Winter garden

Hello! I thought I would share some pictures of what my garden looks like in Florida during the winter months :)

This is my aloe plant. It was so tiny when I got it! It seems to like the unusually warm dry winter we are having, which makes sense since it's a succulant.

My beautiful magnolia! We did our biannual pruning, so now the last branch starts about two feet from the ground. Did you know trees don't grow up, they just get taller? So branches that are 2 feet from the ground will always be that high. I didn't know this! I want a magnolia tree, not a magnolia bush, so I have to prune it every 6 months.

This is my jewel blueberry bush. Last year it gave us some berries, so I am excited for it this year. There is already some new growth on it.

This is my rose bush. You can actually see the new leaves forming!

This stick tree is actually my crepe myrtle. It looses it's leaves in November and stays looking like I planted sticks in the ground until about April. This things LOVES heat. It blooms late summer and is the first plant in my yard to lose its' leaves.

This is my apple tree, and it's blossoms! It has a cluster of 5 flowers, and another little bundle right behind it that hasn't opened yet. They smell great!

This is my holly tree! It's tiny now (maybe 7 inches tall) but already producing beautiful red berries. I can't wait for it to get bigger.

These are my baby crepe myrtles that I got for joining the Arbor day foundation. I planted them along my southern yard between me and my neighbor. I figured that would make a good natural barrier. As you can see, the top two and bottom one already have growth on them. The third one, not so much, but when I scratch it I see green underneath, so I think it might just be dormant like the one I talked about earlier.

There you have it! The ecosystem known as my yard in January when the daytime temperatures are in the low 70s :)

Trees, and shade

So I have decided that I want a tree for my front yard. The Western sun comes blazing through the sky and melts everything in front of my house from 1pm on. I can't even touch my front door because it's so hot sometimes!

So I have decided that I want a holly tree. Yes I know the berries are poisonous to humans. But I have done a lot of research (just ask Chris my husband if you don't believe me!) and this is the tree I want:

They are hardy in my zone (zone 9) and grow in many soils. They prefer full sun and are slightly drought tolerant. It's an evergreen, so it will not loose it's leaves in the winter. This tree has beautiful berries that I can't wait to use to make some Yule wreaths! It gets 40 feet tall and 20 feet wide.

I can hardly wait to have a shady front yard :)