Garden Dirt Diary
March 24, 2025
Hello Spring Equinox!
Yippy, the Spring Equinox! We’re so happy to see you! A magical time for growers, when daylight hours equal nighttime hours. While humans are adjusting to the time change, the increased sunlight is encouraging green things to grow. Woo-Hoo! Even with a lack of rain here in the tropical zones, it’s getting green out there.
I’m not going to lie, it felt cold this year. In fact, we just had a 45 degree night low this weekend. Yes, in mid-March. What? February usually marks the end of any hint of chilly. We’ve had lows in the 50s for most of the winter. It’s weird, and unpleasant. Luckily, we’ll be hitting our normal 80-60 degree split next week. And, yes, I’m aware I said that before, but we backtracked. We, and our planties, will be relieved. Personally, I’m not a fan of cold, no matter how beautiful I find snow and ice. I like to look at it, I just don’t want to be in it. Neither to our plants.
Around Our Garden
While I did get an opportunity to start the Spring clean-up and prep for the rainy season last week, I spent most of the weekend reworking the drainage on the backside of the pool. So, not exactly ready for all the Spring growth going on. Dang.
But that’s okay, I’ve been reworking our drainage for years. I’m almost fully done fixing the damage from Irma where we had massive flooding, and from Ian, where the neighbors fixed their problem by illegally draining 4 extra lots into Our Garden. Like we didn’t have our own problems. It’s okay, they’ll have to fix it the right way now, the way their lot is permitted and originally built, or flood.
After building our new retaining wall/planters, berm, dry detention, the slope on the backside of the pool needed to be sloped more gradually to drain water slowly into the new dry detention. The slope was so steep, it might have been classified as a small waterfall. Well, maybe a tiny rapid, but it was eroding all the dirt badly, and I didn’t want it to wash-out the new dry detention I spent so much time digging. Not good. There’s only the small area behind the shed, and I will be fully finished with all the repairs and new system, but that’s part of the front system. So, done with the back, for now. Woo-Hoo! Small victories.
New Planting Beds
In order to hall carts of sand up the slope on the back side of the pool, the areas slated for the front planting beds needed to be cleaned-up, planned, and reworked. The design goes, property line, fence, berm, dry detention, and front planting beds. Last year, I laid out the basic design for the beds, but the final areas needed to be finished for new plants once the rains begin. I probably would have done it after all the dirt had been moved, but the very back 2 beds are where the sand piles are located. Dang.
Indeed, I stupidly piled all the logs, branches, mulch, sticks, and compost into these bed areas while we were clearing. Yup, on top of the sand I needed to move. Dang. I can only say that it was easier at the time, and I paid for it later. Heavy sigh. I spent an entire morning moving all the smaller items into compost piles, cutting new log borders, and reworking the area into the final design. In the end, I hate Tarzan vines pretending to be roots, and we now have some major new planting areas. We’re so excited to plant them.
Harvest
Last week, we brought in another head of Cabbage, another green one. There’s a single Red Cabbage with a small head. The other 4 reds in that area died and were replanted. They, like the 3 reds in the Tradition Vegetable and Herb garden, are still small plants, despite being planted in Sept. Not enough light. It’s funny, the 2nd round of green Cabbage heads are starting to form, already having a 1st Harvest. They’ve been very happy this year. 3 years ago, not one green Cabbage. Light is important.
The Tomatoes are coming in regularly, and, based on the number of green ones almost ready, we’re going to be Harvesting enough for Marinara and Salsa soon. Woo-Hoo! We love that time of year. The Broccoli also started producing enough for 1 or 2 cuts per week. The one in the back started growing lots of little branches and tiny little florets. Not good. I trimmed it back to one main stalk and some leaves. It will either die or come back with bigger heads. Fingers-crossed.
Flowers
We’re Featuring the Candy Cane Amaryllis from last week. Just gorgeous. I believe I mentioned the pink and white Blooms are enormous. Each pedal has a different pink pattern that catches the light in a shimmer. We love them. Joining the Red Amaryllis, it’s quite a show, and it’s just begun. Not only are we getting the 1st round of Candy Canes, the Red ones are still sending up new shoots. Go! Go! Go! They are one of My Mom’s absolute favorites.
Both the Purple and White Hong Kong Orchids are still going strong, although the purple ones tend to be up in the air out of arm’s reach. They are trees. Difficult to get photos so high. The White African Irises, Marigolds, and Wild Cosmos are all starting to really bloom. Yea! Then, there’s the Golden Dewdrops and Ligustrum. It’s Spring out there. Enjoy!
March 17, 2025
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
Whether you were born Irish, like My Mom’s husband, or you just enjoy a reason to celebrate, may the Luck of the Irish find you this week. Good luck and Green, couldn’t think of a better holiday or reason to celebrate this time of year. My Mom and I decided we were seriously lacking on the St. Patty’s Day decorations and spent some time a couple of weeks ago making some.
