Our Garden
Tropical Garden
Our garden is a tropical garden, in a tropical growing zone. Things northern growers can only manage in pots, usually indoors, we grow as weeds. That works both ways. I’d let a whole section of the garden go to weed for an apple or cherry tree. Those don’t grow here. We’ve tried, repeatedly.
If you don’t have a tropical garden, we grow here year-round, hot and wet half the year, dry temperate the other half. The basics for growing are the same, light – nutrients – water, no matter where you grow. There’s just more of those things here.
We love propagating and DIYs, making growing spaces, and creating garden art. And, let’s face it, tropical gardens are a show. I’m constantly amazed by ours, and there are times of the year I feel like I’m cheating as a grower. It’s just fun to watch.
Sharing the Journey
Finding what works in YOUR garden is the key to successful growing. I literally spend countless hours figuring out what plants work, how, and where in Our Garden. Celery, for instance, either grows as large edible plants in 4 months or stays seedlings for 8 months and dies, depending on the bed in Our Garden they’re planted.
As you might imagine, traditional vegetables are tricky, and we’re sharing our journey because tracking progress and finding solutions, finding what works, is growing for any environment. We do a ton of that here. If it helps other growers, we’re all for spreading the green.
Renew, Recycle, & Reuse
We like to renew, recycle, and reuse in the garden: from composting and carbon capture to trying to find a new purpose for everything. The pots plants come in for sure, but also things like bags from soil/mulch to store compost and packing materials.
We propagate, seeds, roots and cuttings, to expand our green. Downed trees become multiple trees and art. Every bit of organic matter is put to work. We chip branches for mulch, use logs as borders to break down as peat in place, and the smaller organics go straight to compost. Anything I don’t want in my compost goes to the County mulch pile for others to use. They have a large enough system to compost things I can’t in my smaller version like almost anything dragon fruit.
Intuitive Scientific Approach
I tend to take an intuitive scientific approach to growing because, in the end, I want to eat stuff from my garden and enjoy its beauty.
Basically, I start with a scientific approach and tweak accordingly. I’m analytical by nature, that means I like step by step and reading the directions, but I tend to be more relaxed in the garden. If there is a problem, I’m probably going to go with what seems most obvious to me in my experience. Then, I’ll read up.
I Kill A Lot Of Plants Figuring It Out
The problem is the directions or recommendations don’t usually make healthy plants possible for us unless it’s a plant indigenous (native) to our area or other tropical environment, even then. Trial and error, micro-climates, I kill a lot of plants until I figure out what works. Since their life span is in months, mostly, I come to terms with my mistakes. It makes me a better grower.
History
My mother started Our Garden almost 30 years ago. When she arrived, it was a single ⅓ acre lot with weed grass and an orange tree. There was also a clothes line, my mother reminds me, and we disagree whether the stick in the other corner was a lime or another orange tree. No garden in sight, not even basic landscaping.
She started with our trees. We have some mighty fine trees. You’ll be able to find them cataloged in the ‘What’s Growing” section Coming Soon. In the meantime, visit our Tropical Plants & Trees Photos.
We added 3 of the surrounding lots, and then, there was the clearing and fencing. In all, we have about an acre of working garden with the house and pool, and two natural buffers on either side.
My mom created berms and planting areas along with brick walkways, patio, and fountain. Yes, she laid all the brick herself, and with my adult brothers, her husband and I, she had helpers on hand. There was even a hedge maze for my son in the beginning.
At one time, my mother often boasts, she was the largest purchaser of Black Cow and soil in our area. She kept wondering whether we were going to be put on a watch list. Our natural soil is sand, the kind you find at the beach, only it’s filled with silts (that’s the broken down tiny vegetation stuff – still looks and acts like sand). With the trees, vegetation, and soil supplements, Our Garden now has what I call black sand, crazy rich for growing tropical beautifully.
A number of years ago my mom wasn’t able to care for the garden anymore. As the major maintenance caretaker, it started falling fallow, very fallow, quickly. The vines, pepper and palmetto bushes took over whole areas. Unfortunately, it was last thing on anyone’s mind. Life takes those sorts of shifts sometimes.
