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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

October 12, 2026

Big Ole Miss, Woo-Hoo!

Not only were we missed by Hurricane Isaias, it hit way up north on the Florida-Bama line, we barely got any rain.  We watched the bands move through, maybe catching an edge and some sprinkles.  If you haven’t heard us describe Hurricanes before, it helps to think about them as a wheel with curved spokes, like a fancy bicycle.  The curved spokes are the rainbands extending out from the center rotating area.  Those long rainbands are the storms that move through whole states, countries and provinces, over and over as the center rotates across the waterscape.  Whoa.  

While there was flooding reported along the coast and the Keys as they caught the edge of the storm, we didn’t.  Our stormy weather came on Sunday, way after the storm made landfall, with a symphony of thunder and a nice big helping of rain which we needed.  Up north they were not so lucky.  We wish them all the best as they deal with the clean-up.  Been there.  It isn’t pleasant, especially being without power.  Our clean-up includes pummeled flower petals and some weed matting we were using as a shade cloth for the newly planted Veggies that shredded.  The sun did some damage to the mat because it just disintegrates, falls completely apart, every place we touch it.  Dang.  LOL.  The Veggies were liking the shade.  Plan B.  We just need to decide what that is going to be.  The last thing we want is disintegrating matting beating the new planties to death every time it rains.  Boo-Hiss!  

Around Our Garden

We started the week dropping more of the starter plants we’ve been growing in the nursery.  Mostly, we were disappointed that the seeds we dropped last week under cups did not sprout.  What?  Cabbage in general usually sprouts quickly, and our seeds were new.  The ones in the nursery sprouted just fine.  Must be user error.  Just not sure what error.  Luckily, the supplemental Red Cabbage in the nursery was big enough to plant.  It went into the Traditional Veggie and Herb garden area.

We also dropped replacement Celery and Bok Choy plants.  Anything dead in previously planted holes was replaced.  If you get into supplemental plantings, planting the same Veggies progressively, weeks apart, instead of a single crop, you assure a steady supply of Veggies for as long as they produce.  In most areas, you have to stop for winter.  We don’t have that problem.  We stop when plants won’t produce before the Rains start.  We usually get an 8 to 9 month chunk of growing time.  Woo-Hoo!  Good for the grocery bills.

We also did a full treatment for My Nemesis weed in all the Orchids – that’s pulling by hand only.  We fight them all the time, but the whole Orchid fence line is almost entirely clear after this time.  It’s been a lot of work.  Also a ton of work, we removed more infected Dragon Fruit Cactus sections.  We meant to treat them again with the Copper Spray, but we didn’t get to it.  So, more new sections came up sick and had to be removed.  Maybe we’ve learned our lesson and will remember to treat them this week.  Dang.  I hope we did.  LOL.  

Harvest

We were so excited last week when the Corn started throwing out new green leaves, free from the munching mess the worms were making.  You barely noticed the parts that were chewed.  Until Sunday, and we had to treat 2 of them again.  *Shaking my fist, “Damn Worms!”  LOL.  Since we left some of the non-pesticide oil pre-mixed in the pitcher, it wasn’t a huge deal to pour more into the centers, but we have more munched leaves.  And, we don’t like it.  

The Key Limes are still making our drinks taste good, falling at a rate of just a couple more than we use.  Woo-Hoo.  Sadly, we know it will not last into Jan-March like normal.  We just didn’t get the fruit this year with the drought and hard freeze.  Dang.  Enjoying them while we can.

Flowers

The Feature this week went to the Orange Cosmos.  We’re calling these part of the Fall Wildflowers.  All Summer we grew wildflower plants in several of the beds and pots.  The Orange Cosmos got too big for the pots and we kept cutting them down.  The ones in the back are topping 7-8 feet.  Yes, feet.  We thought they would be like the Marigolds we let get big and just became giant weeds with no flowers.  Nope.  We got blooms.  Lots of them all over, way up in the air, down near the ground.  The Orange Cosmos is blooming, and with its brilliant orange, it couldn’t be more appropriate for October.  Go Orange!  We love it! Try: How to Grow Wildflowers in Your Yard.

We got our 1st Yellow Marigold, a pretty button of a thing.  The Purple Water Lilies are going crazy.  We counted 7 blooms the other day.  So lovely.  The 4th round of the Flaming Torch Bromeliads came up strong, and the Pink Rain Lilies loved the sprinkling, popping flowers all over.  It’s pretty 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.