Walk Around the House

When you stand back a bit, the hundreds of tropical flowers I have been showing you all this past year fade into the jungle green. Standing at the bottom of the drive next to the carport, a generous river of grass beckons you down into the garden.















My garden is not going to win any design awards. It was always a collectors garden of experimentation. How will this plant do in this climate and under these conditions? I wanted to see which plants were tough and which ones were a pain.

This garden's plan was about flow, the ability to wander slowly and with ease through a space. I wanted to be able to see all the plants clearly, not all bunched up and with easy access to them for maintenance and propagation. That is how I planted it. The jungle has it's own mind and can change things.

Reaching the bottom of the lawn we turn right.















The narrow, compared to the beds, river of grass runs the length of the house and right up to it. All the plants on this side were away from the house. A huge Confederate Jasmine Vine was the sole plant ruler of the deck railings for a very long time.

This lawn has widened quite a bit in the last six months as the front row of shorter perennial flowers were removed. A stand of Yellow Ginger and a new row of Ti leaf behind them at the neighbor's fence will be all that remains, if I don't run out of time.















An Anole hangs upside down on a sprinkler riser at the next corner in the garden. I turned him sideways so you wouldn't strain your necks.


















Turning right again into the large side yard, another row of ancient stones begins to emerge from under a thinning back yard tropical plant nursery. Perhaps the stones will be silent sentinels on a lawn once more.















The shelves are starting to get bare.















The back wall of my garden's big open air living room with the western sunset view. The Crape Myrtle is quickly approaching full bloom. Before the Avocado tree swallowed it whole and a nursery moved in, a bench rested in the left corner at the edge of the lawn for evening beverages and meditations. Actually the bench still is under the Avocado tree slowly decomposing. I suppose I should haul it away when I start making trips to the dump.


















To the right and behind the living room wall of the Crape Myrtle the first half of a plant nursery begins. I noticed the other day that this Big Bromeliad was sitting in a huge clay pot and then found three orchids in old style Maui white cement pots. I am still finding pots out in the jungle.

















The Queen Tileafa collection is gathering itself for an instant desert to garden makeover. Got water?















Amaryllis on a plastic stem with nozzle. Who should get this beauty?

















At the top of the nursery looking back down towards the Buttercup Tree in the background and the Crape Myrtle to its right.















Another special Bromeliad that I am sending to a specific good home where I know it will be fruitful and multiply. The flower looks like a medieval spiked fighting club in bright red. Very sharp and very firm.