It was about a year, just after Irma hit us, before my nephew, Dawson, agreed to help me clean it up. Yes, Irma hit us with that big ole mess. Ugh. We were more concerned with the 7 full days without power at the time. Afterwards, however, it had to be done.
Dawson did the brunt of the cutting and clearing as I was still working all the time and only could hit the details, but eventually, things started opening back up.
Just as it started looking somewhat manicured, something wonderful happened. I started working from home full time. 2 ½ – 3 hours a day in drive time alone was recaptured and applied almost directly to Our Garden. No more running home after a full day and watering and pruning in the dark. Can you see my wide grin from there? I’ve been very pleased with the progress. And, it made all this possible.
The Blog
There were a number of personal reasons I started sharing the garden. The biggest was purely based in logic and reason: I needed a place to track everything.
Our Garden reached a point where more than a quick handwritten list for the planting and maintenance plan was required. Dang. And Yea! It was going to have to move online. And while usually a habitual spreadsheeter, it seemed somehow wrong for the garden. I don’t usually even take my phone out there except to take pictures. Happy calm place. But still, I needed something.
Then, there was the encouragement. It would never have occurred to me to start a blog to catalog things, but I admit, social media isn’t my go-to. Can you say introvert? There were definitely some finer points brought to my attention like – no one ever sees the fence line filled with blooming dragon fruit flowers as big as your head, and – share the joy.
I love to grow things, and I’m pretty positive it really comes out when I discuss all things green, but most especially when I talk about Our Garden. Pictures, people ask. What do you think I should do about these wilty leaves, they wonder. Working in an office, literally filled with growing green things, I discussed growing regularly with a number of people. Now, not so much unless you count telling my mom she should check out the blooming water lilies on her way to the pool. So, you can imagine there was some encouragement to share, particularly from my friends and family in northern regions, usually during the winter. While I’m cold in any temperature below 70 degrees, the garden is still a lovely show.
Being A Grower
I’m lucky I now have time for a garden. While I did tend and enjoy my mom’s, this is the first time in my life I’m caring for an actual fully working garden. I’ve always tried to practice growing to my time and space, but then, based on how much people are expected to work, I would have never grown anything. Regardless, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t have something growing somewhere.
I tell people regularly I’ve been a grower my whole life. It’s pretty close to true. There are pictures of me planting flower beds in a diaper. When I didn’t have ground to plant, houseplants and pots traveled with me to every place I ever lived. There were many of them.
I come from a long line of growers on both sides. My mom is a classic growing expert, referring to plants by their Latin names or making up her own. If I can get her interested, it’s an endless well to tap. Her amazing orchids are featured prominently throughout the garden, and it is, after all, her garden. She grew the bones.
Her mother, my grandmother, always brings the word botanist to mind. Specifically, I was in awe of her graphed fruit cocktail tree, each branch a different fruit. I have fond memories of riding around in the bucket or wagon of her tractor enjoying her different gardens. While we have several specimens I pilfered from her over the years, the dragon fruit plays most predominately in Our Garden. We also have several bulbs and plants we dug up from my great-grandparents. Yes, I’m a plant thief – I like the idea of generational plants. They usually gave them up freely, in pots. We are growers.
My father grows fruits and vegetables as his father did before him. He lives up north and can grow all types of fruit trees if the deer don’t get ’em. Yes, that is jealousy you hear.
My grandfather had a fenced lot in the middle of town where he grew a classic row vegetable garden across the street from my great-grandparents who also grew vegetables in their yard. You can imagine me toddling along behind him chewing on fresh mint leaves while he checked the plants. I still remember being amazed he grew loofah. Who knew those things hanging in the shower came from the garden.
If you weren’t born a grower from a family of growers, don’t be discouraged. Growing only takes desire and a willingness to learn from your mistakes. When people ask me how to be a successful grower, I tell them to kill a lot of plants. They usually hit me with a frowny face, but the truth is you really only need to know what you’re doing wrong to be successful. Plants want to grow. If you give them what they need, they’ll follow their life cycle.
We hope you find something here to bring you joy. We try to actively practice bringing joy into our lives. Our garden never seems to disappoint.