Doing anything at all as long as it keeps me from pondering the outcome of tomorrow’s election, I took the camera out for a little checkup today.  The weather down here is glorious, and everything is rewarding me appropriately…

Discovered the secret to getting the birds of paradise to bloom…FEED ‘EM!
 

The gallardia has become one of my very favorite plants, and – thanks to it being a Florida native – it thinks the crappy soil under this robellini palm is just fine:
 

To the front of that bed, the fuschia colored flowers, is the most amazingly-performing dianthus I’ve ever had.  Ever.  I mean I used to kill those things like they were mosquitos, but these have been just outstanding.

I cut the cannas down a bit last weekend (they’re severely skipper-chewed), and now you can see the knockout roses in front of the windows:
 

Between the cannas and the roses are some hollyhocks, that I hope will actually get the hell larger than 2 feet tall next year.  Speaking of next year, there’s totally going to be moving some stuff around in spring.  I cannot tolerate that purple angelonia next to the red penstemon.  Bleh.

The alpinia ginger is happy to be mulched, and makes a nice backdrop for the dahlia and the cosmos.  

I expect all this to be ginormous next year, including the tigridia in front of the cosmos there…the better to choke out the remaining bits of bermuda grass, dammit!

Yay, the verbena is blooming!
 

My beloved ipomoea and coreopsis make a nice fronting for the emerging bearded irises and the gorgeous zebrina hollyhock:
 

I think the candy cane ginger there on the right is expressing its displeasure at the continual drip from the hose bib there.  Must sort that out.

Nice progress in this bed, though everything is waaaay too linear for me right now:
 

I had to get things in the ground and had to do it all slapdash over here, but that’s easily fixed come spring.  The transplanted trident maple back there near the fence made a full recovery and is leafing out quite nicely.

In the veg garden out back, the parisier market carrots are just about done:
 

Husband plucked one out and ate it last weekend, it was smallish but very tasty he said.

The last gasp I think from this Thai pepper plant, and man, what a gasp!
 

The two Orchard Baby corn plants from the first try are doing great…you can tell which one gets the most sun though:
 

Also in that box are saltwort and fresca strawberries.  The odd stick arrangement is to keep the dog…an otherwise intelligent beast…from walking in the box.

The tennis ball lettuce is doing great:
 

I think I’m going to have to *shudder* thin it.  Waaahhh!!

A tree full of key limes:
 

A tree full of figs:
 

And some new herbs for the Medicinal box:
 

I do love this climate.