Container garden inspiration

The pop of color from the red and white chairs, paired with the white flowers and columns caught my eye.  Gorgeous patio!

There are simple things you can do to spruce up your deck or patio.

Click here for lots of inspiration from Home and Garden Television.

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Leaf Stepping Stones

One of my favorite garden projects is creating with concrete!

I've been seeing these leaf creations lately and would 

love to make some  for my garden.

Here is my favorite . . . the leaf creations used in a water feature!

Click here for a tutorial on how to make them!

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Margaret's Container Gardening Tips

Planting in containers is my preferred method of gardening.  Containers can add a new dimension of color and texture to your garden.


One of my newest discoveries on the internet is "A Way To Garden" by Margaret Roach.  


Click here for an awesome article and podcast with Margaret's Container Gardening Tips.  The awesome photo comes from that article!

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Beautiful Flowering Variegated Gingers

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year in subtropical Florida.  The Captain and I visited Busch Gardens this month and will be featuring plants and landscaping from the beautiful gardens.

The first in the series is 

Variegated Gingers

Flowering variegated gingers were featured in this raised bed at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida.

A close up shows the beautiful flowers that remind me of clusters of pearls.

The variegated ginger is a green tropical perennial which grows up to ten feet tall outdoors and 3–4 feet tall indoors. 

They do very well in the shade as well as the morning sun, however, they don't do well in the hot afternoon sun.  They are reasonably drought tolerant with little insect or disease problems. 

For more information on these showy, easy to grow plant, visit my webpage dedicated to growing gingers.

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Yard Art ~ Spoon Plant Markers

Yard art is like jewelry for the garden!

What a fun idea for those yard sale, thrift store and flea market finds that you can pick up for almost nothing, but can make such an awesome impact in your garden.  I've seen some really cute yard art projects using old spoons . . . guess I won't be passing these up at future thrift sales anymore!

Want to make these for your garden?

Click here for the tutorial!

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Growing tomatoes in winter

Although we experienced our first night of freezing temps last night, my thoughts are on starting tomato and pepper seeds early this winter.  It has been a mild winter for us in Zone 9 Florida and I've done it before, but it has been a long time since I experimented with this theory.  

Once the seedlings are big enough to transplant, they need to be grown in containers so they can be moved inside in case of a prolonged freeze.  We may just leave the containers in our carport area where they are protected.  It is worth a try to get a jump start on the growing season.  The containers are currently sitting out there empty . . . and seeds are relatively inexpensive.  

Time to order seeds!

Check out the Customer Favorites Tomatoes, now available at Burpee.com!

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The Path to Serenity

There is something about paths in the garden that can transform a garden into a serene sanctuary that creates the mystery of where the path leads, especially when connected with secluded garden rooms.

I love the randomness of the pattern and diversity of materials used in the featured path.  Very clever idea for stretching out the more expensive pavers by mixing them with less expensive items.  Very cool!

Click here to go to the story behind this path!

What an awesome path that can be duplicated with relatively inexpensive items.  

For those who love to create with concrete like me, the pavers would be so easy to make!  

I'm ready to mix some concrete :)

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Fall gardening checklist

The autumn leaves are changing colors, 

the temperatures are coming down, 

in Florida it is less humid.

At a loss on what to do in the garden?

Fine Gardening's website has an awesome series of

videos and articles on seasonal gardening.

Click here to go there!

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Fall gardening for subtropical and tropical climates

This is one of my favorite times of the year for gardening in our Zone 9, Central Florida garden.

Soon the black eyed susan vines that have seeded themselves all over the Paradise that is now a jungle will provide a much needed splash of color.  Another season has gone by, leaving the Paradise neglected and way overgrown.  The coleus and impatiens that used to grow wild are few . . . the past winters have killed the reseeding process that was going on.  Hopefully we can at least get those going again to bring more color to the garden.

Now is the time that I prune and propagate.

For guidelines and reference, please refer to my Florida gardening page for lots of links to the websites I go to for everything I need to know about gardening in Florida and similar zones.

Click on the Florida Gardening graphic to go to the page.

As the seasons are changing, we have been utilizing our outdoor dining area again . . . much to our delight!  

It is time to get the container plants in the carport jungle going again.  We are looking forward to planting more tomato and pepper plants.  Our pepper plant is still putting out delicious hot peppers!  It will be nice to have a greater variety.  The lime tree is still putting out some awesome juicy limes :)


We'll be visiting Busch Gardens soon and will post photos of their Fall gardens.

Happy Fall!

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Nasty Grasshoppers Caught In The Act!

Not only have they chewed up most of our

 plants, but now we caught them in the

 act of having sex in our front yard.

Shameless grasshoppers . . . I hate them!

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