This Sunday I thought I would share the garden scene outside my window. Florida neighborhoods are built with retention ponds for stormwater runoff and evaporation. Some are unmanaged and quite unsightly. Our neighborhood association has created a park-like atmosphere with plantings around the two ponds and benches under the oak trees. I love the stillness of it in early morning, especially after a rain that has refilled the pond. (As always, click for larger views)
Here's the big Crape Myrtle. Isn't it lovely? It's branches were a little weighted down this morning from last night's rain. In fact, when I was taking photos it was as if it was still raining because of the rain falling from trees and shrubs.
The photo above compares the size of the big Crape Myrtle with the young one next to it. Sorta of a Mutt & Jeff photo. The photo below is a closer up of the younger plant.
One of the benches shaded by an oak tree. There are two benches under oak trees - one on each corner that faces the cross street. My neighborhood is shaped like an H.
This is the view across the pond. I am captivated by the mirror effect. Soon there will be ducks, herons, ibis, or spoonbills to stir the water.
Now to my yard. I have to admit I have been neglectful of my front yard this year. Perhaps in the fall....when it cools down..... This pink alamanda(?) is a sad vine on my mail box; however, it continues to bloom no mater how sad the vine looks.
My front walkway - no way you are getting a close up of this :) I've cut the areca palm out several times but it comes back because I would need an excavator to remove it all. I give up. It's the plant under which yellow jackets nested last year and I was stung several times while weeding. I love the african iris and it does well in that sunny, hot spot.
Inside that window is my office. I am inside that window right now typing! Houses in our neighborhood are very focused toward the backyard (typical suburb) so this is the ONLY window in my house that faces the street. Naturally the dogs love it.
I took this photo of the pond from my side of the street so you could get a perspective of the previous photos and see my vantage point.
This is a photo of my MIL at Applebee's last night. We had planned on cooking out yesterday and I bought hamburgers and polish dogs, my mom made pasta salad, and mom & I bought a watermelon off a truck (which turned out to be fabulous) but about a half hour before we were to pick up Marge my mom became suddenly ill and went home. Instead of cooking out for 3, we took Marge to a restaurant near her grocery store and then went food shopping for her.
Here is the perimeter around the pool. You can probably see that we could no longer walk around the pool without the risk of falling in. Same was true for the rat terriers actually. It was lush & full and beautiful but it was a safety hazard and way overgrown. While there is still much more work to do (is a gardener's work ever done?), this is what we accomplished today.
Since this photo I have swept up all that debris and threw it back into the beds as mulch. Need all the moisture rentention mulch we can get these days. We are three years into a drought in our area. Serious watering restrictions with serious fines for breaking them.
This little corner where the walkway around the screen porch ends and the patio around the pool begins. Completly run over by a jasmine vine and a hibicus bush. Hard to tell in this photo that there was "stuff" under the foliage.
The same spot although a tad closer. Under all tht mess of plant was several pots and a lantern.
I curse the day I planted this plant. It was about 5 years ago and the following year I dug it all out, or so I thought, because it became invasive. Oh, and it wasn't planted in the ground, it was in a pot with my succulents. Every year I find it somewhere. I even found some in the front yard!
Ahhhhhh, much better..........until next year that is!
