EARLY SUMMER RAMBLINGS

With the Summer heat bearing down more each day it seemed like a good as any time to plan for the next three months.

Lots of plants are already struggling in the sun and wind. Ever since I lost my big Mango tree to a hurricane several years back my backyard shade is mostly gone. Best I can figure about 3/4 of the yard is in the tropical sun now as long as the sun is up.

It's kind of similar to growing plants on the beach. Full sun all day and no shade to escape to until the sun sets.

So here are some of my South Florida favorites that thrive in the tropical summer heat.

One plant that I can always count on is the Mandevilla.

It is a tropical plant and seems to grow better for me the hotter that it gets around here.

It doesn't like the cold at all and every year around March I cut the vine back to about a foot tall. As it warms up the Mandevilla vine takes off and produces flowers up until about January. This guy will grow a good ten foot tall by the end of the summer and will be continuously covered in blooms.

Another hot weather favorite at the sandpit is the Desert Rose.

It stays in the full sun and never complains. The Desert Rose is native to Africa and likes it hot.

This plant never gets much water from me and seems to bloom better being a little water starved or so I have concluded.

Had worms eat all the leaves off it once until it was just sticks. A month later the leaves popped back out and it was blooming again. This is one tough plant great for South Florida.

One other proven hot weather survivor in the sandpit is the Everglades Wild Tomato.

They grow dime to quarter size fruit and are the best tasting cherry size Tomato that I have ever eaten.

They reseed themselves and pop up all over the garden as volunteers. I suspect the birds who also love to snack on the fruits spread the seeds.

All the better cause I like to snack on a handful straight from the bush while working outside. There are like five bushes growing now in the garden. None of which I planted.

These guys take the heat when other Tomato's are long gone. They will continue to provide tasty handfuls of fruit all summer long. They are wild so if one plants looks bad you can count on more popping up to take it's place.

And here is my great hope to help with my lack of shade .

It is one my baby Neem trees that has sprouted from seeds that I got from Zanzibar East Africa.

Actually I have three baby Neem tree sprouts growing for the nine seeds that I attempted to sprout. That is pretty good because the seeds are very time sensitive and must be planted quickly after harvest.

The Neem tree might not look like much now but it will grow quickly into a mighty pillar of a tree to solve my shade problems. Anyway that's what I keep telling the Neem sprouts.

They will have to stay in the pots until they grow to 50 cm tall. One cm is about the size of a pinky nail turned sideways so I figure by the time I figure how tall 50 pinky nails turned sideways is they should be ready to plant in the yard.

And as to strange new plant experiments here is my latest entry.

I picked up some hybrid Sunflower seeds a while back called Teddy Bear. Here is the results.

All I can report is that they are pretty weird looking and that the bugs absolutely find them irresistible.

Going to sprout some more later in the summer when the bugs calm down a bit.

I don't use pesticides anymore but have been spraying with Neem Oil to get some of the bugs under control naturally.

As for the pipe dream department here is my Zinnia attempts. I like Zinnia's and try to grow them every year with less than stellar results.

This one is a Giant Violet Queen. It has been afflicted with some unknown plant affliction as well as being ravaged by hungry bugs.

But with all that against it it still blooms for me. Now that's tenacity a trait which I admire.

So if the Zinnia's keep trying so will I.

And as to a summer suprise here is my Passion Vine flower. It is the first time that the vine has bloomed here.

For the past couple of weeks there are 3-5 blooms that open each morning than close and fall off that night.

Is that neat or what?

The bottom line is that in South Florida heat and weather you have to plan ahead to make it through the summer months.

Speaking of which it is now officially the start of hurricane season. This means it is time to plant some Moonflower seeds.

My theory is that a well grown Moonflower vine can actually bend a hurricane away from it. There's not a lot of science behind the theory but seem to me every time I have had Moonflower Vines growing the hurricanes have bypassed the sandpit.

More research may be required but it has worked in the past.

