Re-tiling

4 weeks later still need to grout, but the mottled lichen color will hide dirt, rust.
Can't wait to get garden back in order.

Two staples

In a big ole pot, i might be getting too old for pots this size.. I think I've told you how much I love an orange bougainvillea.

A trifle

elegant little flower in a silly basket of succulents and miniature echevaria

Goings on about town

Hot and dry - the bougainvillea all over are putting on a gorgeous show.

Waiting for re-tiling before planning / implementing new fabulous design

They have completed painting the building and after culling the non-essentials, we're having the terrace re-tiled.   I am beginning to plan a new garden.. living walls to be utilized.

New tile. Green, dark variegated, pretty and will hide a multitude of sins. 

The blood orange after being untied after painters finished was so infested I pruned severely-- not leaving one leaf. It has a strong root structure, the leaflets will reappear soon.

3 weeks or so later. 

Le Cafe

Olive atop a made-to-order mosaic tile table from Further Furniture in LA. Haste Garden chair.

Jet trail mapping

If the jet trails are very high and coming from the northeast my guess -- Paris to Mexico City.

The 6 year old scrappy blood orange tree is blooming heavily-- nothing sweeter.

The tree isn't the healthiest. White fly and black soot on the leaves have taken their toll. What to replace it with.

London to Montevideo.

Why are you reading this?

Not a cloud in the sky..

 A taste of winter's clear, cool weather the past few days..  The garden takes on a smarter look, coming out of a very wet summer.

The fresh lemon of the parrot beak vine. Bloomed from spring to November. If you have the room, and a nice large pot, you couldn't get more bang for the buck. 

The parrot vine above and the soft beauty below-- the color of Liz Taylor's eyes-- were purchased a week ago at Living Color Nursery on Griffin Road.

FYI, All of their vines have been moved to a huge field beyond the shade houses (underneath the pylons)  in a back field.

rotting fruit fermenting on the wet ground

The mangoes are gone- except for a scattered few under the mango trees half eaten; rats? Another season past.



I wonder if they would have made fine tropical clafoutis - with a fine cup of strong black coffee.





In lieu of ripe mango, here we have peaches and blueberries. This homemade tart has a big busty flavor. 

The fourth quarter:

The sun is reclining in the southern sky

The days are shorter and shorter

Dollie Parton is a genius

Surely as great as Cole Porter

Heavy weather

Some more heavy moisture looking ESE. Probably shuffling straight in from the Straights of Florida

RSCG

The Royal Society of Container Gardening-- join now, send me a dollar.

luminous moisture 6p or so

ESE

WSW

Tricky, very tricky.. these dog days

Hello, how are you?

I'm fine I suppose for one working in a container garden wrapped in the over-powering bear hug of a Caribbean summer.

Strong sun poached in 99% humidity.

The large pots are sturdier given thorough soaks, the newly planted -- the newly canned.

Take your hat's off

for this fool. I must be the only dumb ass that continues to try grow begonias on a windy terrace with searing sun..

Second wind?

I vacuumed out algae water with rotten leaves in the pot saucers and dumped the water in a trash can.

It's about 3 gallons of rotting water. Into which I've poured fish emulsion. A day in 90 degree heat, add another gallon or two of water and I'll have a nice bacterial tea.

A rotting rejuvenator.

Peppered pots with Alaska sea weed pellets. Strong roots-- just a hunch.

another word about rhizomatous begonias

Only water the porous well-draining soil when dry.

I was just told that blogs are now old school "post your pictures on Pinterest", etc.
No. Go read somewhere else.

Here are some shots of the ever changing collage of my plant collection

summer morning sky on the upper east side

the wild west

Daddy's little girl Olive. A shoo-in for best in show.