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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

June 1, 2026

Sucker Punched

Indeed, sometimes when you whack at the planties, they whack back.  LOL.  Usually, when I talk about branches beating things, it’s other planties, maybe the structures.  Always during storms.  It’s not that I’ve never been injured before.  Scratches, cuts, bruises, and bug bites are all part of the physical sacrifice, the labor of love, being a Grower.  It comes with the shovel and sheers.

Then, on that random day, when you’re deep in the wooded area, the Pepper Bush takes its shot.  You don’t see it coming.  You’re busy weaving cut logs into the perimeter hedge.  And that one, you’ve previously set, somehow becomes spring loaded and slips free to deliver a devastating left cross to your cheek.  Not a whip from a small branch, an actual punch from a 6 inch diameter log.  Dang.

Wobbling a bit, you shake it off with a groan, and continue working.  It isn’t until you take a quick bathroom break and your mom freaks out a little seeing your swelling face that you realize how proud you imagine Rhonda Rousey would be at your ability to take a punch. LOL!  The answer is yes, the welt and surrounding bright purple bruise on my left cheek are still there.  It’s been almost five days.  People really do assume the worst.  LOL!

Around Our Garden

Yup, you guessed it, we worked on the Pepper Bush tunnel last week.  It’s hard work, and there are risks.  LOL!  But, we got another section finished and the 1st set of Schefflera planted to grow along the inside of the area previously cleared.  So that’s good.  The hope is to get a nice thick wall of preferred planties well established before taking out the rest of the Pepper Bush currently providing screening to the road.

We also spent some time cleaning up the path out there.  When I showed it to My Son on Mother’s Day, I realized how many unfinished pokey things were left up everywhere.  Overhead was also pretty low, which is okay for me, but not so much for My Son who stands a foot taller.  I usually judge height by stretching my hands up overhead.  If my fingers brush, it needs to be cut higher.  LOL!

The Scheffelera cuttings we took when we were cleaning up the entrance to the pool and Cage Match the week before last.  Unfortunately, we left them in the bucket of water too long before planting and lost all the little ones.  Dang.  There are plenty more on the Cage Match.  We’re trying to time the next cuttings for the day after the areas they are being transplanted to are prepped.  LOL!

We spent an entire morning cleaning up the front entrance, mostly because the border between the front bed and grass had been pulled out and the decorative fence had been knocked all out of whack.  Dang.  It looks really nice now, and we’re expecting more Zinnias soon.  Woo-Hoo!  We also spent an entire morning spreading out the remaining big pile of Dragon Fruit Cactus sections with scale, chopping it, killing it, and covering it with a brown layer to compost in place.  We’re hoping to raise the elevation a bit and create a new planting bed.  Woo-Hoo!

Harvest

Another morning was spent on a big Harvest.  With the Rains started, the Veggies need to come in before they rot in the ground.  Unfortunately, we got a bit distracted the day we went out because the outside edge of our big patch of Greek Oregano was in full bloom.  

As a general rule, Herbs and Lettuce die if they go to seed with few exceptions.  All the blooms had to be removed.  We’ve had the same patch for almost a decade, and we plan to keep it.  Since the Honey Bees had also found the blooms, we had to be extra careful where we stuck our hands while trimming.  Dang.  The Bees were super nice about it, so we left the trimmed pieces with the flowers outside for them to work on until we came in.  We dried about half the bunch in clumps still on the branches and removed the leaves on the other half to dry separately.  We also kept a small amount fresh to put into food.  We can get the fresh stuff any time, but since we already had some.  Great to use.

All the Carrots, except the one flowering, were pulled out of the ground.  We’re hoping for some fresh seeds with the one left.  The rest of the Harvest was pretty spectacular.  In the double pots, we grew some 11 inch beauties.  We’re always surprised at how well Carrots grow here and how much better they taste than the ones from the store.

We also brought in several Cabbage heads, Turnips, Peppers, Tomatoes and Broccoli.  Woo-Hoo!  The Tomatoes, Peppers, Beans and Broccoli we’ll leave in the ground to produce until they die.  The remaining Cabbage and Celery plants will either live to produce next year or die.  The Eggplants usually die back but survive to come back in the fall.  We’ve got a lot of produce, but there’s a lot of dying going on out there.

Flowers

The Double Lancaster Tiger Lilies captured the Feature this week by sheer numbers.  Well, that and they are fabulous.  Even the new babies we have in pots for Hannah and My Son have large bright orange blooms.  Woo-Hoo!  Layers of glowing orange petals open to reveal dark orange stripes dusted in light orange pollen.  So pretty.  The best part, no 2 are alike.  Slight differences in how the layers open make each unique.  It’s a magic show of orange.  Woo-Hoo!

While not flowers, the Butterflies showed up in force last week to visit ours.  They are going crazy over the Zinnias and Golden Dewdrops.  Every time we walk out, we’re met with their quiet joy, fluttering about.  I didn’t snap a pic of the Golden Dewdrops last week that didn’t include a Butterfly.  LOL!  Seriously.  And, the Pink Rain Lilies joined the Yellow Day Lilies to fill the Bulb Garden with color.  Lovely.  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.