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

April 20, 2026

Sun Kissed

Luck was with us last week, there was extra time, and you guessed it, we spent it in Our Garden.  Woo-Hoo!  My body is not as excited.  There’s soreness in the arm and calves.  Scratches and ant bites, of course.  And despite using 100 spf sunscreen, repeatedly, the exposed parts of my arms and legs are Sun Kissed.  Not red.  Just lightly colored.  With the Rainy Season just around the corner, it’s good to have a little protection from the Tropical Zone 10 sun.  It’s intense.

Everywhere around the country green, growing things are waking up.  Even here, well into the growing season, the Red Lobster Claw Heliconia is finally starting to send up new giant green shoots.  It’s been a long wait.  The hard freeze this year and repeat temperature drops really did a number on the planties.  But . . . even our slow recoverers are starting to show signs of life.  Woo-Hoo! Try: How to Grow Red Lobster Claw Heliconia

Unfortunately, there were several things that died back much further than we thought.  The Crotons out front, the new Copper Plant and Rubber Tree (maybe) in the back all had to be cut down almost to the ground.  That’s where the only new growth started.  Dang.  We’d already performed the same sad surgery on some of the others, but there is growth.  So there will most likely be recovery.  That’s good.  We like that in our faux Spring. Check out: How to Prepare Your Garden for Spring

Around Our Garden

There was hard labor last week.  Yup.  It started with us finally finishing the recovery of the last of the River Rock from the old Hot Tub area and spreading it on the new rock path.  Tooting my own horn here, there was the perfect amount of rock for the area we laid-out.  Woot-Woot!  That never happens.  So, project complete and the old Hot tub area is leveled with rip-rap rock, ready for a new deck.  Now, if we can just agree what the area will be used for.  LOL.

We also worked on the undeveloped property.  The goal is to create internal tunnels parallel to the road where we want to start planting a new perimeter berm.  That requires clearing before the rains start, when we need to plant.  Small changes to reveal big results someday.  It’s hard work, clearing Pepper Bush, and we have some old growth nastiness.  However, I do enjoy being in the woods.  I like it back there.

There was also, you guessed it, weeding.  LOL.  The Bulb Garden needs some work, still.  Everything wants to grow in there.  And while it might seem weird to start a completely different project, we restarted sprucing up the Shell Circle.  Since we are just filling in the gaps at this point, hence ‘Spruce Up’ and not create, we can actually sit down and do it.  Like working a giant puzzle.  Perfect ‘day after’ gardening work when you clear Pepper Bush.  LOL.  Just saying. Check out: How to Create a Rock or Shell Path.

Harvest

And the Harvest continues.  First and foremost, we brought in our 1st Florida Peach of the season.  It’s still slightly hard and ripening in the kitchen window.  Woo-Hoo!  Best Peaches ever.  The Critter counter-measures seem to be working.  Fingers crossed for more.  This is about the time they find the not-quite-ripe fruit interesting.  The year before last they picked all the unripe fruit, looking for something to eat.  So sad seeing it chewed and not eaten on the ground.

We also took Tomatoes, Broccoli, Cabbage and Celery.  The Arugula, about 6 plants, looked way too big and we had to Harvest some of the big outer leaves.  We usually leave those super pungent old leaves and take the taster center small ones.  My Mom is trying some kind of spicy pesto with them.  We’ll see.

.We’re starting to really get some Tomatoes and Peppers going.  It’s been a slow start.  And as much as we like seeing them out there growing, we’d like to Harvest before the rains take them. Try:How to Grow Your Own Tomatoes and How to Grow Broccoli & Cabbage.

Flowers

We did not get Easter Lilies for Easter.  Boo Hiss.  We got the 1st round of them this week, and they are absolutely spectacular.  Bright sparking white petals with stripes of hot pink glowing in the morning light.  Giant flower stalks emerge opening softball size flowers in sets of 6 to 8.  When one set dies, a whole new set emerges.  Fantastic!

The ones in Our Garden are what I call heritage plants.  They came from My Great Grandma’s front yard.  I know because I dug them up with My Mom years ago.  Ours have lived here a long time and were old enough to spread the green to both My Aunt and My Brother last year.  We love it when that happens.  We’re looking forward to seeing pics.

The Amaryllis are still going strong with the Picotee variety popping blooms last week.  It joined us the year before last, and this was its 1st year outside in Our Garden.  The White petals have Red tips and what I would say were little red freckles.  So pretty, and different.  The Zinnias really started blooming last week along with the Giant Yellow Hibiscus and Lanceleaf Coreopsis.  Woo-Hoo!  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.