A Day in the Garden

Saturday was a lovely day. It started out a little chilly, but once the sun woke up and rose from the horizon, the temperature warmed up nicely. After a week with too much rain and too little sunshine, it was the perfect day to work in the garden.

I started out with a walk around the property to see how the most recently planted trees were doing and picked a few green beans from the vegetable garden. I took a couple cuttings from my coffee tree (Coffea arabica) for propagation and dug up a small firespike plant (Odontonema strictum) to give to a friend. I filled the birdbath with nice fresh water and noticed that three of our orchids are getting ready to bloom! Then I decided to put on my old work clothes and get my hands dirty.

There is a small area beside the patio that has become a dumping ground for all sorts of junk. No one can see it from the other side of the fence, but ladders, stacks of flower pots, and old wooden pallets make the place an eyesore. A scraggly dwarf powderpuff tree (Calliandra haematocephala) had seen better days, and I had recently taken it out so that I could revitalize that little section of the yard. Thinking it might be a good place for a Japanese garden, I went to the nursery looking for some bamboo to set the scene.

Since bamboo can be very invasive, I wanted to get a dwarf variety that I could keep contained in a planter. Unfortunately, they didn’t have what I was looking for, but there was a colorful threadleaf copperleaf (Acalypha godseffiana ‘Firestorm’) that looked like it might be a good substitute.

Of course, we never seem to get out of a plant store with just one plant. We spotted a gorgeous purple Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus) that we couldn't resist, as well as a few other small beauties.

And then we saw it -- a little tree with flowers that look just like Japanese lanterns! The Chinese fireball maple (Abutilon darwinii x striatum), pictured above, was just what I needed to add some interest to my garden. So it came home with us, as well. There is still a great deal of work to be done, but after planting the tree and the copperleaf, pulling some weeds, and lining a path with stones, I'm beginning to see some progress. Stay tuned for updates on this project!