Gardening | My Secret Obsession

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I’m going to let you in on a little secret…

I love plants.

As in, I’m a crazy plant lady and will talk your ear off about my yearly gardening goals. Just ask my husband who not-so-secretly begs for me to shush. On our trip to Spain last June (which I haven’t really blogged about) I snapped pictures of all the gorgeous knot gardens everywhere we went. The boxwoods and junipers just made my heart sing.

This Saturday (Jacksonville’s unofficial Arbor Day) I’m preparing to plant six new Italian cypresses and a 45 foot long hedge of podocarpus for privacy and structure to the side yard. Which means I’m going to have to learn how to use a garden tiller. YES for power tools! I have been counting down to this weekend since October.

And I have exciting plans for (more) roses and white Annabelle hydrangeas to keep my brand new bare-root Zephirine Drouhin climbing roses and David Austin roses company. Just thinking about freshly cut blooms in my house this summer is making me happy.

In February. Which is four months away from summer.

Yes, I’m cuckoo for gardening.

I’ve always had a love for beautiful and elegant landscapes, even as a child. And, as a granddaughter of farmers from the old country (the Dominican Republic) I was lucky enough to inherit a green thumb. I relished the school trips in fourth grade when we did volunteer work and planted marigolds at a local public park. Little did I know then that my obsession with flowers and plants was born.

A few months ago, I purchased several fiddle leaf fig plants on a whim at Ace Hardware. They were small little things, but since then, I’ve split them into three plants and they are all thriving. So now I have a large and gorgeous beauty in the living room, and two smaller ones in the dining room and in the master bedroom.

As soon as the middle of January hits, I’m itching to plant things. Granted, most of my friends up North are still dealing with snow banks and freezing weather, but if there’s one reward to enduring scorching heat and drenching humidity in the Floridian summer, it’s having an earlier planting season. Mild winters top the list. (Sorry guys).

At the end of November I planted almost 100 ‘Sir Winston Churchill’ narcissus bulbs. These are one of the few traditional spring bulbs this Northern gal can grow this far south. They have gorgeous, double, white blossoms with an alleged amazing scent you can smell 30 feet away. I used the Pro Plugger tool which made planting them a breeze! I originally bought it to plant grass plugs, but it’s the perfect tool to plant annuals and bulbs. It has two rings that allows you to only go 2″ or 4″ deep, or 6″ deep without the rings. I LOVE it!

It’s truly a huge leap of faith planting bulbs in the fall when you have to wait close to five months to see them bloom. Tulips are out of the question in zone 9a. It’s simply is not cold for the minimum amount of time for them (6 to 8 weeks) for them to come up. I’ve seen hyacinths grow here, but I’m not sure if they were new plantings or just sheer luck.

Are you a crazy gardener like me? Or do you have a secret hobby people don’t know about?