GARDEN of EDEN

Spring has come

The bird is on the wing

But that's absurd

The wing is on the bird

Anyway, spring has arrived in full force in Sarasota and the rains came down and gave the plants in my garden what they have wanted for months... a good dousing. Even my Chia began to grow. Some plants refused to turn green despite the deluge and the warm weather. They are referred to in horticultural jargon as "sticks." They were removed by a central american gentleman with a shovel and replaced with new nursery stock. Of course if you don't want to pay out the wazoo for fully grown plants in 45 gallon containers you get the itsy-bitsy ones in the 7 gallon pots and wait for them to grow. Even with the small stature of the Indian Hawthornes and ixoras (the editorial)WE planted, the garden looks much better already. Thanks, Juan. The plants at our front entrance were particularly mummified. I had this very nice Paurotis palm with multiple trunks and fan-leaves. When one trunk died, another would grow up to take its place except for this year when all the tall trunks died and no new ones sprouted from the base... a clear sign of needing a new tree. We put in a Pigmy date palm which is beautiful but has thorns as long as Beyonce's fingernails and twice as likely to scratch you.

Hopefully the little ones wont attempt to climb this tree. I told my Kitty about the thorns and she said that the little cookie monsters have bougainvillea all over their own yard and are used to avoiding thorns. We installed lots of color and sought out hardy indigenous varieties. At least the plants come from Florida even if my gardener comes from Guatemala.