One word makes a difference!

The word tropical brings many images to mind.

Swaying palm trees, fruity little drinks with umbrellas in them, romantic evenings on the beach. Fishing, swimming, snorkeling all of those wonderful things go with the word tropical.

But if you add three simple words after the word tropical and you’ll find Southern Gardner goes into just a bit of a panic. Our heart beats a little faster and get out comes our checklist. Because add the words wave, depression, and storm and our work is cut out for us.

There comes an urgency for gardeners as we secure all the pretty little accent that we’ve added to our garden to make it look nice. The wind chimes, flags and spinners that we love to see in the gentle breeze are now a danger.

Bird feeders and plant containers are pushed into protected areas or even laid on their side; flat against something that will protect them. Debris is removed quickly and placed where it cannot blow, the garbage cans are secured. If it becomes more than a tropical storm, hurricane shutters are lowered and other emergency measures are taken.

Anyone who lives down here along the Coast knows during the months of July through November  you keep your eye on the weather. Late August and September are the peak months for tropical weather.

Heavy pruning is done prior to August to ensure that no loose limbs are left. Larger trees like the Oaks are trimmed, not just to shape, but to allow air to flow through them. This is so when that wind hits its large masses of leaves and branches, it doesn’t uproot the tree, it simply blows through.

A gardener with more delicate flowers, like orchids and bromeliads or some of the more exotic  flowers, will hurry to find places that are secure to put them. I know personally, my garage looks like a greenhouse just before storm hits; tools and plants and garden accessories are now being stored there for the duration of the storm threat. Like many a Gardner, I’ll protect my plants but leave my car sitting in the driveway.

Now is the last week of August and there are four systems out in the Atlantic Ocean, being watched carefully by all. Not every tropical wave will become a depression and not every depression will become a storm. But if you watch them come off the coast of Africa and follow their path your heart races a little faster as it approached the outer Islands. You know at this point they can go in any direction.

Once the storm clears we’re right back putting all of our things in the garden ready to wait for the next storm warning.

After all, this is our way of life!

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Your night time garden.

There’s something different about the garden at night.

It all starts at dusk as the sun slips its way below the horizon and twilight settles into your garden. Suddenly it has a whole new personality, exciting and mysterious.

As the shadows deepen your garden becomes a mixture of dark hidden spots and places. Secrets–only the night holds.

 The phase of the moon will also determine how much light your garden gets during those twilight hours. Moonbeams may glitter off of the foliage from a midnight rain or sprinklers. Or possibly from a water feature you might have in your garden– if your water feature is large enough, you might catch the reflection of the stars in the sky. But the light of the moon has a different  feel to it than the light from the sun; more mystic and peaceful.

Night time is for the nocturnal animals to come out and play. Depending upon where you live will depend upon the type of animal to come out. You may hear the sound of the hoot owl or the cry of a bobcat. We’ve even heard the howl of the coyote and the hissing   of the alligator

If you’re like me, you love those sounds but safely from within the screen porch–there’s no way  you want to confront any of these animals up close and personal.

At some point it’s time to head inside, and I make my way to my office were there are windows on all sides showing me my garden from a different view. From this side of the window I can see the little fairy lights  in the trees and the landscape lighting shinning softly throughout the foliage it gives it a warm friendly glow. I’m so glad I put them in, especially when I look at the tree directly opposite my office window.

Because you see the nighttime has one more surprise for me…

 I watch as a fat possum works his way up the trunk of a tree.  It’s not even two feet away from me, with only a pane of glass between us. I leave the light on my desk and a possum notices me he stretches as far as he can from the trunk of the tree. He’s as curious who I am, just as I am curious about him. He quickly grows bored with me and continues on his way up the tree. I sit and count as he comes and goes at least three times up that trunk, each time disturbing the tree frogs, making them start their nightly songs.

Yes, the garden at night is full of activity and it’s up to you to determine if you want to sleep through it or stay awake and watch.

A Southern Rain

 Rain in the south is different from up north.

Songs are written about the rain– there’s a country one out about rain, corn, and whiskey. Conversations are made about the rain; perfect strangers will think nothing of commenting to you in an elevator or on a sidewalk about the lack of rain or the overabundance of rain. Because down here that seems to be how it is. We get it either too much or not at all…

It’s sweltering hot and humid and we’re dying for the rain,  the lawns are turning crispy and folks are looking for cloud cover to just cool the temperature couple of degrees.

Or it’s raining so hard the parking lots are flooding. Backyard suddenly look like they are hosting a small lake, and roads look like they have rivers running down them.

If you pay attention, you can tell when the storm is going to hit.Yes, the sky gets dark and the wind picks up, but there’s other signs too. The birds and the squirrels are suddenly eating like crazy out of the bird feeders.  There’s a stillness just before the storm hits, not only with the movement of the wind, but with the sound of the animals. And then the first crack  of thunder breaks the silence. You run for cover.

It’s not uncommon to see rain coming down heavy across the street, and your yard is getting nothing-not a drop. And then, just like that, it’s over. Their lawns are wet and yours is still crispy.

But there’s a saying down here about the weather:

Wait 5 minutes and it will change.

Roads that were flooded are clear in a matter of hours. You can almost see the grass getting greener as it sucks up the water and overnight the difference is amazing.

       

There’s a fern that grows on the Live Oaks called Resurrection Fern. When the rain comes the foliage turns into beautiful green within hours, but when it’s dry the fern is brown and dead-looking. The rain resurrects it once more to beautiful plant.  The trees are covered in green lush foliage from the fern growing up the branches and trunks. Everything has a new fresh look to it. The dust is going from the leaves,  the plants shimmer in the sunlight, the grass is green once again. For a few minutes the humidity is gone and you can almost feel a hint of coolness in the breeze. The birds come back out in full force, singing happily, the cricket start chirping and the squirrels are running from tree to tree to make sure that their nest are still intact.

So a Southerner may lament the lack of rain and then moan about a couple of days of steady rain. But to me there’s no better place to live than down here in South Florida. Because after all; just wait 5 minutes and the weather will change.

The 1st blog from the Garden.

Why Gossip from the Southern Garden?

Gossip can bring many things to mind; teenagers at the mall, neighbors talking over the fence, mothers stopping to talk with each other at the market…the list goes on.

But, to me, when you add the word “southern”, a whole new image comes to my mind. I’m envisioning Southern Belles in beautiful gowns, having sweet tea on the veranda, picnics and porch swings.

Add in the concept of “gardens”, and I visualize color, palm trees, sweet scents, vast lawns, draping Spanish Moss, Orchids, Hibiscus and other exotic, tropical plants.

Now, I grew up in the north, so maybe I’ve romanticized the southern life a bit. I’ve lived in the south for 30+ years, and I know there is much more than that to the way of live down here. Hot, hot summers, and humidity that can make you wring out your clothes like a dish rag. And then there are the bugs-bigger than small mammals, reptiles that should only be allowed in a zoo, and of course those tropical storms.

Yet, with all that, the Southern Garden can be breath-taking. Full of big and small, delightful surprises.

So, yes, I’ll take my romantic Southern Garden, flaws and all. Because I’m a Southern Gardner at heart.