It’s the month of May already. The orchid rose has spoken in my garden. It’s time to get moving on the garden projects!

Last September, I quickly filled sandbags at a local park and fill site in Hudson, Florida. Hurricane Ian inched towards Tampa Bay. As we now know, it hit further south, devastating many areas in its track across Florida and elsewhere.

I installed a patio-screened enclosure in my backyard in the summer of last year. This happened before Hurricane Ian struck Florida in September 2022. After the construction, the backend needed some landscape support due to the sloping backyard. To prepare for the storm, I temporarily lined the sandbags against the kick plate.

A chain of events unfolded. A couple of weeks after the hurricane, a family member needed urgent medical care. They were rushed to the hospital and had emergency surgery. Needless to say, in October of last year, all garden projects stopped. Everything else stopped as well. I navigated through the aftermath of caring for my parent (who is now doing much better).

I finally found the time in April to return to the landscaping project I had started six months earlier. The sandbags were still in place and disintegrating, so the idea for a rockery was born. I designed an herb garden with a bee and butterfly pollinator bed supported by Florida capstones.

If you’re unfamiliar with capstone, it’s a natural Florida limestone found near the surface of subtropical bodies of water. It includes shell and marine deposits accumulated over millions of years when the state was covered with seawater. Go to floridadep.gov to learn more. This is a good read if you’re interested in the geology of the Southeastern U.S. and especially Florida. I brought in about five to six boulders, weighing 80 to 90 lbs., and some smaller stones.

So far, the rockery has held up to some recent heavy rainstorms. So, it’ll be a good bet that it stays strong for our rainy season beginning in June. The other side of the patio still awaits the planting of ferns and perennials with capstones in between.

I’m hoping this year will be my year for trees! There’s a hedge of podocarpus and maple trees to plant in the side garden. And, I must not forget the small oak in the back corner garden. I have many gardening projects planned for this year. I hope to share some of them with you as time permits. Happy gardening!