Time to Trim

 After a tense, long, long, long, long day of travel, we arrived safely back in Florida for the winter.  Let it be known that snow, delayed flights, missed flights, early departures of connecting flights, bad and expensive airport food, and airline agents who do not know how to or who just do not care to do their jobs correctly all make for less than enjoyable travel. 

But we are here.  We spent the first full day spending more money than one could even imagine on restocking the pantry, the refrigerator, and the freezer.  Although Covid cases are far less here right now than in Wisconsin, we have more elderly people down here, so we tend to see more masks being worn in grocery stores.  That is the good thing.  The outrageous price of groceries in Florida is the bad thing.  However, one must eat, and it is only money, so life goes on.  We both are just thankful that we HAVE the money to buy what we need.

The hibiscus try to reach over the fence while the Duranta gold
mound bushes add greenery.  One of the purple cordyline is on the far right.

On the third day here, we started to tackle the very overgrown landscape. Rick had always claimed that if everyone left Florida, it would return to the wild within 12 months.  I believe that is true.  Our back garden that we planted just last year was both a great success and an utter failure.  The two podocarpus -- one on each end of the garden -- both died.  We have one tiny, scraggly stalk of the podocarpus left next to our live oak tree (more shade there), but the other is totally gone. 

The five hibiscus that we planted all went crazy.  They were two feet high when we left and were towering over our 6 foot fence when we returned.  Sadly, they became tall and  "woody," so I hope that by trimming them down, they will fill in with leaves and flowers lower to the ground. 

The nine Duranta gold mound bushes, which I had little hope for, were the clear winners in the garden.  They both spread out and grew taller.  Thankfully, they also trimmed back nicely, so I am pleased with how they look. 

The more neatly trimmed garden needs some replanting and a lot
of water to keep it looking good.  I think I will move the two
remaining cordyline to a more shady location.

The last plant, the spiky cordyline, were on almost equal par with the podocarpus.  Of the five that we planted last year, the two that received the most shade were healthy and grew while the other three that got more sun burned out to dead stalks.  Lesson learned.  The cordyline need shade. 

This is one of four piles of clippings I need to move to the curb.

As usual, the Areca palm tree in the corner garden tried to dominate the entire area.  It grew both tall and wide, so that always becomes a major trimming area for us.  Afterward, we have a two foot high by four foot long bundle of branches to haul to the curb.  We have an additional two bags of clippings from what Rick cut down of the neighbor's trees that grew over our fence line.

The Areca palm, now neatly trimmed, fills the corner garden.

The nice thing about this city is that homeowners can put landscape bags of clippings or branches out each week with the garbage.  Our garbage pick-up is on Monday, so the clippings all will hit the curb today.

Of course, that is only the BACK yard.  I still need to do some trimming of the crotons in the back and all of the trees and shrubs in the front yard.  The good news is that we are having an unusually warm December here, so working in the yard is sweaty but fun.  I'll take this weather over snow any day of the week.