Greetings Growers & Lovers of Green Things

The Tropical Grower welcomes you to the online version of Our Garden. Check out our What’s Bloomn’ slideshow featuring last week’s flowers, cruz the latest topics at the Blog Page for information, enjoy the Photos, or just check out what’s happening this week in Garden Dirt. While we are Growing Tropical, growing is for everyone, and we’re here to share the green.

Garden Dirt

May 25, 2026

Memorial Day

We hope you had a long weekend and the chance to get out and love on your green just a little.  While you might expect us to talk about the importance of the Holiday, honoring, grief, sadness, and remembering are unique things, completely individual to the person experiencing them.  So, as a person who has lost their special veteran, I’ll admit if I wanted to honor My Daddy, I’d go fishing.  But I also try to practice joyful remembrance, it isn’t for everyone.  You be you.  Growing green things are our focus here.  And, Memorial Day is traditionally an outdoor holiday where people often spend time in their gardens, with guests.  More often than not, thinking about what needs to be done.  LOL!  

We absolutely spent some time in Our Garden this weekend both working and relaxing.  In fact, we opened up the pool fully last week.  While this might surprise some, it does get too chilly to actually swim here in the winter.  But, a cool little swim after some hot work is delightful.  My Mom and I spent some time finishing up the new concrete pavers walking path, and it was hot heavy work.  The relaxing soak was almost a necessity or a celebration.  Take your pick.  The problem with projects this time of year for us is the blazing Tropical Growing Zone sun.  Early is better, but sometimes the path you’re working on is in the blazing sun, no matter what.  Dang.

If you spent some time distracted during your outdoor festivities this weekend, either wanting an outdoor space like the one you visited or by something amiss with your own green space, we have lots of ideas and help.  Check out:  Tropical Growers, like us, have to scale back construction projects and really focus on planting and heavy growth this time of year.  Woo-Hoo!  New planties!  But, growers more north can focus on both.  Either way, dream big.

Around Our Garden

As mentioned, we did finish our final walking path.  Woo-Hoo!  We now host a full walking loop around Our Garden.  Woot-Woot!  It’s always good to celebrate the wins.  I’m not going to lie, it was some work.  The rock and mulch portions not nearly as much as the pavers.  The final stretch was in the full blazing sun, and we had to bring in some clean Yard Sand to level it properly.  Yup, hauling sand.  Then, we had to bring in more to level and drain everything around them properly.  Dang.  Did I mention we were in direct hard-core sun?  LOL!  

Part of the problem was the raccoon had dug under all the log boarders in the adjacent beds, displacing lots of soil.  Since this is the area where water drains into our new dry detention, it couldn’t be a lumpy mess.  The water needs to flow slow and smooth.  So, add sand, level with a slope, compact, and finish mulch.  The walking path with pavers and mulch will help keep everything in place.  Perfect for this area by design.    

Then, there was all the hard freeze die-off in the beds.  Luckily, in this area, the plants just died back to the ground.  I say lucky because this area had no plant deaths, just die-back.  Not great, but not devastating, either.  Don’t forget we are heading into our crazy tropical growth time, lots of water and sun.  We’re interested to see how quickly the well-established root systems recover.  Sometimes it can feel like magic.  Fingers-crossed.

More Fun Stuff

While the walking path was a big project, spanning a few weeks, because we made the pavers, the finish leveling only took a couple of days, mostly because of the sun delays.  LOL!  We also started trimming-up and weaving the Cage Match.  Well, we only got to the pool entrance and right tunnel over-hang, but that’s a ton.  LOL!  The right over-hang was starting to droop, and everyone but me and My Mom had to duck to get under it.  Yup, got a little crooked grin of amusement thinking about it.  It’s pushed back up now, but for a moment we had our own secret entrance to the back.  Nice and fun to think about until the person mowing needs to get back there.  Dang.

The pole cutter had to be pulled out to rip at the material like stuff around the top of the Coconut tree, again.  Coconut leaf fronds are held onto the trunk by this thick heavy organic matting that looks like material, fabric.  As the fronds die, the material breaks down and the whole palm frond falls from the tree leaving a clean trunk.  The problem is the hard freeze killed what would have been living fronds, but the material holding them to the truck has not broken down.  So, the new fronds are being strangled and broken trying to emerge out of this tight material wrapped around the top of the tree.  Dang.  We’re trying to rip a little room for them to come out without damage, not remove them.  That could kill the tree.              

We also spent some time walking around and pruning with the big clippers.  The Frangipangi or Pulmeria plants did not fare well in the freeze.  While we thought the 2 big ones were coming back fine, nope.  Some of the end branches started new plants with the main trunks dead almost to the ground.  Those were cut-back and the sprouted ends planted for new trees.  Good and bad.  There was also weeding.  It will be a heavy battle for the next several months.  Not that it ever ends.

Harvest

We’re trying very hard to bring in the remaining Veggie crop a little at a time.  We do not want so much produce it will go bad before we eat it.  It’s also preferable to eat it fresh.  So many criteria.  LOL!   I am sad to report we did not get to the shade cloths which makes things even more critical.  Veggies do not particularly like the Rainy Season.  While things like the Sweet Potato Vines grow crazy, most everything else rots or dries up.  We’re watching the Cabbage and Broccoli for standing water.  The Carrots will be fine one day but rot within a few more from too much water.  It’s that time, and I’m always glad we get the heavy tropical growth about the same time as the Veggie die-off.  We don’t like it.  Boo-Hiss!

It should be no surprise we got a big Harvest last week.  Not only did we bring in the normal contenders Cabbage, Broccoli, Tomatoes, Lima Bean and Turnips, but we also got Peppers.  There were several of the Orange Bell Peppers, a few Cayenne and a Banana Pepper.  I’m not going to lie, it was the smallest Banana Pepper I remember growing.  LOL!  They’re usually the length of an actual Banana.  We‘re in a severe drought.  And, more Peaches I’m happy to report that were not chewed on.  Woo-Hoo!  There’s still more on the tree.

Flowers

In a surprise appearance, our Gladiolus bloomed and captured the Feature.  While we have planted over 30 bulbs across the last 3 years, only one constantly blooms.  It was planted 3 years ago in the Bulb Garden along with 5 other Bulbs. From the next 2 batches planted, both in the Bulb Garden and elsewhere, another 2 bulbs sent up green leaves this year, no blooms.  While Gladiolus is supposed to grow great here, that has not been our experience.  Or, we just haven’t figured out the trick.  So you can imagine how we rejoice when this one, the only one, blooms.  

The sparkling white petals are brushed at the tips with a purple-pink like watercolor, and the bright magenta/dark purple centers appear splashed into place.  So unusual.   They start blooming at the bottom with each flower opening as they build to the top.  Usually between 7 and 10 blooms in all.  Woo-Hoo!  It takes a bit, thankfully.    

With the rains came the Pink Rain Lilies.  Double Woo-Hoo!  The Zinnias and all the wildflowers look amazing, attracting the prettiest and most fun pollinators.  We spent some time in Our Garden last week just enjoying the butterflies and dragonflies.  We love it when they come to visit.  So many.  Again by design.  We don’t just like to look at the blooms.  Some of them are planted specifically to attract their pretty friends, and it’s a wonderland of blooms out there.  Enjoy!

Check out What’s Bloomn’ slideshow for more flowers or visit Garden Dirt Diary to catch up on what’s been going on around Our Garden.