Our favorite turned out to be the little leprechauns which bear a serious resemblance to the King Under the Mountain. We also bought a leprechaun trap kit (for children), made 4-Leaf Clover fans, Glitter Shamrocks and used Chocolate Gold Coins everywhere. Okay, there was more, but you get the gist. Fun for fun’s sake. We like that sort of thing, and we got to enjoy everything for a couple weeks. Win.
I still keep an eye out for 4-leaf clover. We certainly have enough clover growing about. I’m partial to it and tend to let it grow, even where it shouldn’t. Shhh.
Around Our Garden
I would love to report all the Spring Prep is complete, but we just didn’t get there. Dang. My Mom felt well enough to do some pruning. She’s pretty adamant about getting the Amaryllis flower stalks before they die completely. We never cut the green leaves, but we always cut the spent or almost spent stalks because we don’t want them to produce seeds. We want our Amaryllis bulbs to use all their energy to make their bulbs bigger, or make new baby bulbs, after they flower. It’s a personal preference. We have so many bulbs and could probably do just about anything we want at this point.
I also noticed My Mom cutting the dead Cannas as I walked-by on my way to the back where I spent most of last week. The good news is we finally have a finished back berm and dry detention area. Yeah! Woo-Hoo! No more neighbors illegally flooding Our Garden, and all our water is directed to dry detention to stage up from there, just in case. I didn’t think it was possible for me to get that dirty, but day after day, so much dirt. LOL!
Dirt Moving Projects
If you’re Growing Tropical, any dirt projects have to be dug and completely stabilized long before the rains start (it will wash-out immediately in the rains), and you have to make sure you’re not messing up your water management system. That’s important, it keeps your house from flooding.
We, unlike most properties, have a closed system. Our water has to be stored onsite while it drains into the ground or evaporates. There is no outfall. If we flood, the water has nowhere to go. Most properties drain to the street, canal or another property. True for the front yard, not Our Garden. The 1950s outfall will never be constructed back there, and we are at the start, meaning we now have a closed system. You have to be sure about your system because you can easily flood yourself or illegally flood your neighbors. Since we’re talking insurance company territory, yes, you can be sued. So, check the drainage plan for your lot/house before you start redirecting water. You’ll be glad you did.
Water Table & Soils
The Water Table is how high the water underground sits to the surface. Luckily, we are high enough above the water table that if we dig a hole, water doesn’t fill it when the hole hits around 2-3 feet deep. Even if you live nearer to the coast, that probably won’t happen because most lots are topped with yards of dirt to get the houses up above the water table. Unfortunately, when it rains a lot, like the summer, digging a hole on these raised lots may mean you have standing water in the hole all summer. Because the water table is so high, it has nowhere to drain, and you’ve created yourself a mosquito breeding ground. Dang.
Sandy soils are great for shaping, but even if you get it compacted really well, the top few inches will dry-out in the sun and slide everywhere with the slightest touch. Dang. The good news is the longer it sits in place, the less likely it will be to move around. So, adding something to stabilize it in the short term is a must. We added a natural stick, chipped wood, and leaf mulch. Wetting and pressing the mulch into the soil helps with stabilization. So, we definitely did that.
Adding plants for roots to grow through and continually add more top soil to the newly shaped dirt will help keep it there for the long term. The portion I dug last year held up surprisingly well, and I only had to do a few repairs where Dawson fixed the fence to tie it into the new area. We now have the berm, dry detention, some plants, and a whole new area to plant. I’m not going to lie, I love the prospect of a whole new area to plant. There are so many possibilities. It feels like hope.
Harvest
Um, yeah, it wasn’t a big week for me. My Mom on the other hand went out and got greens, including Swiss Chard, Cabbage, and Broccoli leaves. She took no pictures. LOL! I also grabbed Tomatoes a couple of days. Unfortunately, I spent part of Saturday yelling at the birds and telling them they were going to get sick eating the green tomatoes and I didn’t feel sorry for them. They ruined several. Unfit for consumption. Dang. We’d been growing those.
The Veggies look great, and I need to get the last of the supplemental plantings in the ground. They’ve outgrown the nursery. There is space for them. Most of the Bean plants started blooming out last week. We love their tiny flowers. So pretty and hope for Beans to come. Woo-Hoo!
Flowers
Last week, I walked out of the house early Saturday morning and got a lovely surprise. One of the White African Iris bushes was filled with blooms. Hand Clap. Lovely alone, amazing in groups. We are so lucky to have these as part of our old growth. The longer they thrive in a place, the more blooms they produce starting in March and lasting through most of the summer. The White African Irises have to be stunning to compete with the Amaryllis, White Hong Kong Orchid tree, and Blue Flag Irises all in the same area. We got 3 more of the Blue Beauties last week. Woo-Hoo!
