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

August 24, 2026

Yup, More Watering

***Heavy Sigh*** Indeed, there was more watering last week, much more.  In the middle of the Rainy Season.  LOL!  The good news is we’re not technically still in a drought, but tell that to the planties on the fringes of where the sprinklers hit.  They might feel differently.  

Morning after morning in the pre-light we started the sprinkler, running through several zones before the sun started beating down, in addition to the regular irrigation.  We needed an All-Over soak, daily.  It wasn’t enough for normal, but it helped take the crisp out of most things.

As for me, there was a heating pad.  LOL!  Dragging around the heavy hose always does a number on my back, no matter how careful I am about lifting with my legs and standing correctly.  Boo-Hiss.  I’m laughing because it’s true.  And, despite all the added water, it wasn’t on all the stuff we spent part of June and most of July planting in our undeveloped area.  No way we’re getting the hose way out there, even if I added another 200 ft.  Boo-Hiss.  We knew it, that’s one of the reasons we planted at the beginning of the Rainy Season.  The best of plans . . . LOL!

It wasn’t until Saturday we got our 1st good downpour.  Woo-Hoo!  I’m not going to lie, there was some excitement around our house.  LOL!  And, we might have gotten some Sunday night.  Things should be fully back to normal by Wed, and our planties are breathing a collective sigh of relief.  We’re hoping it doesn’t have any lasting effects.

Around Our Garden

In between sprinkler moves, we once again got some work done.  In fact, we chipped our pile of fallen palm fronds, just the Cabbage or Swamp Palms.  The Coconut fronds are way too big to get in our little chipper.  I’m fond of chipping.  The noise requires ear plugs, so noise is muted.  And, I love the wood smell.  We’re also rather fond of the clean look of mulch, and the way it keeps everything moist.  

Since we’re going to need a bunch of the fine chip come planting time in Sept, it’s bagged and ready to go.  We like the chunkier stuff for the beds and borders.  We also finished cutting up our final pile of sticks along the back fence last week.  So, we have more of that chunkier big stick mulch as well.  We’ll need more of that for the back Berm and Dry Detention once the rains start back up.  So, things are starting to look pretty clean.  Now, if we can get the rain to cooperate and get super lush and green, just like a tropical garden should be.  LOL.

We also finally got the Dragon Fruit Cactus and some of the other plants treated for the Cactus Rust.  Woo-Hoo!  We tried an organic Copper spray.  While we’ve seen a little of this before, it was bad due to the weakened condition of the Cactus.  It’d just finished fighting off Scale.  So, hopefully, the spray will help.  We’d like to see it growing healthy again.  The flowers along the front fence are a good sign.  Our sick Cactus doesn’t produce flowers.  We certainly removed a massive amount of infected sections to get it here, and we hope it pays off.  It came from My Grandma’s Garden. 

Harvest

With all the dry weather, our final 2 Tomato plants are starting to turn brown.  Boo-Hiss.  We shouldn’t have, but we did have high hopes they would survive the summer.  And, they might have with more rain.  Or, they might have rotted.  Hard to say.  LOL!  Veggies don’t like the Rainy Season.  They like droughts even less.  We had both.  Dang.  Hopefully, we’re looking at a wetter winter.  At the moment, we’re just hoping to see the daily rains return.  It’s hard planning for the Fall planting season worried about the rain, but we do have all these new baby sprouts.  They’re kind of the stuff joy is made of.

In fact, the nursery got so full last week we moved some of the new sprouts to larger pots with more dirt and spread them out to grow.  When we first started sprouting seeds, the biggest mistake we made was overcrowding.  It’s fine when they 1st come up, but each plant needs its own space to grow.  If you don’t give it to them, they stay small and spindly.  The stronger and healthier the starter plants, the faster you get food.  They’re also more likely to survive.  And with our crazy conditions this year, the stronger the better.

Flowers

Not 1 but 2 of our specialty hybrid Phalaenopsis Orchids bloomed last week, and we couldn’t be happier Featuring the Strawberry Swirl Phalaenopsis Orchid.  With its sparkling pale yellow petals shot through with pink veins and matching pink lip petal, it’s a riot of color.  But it’s the tiny round spot of white, right in the center, that draws the eye.  These were such a fun and pretty addition to Our Garden.  Woo-Hoo!

The wildflowers don’t seem to care they’re getting blasted by hot dry air.  The small bit of water has kept the pots and beds of wildflowers blooming.  Not being pelted with water daily has extended the blooms.  We also got Dragon Fruit Blooms.  Woo-Hoo!  The Purple Water Lilies look grand and the Bougainvillea finally started producing its pink leaves and little white flowers.  So pretty.  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.