Carmen this picture is for you, Cheryl said thank you! all the violets that you gave her came up for her treasured collection.:)

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Silvia

Hi
having fairly goo luck with my annuals even though it's been HOT lol love the blue of this Lobelia called "crystal palace"" gary

Hi Gary

That lobelia looks wonderful! I was lucky to be gifted a lot of seeds and I saw one packet with lobelia and now that I see yours I think those are going to be next. A lot of the seeds are going to be a new learning experience in this garden.
I have many questions for you, did you direct sow them?are they coming back every year?

The garden is confused with this weather, I have peaches already

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Roasting tomatoes every day, they have been non stop

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I planted a duranta close to the hibiscus plant and it helped with the strong winds that we had

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Peas are doing great

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Silvia

Silvia, Those AV's look awesome, I so happy they are doing so good for Cheryl, I know she will enjoy those. Garden looks fabulous as usual tomatoes look so yummy.

Gary that Lobelia is so pretty.

Hi Carmen, those yellow blooms are really pretty!

We are having a great veggie season with all the greens, kale and arugula are the best for salads when you take especial care in preparing and they are so healthy!
We made a giant arugula salad for a party dressed with a Meyer lemon vinaigrette and Parmigiano and everyone love it. Trays of roasted tomatoes with tortellini, also everyone's favorite. I hope the gardeners are enjoying the greens while is still cool outside.

I am still waiting on the banana to get ripe, any day now...in this picture with the eucaliptus and the true condo mango, few years old and about 5 feet tall, love the fruit also.

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Tomatoes are non-stop, green zebra cherry

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Sweet Treats

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A view from the garden

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Silvia

Orange eggplant, Russian Roulette peppers and Carambola .....first two from Bill. Garden looks great, around inch or two of rain last night, love it. Your garden looks incredible as always........starting a ton of stuff for spring as long as the weather holds........hope to see you guys this spring. That is one crazy Begonia........:)

Lots of succulents this spring.....J's teaching me...........so far so good....

Hi M, I love the rain too, everything was so dry with the winds. Looking forward to spring to see everyone. I am amazed at yours and J's skills in propagating plants, you guys are the bomb! lol

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Silvia

Sivia
i believe this lobelia is from the temperate branch either
L siphilitic or erinus due to the blue color but obviously hybridized to intensify it This particular one is called "Crystal palace" and another of the blue family called "Old blue eyes " which is a sky blue rather than cobalt.
. I find they are very moisture demanding so I grow them in drip trays with very rich soil.
They creep and stay under 4 inches and flower their hearts out lol. but hate high temps particularly night. If a cool winter they are fantastic if not they tend to sulk . By mid May they tend to disappear. They are a pain but what a glorious color?? lol
I find the seeds germinate readily but so tiny i mix with sand and use a straight pin for transplanting ,even then I lose over half!! Good luck with them maybe you'll be able to give me some tips on seed growing??. By far the smallest seeds I've ever dealt with!! gary

Gary, I have to give you the credit to be a very patient man with those tiny seeds.:) Me, on the other hand I don't have that gift,lol. For me to be successful with any seed, they have to be at least a size that I can see them like a lettuce or a carrot but of course I would rather have bigger seeds to work with. That reminds me that I had a friend that used to paint in a pin, the only way that you could see the pictures was with a magnifying glass, that takes a lot of patience!
I love that cobalt blue color, the curator from the Ocho Rios Botanical gardens for 40 years has an all blue garden at his home, what a beauty!
I am experimenting with a lot of the flower seeds now, I planted some that look like powder so tiny they are, blue Bachelor Button flowers came up, they were the correct size for me....

Silvia

Silvia
This year i opted for the seedlings from Walmart . only a buck and were already in flower lol I'm trying to convert all of my grow area to either blue ,purple or white .
here is a pic of my favorite blue .. Not only the largest but has a fantastic aroma gary

Those water lilies are glorious! I still have kale and collards going, although some of the leaves are turning yellow, maybe needs re-fertilizing? Still picking lettuce, we eat it so often none of it has reached full size yet which is fine, the babies are quite yummy. Since we still haven't gotten a freeze this year the hot peppers and eggplants are still going and flowering. But the fruiting is slow going. The snap peas are still going but this year we switched the side of the garden from previous years and for some reason not quite as productive as years before. The broccoli plants finally are forming heads although they are still small and the brussels sprouts don't show any sign yet of producing. I think the part of the plot they are in isn't getting enough sun. DH wants to expand the garden but we have no heavy machinery and knocking back woodlands by hand is something that is a little out of our league in our 60's. As it is I struggle to maintain it so even if we hired out the job it would be too much if it were bigger without the horsepower to maintain it.

Gary, you are smart man.:) I was thinking the same when I saw the seeds for coleus, they sell flats in Knox nursery near my house in all sorts of colors....
Those water lilies are gorgeous! reminds of the beautiful ones at Longwood gardens, the water was tinted black for some reason.

Hi Rita! you have been busy with your garden, good eatings! kale and collards should be fine with the cold, lettuce makes it too. I would just pick the bad leaves and put some fertilizer or compost.
Have you try some sort of lasagna gardening? it is sort of like composting different materials without digging, if you try small areas at the time, after a while you will have a better soil and we all have to take care of our backs, our bodies are more fragile than we think and paying for every service in the garden, can get costly. It is better to do it a little at a time, eventually we get something done.

I saw some place that when you grow things for the leaves, they can take shade but when you grow them for the roots or fruit, they need sun. I know that brussels sprouts take a loong time to form heads, you need patience again.:)

Silvia

My January has been fill with 'border control'. I removed all the coral rocks that I was using as borders for the beds. I purchased some roofing tiles at a salvage sale, cemented them together and I'm trying those. So far so good. It keeps the grass out.

Speaking of blues, I lucked out and got some blue tiles too. Those were used in a special bed.

This post was edited by trini1 on Fri, Jan 16, 15 at 11:45

Here's hoping my year will have less grass in the beds...âºï¸Â

Hi Trini

You have been very productive in your garden, those borders look nice, especially those blue ones, never seen those before, good idea! and they go so well with your bromeliads.

I am also taking the grass little by little, every year some grass goes and instead I plant something productive or pretty, I am not a fan of lawns.

This is when we moved in, nothing but lawn....

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We planted those hibiscus too and this is how they look today

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Silvia

Silvia