We harvested our first papaya on Dec. 17. Since then, we have been eating papaya from the garden every day, with smoothie or fruit salad. This is seems to be one of the best winter growing seasons in a long time since we have had more than the normal rainfall in the typical dry season.
All of a sudden, wild peafowl got on top of the truck. They don’t want to get down. So, it is a good time to take a good photo of them.
Two peacocks (males) and one peahen (female) were back to our yard. When I got closer for better pictures, the peacocks opened their beautiful feather to show off. Wow. Amazing color. Both of them turned around (to face me) and shacked their feathers for 5 to 10 seconds. They strutted around and did not leave the yard for sometime as I suppose they wanted their picture taken.
More: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/peacock
Working on a raised garden bed with hopes to increase the size and amount of the fall / winter garden crop.:
The size of the raised garden bed is 8′ x 6′ x 2′ After outlining the planned bed, we made a first pass at leveling each side. Once we achieved the leveling within acceptable tolerances, pressure treated lumber was placed and screwed down one layer at time. One additional cross member was installed to avoid outward bowing due to the weight of soil and the height. Filling the raised garden with garden soil is labor intensive. We bought 3 cubic yards the vegetable mix. A front loader placed 1.5 cubic yards into the bed of the truck as that was just about all that would fit at one time. After two truckloads of soil, the raised bed was full.
Next came the question on how to water. After running a hose back to the lawn sprinkler system, and then connecting an additional sprinkler head to a hose bib mounted to the side of the raised garden structure we were able to water the garden area as needed. The concept works great as we now can water the garden at the same time the automatic lawn sprinkler system comes on to water our lawn.
Benefits of Raised Garden Beds:
http://www.beingfrugal.net/10-benefits-of-raised-garden-beds/
The Port Saint Lucie Peafowl family came back to visit and snack in our back yard. We are now in the process of coming up with names so that when called they will come a running (wishful thinking) maybe.
Obviously Port Saint Lucie has many ostentations of Peafowls. In fact they are very much protected and they must know it because they will come within one to two feet of a person taking pictures.
Working in the garden becomes extremely busy just prior to the hurricane peak months which are Sept. and Oct. in South Florida.
Harvested our first pineapple. It is smaller than what we purchase at the store because it was grown from the top of one eaten last year. But it is free and organic.
Ceriman is strange plant. It grows between the cabbage palm trees with roots from the leaves clinging on to the bark. The leaves are large and leathery. Very pretty. It finally decided to bear fruit, edible fruit. Can’t wait to taste it.
More information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monstera_deliciosa
Bird paradise plant is new to us. We always try to grow new plants. Sometimes they grow and sometimes we end up drowning them because of lack of understanding. This plant was given to us by a friend and needed some tender loving care. Now it seems happy and flowering.
Believe it or not, the Florida winter is really here!. The temperature range is now around 37 degree F at nighttime and back up to 70+ during the day. The lows did not create any real issue in the vegetable garden though. There was a problem created by who knows with no less than an army-worm which proceeded to invade and eat up some of the leaves of kale and Collards. All is now under the control using neem oil (apparently proving a counter attack is the best defense).
http://www.discoverneem.com/neem-oil-insecticide.html
After two months in the ground our Dwarf Poinciana is not only showing its colors but also producing seed pods. Looks like it wants to have a long life and produce seedlings to share with others.
Another backyard adventure — Yellow-Bellied Slide (we believe). Sometimes it is difficult to identify, however; the tortoise is protected under Florida law. You do not want to run over just because it wants to get to the other side of the road and in fact takes its sweet time about it!
More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-bellied_slider
Seems like the Sandhill crane likes the shade of the live oak tree, and the comfort of the picnic area of the back yard.