tropical garden
Banana Surprise
Banana Surprise! is something you can legitimately shout when you discover a 15' banana tree loaded with bananas hidden in your garden. (Maybe other times too.)
The Feijoa Blooms again
Feijoa (pineapple guava) only blooms on second year wood. After a hard pruning and no flowers last year, it's back and blooming big this year. Spectacular!
Lemongrass Then and Now
From the "If you water it, it will grow" file comes this lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) rescued from the dry herb garden. In March I planted a small, mostly dead clump. In June it began to show life. By October it ruled its section of the tropical garden
Sunday Daydreaming – Tropical Garden Before and After
It's too hot to do any real work on the Acre, so here's some then and now photos of the tropical garden before spring began and now in the height of summer. I'm going to find some shade and take a siesta.
Kahili Ginger in the Tropical Garden
This spring I overhauled my tropical garden adding tall, kahili ginger to make a spicy flowering forest as a transition to the fruit orchards and dry creek below.
Garden Path Refresh
I turned a drab wood walkway into a cool, colorful path through the tropical garden in a couple days for under $20. Here's how I did it.
Peak Spring
All of our gardens -- shade, tropical, native, fragrance and dry -- are at their peak right now. Can you identify which flower lives in which garden?
Tropical Garden Late Spring
This is the view from my "office". It's a tropical garden that provides a shady transition between the front patio and water gardens up front and the private gardens and orchards at the back of the house.
Camellia in Bloom
Usually the camellias are just a deep green, leafy backdrop for my tropical garden. But once in a while it flowers and outshines all the plants around it. This is one of those occasions. The pink and white of the bloom really set off from the green shades behind it, so the flower is visible from dozens of yards away.