Flowers are blooming

I haven't had any time to blog lately because I've been writing 4 -5 articles a week for the Examiner.com. I am the new Miami New Age Spirituality Examiner. Check out this link and please, if you would, visit it often or consider following it. http://www.examiner.com/x-9628-Miami-New-Age-Spirituality-Examiner

I'm tapped out for writing, blogging, tweeting, facebooking and so on so here are a few photos of my visiting friend and my blooming garden.

The Sloppy Gardener

I like to look of a wild garden. It's my excuse for allowing weeds to co-exist with all the other plants in the garden. I have a lawn that consists of various green weeds and a little bit of grass. One of the side yards and the backyard has sod, but the rest of it is a huge lawn made of very interesting plants. While trying to find out the name of these flowers here on the right, I found out the name of other "weeds" in my yard. I have Spanish Needles growing all over the yard. But does anyone recognize this little beauty? The flowers are teeny weeny and the photo I took is a close up (and a bit blurry.)

I had a good time planting seed and making a wild nonsensical combination of plants. It's my great experiment. Over the years I've learned that you should have a vegetable garden separate from a flowering garden with the exception of few companion marigolds, onions and garlic perhaps. I made such a hodge podge of plants in one bed.

I have mammoth sunflowers in between the pineapples. I have a thing for sunflowers. I've enjoyed watching butterflies stop for a snack while the flower is in full bloom and cardinals hang out picking out the seeds from the finished flower. This picture on the left isn't a mammoth one. The big ones haven't bloomed yet, they are still growing and getting big with huge leaves. I can't wait to meet my new friends when they bloom!

I've planted a wilder variety of cosmos within the same bed with watermelon, cantaloupe,onions and bush beans. A customer who comes to Tai Chi at The Crystal Garden brought me the seeds. The sunflowers are mixed within the bed with the vegetables as well.

I was happy to find a volunteer today when I was making a slight attempt at weeding. I'm not sure if it's cabbage or broccoli. Perhaps you'll recognize it and let me know. I love volunteers. It makes me feel like God or the fairies are invisibly gardening with me. Or perhaps they are gardening while I sleep. More realistically, I believe it's a result of my sloppy composting. I'm pretty busy so I often throw my organic vegetable kitchen scraps out into the bed. I don't put it in a compost bin and I rarely bury it. I figure the animals can have a snack and it'll decompose. Eventually I cover it with leaves or topsoil.

I do have a compost bin, but it was torn up and mostly blown away with the hurricanes - Frances, Jean and Wilma. I never replaced it. I do have a papaya plant approximately 10 feet tall with a few papayas growing on it. It's a volunteer as well! Gotta love the volunteers.

I thought I'd plant cosmos seeds too. My cousin in Durango always has such beautiful cosmos. I wanted some too. These cosmos are flowering at my front door. What a happy welcome they provide! You can see the geraniums on the right of the photo. I have many geraniums around the front and back yards. Some of them are over 2 years old.

What's growing in your garden?