The nice part about having Amaryllis blooming all over Our Garden is you can easily ignore all the stuff that needs to be done. They are stunning. Big and Red, and if those weren’t enough, the ginormous Candy Cane pink ones are starting to open. They are almost double the size of the Giant Red ones. Fantastic. Then, there are all the wildflower pots starting to bloom. We have a few Cosmos and some Marigolds. Here we go! Enjoy!
March 10, 2025
Yawn
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Everybody thinks it’s only an hour, but to people who have trouble sleeping, some of us our whole lives, it messes up our whole sleep schedule. So, a bit cranky, right off. Sorry if you’re feeling the same. No fun.
Then, there is the starting before the sun catches up. If we waited a couple of weeks, like the program was intended, the sun would be up earlier and rush hour wouldn’t be in the dark. That is so dangerous here, with the retired population, all sitting in rush hour with the rest of us, the locals getting angry having to pass on the right. But hey, they have pressing things to do, like early tee times and walks on the beach. I will tell you the last thing I plan to do in my retirement years is sit in endless traffic. I’ll plan better, need less interaction. But, hey, I’m like that.
Premo planning is kind of my thing. Not only can I solve problems three ways standing on my head underwater, LOL, I have an uncanny ability to actually see the end result. This has it’s pros and cons, trust me. Big plans means big work, and it’s kind of exhausting in Our Garden.
Around Our Garden
Yes, I was back again digging ditches and berms last week, and I’m still not done. Dang. It would have been so much easier if the whole last area was not filled with Tarzan vines pretending to be roots, growing under the ground. Yes, right where I’m digging. While it might seem I’m being particularly targeted for some form of horrible torture, indeed, no. This whole area has been cleared since I took over Our Garden. It was Pepper Bushes growing over the fences and in the yard, with vines. So evasive exotics which are terrible for any land as they kill everything else. Yea.
Just because all the top part was cleared, didn’t mean we got everything underground. And despite the spray to kill them, the vines not only survived, they thrived trying to find a new above ground area to grow. Dang. Every time I stuck the shovel in, I’d get caught on a huge vine, think larger than a roll of quarters or bigger. Yanking would bring a spider web maze of them up through the loose sand, big ones. Yippy. It was a long weekend.
So, I treated all the pulled up vines and dug around them. While I did dig and pull up as much as I could, I had to balance disturbing an entire area we need compacted. Blah! But I can see the big, planted, finished product, and it is amazing. LOL!
The Good Parts
To balance the bad with the good, we got most of the new planter/retaining wall planted last week. Yea! I worked on it during the week, and if I calculated correctly, it should be filled with amazing beautiful blooms. There are Purple Calla Lilies, Pink Spider Lilies, Purple Gladiolus, Buttercups (hopefully a whole hedge), Amaryllis, White African Irises, Yellow Walking Irises, and Florida Blue Flag Irises. They are all keeping the Kiwi company. Grow, Grow, Grow.
While constructing the new berm and dry detention, there was also a great deal of super rich compost laying around to be scooped up. Woo-Hoo! Okay, it wasn’t really a surprise. I put it there to break down as we were clearing. The good news is it was ready and there was enough of it to enrich all the beds and plants back there. That included super rich planting holes for all the new plants in the new berm. I’m so excited.
Harvest
We had a pretty good Harvest this week. Tomatoes and Swiss Chard came in several times. One day we brought in a Cabbage, Broccoli, and Tomatoes including a little tiny red one. It came off the Cherry Tomato which has not produced, yet, this year. It isn’t getting enough sun. There are all these little tiny green Tomatoes, not getting much bigger, except the single one this week. It’s too small to eat. Maybe a single seed. LOL!
Usually, this time of year the South American Tree is bare having shed all its leaves, and the Traditional Vegetable & Herb garden under it gets enough winter sun. This year, it lost all its leaves in Oct/Nov after the storms, and it has a full green canopy blocking all the sun. Dang. Not so great for winter, but as we heat up over the next couple of weeks, they will be super happy.
The Spring plantings are looking lovely. Lots of little Cucumber, Carrot, and Bean sprouts and little planties. With the squirrels checking for acorns in all the beds, I had to set out the little plastic spikes to keep them off the sprouts. They don’t want them, not even the seeds, just the acorns in the beds. Everything else is just collateral damage.
Flowers
We’re Featuring the White Hong Kong Orchid Tree this week. It’s fantastic. Delicate pure white blooms with just a brush of yellow in the center. They’re the size of my hands climbing all the branches in rows of flowers. And, of course, backing up to get the full effect in a photo makes all the wonderful blooms disappear into the green like magic. Dang.
Then, there are the Giant Red Amaryllis. Each stalk has 4 to 6 flowers at a time. They’re somewhere between the size of a softball and volleyball on 3 foot stalks. If they grow much taller, they fall over, especially when wet. We grow them in large clumps, all over, and they are always magnificent. We got our 1st Wild Cosmos from the wildflower pack I got in my stocking, and The Florida Blue Flag Iris bud I mentioned last week opened to a lovely flower. Woo-Hoo! It’s so lovely out there. Enjoy!