Choice Morsels

My friend, Jacqui, asked me how I manage caring for all my flower beds & garden.  There is always something that needs doing and,  in her case, she has a much larger yard with more extensive landscape she's trying to get established.  I replied, "I just focus on one project at a time." Especially in the summer Florida heat. I can't stay out all day like I could in the cool spring. I have to choose particular tasks on days I have allotted for working outside.  This past Monday, the single outdoor project of the day was hedging & shaping the large gardenia shrub out front. That took about 2 hours and I took a cool down break for 30 minutes somewhere in there. Today's single outdoor project was re-working a small section  of the back bed by thinning out the native day lilies from other locations and moving them to form a border there. I worked for about an hour, then went in for lunch. While I was inside, a summer thunderstorm suddenly popped up a...

The sky to the north was rumbling and grumbling with a promise of a summer shower while I was outside mowing today, but wasn't overhead until I finished. Still hasn't rained, though the thundering stopped. Sometimes it rains in one spot, but not in another around here. Today's Garden Pic is my melon patch! These are the most prosperous melon vines I've ever had! There's a Canary melon called "Amy Melon" in the foreground and against the far back wall and watermelon is next to the left wall between them. All this from a total 6 seeds:  2 watermelon & 4 Amy melon. The block walls, which are new this year, are proving quite helpful for keeping the vines corralled! Otherwise they'd be all over the yard!  You can see the upside down plastic milk cartons that I use for watering & fertilizing. I've had a problem with pests getting to my young Amy melons, but I read in my garden book that setting baby melons on a low, upside  dow...