Spring has hit in the food forest and there are beautiful blooms and fruit everywhere.
Wild plums are covered in snowy blossoms:
The azaleas are back again.
The Key lime tree on the south wall of our house is absolutely covered in beautiful little blooms.
While right next to it is the Ponderosa lemon with its much larger buds, waiting another week or so before it unveils its fragrant splendor for the bees to loot.
The grape vines are still asleep but won’t be for long.
The mulberries, my favorite berry of all time, are bursting into life with what promises to be a bumper crop of sweet fruit.
Even the thistles are beautiful once you get past their prickly facade.
The Tropic Beauty peach went into full bloom a couple of weeks ago and is covered with fuzzy little green peaches right now.
The loquats are bearing us fruit.
The very exciting long-fruited mulberry tree I planted over a year ago is bearing fruit for the first time. Doesn’t it look incredible?
The improved plum branch I grafted onto my Chickasaw plum two years ago is decked out in style.
And the nectarine, not to be outdone, is a blaze of pink right now.
And last but not least, the prickly pears need picking! 
There’s always something beautiful to see in my yard. Layer upon layer of vegetables, blooms, fruits, nuts and roots all interweave through the food forest and bear in their season. I have a huge species list in my book Create Your Own Florida Food Forest that you’ll find helpful if you live in Florida. I even divide up the various species into canopy/sub-canopy/shrub layers, etc., so you can plant out your space.
What’s happening in your yard right now?
15 responses to “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”
Wow, so much difference with my climate!
That’s amazing, but I got your point, when everything wakes up, it’s the most amazing time of the year (I have the same attitude when it’s crop times in autumn though…). ;-)
Good point… I love bringing in the fall harvests as well. Particularly the roots and the pumpkins.
The branches on my loquat tree are severely drooping with the weight of the fruit. It’s still a few weeks before they will ripen but the skins are losing the fuzziness. Can’t wait. Hoping to freeze about 40 lbs after eating our fill.
Persian lime and calamondom have both blossoms and fruit. The navel orange, ruby grapefruit, blood orange and honeybell are blossoming. The acerola cherry is blooming and should have fruit in about 4 weeks. Have a hedge of viburnum around the pool, near the fruit trees and containers, that are blooming and attracting hundreds of bees. Should make for a good fruit set.
The 2 Katuk I transplanted are producing new growth – really thought I’d lost them. I’ll wait another 3-4 weeks before harvesting.
Veggies are growing well – lettuce, beets, kale, collards, asian greens especially dwarf bok choi. Have planted Seminole pumpkins in 4 different locations in the yard, both front and back, and all seem to be doing well – even the one tossed about by the tornado.
Took the Moringa tree apart (lost it from a tornado) – shredded the smaller branches & used as mulch, used the medium sized branches cut in 3-4 ft lengths to make borders around the fruit trees and made my version of hugelkulture with the root ball and 4 ft main trunk (cut in 18″ lengths). Today or tomorrow I’ll transplant some volunteer pepper plants on/in it.
The red dianthus I have in the fruit tree area is attracting lots of butterflies, especially giant swallowtails. Now if it would attract some hummingbirds I’d be real happy.
We are trying Everglades tomatoes again this year as they have grown well for us before. It’s just a wait and see thing.
Other than that, things are going well. I do have a red shouldered hawk using my 2 trellises as a lookout. He’s intently watching the so-called greenway, it’s really a ditch for excess rain, for snakes, lizards and such. I hope he finds some as I like watching him.
Happy gardening to all!!
Sounds like you’re doing good work with your 2016 already.
Seminole pumpkins: the tornado-proof squash!
Moringa pieces will really make things grow. The leaves and trunks are good fertilizer. Shredding and spreading was a great idea.
I like seeing the hawks and high-end predators around. It says you’re doing something right.
Bellen, where did you get your seeds for the everglades tomatoes?
Evergladestomato.com 50 seeds for $3.00 Quick service
This is why I love this blog.
Is this with your new camera? Beautiful flower photos! And no, my middle name is not “anonymous…” :) In my own garden, some Pakistan mulberry prunings ended up in plastic bags with wet paper towels and a sprinkle of rooting hormone, and all 9 sticks are leafing out. 6 are now in quart pots, the other 3 are inside in a glass of water, leafbuds popping out everywhere. And three of the potted ones have berry knobs peeking out! Very exciting. :)
These shots were taken on my 10-year-old Canon Rebel. It does a nice job with still shots but lacks any video capability. It’s actually the model that convinced me to upgrade and stay with Canons. I can take the two good lenses and use them on the new model when it arrives… which is supposed to be today! Can’t wait.
Watch out for those mulberry cuttings. They’ll completely fool you. Mulberries will often leaf out, fruit, then die without making any roots at all. Very frustrating. Give them lots of time before testing for rooting and see what happens.
Och, thank you, David! I thought since there were leaves on them, I was home free… Patience, a virtue I need to practice anyway… :)
What kind of mulberry is that, the one in your picture with really long flower clusters? And is it everbearing? I’m glad those two commenters earlier exchanged info on the Everglades tomato- sharing the wealth!
WHAT ZONE ARE U IN. FOR THE BIG LEMON. IN ZONE 5B.
I’m in zone 8/9 and it’s marginal here – the only way I can grow it is in the microclimate by the back of my house. No way you could pull it off in 5B without a greenhouse or maybe in a big pot indoors.
David what do you suggest about doing with fruit trees planted this past fall and winter as far as fruit? I planted figs, mulberries, a peach and loquats that were all 3-5′ tall between September and January and it has been recommended to me to go and pull the flowering buds off the first year.
But I want fruit now!
Is there any reason I can’t let these young trees just do their thing and give me fruit or should I be patient and wait for next year?
You could probably let the mulberry and fig go; however, the advice is correct. You’ll end up with small trees for longer and a lot less fruit in the long run by letting them produce the first year. Believe me, I know. I didn’t take the advice when I planted blueberries and they just never quite took off.
Go outside, force yourself to do it, then throw some compost around them and start counting down to next year. They really will grow bigger much faster if they’re not trying to make fruit. They need to concentrate on root growth this year.
My Florida Prince peach has been in the ground a full year now and it is fruiting for the first time since I’ve had it. Its about 7 or 8 ft tall and 3 ft wide or so, but the branches seem fairly thin, no more than an inch. How much should I thin back the fruits? What is a reasonable amount for the tree to support? Also, it is a self fertile variety but grafted to a rootstock, what are the chances that I’ll be able to grow another tree from one of its peach pits?