After 15 years of writing my garden journey on this blog, the time has come to end the blog.  The journey will continue and I will share the pictures of my garden on my  Instagram account ( @dragonflygarden ) this is an open account so I invite your to follow me.  When I started this blog 15 years ago I was a garden novice and my garden was an open canvas.  The canvas has change many times over the years and the garden looks so different today from what it was back then, but isn't that the point of gardening, continuous changes that never end.     ..read more

This year I had to pruned one of my mango trees hard, it was getting too big for my garden.  This will problebly means that next year I will not get too many mangos from that tree.  I also gave my avocado tree a good trim, this year we didn't get any fruits.  I am not sure if it had to do with the lack of rain during the winter season, but looking around to other trees in the neighborhood and many have few avocados this year.  One of my neighbors was redoing his garden this week and called me to see if wanted a couple of concrete benches and a old Spanish Ti ..read more

June, the month that brings positives and negatives to South Florida gardens.  The positives  are the abundance of wild life visiting, specially butterflies.  The negatives are obvious, it is the start of the rainy season and with it comes the hordes of mosquitoes making gardening a very uncomfortable hobby.    The rain also bring wild rain lilies all over the garden, more flowers from the bougainvilleas and it is the time for the African lilies to put on their show.  This year I had so many mangos to give away, that I had to put a free mango s ..read more

Over the past few years my gardening experience changed from sunny to shade.  Before all my fruit trees and those of my neighbors matured to full grown trees, my back yard was a sunny garden.  These days my choice of plants are mostly shade loving plants.  This past week I planted Caladiums in one of my semi-shaded beds.  I have to confess that I have become a fan of shade plants, there is more green and the garden looks fuller.  The shade also makes gardening in the South Florida weather more enjoyable.    This year I let the Blue Porter We ..read more

Two months ago, I took out the Rangoon Creeper vine covering the yellow trellis.  I filled up the place with bromeliads, potted plants and started a search to replace the Creeper.  This part of the garden is the first thing anyone sees when visiting my back garden.  I was not happy with the way it looked, a new makeover was need it.  I planted a Bleeding Hart vine to replace the Rangoon Creeper, I also moved my collection of potted Bougainvillea  plants into the space and added a bistro set I found on the street (It happen to be exactly the same as one I have in anothe ..read more

My Fire Dragon bush needed a trim for the summer.  Sometime during the fall I will do a hard cut back. Before This corner of the garden is under the mango trees and it gets shade all day.  I am using the white tubes as planters for ferns.   I got a new fern for my collection an Autumn Fern. I cleaned this shady area and replanted the African Spear plants in the back.  I am not sure what to plant here, I am thinking a combination of Caladium and other shade loving plants. This week at the DragonFly Garden The Gardenia bush is full of buds and new flowers I purchased ..read more

 The front of my garden was full of ground orchids, they were planted several years ago.  Ground orchids do very well in the front of the house, where the afternoon sun can be hard on any plant specially during the summer months.  The last couple of years the orchids were not blooming as much and looked a bit crowded.  I decided to take them all out and divide them,  I am not sure if this orchid can be divided,  we will see soon if it was a mistake.  Before Mixing lavender with pentas and a ti plant for the front door This past year I eliminated several ..read more

Spring has arrived at the garden, the days are longer and the temperatures are rising a few degrees every day.  Our weather does not change much all year year-round, but the plants have an internal clock that is telling them is "show time".  In the last couple of weeks many plants in the garden are breaking out with beautiful blooms, like this Amaryllis.   This is the second year that I get flowers from this plant and she is not done yet.  There are two more shoots coming up.   This plant came from my father's garden, she was sharing a container with a hibiscus and not ..read more

I decided to give my front garden a more traditional look and less of the organized chaos that I have in my back garden.  This will mean reducing the variety of plants and adding more color.  Is going to be a challenge, due to the sun exposure in my western expose home.  I started this past January with this area under the powderpuff tree.  I added plants in containers to fill it up, but I was not happy with the way it looked.  This week I headed to my favorite local nursery and purchased a couple of Irises to compliment the ones already there.  I also got a Lily ..read more

Yesterday my wife and I decided to get out of the house and spend the afternoon in the garden, at Fairchild Tropical garden that is.  The weather was perfect for a stroll in the garden, this place never gets old for me, there is always something new to see.  The rainforest section of the garden is one of my favorite. A great place to put down a blanket on the grass and have a picnic. The cannonball tree is one of my favorite, and one of the most unusual trees in the garden A gorgeous bromeliad flower. Several Egyptian Goose make the garden home.   ..read more