When It Rains, It Storms

We've received a whoppin' 6.5 inches of rain here in the valley over the past two weeks.  It has been a blessing after that prolonged drought, and the glory is showing in the green, green grass all around us.  Of course, having said that, I do have a gripe today.  It's just a tiny, little gripe in the grand scheme of things, and I know I shouldn't be complaining at all, considering the damaging storms they've had in the Midwest.

Gentle January

With a cold and frigid December...one for the record books actually...I had really dreaded what January might have in store.  But in the end, it was such a soft, gentle January, as January's go, with so many spring-like days to enjoy.  Today, there is evidence that the garden has begun springing back to life.  There are little leaflets peeping out of the ground beneath dead branches of pentas and clerodendrum.  Brightly colored foliage is rising out of the stems of the crinums and bananas.  If February holds out for us, and it does look promising, I do think we shall have a splendid and floriferous Easter this year.  (It's been a while!)

Hindsight is 20/20

You know the old saying, "Hindsight is 20/20"?  Well, I'm seeing things pretty clearly these days.  As I walked through my garden today carefully peeling off sheets and blankets from my tenderest of tropicals, I was seeing everything I had done wrong and everything that should've been different.  If only I could hit rewind and plant this garden again from scratch!

Out with the old...In with the new!

My garden is going out in style!  Check out my end-of-the-year photo shoot:

MGB October 2010: In the Pink

It's that time of month again: time for the Monthly Garden Bouquet meme, that is.  This is hosted by Noelle of Ramblings from a Desert Garden.  Check out the arrangement I threw together this morning:

Flamin' Hot and Pretty Loud!

Ya know, this blog I call "Peace in the Valley" has been active for about nine months now, and I'm afraid that I've failed to learn how to use

R-E-S-T-R-A-I-N-T. 

As a matter of fact, I seem to have gone bonkers lately posting unlimited photos of my plant babies as though I were a proud mother. 

Hot, Loud, and Proud: August 2010

August has brought my hot garden much needed downpours of rain and shady cloud cover.  It has been a pleasant month.   And now it's time again to search for my best and brightest tropicals for the Hot, Loud & Proud meme hosted at the end of every month by the Plant Fanatic in Hawaii.  Here's what I found today:

Wet 'n' Wild

Three inches of rain in four days!  Woohoo!  Two days in a row with highs below 90!  How great is that!  You certainly won't hear me wishing summer away.  Surely everyone agrees that these long stretches of daylight are awesome.  I'm trying to enjoy every moment I can.  The skin-splitting, bone-throbbing, dim, dark days of winter will be with us soon enough, to be followed by a brutally hot, dry spring.  I'll take a Florida summer anyday!

Garden Afire

 

"Earth's crammed with heaven,

And every common bush

afire with God:

Hot, Loud, and Proud: July 2010

For July's "Hot, Loud, and Proud" meme, I've searched my garden for the hottest, loudest, and proudest tropicals I could find.  No, I don't live in the tropics.  But I am one to push the limits.  Here are some of the tropicals that help give my "SUB"tropical garden some exotic flair.

Ha! I laugh in the face of winter!

Old Man Winter just can't keep a good garden down!  For those who haven't read my blog from the beginning, you are probably fortunate to have missed out on the whining and belly-aching that flowed from my fingers for the first three months of this year.  Central Florida was hit by a frigid, long-and-drawn-out winter, the kind that comes maybe once every twenty years here in my neck of the woods.  Just in time for me to start a garden blog.  Exactly the kind of winter that those pushing the boundaries with tropical plants dread the most.  But no more belly-achin' here!  I am thrilled to find that each week of May brings more growth and more flowers to this pseudo-tropical garden.  I'm so glad I didn't rip the whole lot of it out and start over.  From here on out, my only complaining will probably have to do with the incessant weeds.

The HOT, the LOUD, and the PROUD!

I am excited about Noel's new tropically inspired meme...the Hot, the Loud, and the Proud!  When he first proposed it, I wasn't sure how great a fit it would be for me, since those words could be the title of my blog on any given day.  Certainly not a unique event.  I am always posting the bright colors.  I do have an affinity for the bold and outrageous in the garden.  Even the usually demure, elegant roses, azaleas, and camellias are found in obnoxiously fuchsia hues in this garden.  (Of course, I love it!)  So anyway, the goal for this post is to find the most outrageous in my garden!  It wasn't difficult, for these specimens are hard to miss.