--Sanddune--

SIMPLER EACH DAY

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It occurred to me today that the 2010 challenge is really becoming second nature. Quite a bit of my garden is established and returns each year by itself with minimal care.

These Amaryllis plants have been in the garden for years. They return to bloom every spring. The bulbs are sending up their bloom shoots now and in several weeks the garden will be covered in their blooms.

The seeds that were started last year are growing fine without the use of chemical fertilizer or pesticides.

This one is a Gaillardia Aristata or Blanket flower grown from seed.

I stuck it in an old recycled pot ,added compost from the bin, and added some wire to make it into a hanging basket.

All it gets now is water and an occasional shot of compost tea. It appears happy and is also sending up flower shoots.

Matter of fact for my plant something each week goal I started four more of

the Blanketflower seeds today.

By starting seeds each week it gives a continual stream of new plants to put out in the garden.

Since these are perennial wildflowers they should come back for more than one year.

I can then collect and save the seeds and will not have to buy the seed pack again to start new plants.

That is the goal of frugal sustainable gardening.

This is a cutting that came from my Mandevilla vine.

It should give me a new plant for this summer.

It was also put in some compost from the bin and some newspaper mulch added to hold in the moisture.

This week some of my older sprouted seeds went out into the garden on so I could reuse the yogurt cups to replant more seeds.

One of the new plants from seed that went out is this Grampa Ott Morning Glory.

It is a Bavarian type Morning Glory that was brought over from Germany in 1883.

The seeds were given to Diane Wheatly [Ott] in 1972 by her grandfather. Thus the name Grampa Ott.

I planted this one by my old tree stump and hope that it will grow to cover some of the stump.

If it does well I will be able to collect seeds from it . See what I mean about the challenge becoming second nature.

--Sanddune----

TEA TIME

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Figured it was high time to make some tea for the plants. They all have been through a rough time this year so far with the unusual long January freeze and the strong winds lately.

Going back to some folk wisdom and some organic gardening basics I came up with this concoction.

It is manure tea with a dash of Epsom salts. Should be just the thing to perk up my beat down plants.

A couple of trowel scoops of cow manure go into the brew and just a tablespoon or so of the Epsom salt. I put the ingredients into some Arizona tea containers that I had saved up. The containers are thick plastic, hold about somewhere around a gallon or so, and are great to reuse to mix stuff in.

Next added some rain water collected in 5 gallon buckets during the passing cold front this week. Put on the cap and shake the brew up and let her sit in the sun. After a few days of settin' in the sun it will be ready to pour on the base root zone of the plants.

Will it help? Who knows, but I figure it couldn't hurt.

The manure adds organic matter to the soil which forms humus which helps the plants take up nutrients and minerals. Mixed with water in the tea it gets to the root zone quicker.

The Epsom salts are a naturally occurring mineral. It is actually hydrated Magnesium sulphate. It is easy for sandy soil to lack Magnesium so I have heard.

The other part of the Epsom salts is sulfur. Plants not getting enough sulfur show light green or yellow leaves. Got plenty of that going on in the garden.

Lots of gardeners for generations use Epsom salts on there plants. Some say it works wonders to make the plant grow stronger others say that it don't.

Anyway, here is the finished concoction ready to go after it ages some.


On the weird side ever seen whats left of an Avocado after it is attacked by black birds.

I have been throwing the Avocado's in a small area of my yard. The flocks of hungry blackbirds arrive and strip away everything but the seed.

Kind of like watching some of them Amazon piranhas attack something.



On the plant front my Mandevilla vine is sprouting some new growth.

I cut the vine off back to bare stick several weeks ago.

The new leaves started popping out this week.

It is a great plant and loves the heat and humidity here in the summertime. This plant never fails to provide
blooms year after year here.


And lastly, [ Is lastly a word? ] Thanks to Susan for identifying this plant for me.

It is a Brazilian Plume Pink Flamingo.

I took some cuttings from it last week that I hope will grow so I can stick it in my garden and maybe it will bloom this summer.

I like the way this plant blooms. To me, it looks like a big firework going off.

------sanddune---------