Wonderful tropical fruits

One of the delights of traveling in tropical America (especially Colombia) is all of the amazing fruits.  Mango, papaya, bananas, and pineapple were regulars on our breakfast plates.

A diversity of tropical fruits (from Uncover Colombia)

But maracuya (passion fruit), mora (blackberry), guanabaya, uchuva, guava, as well as a variety of citrus fruits, and grapes (a native grape something like concord grapes, as well as imported) were available as well.

Pears and apples made an appearance with street vendors (perhaps a holiday treat?)

Fresh juices in Colombia were always available (from breakfast to dinner), whether at a restaurant or on the street.  Hubby loved them.  They're not sweet, at all.

They're simply fruit pulp (of whatever sort), blended with water or milk (with ice, at times), to make a refreshing drink.  Nothing like our fruit drinks or smoothies at home in North America, as they're not sweetened.  Remarkably, frozen fruit pulp (mango, maracuya, and guavabuana) has made it to the frozen fruit section in one of our local supermarkets (catering to Latin American tastes).  It'll be fun to try them!

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Traveling in Colombia

Wax palms (Colombia's national tree) in the Valley of Cocora

Google thought it was "suspicious" that I wanted to sign into my blog account in Colombia.  Hmm. 

And the only way to verify my identity was to receive a text message on my cell phone (which didn't work in Colombia) or answer a series of largely (unanswerable) questions about my various Google accounts and when they'd started  (how are you supposed to remember the date of when you signed up for Google Calendar?)

So posts weren't going to happen while we were traveling!  So there's been a lapse in posting...

LW with a favorite activity (map reading!)

But, we had a wonderful time for the three weeks we were there, discovering some of the natural and cultural diversity of Colombia -- a fabulous destination (and totally safe and easy for traveling, too).

There are more posts to come, along with musings about gardening, too.  The deep freeze that we're currently experiencing makes me feel better about NOT having worried too much about planting extra greens (unprotected) or about the herbivores (woodchucks and deer) that were yumming up everything in the fall.

Fences and barriers are on my radar for winter and spring plantings, that's for sure (after the soil thaws out enough to sow early winter greens!)

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Green gardening DOES matter

A bluebird at sunrise in my yard.
Bluebirds are important bug predators in the ecosystem.

At the beginning of a new year, there are many speculations on what might happen and to-do lists of what you could do to improve your own situation.  Normally, I shy away from making such proclamations, but this year I decided to make a short list on what gardeners could do to improve the planet and encourage wildlife.

One of the reasons for my making this list is learning that it takes 17 repetitions for most people to fully understand a new idea and commit it to their immediate recall memory banks. Even though I've been writing about green gardening for ten years at this point, there are still people who have not heard enough about Doug Tallamy and his research showing that even small patches of native plants have a positive impact on birds, insects, and other members of the local ecosystems.

So I wrote 6 easy steps to support wildlife in 2014 over on the Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens blog to show some examples of things and normal people can accomplish and how these projects will improve the planet.  As I reminded readers, There is no Planet B. 

A burmarigold (Bidens laevis) blooming on Jan 5 in a
wet roadside ditch in Clay County FL.

Winter in Florida

It's been pretty cold and windy here in north Florida, but yesterday it was in the mid-seventies and quite pleasant.  The cold is returning as I write this and tonight we'll probably experience a killing frost, but it won't last long.  Our landscape of mostly native plants will be fine, although I will harvest all of my sugar snap peas today and cover the vines with a blanket. They are close to the house, where it's a little warmer anyway, but I'll take the precaution so we can continue our harvest deeper into the winter.

I feel for my friends in the more northerly climes and the polar vortex that they have suffered through. They will continue to freeze their butts off as Mother Nature continues her rampage, but this doesn't mean that global warming is a hoax.

Plants don't lie

Even though climate change doubters are using this cold snap as proof of their politically-motivated beliefs, plants don't have a political agenda and they don't lie. As an example of what happens as a result of fewer cold snaps, mangroves have been moving northward as seen in progressive satellite images over the years. See this Science Daily story With Few Hard Frosts, Tropical Mangroves Push North,  Slate's article Winter does Not Disprove Global Warming and How global warming can make cold snaps even worse, as posted in Quartz.

