very close to being taken out of the garden this year. They took up a lot of space and last year I only had about 2 blooms for four plants. They had a ton of bugs and one died. But, over the last few months these guys have been have been earning their keep. Lots of pretty blooms. This bloom is from the bud I posted last week. We planted winter annuals, pansies and snap dragons, for some blooms in the next few months. I even have some bulbs sprouting. I don't know what they are, possibly some irises that I thought might be dead so I let my daughter plant them in random places.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING SUBJECT MATTER MAY BE TOO DISTURBING FOR SENSITVE READERS.

This hole opened up in the garden. I know, I know. Just the picture is giving me the creeps. Since the old Indian name for Ocala is "Land of Thousand Sinkholes", I'm more than a bit worried. When we bought the house, we had a geologist inspect the land because the owner had tried to get out of the deal by telling us there was sinkhole. Now, we are worried again. We aren't sure what to do besides getting a couple bags of topsoil and hope for the best.