Summer Gardens...

The veggie garden is done...the Florida heat just does it in. In a few months we'll plant again for our "2nd spring" crop. One of the few perks of having no real seasons in Florida.

Here are few photos from around the yard...

The rain has sent the lilies into crazy production mode...not that I mind...I'm cutting fresh flowers for my desk at work every couple of days (when the last ones dry up).  They're a beautiful pale pink and I have tons of them.

The iguana dessert tree...aka a red hibiscus. The prefer the red ones...picky little critters.

double ruffles!

The crepe myrtles are in bloom (or if you're into Craig's List speak "crate merdles"...bless their hearts...)

No...those aren't weeds growing up thru the deck. They are Gloriosa Lilies. They're climbing vines...just wait until they start blooming...trust me, you'll see them on the blog again before too long! I usually just call them "flame vine"...if you've never seen them, there are links to seeds (with the flower photos) at the bottom of this post.

More lilies...on the side of the outhouse.

More lilies (and more gloriosas) on the other side of the outhouse

The banana trees are coming back and growing like crazy. That's the tomato plant behind them...it is still growing, but no fruit. 

A few scraggly collard greens left in the garden and ONE sunflower! Mr. P planted a whole packet of assorted sunflower seeds along the fence and we got ONE. It does have 2 more heads on it though...which is nice...since they're so  SMALL.

Hello sunshine!

Remember my dumb poinsettia? Well it finally quit blooming now that it's July...and now it's a full blown shrub. Nope...still haven't cleaned out the dead snake plant along the fence.

Yes...more lilies...these are next to the poinsettia.

And even more in the bed in the middle of the front yard.

Same flower bed...one of the bromilads (sp?) is blooming.

You guessed it...the snail is on a lily leaf.

MAKE-UP!

Happy yellow flowers! This is either Alamanda or Mandivilla...I never remember which is the shrub and which is the vine.

The African Iris is still blooming (well both the ones by the mailbox and the ones at the front porch)

More lilies coming up....I told you...I have a million of 'em! 

Flowering palm tree...again.

Same tree...other side...5000 seeds i'll be cleaning up before too long. Oh how I hate them...it wasn't so bad until the trees got too tall for Mr. P to get up there with the ladder and pole saw to cut them down before they started falling...of course the bigger the tree, the more often they do this...the flowers in the previous photo...that means another stalk of seeds...Oh boy...