It's finally raining here in Florida. I know the rest of the USA has had more than its share of bad weather. But here in Central Florida we have been dry. Today its raining. Which is why your hearing from me. Normally I am out in the yard spending hours watering the garden. I have a beautiful garden in the front this year. My gladiolas are blooming again. The legustrum was blooming which bought many honey bees to the front yard from the near orange grove. Did you know honey bees need water too? They would swarm all over the bird bath and crawl down to the edge and drink for a long time. The heat would nearly evaporate the entire bird bath every day. I would refill it every day with clean water.
And because I had so many honey bees, I have lots and lots of cucumbers, yellow squash and zucchini in bloom. Tomato plants are doing really good, but now when the rain starts is also when the bugs come. And if you spray the tomatoes then you kill the good bugs like praying mantis, honey bees and lady bugs. And the rains just wash the spray off.. so really what is the point?
Oh and the eight blueberry bushes are doing fantastic. Course the kids eat them faster than I can pick em. I am happy to report that the fig tree, persimmon tree and Meyers lemon tree are loaded with fruit this year. We fertilized and added new dirt and lots of mulch to the base of every tree. Almost forgot to tell you about my Chickasaw plum. They are small plums about the size of cherries. I only had seven small fruit to stay on the tree this year. I have eaten five of them. Sweet and the color of a peach. The Chickasaw plum is a Florida native, so it can tolerate lack of rain or too much rain. It doesn't really care what kind of soil you have, just lots of sun. Look them up on the Internet. I ordered mine from a Georgia nursery for under $5.00.
My other two native Florida trees are my white oak and Sycamore tree. Both doing great and well established for about three years now. My Mulberry tree is not producing fruit yet. I understand they must be about 10 years old to produce fruit. Its like a blackberry without the seeds. Yes, I do have blackberry this year. I added it to the new barbwire fence along the orange grove. They get lots of eastern sunshine.
Ok, so I haven't even mentioned all the other trees in my yard, but without a sprinkler system, you can see I have a lot of trees and plants to water and then I have to weed too. Florida rain is welcome. Sure does give me a much needed break to get some writing done.
Maybe in my next post I will tell you about the grapes on the vine and the banana trees... So glad its raining.
This is Girl Schmuck signing off
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