I forgot how nice it is to have a guy mow the lawn. I don't say grass because my lawn has a high biodiversity Our next project is taking down a maple that got hammered by the October snowstorm a few years back...maybe without taking out the rhody's nearby.

I just hope he doesn't try to eat the fruit. He'll be cussing me.

Evan! Tell your yard guy to go by Drew's house on his way to SC, and pick up the Monster-a waiting there for him. Tell him he'll need a BIG truck . . . Drew has fabulous bananas, too.

I had a yard guy, in fact I've had a couple and I really NEED one again now (of course, it's late summer and my house closely resembles Sleeping Beauty's Castle). My wonderful neighbor mows-what-grows on the road verges for me, in exchange for free well water for irrigation. So since I have no mowing/blowing to do, it's hard to find somebody who will do hand weeding, pruning and cleanup that I need each week. Both guys who worked for me for a while had drinking problems and eventually disappeared.

Now, the gal who has been helping me organize my house says she wants to help me set my garden to rights, too. I don't think she knows what she's getting herself in for, what with heat, bugs, snakes, thorny weeds, vines and other joys of gardening in Florida in the summer . . . we'll see!

Neighbor's Giant


And mine...


.....And then she asked me to water hers twice a day while they were in Colorado for five days.

A "Yard Guy" - "Gal" would take one look at this 11 acres and if he/she didn't drink they'd start......as they were running for their lives.

Bring your machete..........

Yea but if they knew their stuff they'd have a ball.

Impossible to get anyone who 'knows their stuff' to do this kind of manual labor. Let's see if I can find a shot of part of the garden when we bought the house - here we go, the gravel pathway along the east side of the house in fall 2007.


Here's my latest shots of the same gravel pathway. See those tree Philos? At least 9ft. tall. You can't even see the fence.

So much...what a great jungle.
3rd pic, bottom left, 7 light green leaflets. Kinda Aroidy...What???

A spiral ginger, Costus Scabra - one of many things going crazy in that border.

Thanks.

Brand new 'Black Beauty' leaf (flash).


Baby x portora in sync.

Wow, Evan that first shot is a treat for the eyes - velvet texture on the older ? leaf, and the contrast of Lime Zinger ? in the foreground!

Great growing Evan....your doing something right even with out the temperatures cooperating !

The darker leaf is the new one Elaine. Unfortunately the velvety texture is only visible (to me) in pics with flash. That's why Lime Zinger is a retina burner too. Some of your weather is heading north so the season continues!

Mj, Am atroviridis is starting to unfurl. Thinking of giving it some ex-lax.

eclayne said:Mj, Am atroviridis is starting to unfurl. Thinking of giving it some ex-lax.

Mine's up and open, but I doubt it will get the size it did last year, blooming really slowed it down. Maybe.... I need to get a pic.

We'd gladly send you some heat from here, Evan. It's really too hot these days and doesn't even cool off below 80 at night. That means even my pool water isn't cool enough to be refreshing.

Isn't it amazing what the flash brings out in the way of plant textures? I have a begonia with mostly-silver very metallic looking leaves and the only way it shows is with the flash. Must admit I've never been a huge fan of the 'black' Colocasias but that velvet texture is just gorgeous.

Spiral Ginger (Costus scaber) I found some good habit pics with a web search. Cool.

Great idea next to the brick wall Evan.

Warmer weather has benefits.