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“No shoes, no shirt, no problems” to quote a Kenny Chesney song rather sums up how summer feels in the Keys. Besides that, wearing no shoes connects us with the earth. My friend says barefoot walking in the grass allows the wifi waves we absorb from our electronic devices to leave our body. Hmmm… I’ll go with that.  Honeybee on dill flower. Herbs and other edibles are a great addition to a pollinator garden. While musing on the benefits of barefoot walking… Yoweee… a sharp stabbing pain emanates from my big toe. I must have just gotten stung by a bee! Not to worry, I’m not allergic to bees, just a bit of pain now, some swelling later on. There is an old saying that beekeepers never have arthritis since bee venom has anti-inflammatory properties. Guess it is my lucky day… you can create a positive spin on anything. Ironically I got stung while walking in the future site of a butterfly and pollinator garden… a suddenly sunny patch in my front yard created by the removal of a dead tree. It’s a perfect space for a pollinator/butterfly garden, whose plants require 6+ hours of sun per day. The more sun, the more active the garden will be.  The Spanish moth is attracted to members of the spider lily family, chewing on leaves, bulbs and rhizomes. Though butterflies are the poster children of pollinator gardening, birds, bats, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, small mammals and bees can all be pollinators. They visit flowers to drink nectar or feed from the pollen, then move pollen between male and female plants, fertilizing the flower’s eggs, which then produce seeds to create a new generation. Pick a site where there is well drained soil, and access to water to establish and maintain the plants, and for the pollinators to drink… a saucer filled with stones and water will do. Choose plants that attract pollinators, selecting plants with different colors and shapes, that will bloom during different months, to provide for a year round habitat.  When we think of bees, we think of the European honey bee that nests in beehive colonies. At the other end of the spectrum, native bees are solitary nesters, that build their nests inside available nesting holes. Mason bees love tubular homes. Leafcutter bees snip bits of leaves to line their nests. Carpenter bees carve their nests out of wood. Paper wasps build umbrella shaped nests that hang underneath limbs or on your home’s facia. Like all living things, pollinators need a place to rest and some might appreciate a little house. Building a pollinator house is a creative project utilizing recycled materials such as scraps of wood and dead bamboo stalks. They are called pollinator houses because pollinators visit them, but they are actually pollinator nurseries, because solitary bees use the holes for a place to deposit their eggs. The bee selects a perfect sized hole, typically around 3/8,” then collects pollen and nectar to place in the tube, on which she lays one egg on top of the mixture. The eggs hatch and the larva eat the pollen mixture. When the time is right the larva pupate, and remain in that state until the following spring, when they emerge to start the process over again. So worth it! Plant the plants, attract the pollinators, provide food and housing for them, and the cycle continues. My initial choice of plants may not be perfect, but with observation, adjustments and time, the garden will become a thing of beauty.  Pollinator house with blocks of wood attached and a few bamboo stalks. The house is taking shape! Here’s how I am planning the garden: since sun is a very important factor, I want to make sure that no plant gets too large to shade out any area. A good rule of thumb is to select one tree, two shrubs, one vine, and three wildflowers or grasses for a small garden. If more room is available, increase the number of plants at the same ratio. Plant in groupings for the most impact, and to reduce the appearance of leaf damage when the caterpillars are munching. Think about what will bring you the most joy… and plant with that in mind. Hummingbirds are attracted to the tubular flowers of the following plants: Red firespike, Pineapple sage, Purple passionflower vine, Aloe vera, Firebush, Necklacepod, Coral honeysuckle vine, Bahama strongbark (tree) and Little strongbark (small tree or shrub). Bees like Sunshine mimosa, Portulaca, African blue basil, Purple passionflower, Necklacepod, Fiddlewood, Greenheart, Soldierwood, and Star jasmine vine. Butterflies like Pentas (pink, red or white are most appealing), Sunshine mimosa, Butterfly weed (Asclepius tuberose is native), Giant milkwood, Corky stemmed passionflower, Bahama cassia, Beautyberry, Blue porterweed, Jatropha, Plumbago, Scorpiontail, Wild sage, Zinnia, Sunflowers, Red firespike, Balloon vine, and Purple passionflower to name a few. The Key West morning glory (Skyblue clustervine) attracts the sphinx moth. For birds you want plants that produce fruit such as Shiny leaf wild coffee, Satinleaf, Soldierwood, Bahama Strongbark, Little Strongbark, and Beautyberry.  Close up view of the pollinator house before hanging. Thanks Denise! for the cute plastic bee decoration. The above plant suggestions are natives/or friendly additions for the Florida Keys, which is Zone 11. They are low maintenance once established, have fewer pests and diseases and the native pollinators will flock to your yard. Don’t be a member of the more-dollars-than-sense crowd who would rather throw money at a problem than understand the root cause. Board-spectrum insecticides should never be used. They kill a large group of insects, including good pollinators as well  Finished pollinator box hanging on a tree at driveway entrance, welcoming friends and critters to our wildlife habitat.
