A Drop In The Bucket

I have finally gotten my little mini-project done! It wasn't much, but it sure was nice to get it done. The picture at left shows what it looked like before I started.









The picture at right is my completed project. I grant you I didn't do much, but for the small amount of time I had, at least some progress was made. As you can see I got rid of the water oak leaves and plucked out all the dead and dying leaves in each of the containers. I also went ahead and rearranged everything so that you could actually walk up the steps without feeling as though you were going to trip over something.

Once spring comes the poinsettias will get moved out into the island bed with my other poinsettias. I have surprisingly good luck with my poinsettias in the garden. I suppose this is because they come from Mexico originally. I would think they are well suited to the Florida weather because of that.

After finishing getting the steps cleared and organized I went ahead and decided to start on my next mini-project. The azaleas to the right of the steps look terrible. Of course they are also quite confused! Those poor things are just certain it is time to bloom. They have a few buds on them already! And have even had a couple of blooms this winter. (Picture of the blooms at left.)

Now not uncommon is the fact that they have buds coming up. The tee-tiny buds that will bloom into a zillion flowers that will set my allergies in a fit for weeks. This is one of the reasons why azaleas can't be trimmed after the growing season. (You can see one of the buds in the picture above left just below the bloom.)

Another uncommon thing though is that I have new leaves growing. I can only blame this on the unseasonably warm weather we've been having. It has been in the low to mid 80s for quite some time now. We had a couple freezing nights, but mostly it's been quite warm. I'm not complaining! Although I know cold weather is necessary, I'm okay with not losing all of my plants to the cold.

My next project is to get that little corner of azaleas looking good again. I went ahead and raked the leaves out of that area. Now I just need to put some mulch down. Thankfully there is no weeding to be done. Next weekend I will probably buy the mulch and take care of it. I might also get rocks to finish the border of that flower bed. But rocks are expensive so it might have to wait.