Spring! Leaves and Pollen, Oh My!

I just love this tree.  Well, except when it is dropping stuff.  I'm pretty sure it is a Florida Black Cherry.  Soon will be flowers!  Look at all those baby leaves popping.  Everything around here is in bud.

And, if the ton of baby seedlings sprouting right now don't die off on their own I'll have some fun exercise.

Just in time for spring; the front garden is structurally complete.  The bones are in place.  I would have loved stone garden edging; but - we make do with what we have.  Sadly, this part of Florida has no indigenous rock.  There are yet things to be done; always will be - that is so much of the fun. 

I was standing at in the cul-de-sac looking over the handy work, and watching the leaves doing their spring time turn over.  I realized that the huge tree (trunk upper middle) is a Laurel Oak that has probably managed to outlive it's normal life expectancy.

I would not wish any stately old oak tree to pass away, but loosing this guy would certainly be a big change to the garden plan.

I yet need to replace [some of] the croton's that froze.  I need to get them in as early as possible this year, to get a good root system going.  I think we can safely assume there will be no more freezes.

And now, I head me off to work on the junk area

compost zone.  Which would really need to be cleaned up and spruced up if we lost that huge Laurel Oak.

We bought this place because we loved the lot, and we loved the trees.  At the time, 7 (OMG - seven years?)  raising our own food was the furthest thing from my mind.  Circumstances change.  I had a need to grow veggies.  My challenge - and I chose to accept it - was/is to find the very best spots in our yard to grow edibles.   The very, very best spot is in the front yard; out near the cul-de-sac.  That is my primary garden, and really the only winter garden.  The back garden, that looks more like your standard veggie garden -  only gets adequate sun during mid year.  I have no privacy when I'm out working in the front; so be it.  Since we are in a cul-de-sac I really don't worry too much about 'all that bad stuff from automobiles and asphalt' settling on my salads.  There are not too many free roaming dogs to worry about them raising their legs and creating pee-pee plants.  That is something I watch for though.  Now, I'm working towards having the outside borders of all the beds out here be planted with primarily ornamental.  Pretty for their own sake, encouraging beneficial insects, and adding complimentary style to the garden.  Oh, and I need to add more shepherd hook stakes.  I've found that they are a fantastically tremendous aide that I can hang on to for balance as I'm moving up and down and around the garden.

We have plenty of space here, just not plenty of full sun space.  This spring, I'm executing  the plant cherry tomato plants in every part-sun location around the property.  My rationale?  Each plant may not produce optimally, but the combination of all plants should compensate.  Yes, sometimes more plants can be better.

While I am working, I will take some time to noodle over some inspiration photos I found yesterday.  None of these are mine.