2019 What's Growin' on South Florida Stylie

HI EVERYONE!  HAPPY NEW YEAR 2019!

So glad you're here, I know it's been like forever but soooooo much has happened since last we spoke. No, I didn't forget about you, you're always on my mind ;)  Are you warming up or cooling down where you are?  Ok yes I know silly question...I ask because here in South Florida we were so warm this fall and winter.  At 6 o'clock in the morning the temperature would be in the 80's.  Ok well to be honest, at 3 o'clock in the morning the temperature would be in the 80's.  You say, 'so what?'  Well at 2 o'clock in the afternoon it's about 100 degrees Fahrenheit but "feels like" 110. Yeah...then add hot flashes in there...yup, "feels like" 150 degrees at that point, ha!

In the background my colocasia 'illustris' has died back from cold and dry.

It's was pretty freagin' hot and super dry here this fall and winter season.  Oh yeah don't forget muggy, cause you can't have hot without muggy in South Florida.  At least the mosquitoes are at a minimum around here this year which is like totally unheard of but yes miracles do happen!

Despite the unusual weather my Cattelyea Horace Maxima
has multiple flowers all over...so beautiful and smells delish!

With the lack of rain and consistently warm temps, South Florida plants have had a very confusing and stressful year.  Luckily we are getting some reprieve in the rain department this week.  Plus we just recently started to cool down a few weeks ago.  Yeah, in late January...Iiiiii knoooow right!?!  It started with rain then wicked winds came in like a 10-horse team with the driver running them hard.  Winds out of the SE for three or four days, gusting up to the 30-40 mph in some areas of South Florida.  Oh yeah and yesterday a tornado touched down in Hialeah, Miami Dade County.  Geez, not easy weather to do our line of work in landscaping and maintenance.  Behind the winds came the cooler temps in the 70's and this week we are dipping down to 40's/50's depending on whether you live inland (cooler temps) or by the ocean (warmer temps).  AND (insert super bonus here) next week is supposed to be all day frosé (if you never heard, it's delicious frozen Rosé wine, aka slushie...aka a post for another day LOL) but seriously it's going to be 40's/50's/60's/70's!!!  Can I get a yeeeehawwww!?!

My Carrie mango is loaded with blooms even though
it's totally leaning over in it's pot!  I tried to straighten
it so many times but this is how it wants to grow apparently.
That's fine by me as long as it finally grows mangoes this year.

Even though it's the end of January, I can see and feel a shift in the light.  Our great ball of fire is starting it's shift north a tinsie bit every day.  Thus giving us ever so slightly longer days of light...who doesn't love more vitamin D in their body?  As I mentioned above, in a nutshell our wacky weather has continued into this year.  Our plants don't know what to do...so flowering plants are putting out sporatic bursts of blooms, grass has basically stopped growing and browned out as it should, trees are dropping leaves like crazy and palms are showing all kinds of new growth.  Coconut palms are still growing coconuts like bananas...and speaking of bananas, our banana plants are on their second batch of sweet delicious goodness.

Some type of squash growing from my direct compost.
When we moved the veggie garden, so many of the deep
composted items were brought to the surface so now they're
growing.  Not sure if this is good or if they need to come out.
Any one have any thoughts or info to share on this?

Geez, enough about the weather Sheri...so here's what's a haps here.  As many of you know, my father passed away January 28th of last year (on his birthday).  Since that time 2018 threw me some serious sh*t.   I want to say I think I handled it pretty well but if anyone has another opinion, please do tell, I'd like a good laugh.  Cause that's all we can do sometimes when life gives us things we don't know how to handle....Or cry....crying is good too.  Crying, frose and laughing are an even better trio, but not necessarily in that order, hee hee.

A few months after my Dad passes away, our landlady says she wants to sell the house we are renting and asks if we want to buy it.  Uhmmmmm, yes please!  I've just been asking every year since we moved in, hee hee.  We love it here, our work is here and our neighbors are so wonderful so it was a no brainer.  Now I can really get my hands dirty and landscape this place right!  Plus ya'll get to come along for the ride to see the transformation.  One of the first things I did was relocate my vegetable garden from the back side of our patio to the south side of our house.  The first plants that went in are three different tomatoes- 'Cherokee purple', ''Marriage Genuwine' and 'Pineapple', my relocated thyme & chives and a new cilantro plant.  Since I do direct composting right into the ground, there are pockets of vegetable plants popping up everywhere, oh lawd are they popping up everywhere!  One plant that did not disappoint is my OG cilantro I had years ago.  As many of you know cilantro does not grow year round here.  But what it does is go to seed, drop the seed then grow new plants each year.  There are cilantro babies everywhere!!!  Who wants some?

The beginnings of a wonderful new garden.
Still a little rough but a good start!

Our best friend Jim, me and my honey all lugged wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of soil.  Then we huffed wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of coral rock.  We put the coral rock where the veggie garden was.  We get a lot of water that comes off the roof when it rains, yes gutters are on the 'to-do' list.  But in the meantime the patio won't get so dirty plus it's part of the overall landscape design for the house...tropical mid-century modern.  Yup, totally a thing...well totally my thing if nothing else, hee hee.

Ok no judgements, it's a work in progress, lol. We removed the screen since the picture was taken and going to knock the small wall out for a more open patio feel.  Then there will be large concrete stepping stones from the patio into
the center of the garden.

The backyard is basically a blank canvas so it's been a bit overwhelming to figure out.  I have existing plants I need to incorporate as well.  I can design someone else's landscape no prob, but mine...total mind block, go figure.
Well that's enough talking your ear off for today.  Thanks so much for listening and sticking around.  Next time I'll show you some more progress pic's cause we are just gettin' started and it gettin' good!

Happy Gardening and Best wishes,
Sheri B.
xoxo