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When I reflect upon my work in the garden, I ask “Am I keeping the plants in the garden alive, or is the garden keeping me alive?” Gardeners nurture their plants by adding water, compost and nutrients, and by removing sunlight-blocking weeds, and in return the plants produce abundant growth, flowers and edibles. Often times homeowners consider ornamental plants solely because they look good, are fast growing or are inexpensive… none or few redeeming qualities for life. Edible landscaping is a concept that replaces ornamental plants in the landscape with plants that produce food for humans. Planting for wildlife is a form of edible landscaping, for the birds, bees, pollinators, small furry creatures, insects and reptiles in our midst. When we plant native plants, we are planting for wildlife.  Carol holding a Soursop fruit. While looking up at the Soursop tree I think of Ronnie, in whose memory the trees were planted The plants growing in our gardens tell a story. It may be as simple as the plant came with the house, or the birds planted the seeds as volunteers. When my sister Lillian comes to visit she always brings cool and unusual plants. She brought fragrant lemongrass which is thriving, and a pomegranate tree which gifts me with delicious fruit. The Vanda orchid “Josephine” she brought came from a 100 year old collection. Oh, the responsibility is huge… thankfully the orchid is very happy near my pond.  Soursop looks prickly, but it is not. Often trees are planted as a living tribute for a family member or friend who is no longer with us. In my yard, that plant is the Soursop, aka Guanabana (Annona muricata) planted for my former photography assistant Ronnie Navarro, who died from cancer. Over the course of his treatment involving chemotherapy and radiation, Ronnie would tell me what he’d learned about a natural anti-cancer alternative from the Soursop tree. Research and anecdotal accounts, not necessarily true or reliable, have shown Soursop leaves and stems consumed as a tea, and by eating the fruit, can benefit you by reducing inflammation and preventing/curing certain types of cancer. Ronnie planned on eating the fruit and drinking the tea as soon as he got out of the hospital. He never got that opportunity.  Soursop leave and fruit. Fruit grows close to the stems all over the tree. The two trees planted in Ronnies honor have now expanded to ten, all from seeds that sprouted near the original trees. Each week I brew a batch of fresh Soursop tea. Maybe I am fighting cancer? The use of Soursop to prevent cancer is no more crazy a concept than traditional medicine’s use of Coumadin, an anticoagulant, which is actually rat poison. If you can use rat poison as a blood thinner, then what’s so strange about having fruit to prevent cancer? The lack of human studies and clinical trials doesn’t stop me from experimenting with Soursop. Food is medicine. The health benefits from growing your own allows you to pick fruits and vegetables at their peak freshness and nutrition, In the Keys (zone 11) tropical fruit trees include Avocado, Mango, Figs, Carambola, Mulberry, Pomegranate, Loquat, and Soursop. Eggplant, okra, turmeric, ginger, lemon grass, pineapples, bananas, papaya, scallions, rosemary and other herbs grow year round. It is best to choose planting locations with early morning and late afternoon sunlight, and avoid the extreme heat. Fruits and vegetables need 6-8 hours of sunlight.  Picking Soursop leaves for tea. The new growth is preferred for the best green tea. Adding stems to the tea increases the strength of the brew. You can learn a lot about the plants that grow in the Keys when speaking with our friends and neighbors who have lived in the Caribbean Islands or Central America. Often the best and only medicines are found growing in their native landscape. Lemongrass is good for head congestion. Boil a pot of water and lemongrass for 5-10 minutes. Remove from the stove, cool until the mixture is warmish. Remove the grass. Sit in a bathtub and pour the water over the head to open sinuses. Aloe Vera calms burns, including sunburn, and helps heal wounds. A sprig of Rosemary in your water makes you smarter… well maybe not, but reading this article might!  Ripe fruit, ready to go. When there is more fruit that I can eat, I share with farm to table chefs and fruit stands  Picked leaves can be used fresh, or dried out. Dried leaves make a stronger tea.  Green soursop leaves are submerged in simmering water to make tea. Though fresh fruit is available only in the summer, the leaves can be consumed as tea year round. Gardens … we nurture the plants and keep them alive, but what about the opposite? Not sure whether I am here to keep the plants alive, or they are here to extend my life? Can plants nurture our spirit as well as provide food and medicine? Truth is written on a stone in my garden: “An Hour in the Garden Puts Life’s Problems in Perspective.” A wise Jewish woman once told me: “ When you speak the name of the deceased, they live. Their name is the key to their soul.” Each time I walk by the Soursop trees planted in Ronnie’s memory, I think of Ronnie, and he lives.  