It must be...

Spring. Sunny, bright. Temps in the high 60s, low 70s. Short pants and tank top weather. Did enough pruning and weeding to get sore, sweaty, smelly, and tired. Discovered a 6-foot Brazilian pepper tree growing against the fence behind the lychee [sneaky devil], and it was quite a chore to get out. Finally I just whacked it off. It will come back, of course, but when it does it will be small enough to get the diesel oil cocktail treatment.

Got three Madagascar palms that were growing in a large clay pot transplanted into the ground. We had to break the pot to get them out. Their roots had adhered so tightly to the inside sides of the pot that we couldn't budge them otherwise. We've got another fairly large one in a pot that I want to add to the same area; maybe week after next.

Next week is the Japanese festival at Morikami Gardens in Delray Beach. More Ikebana, I'm afraid, but the short one has wanted to attend this festival ever since she first heard about it. Don't know if I can take Kabuki dancers for more than a nonce, however, but we'll see.

I also got all those oranges squeezed and freezed--or is it squozen and frozen? Near as I can count, we laid by about 2 gallons of juice, or about 8 weeks worth. Then, it's either back to Tropicana, buy a bunch late-season fruits from a local grove, or hang out at Wal-Mart. [Usually around the beginning of summer the wholesalers want to get rid of the rest of this winter's crop, so the oranges turn up at Wal-Mart in 2-1/2 pound bags [roughly 24 fruits] for less than $2 per bag. Each bag will yield about 2 quarts of juice, which is very cheap for fresh squeezed/squozen OJ.]

Short one has been on my case to prune the hibiscus, but this is the wrong time of year to do that. This is their blooming season and they bloom on new wood--so prune now and the blooming season is over for this year. It took two years for my yard guy and me to convince the guy across the street [he with the plastic Statue of Liberty in his front lawn] that this was indeed the case. We must have finally succeeded; this is the first year since we moved in that he didn't prune and his hibiscus are blooming profusely.

Island Jim
Southwest Florida
Zone 10

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