Africanaussie

My microgreens came up so nicely and I was just about ready to harvest some for my dinner, when -whoosh - overnight something mowed them down - they are now just a bunch of little green sticks.  Sometimes growing food in the tropics is just way too hard. Luckily I can spend time with my flowers - the sexy pink lady is flowering again.  I was trimming some branches and look who hopped onto my hand!  I found him a nice leafy branch to move onto.

I got two different types of organic fertilizer  in the pack that I won, and decided over the weekend to add some to the rest of the garden.  I recently planted lots of seeds in the veggie patch and think it will be a good idea to wait until they grow up into seedlings before I add any fertilizer to them. The seeds themselves are their own little fertilizer packages for the first few weeks. I did dig some fertilizer into the area where I planted the snow peas, after I removed the Rosella plants so will be able to compare the difference.. Firstly I cleared the paths and edgings of excess leaves. The beds around the lychee tree are layered with fallen leaves and leaves and branches that I have cut back while trimming plants.  I noticed that there is a white mould/fungus in some very shady, wet areas.  I hope this is mycellium which is what we want to build up in the rotting matter and not some nasty fungus. I moved the rex begonias into one section - I think the...

The hot and humid wet season seems to suit the tropical flowers much better than  it suites me. I still gaze in awe at the fact that the Anthirium is one of my most carefree plants.   From one plant gifted by a friend years ago when I was first starting my garden, I now have a forest!  I have also passed on multiple plants to other gardeners, so it is a gift that keeps on giving.   There is also a forest of red ginger - so reliable. Way in the back corner are one of my favourite tropical heleconias - the sexy pink lady.  Once each stem has flowered it will die, so I need to get out there and cut back the dead stalks. That way the flowers can be the centre of the show again. Theese beehive gingers seem to be playing peek a boo against the side fence.  They are tucked away behind the fan palms. This has been one of the driest wet seasons I have ever known.  Last week there was a cyclone to the northwest of us and...

As I mentioned previously, the back section was getting rather overgrown, so I ventured into the heleconia/ginger section with my loppers.   Heleconia stalks flower and then die, so I decided to cut back some of the flowering branches and bring them inside. These red heleconias are my favourite, and I am so glad that they are now flowering profusely.  I need to figure out how to divert the new shoots so that they remain inside the bed, and I think continually cutting away the dying branches will allow the room for them to stay contained.  There is still way more to cut back, but for now I am enjoying flowers in the house.   The sexy pink ladies are so hard to put into an arrangement - maybe it would have looked better with another one in the center instead of the cordeline.  I was cutting back the lemongrass and found this tiny creature -  his skin had a metallic sheen to it.  I am still trying to find a way to make the perfe...

I spent the weekend spreading 6 bales of hay around the communal area and then some more in my little garden.   Hopefully it will keep the weeds from running rampant this wet season and then also hold in some nutrients once the rains really start. Whew!    Tired old me flopped down into the swing  for a  rest and a huge jug of iced water, then looked up to see..... my little buds on  the Ulysses host tree (I really need to find out what to call it now) they have burst into the prettiest little flowers.... Isn't that just the prettiest little bundle of pink cuteness you have ever seen?  Pink is my youngest daughters favourite colour and she would be calling this pinktastic, and I totally agree. No other word for it. I haven't seen any Ulysses butterflies around lately - gotta get the word out ...

I was given a  free bale of hay, and you know me - I never refuse anything free!  I don't really like the look of hay in my tropical garden, but laying it out on the weekend I realized it might be just what the garden needed.  We mulch most of the leaves that fall from the lychee tree to add to the compost bin, but a lot of the leaves that fall in the garden stay there and eventually rot down.  That leaf litter can be a haven for mosquitoes, so a light fluffy layer of hay over the leaves might hide them from the mosquitoes .... just a thought.  Probably not.  I do think different kinds of mulch is good as each type adds different qualities to the soil.  This will soon break down and blend in, and more leaves will fall on top of it.   I am always moving things around and now have the bricks against the edge of this garden bed.  It creates a  ...

I love to have flowers in the garden, and this little corner was not getting enough light, so I trimmed back some of the overhanging branches and open the gate when I am home to let the sunshine stream in.  We are still in the rainy season so drying out the soil occasionally is important.   At the very least it helps to slow down the mosquito breeding.  These red gingers never stop flowering and provide constant colour.  Right in the back corner is my very favourite flower - the sexy pink lady, and once again I have a bud forming.  Just in time for our house guests - old friends from America.  I hope the weather is kind to them. I am glad the garden is getting ready to show off  its best. Just below the pink lady is a pink ginger - not as prolific as the red, but the same family.

The sexy pink lady has been blooming - right in the back corner, and high up so nobody could really get to enjoy it.  I cut it down and put it inside in a  vase - luckily I have this wonderful vase big enough to accommodate such a large flower.  a week or so ago I noticed that the other large heleconia is also blooming - there was just a bit of red peeking out between the leaves.  Now it is beginning to unfurl - I always think the flowers that take so long to open seem to last the longest, so I am curbing my impatience.  It is a fairly large plant, but hopefully I can curtail its growth enough to have  a few flowers yet not allow it to overtake the whole garden.  I have already transplanted a few cuttings out into the central island where there is more room for it to grow and spread. I am linking this post to Noels hot loud and proud meme - check out more hot loud and proud tropical plants and flowers her...

I was sitting on the swing this weekend with my hubby sharing our morning cuppa and revelling in the fact that there has been no rain for two days.  "I think this area is geting too full - That big heleconia has to go" "What?  I .....love feeling like I live in a forest, dont change anything..."  A lot of our conversations go like that..... - a gardener knows things do well after a big cut back, but maybe nongardeners dont have that confidence. .but this area has got a bit overgrown and when I bought that big plant I really wasnt thinking how small our garden is..... so I thought I would take a little wander down the back garden path.   and saw.....a bud.  a beautiful big red bud! Quickly I ran in to get the camera. "You know that plant I was going to rip out? well its flowering. My hubby just smiled - he knows that once a plant flowers it has wedged a plance in my heart (and my garden) forever. Right in the back corner I h...

I find myself wandering off into the far corner of the garden much more often now... The sexy pink lady has opened up a little and slowly will zig-zag down.  This looks as though it will be a very big flower.  So this flower might have about 7 or eight zig zags.  I just adore this very delicate pink and green combination.

Way in the back corner I have a huge heleconia plant and this weekend when I wandered there cutting back dead tree branches I discovered that my sexy pink lady has a bloom!   This is quite a tall untidy plant and so I have it right in the corner where it can hopefully grow high outside of the leaves of the lychee tree, but still shaded by the wooden fence.   This bud is already about one foot long and will slowly unfurl into a flower reaching down for three or four feet!   I am so glad she is happy here in this little corner.  As you can see the leaves get very tattered and untidy looking, and in actual fact the flower is the end of this particular plant, but already it is shooting up new plants around the base. Most of the heleconias are reds and oranges, but the colours on this one are quite unusual - I love the delicate pink colour, and as it slowly unfurls like a ribbon undwinding  I will be carefully watching.  I am ...