Garden Visitor, Eastern Box Turtle

Today I had a visitor to my garden, an Eastern Box Turtle.

The Hardy Cacti Garden

So I finished my hardy cacti bed a few weeks ago. It is a semi-raised bed that I made out of some old discarded cinder blocks I found on the side of the street, and the larger rocks I found around my house. The bed was filled with a mixture of play sand, paver sand, and miracle-grow potting mix. Then topped the bed off with pea gravel and red lava rock, on the upper section. I used Alabama sunset river rocks around the larger rocks to help keep the sand from eroding away. I planted several species of hardy cacti species as well as three Yucca Rostrata, two Agave Paryii var. Paryii, and two Agave harvardia. I decided to go with more of a seaside theme for this bed and various sea shells, sea glass, and flat marbles. I am very happy with the way this turned out.

Missouri Botanical Gardens, St. Louis, MO

I recently paid a visit to the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. The gardens are amazing.I love this place. Its very serene and I took many photos and I also saw quite a bit of wildlife.The Gardens features a 14 acre Japanese Garden, the largest in North America.

Windmill palm is pushing a very large spear

My Windmill palm is pushing a very large spear, this plant is 3 years old and has been in the ground for 2 years in my USDA zone 6b garden.

Surprise Canna Bloom

My Canna "Firebird" surprised me a few days ago when it bloomed, it's a little earlier than normal.

Kniphofia uvaria, one of my favorite plants

Kniphofia uvaria aka Red Hot Pokers are an amazing plant they remind me of my visits to San Diego where I saw less cold hardy forms of Kniphofia and Aloes, which they are related too. Except Kniphofia uvaria is hardy, USDA zones 5-10. They are native to South Africa, and they are drought tolerant. They do tend to get kinda messy looking but I trim mine back every spring. They are great exotic plants with bright fiery yellow,red, and orange flowers. You should try them, they are easy to grow from seed too. Also the last great thing about these plants is that the Hummingbirds love the flowers.

Photos of the Garden I thought I would share. I love those Red Hot Pokers and the Japanese Fiber Banana Musa Basjoo