In preparation for this journal I spent a lot of time being grateful for my mother-in-law Helen A. Ellis, who had the vision for the garden where I call home. When she arrived in 1968, she could see the ocean a half mile away from her patio. Her home was on the golf course at Ocean Reef, which began as a fishing camp, with a small lodge developed by Roger Baker beginning in 1945. Prior to its development, the area had been planted with key limes and orange groves. Due to its high elevation of nearly 14 ft. our land was nicknamed "nose-bleed hill,” and originally was the site of a hardwood hammock, full of mahogany, lignumvitae, stoppers, figs, mastic, milkbark, and gumbo limbo with large branches full of glistening tree snails. In the name of progress, everything was leveled to make way for homesites on stark, barren coral rock fill,  This squirrel is up to his ears in a tasty meal.  A grey squirrel scurrying in the treetops in search for food. Helen understood about landscape planning, but the Florida garden is so different than gardens up north. I still have her reference books, full of dog eared pages, notes, and clippings from the Miami Herald. For the last 50 years “Florida Landscape Plants” (John V. Watkins) and “Your Florida Garden” (John V. Watkins and Herbert S. Wolfe) are still the go-to manuals for Florida native and exotic plants.  Bombax buds and flowers at night depict various stages of development. Helen asked a local gardener for some trees to plant. His name was "Joe Ficus". One day he arrived with three logs cut from tropical trees He put them in our poor, sandy, salty, coral rock soil. This wasn't an instant garden, it would take time and vision... thankfully Helen had a little of both. The stumps were Bombax (Pseudobombax ellipticum), African Tulip Tree (Spathodea campanulata) and Tiger's Claw (Erythrina livingstonia), trees that only grow in the tropics, and in the warmest locations in Florida, The gardener understood that if the cutting was planted and taken care of, that it would grow to a full size tree. That is the magic about South Florida... everything grows. Trees are an essential element in the Florida garden because they provide shade during our very hot and sunny days here. The moment you enter my driveway, the temperature drops at least 10 degrees. Large trees should be planted away from the house to minimize damage in case of storms, yet provide shade for energy conservation during the hot afternoon sun.  Some call it the penis tree, I prefer to compare it to a banana peel. All summer long the Bombax has dense green foliage, and It grows to 75 feet, and is about as wide as it is tall. It likes full sun, and is a perfect Keys plant. Late winter, this relative to the shaving brush tree, drops all its leaves, and reveals a tangle of green branches. Then flower buds begin to appear, looking a bit like an acorn, each day expanding outward, and elongating until about 5-6 inches long and about an inch wide.  A nimble squirrel at home in the tangle of bombax branches. The Bombax (Bombacaeae) from the Greek for silk for contents of the seed pods, adds interest particularly when it is in full bloom in March and April when the spectacular flowers cause many to stop and take notice. The blooms when they emerge last just one day. It is called the "penis" tree by some. I rather equate it to a banana peel. When ready the bloom’s outer casing splits and curls, revealing a fireworks like burst of a flaming pinkish red bloom. If you are walking by and you don't happen to look up to see the blooms, you may be drawn in by the sound of bees buzzing overhead... a kind of pollinator block party. Scurrying from flower to flower a squirrel drinks from the nectar cup. Monk parakeets and red bellied wood peckers jockey for position on a flower, while a hummingbird zips in and out of the nectar filled cups.  A Red-bellied woodpecker and Monk parakeet jockey for position. The landscape that Helen built, and I now steward is full of life. We can make a difference in our landscapes if we plant trees, shrubs and ground cover that provides essential elements for wildlife. If someone were to ask, what was better before it was discovered? I'd say the Florida Keys before air-conditioning and the water pipeline. It had hardwood hammocks that sloped down to a natural mangrove shoreline that filtered runoff, protected it from storms, and at the same time was a nursery for baby fish, crabs and sea life, which provided food for the birds and bigger fish and so on. Our family wasn't the first to come to the Keys, and there will be scores after us, coming for whatever reason floats their boat, and they'll need docks and a place to lay their heads at night, places to shop, be entertained and relax... even play some golf... and so the story goes.  Red bellied woodpecker pondering his next meal. |
CAROL ELLIS
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