The Garden Trap

Spanish moss(Tillandsia usnoides)

Ahhh…a nice long weekend. Time to go boating, maybe take a couple of naps. Life is a breeze in the Florida Keys.

Liz asked me to make sure the boat is ready to go. Ok. As usual the stupid boat won’t start.

Golden Shower(Cassia fistula)

“Hey, baby, let me just put the charger on the battery for an hour or so and we’ll be ready to go.”,I tell her.

Meanwhile I’ll clean up the yard a little I innocently think…Right…I’m a gardener remember. And so it begins.

It seems on every property there is that one area that gets very little attention from the gardener…on my property there are a few of those areas. The trap was set. This section is about 25’ feet wide by 60 ‘ long and is the deepest shade on the property…the reason being... I tend to ignore it, thus it is severly overgrown.

It all started innocently enough, I walked over it to pick up an errant soccer ball. Simple enough you say grab it and walk away. The unfortunate thing was that I had a pair of Felco clippers on my hip from cleaning up a deer munched banana plant. There were a few palm fronds in my way to get at the ball, no problem just prune the offenders…wait, I can’t leave the palm lopsided, can I. I’m taking the bait. Next thing I know I’m in the midst of a pruning frenzy and the trap has been sprung.

                                       

Monstera spp.

Grab the trash cans, pull out the loppers, bring in the chipper/ shredder, time for the chainsaw. Two soaked tee shirts and several hours later I have a nice canopy to work under.

Liz again asks, “Is the boat ready?”

”Ummm, let me check…yup, fires right up. You get the boat bag, cooler and dog. I’ve just got a few more branches to cut.”

Red Ginger(Alpinia purpurata)

Twenty minutes later I watched the boat with Liz and dachshund aboard pulling away from our dock.

“Hmmm, guess she got tired of waiting, don’t blame her. Where was I, oh yeah, that sea grape tree. I can plant a ton of aroids under this shade... and ferns…yup, ferns over there and maybe an Alpinia in that sort sunny spot."... Somehow I never even noticed the trap.




 

It's All My Garden

For 25 of the 32 years I lived in the Lower Keys I was a professional in the horticulture biz in one way or another. I’ve been out now for awhile and in fact turned my back on gardening for a few years. Let me tell ya it’s nice to rekindle the interest.

This little blog has helped, in that, I have been cruising some of the neighborhoods to grab images to share with you. As I drive, I come across so many properties that I once landscaped or maintained. It’s kind of strange, in tropical landscaping things change fast…REAL fast.

Hurricane Wilma sure didn’t help, not that much wind but much of the Lower and Middle Keys were overwashed with salt water. So many plants died from saltwater intrusion. Now we have the invasion of the

iguanas. Gardens have had it tough down here.

Hmmm… back to the point… the gardens I once thought of as mine have changed, the owners have changed but in some way they are still mine. Sort of like an old flame from high school, you remember them the way they were, appreciate them as they are now and you still care…even if just a little bit. So I hope you understand me when I say…it’s all my garden.

Walkingsticks and My Coffee

“There, done!” I thought, wiping the sweat from my face on my dingy t-shirt.

It was time for a pruning and cleanup in one small corner of the property, next to the plumeria. All that was left to do was put the pruned palm fronds in trash barrels for the garbage man. I can chip up any branches and prunings but the little chipper/shredder just can’t handle palm fronds. (Yes, I’ve found out the hard way, as the frond turns into a ball of fibers, stuck in the shredder. This event is accompanied by squeal of the shredder drive belt and the stench of burning rubber, usually followed by mumbled cursing as I try to get the fiber ball dislodged from the shredder drum.)

The Dachshund was sniffing around(as usual) happily rooting away in the debris pile I had just masterfully created when she let out an ear-splitting, gut wrenching squeal followed by a series of little dog yips…turned tail and came flying out of the pile heading for house.

“Now what did that stupid dog get into… centipede, scorpion…” I wondered as I peeled apart the formerly masterfully created pile. My sympathy level was a bit low for the dog being as she had just finished drinking all my iced coffee that I had set down, apparently at a convenient dachshund level. Getting near the bottom of the pile, on the outside edge I found the culprit…or should I say culprits.

 

An amorous pair of Two-Striped Walkingsticks (Anisomopha buprestoides) were sorta hiding atop a palm frond. A smaller male was as is common, perched atop the much larger female.These “devil’s darning needles” have the ability to squirt a strong- smelling defensive spray with awesome accuracy. As Twinkles the Dachshund (I didn’t name her, I’d have picked a manly dog name like Spike or Rex) found out, this is a painful irritating substance to mucous membranes (such as Dachshund noses).

I ran upstairs to check on the dog (snuffleing a bit but apparently unharmed), grabbed my camera and a new cup of iced coffee. Back out I went. Putting my coffee down, playing with camera adjustments, I set about making like a nature photographer and started snapping a few pix while muttering “That’s it, work it kids. The camera loves you…HEY… TWINKLES, GET OUT OF MY COFFEE!!!...stupid dog…sigh.”

Wordless Wednesday

Prescribed Burn on Big Pine Key

What's Happinin' - Around the Island
On this incredibly humid and soggy day today the Florida fish and Wildlife conducted a prescribed burn on a few acres of Pine Rockland habitat yesterday off Key Deer Blvd. located on Big Pine Key. This Pine Rockland habitat is essential to some species of plants and animals. Without the burn which is a natural component of our ecology this P. R. habitat would slowly convert to Hardwood Hammock. Not so good.

The area is walked through to ensure no animals are present and when weather conditions are right they begin the burn. The conditions were perfect yesterday with high humidity and low wind. The fungus on my orchids liked the weather too.
Here we have a Sable Palm, an unusual species for the Pine Rocklands. An enterprising bird picked just the right spot to deposit this seed.
This image shows the far more common Brittle Thatch Palm( Thrinax morrissii) and the resulting char from this quickly moving fire. At one time it was said that hwen transplanting Brittle Thatch you should flame the cut root ends to simulate fire. This practise never worked for me as all my transplants just died. The story of my life.

That's it, see ya.

Brittle Thatch, White-crowned Pigeon

What's Growin'-Palms Brittle Thatch Palm(Thrinax morrisii) is an uncommon palm elsewhere is a common tree on the pine rocklands of Big Pine Key.

This slow growing endangered species is not a tall palm with extreme specimens reaching 20’. The berries are a favorite food of the Key Deer.

It has a characteristically rough trunk with the frond bases not persistent but falling away as the tree matures. A very difficult palm to transplant but nice as a low specimen plant or in a group.
What's Flyin'-Birds Our summertime visitors, the White-Crowned Pigeon(Patagioenas leucocephala), are becoming fewer and fewer. They arrive in late April or early May feasting on the ripe fruit of the Poisonwood tree, Blolly and Randia. Local lore says they do show the effects of fermented berries sometimes crashing through the trees in a drunken frenzy. They are a timid bird that is very difficult to approach but fortunately show a preference to sitting on solitary branches. This fine bird suffered from hunting in the early part of the century. They are only found in the Florida Keys, sporadically in South Florida and the Caribbean.

That's it, see ya

Double divided cocnut

This VERY rare example of a coconut palm(Cocus nucifera) that divided is located on Ramrod Key. This happens due to a phyical damage to the bud during the trees life.