The First of My Seed Catalogues Have Arrived

We left on December 4 for our winter vacation, spending a couple of days in chilly Wisconsin before heading to our vacation home in the warm and sunny south.  We returned home in the late evening hours on December 22.  It was a wonderful break and while we could have stayed longer I wanted to be home to spend Christmas with the kids and grandkids.

There wasn't a lot to do in the garden at the

The Huge Weed at Our Vacation Home

We have lived in I  beautiful Ontario, Canada most of our lives so we are used to gardening in Zone 6A.  We know what is considered weeds and what isn't.  Our vacation home is in US Hardiness Zone 9B.  We bought it in March of 2010 but did not see it until May of 2010.  The house had been empty for over a year so there was a bit of overgrowth.  While we have become accustomed to some of the

Old Garden Gnome Taking a Rest

Old Garden Gnome Taking a RestSeptember 19, 2011
I love taking walks around our vacation home resort to enjoy not only the scenery and wild life but to get a bit of daily exercise.  Being a garden gnome lover, I'm always on the look-out to greet other gnomes.  I spotted this tire, old gnome taking a break from his gardening duties under the shade of a toad stool.  He must have been working

Cactus at Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida

Cactus at Busch GardensDecember 16, 2010
The one thing I've noticed is cacti seem to be a plant of choice in home gardens where our vacation home is located.  We have an agave catus with several babies in our front garden there.  I've been looking for other cacti that will do well there.  This impressive cactus caught my attention at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida.  I will have to find out the

Ringneck Snake

If you have been following this blog you will know we bought a vacation home last year giving me the opportunity to garden in two very different hardiness zones.  It has meant learning about various critters that visit our southern garden.  There are venomous snakes and spiders there so it is important to identify these types of visitors to avoid possible bites.

We had one of our friends and his

Palm Trees

Palm TreesDecember 16, 2010
Palm trees are quite common at our vacation home.  I love them!  They are rather majestic looking.  We will be shopping for palm trees our next trip to our vacation home.  To my understanding palm trees are not without problems though.  The first problem we discovered is they attract palmetto bugs.  These huge and rather ugly bugs also known as the American cockroach

My High Hopes of an Orange Tree Were Dashed

I had high hopes of planting an orange tree at our vacation home during our visit but the hopes of that were dashed.  It was unseasonably cold with several days of morning frost, not the kind of weather for planting trees.  My orange tree will have to wait until our next visit.  That's ok though as I have a lot of plans for our vacation home garden.  I'm not impressed with the mulch we used so by

Magnolia in Bloom

Magnolia in BloomMay 24, 2010
The magnolia had one lovely bloom on it just before we left for home.  It was near the top of the tree so I couldn't get a good shot of the bloom.  Perhaps next time.  The blooms on our magnolia are white so it will be pretty in full bloom.  I need to do a bit of research on the care and maintenance of magnolia so I will be prepared for our next trip.

Happy

Mulching the Vacation Home Gardens

MulchMay 24, 2010
Mulch is a huge component of most gardens where our vacation home is.  The reason being as with anytime you use mulch is to control moisture evapouration and keep the moisture where you want it in the gardens.  Mulch serves to help keep weeds under control as well however some mulches are problematic for certain applications and location.  For that reason a mulch should always

Vacation Home Gardens

I mentioned here a few times in the past couple of months about learning to garden in a different zone.  Our permanent Canadian residence is in Zone 6A that should remain the same if we move although we would have less of the direct warming effects of the water.  Our vacation home is located in US Hardiness Zone 9A so that will present quite a difference in what I can grow.

Pictured is the front

New Gardens

We have been enjoying the new to us vacation home complete with gardens.  The gardens wrap around the house with a wider section to the front.  This is the first time we have ever dealt with an HOA but in this case I really don't mind.  Vacation homes are significantly different from your permanent home in that the vacation home may or may not be rented out or it may be empty for a good portion

Vacation Home Gardening

My gosh, I was so excited when I got the news that the vacation home was finalized!  In terms of gardening it meant I would be learning how to garden in a totally different zone from our permanent home of Zone 6A.  When we arrived here to finally check out what we bought almost a month and a half after signing the final papers I was overwhelmed at the work involved.  It wasn't the work as in the