Sunday Daydreaming – Tropical Garden Before and After

It’s hot. Way too hot to do anything around the Acre after mid-morning, so I’ve decided to take up residence on the deck. There’s shade overhead, cold beverages at hand, and Jimmy Buffet singing about sharks and margaritas in the background.

The view from my favorite chair faces west where the tropical garden has grown big, lush and green now. Hard to believe five months ago on this day it was burnt and barren.

Back on March 1st (seems like a lifetime ago, no?) the garden was still recovering from n early February frost. Bananas and root beer plant (left) were frost-bitten back to the stem.

Cannas and pineapple guava (right) were equally fried even though they had more protection.

The bed on the right had been a wildflower garden but after three years only the weeds were re-seeding. Using the winter lull, I cleared the bed and moved a bunch of tropical misfits — a plumeria, some ginger and a (badly abused) lemon grass — from around the acre into the bed.

As you can see, five months later, a) all the transplants are doing just fine, and b) I obviously overlooked all the 4 O’clock seeds still there from last year.

Here’s a final photo of the view as you emerge from the passion fruit-covered deck and see the new portion of the tropical garden for the first time. Prior to this it had been wildflowers, but they were hit or miss, so I replaced them with a tall, Kahili ginger to create a leafyscreen. As you turn to the right you see the plumeria (which is small now, but will be several feet taller in a year or two), a shaggy lemon grass and some butterfly bush that keeps the tropical feel but ramps down the height and leafiness for the transition to the dry areas of the lower yard.

You keep enjoying the photos. Help yourself to a beer in the fridge. Me, I’m gonna have a siesta while Jimmy sings about ol’ Mexico.