Happy New Year!

I wish you a happy and prosperous 2014 that's filled with adventures that allow you to enjoy nature at its best.  Also, I'd love to hear what you are doing to enhance your yard to benefit wildlife.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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The holidays in Florida

Sugar snap peas are delish right from the vine.

Starting from the point of the knife: oregano, curly parsley, garlic chives, purple & orange carrots, sugar snap peas.

It's two days before Christmas and the rains are headed our way, so it was time to harvest some of the Christmas dinner.  The rain will bring a cold front, but it's 80º, so my attire was tropical. Here's the plan for this harvest:
- Sugar snap peas: the young ones will be steamed with butter, while the older pods will be used in the pesto dip.
- Purple and orange carrots will be cut in thin diagonal slices for dipping in the pesto, while the rest of them will be steamed with butter.
- Lime basil, curly parsley, garlic chives, and oregano will be used in the pesto dip.

We'll be having a large pear salad as part of our vegetarian dinner, but I'll wait to harvest the lettuce until right before it's needed. My daughter and her husband will be arriving tomorrow night. As usual, the cooking will be a team effort. Fun!


Merry Christmas from Florida

The house is a decorated as it's going to be with a few poinsettias and a couple of stunning tropical sage bouquets!

See my two other posts today: The magic of the mistletoes over on the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog.  One of the comments made me laugh: From Marilyn: '“…when we think about the magical and mythical mistletoe and how it stays alive even while its host appears to be dead.” And then, only to be shot down by some trigger-happy hemi-parasite poacher. Mangled movie title: “They Shoot Mistletoe, Don’t They?” Who knew? What a fascinating article.'


Wild things wreath!

The second post is Christmas is for the birds on the Florida Native Plant Society blog. My wild things wreath is the one you don't see in that post. But since I've added the cranberry chains, I have yet to see any birds investigate, but maybe I haven't been sitting at my computer long enough since then to notice or maybe they gave up.

I wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas and a joyous New Year.  Thanks for reading.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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Greens and clear mountains

A quick trip "up the hill" for a meeting found me admiring the clear view of the mountains and a lovely sunset.

late winter greens from a previous year

A bonus from this trip was collecting greens (arugula, mustards, kale and turnip greens) from my unprotected raised beds. It's rather remarkable how they've bounced back from sudden low temperatures in the low 20°s a couple of times already -- low temperatures are predicted again for tonight.  The kale isn't surprising, but the arugula and mustards?

The mache and creasy greens look great and I've left them for harvest later in the winter! They're quite OK freezing solid, amazingly.

The remnants of the broccoli stems (totally frosted)make me feel better about the woodchuck muching earlier in fall - I probably wouldn't have had a harvest anyway.

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Back to normal?

Finally, our curiously warm and wet days for early December are trending back to normal, after being punctuated (on both ends) by severe freezes.

It was 71° yesterday.  Very odd. It's triggering some early flowering, but not like last year oddities, that's for sure.  But I remember a Christmas Day (in Austin, while growing up) that was 80°F and in coastal GA, we had very mild winter days, too.

There have been plenty of falls over the last two decades, too, where we haven't experienced a hard frost (much less freeze) by the time we leave for winter break.

The Japanese cherries keep flushing out!   At this rate, it'll be interesting to see how many flower buds are left for spring.

At the Garden (where I work), our director spotted a Hepatica acutiloba in flower (it's normally one of the first flowers in spring, but December?)

Here's a post from several years ago, remarking on late February flowers.

Hepatica acutiloba

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A lovely hike

A gift of an unexpected Sunday afternoon in the mountains (thanks to a plumbing issue requiring Monday attention) was a lovely hike along a short segment of the Mountains-to-Sea trail, along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Remnant snow made the trail slippery in spots, but the views were lovely.

Galax and mosses were nice, as were the abundant Christmas ferns.

Woody's pawprints on the road (Blue Ridge Parkway, closed currently at this point because of the pre-Thanksgiving snow), pointed the way home.

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