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, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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The first eco-tourist to visit the Keys was French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter John J Audubon, who in 1832 visited Indian Key and Key West. Audubon wasn’t coming down to see the sunset, he was coming to document the birds here. In the late 1700's and early 1800's Audubon was witnessing the demise of birds across the landscape due to the widespread killing of birds for the plume trade… plumes from many of the wading birds in South Florida were designed into hats. With his keen eye and close observation, this self-trained artist created detailed watercolor, pastel and graphite drawings, in addition to oil paintings of more than 500 types of birds in their natural habitat. One of the largest birds in North America, the American White Pelican, (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) winters in the Florida Keys, not to breed, but to soak up the warm weather. I spotted a flock of nearly 50 White pelicans at Crocodile Lake National Wildlife preserve the first week of February, while traveling north on Card Sound Road, just past the three way intersection. As I looked to the east, sitting amongst red and black mangroves were 40 - 50 American White pelicans. They sat comfortably preening, dosing, and soaking up the sunshine oblivious to my presence 500 ft. away, across the water, from behind a guard rail along the gravel shoulder of Card Sound Road. White Pelicans are tolerant of human observers if not approached too closely. Most people are familiar with the Brown Pelican, (Pelecanus occidentalis) who can be seen everywhere all year long in the Keys. While White pelicans wade in the tidal flats, Brown pelicans patrol their fishing waters and are seen begging for fish at docks or off bridges. Unfortunately some of these Brown pelicans eventually swallow fishermen’s hooks as the pelican swoops over and swallows the bait hook and all. If the line is cut the bird flys off to have the line entangled and the bird is left hanging from some mangrove, or that doesn’t happen, the bird dies from an infection caused by the embedded hook. The fisherman in this situation should call the Wild Bird Center. Brown pelicans are known for their spectacular head-first dives to snag a fish. White pelicans feed by dipping their bills in the water and scooping up prey such as small minnows. Sometimes 10-12 White pelicans work together to drive fish into the shallows where the fish become more concentrated and easier to catch. The Brown pelican nearly disappeared from North America between the late 1950’s and early 1970’s, threatened by human disturbance, and direct exposure to pesticides, which caused death or reproduction failure due to eggshell thinning. It was an amazing sight to see these White pelicans, but they were in the right spot… the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The Keys are home to four National Wildlife Refuges: National Key Deer Refuge, Great White Heron, Key West and Crocodile Lake, plus other land and sanctuaries set aside to protect our native plants and wildlife. The wildlife come to these places because there is suitable habitat, with the space, food, shelter and cover they need. We have these spaces because the residents and people of the State of Florida woke up in time. In the 1950’s land had been platted for homesites, even those areas sitting under two feet of water. Dredging and filling fragile coastal mangroves was a common practice. According to the National Audubon Society by 1960, 60 % of the wading bird feeding grounds disappeared from Lower Matecumbe Key through North Key Largo. In 1975 when Florida designated the Keys an “Area of Critical State Concern" a large chunk of undeveloped land in North Key Largo was saved. Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge was designated in 1980. The following quote from the December 1987 The Ocean Reef News gives an insight to popular opinion at the time: “With the protective moat of undeveloped wilderness cocooning Ocean Reef property owners outside our gate, some are taking a kindlier look at the alligator's cousin - the crocodile. 14 years ago the crocodile made the endangered species list. North Key Largo is the major of only three protected areas, being bought by and preserved by the state. Until quite recently, there were 27 major developments on the drawing boards for our neighboring upper Key Largo. "Can you picture the line at Card Sound bridge, if that happened?" commented one homeowner. "Or the road traffic south to Winn Dixie? Let's keep those females laying.. and the males at bay.” I wonder what the folks in 1987 would have thought about the diurnal “trade-parade” of workers commuting to work along Card Sound Road? A wonderful bird is the pelican,
his beak can hold more than his belly can. He holds food in his beak Enough for a week And I don’t know how in the hell he can. In a perfect world, all insects would stay outside and be perfectly content in their soil filled, green leafed, decaying mulch environment. Unfortunately sometime conditions are such… like when it rains a lot, the bugs decide to cross that sacred threshold, and enter. Of all the creatures, the one I cannot stand is the cockroach, or palmetto bug. They are the stuff of nightmares, as they fly through a room. The cockroaches hide in dark places and emerge when no-one is looking. I always imagined cockroaches living in my sister’s beehive hairdo, a style popular in the 1960’s, Her hair would would be teased and sprayed, and wound into a tall bun. When my sister styled one of these hairdos, it would last for days, even withstanding potential collapse during sleep. Last summer, as part of plumbing maintenance, we had our drain pipes pressure cleaned. The plumber inserted a video camera through a roof vent to show the grease and scale accumulated on the pipes, and the hundreds of creepy cockroaches living there. The second video taken after the cleaning showed the pipes clean and as good as new. Throughout this process, the cockroaches in the pipes escaped through the roof vent. I needed a video of the plumber doing his crazy dance, as he brushed the creepy, crawly cockroaches off his arms and legs. Unfortunately, some of the cockroaches escaped by way of the sink drains inside our home… an unintended consequence to say the least. Most roaches were contained, but there were some that managed to evade capture. The cats would find and play with one or two, but for the most part just ignored them. If I saw one I would attempt to step on it, but I hate that popping sound when they go squish. To control the cockroaches, I’d put combat gel or boric acid in cracks, out of reach from the cats. That worked okay, but a natural solution was on the horizon. Is my new insect friend the proverbial fly on the wall, able to watch what happens without people knowing? We all have experienced our phones eavesdropping on conversations, and later displaying ads related to the conversations. Well if Siri is listening, and if the tech folks are getting a direct feed from their consumers, and if the government is watching our every move… at least we are keeping everyone busy. Since the fly creature was friendly, it allowed me to photograph it. Via my post on iNaturalist, my “super spy” creature was identified as an Ensign wasp. These wasps live to exterminate cockroaches! Indeed my friend! Evania appendigaster, also known as the blue-eyed ensign wasp, lay their eggs in cockroach egg casings. The wasps’ eggs hatch, and the larvae eat the roaches within the egg case. These wasps are not known to sting humans. So what do you do if you find an Ensign wasp in your house, leave it alone to look for cockroaches! There is another creature on my patio that I literally ran into… a spider who spins it’s web all around the screen porch, and I often encounter their low webs. Aargh. It’s spiny body looks ominous, but in fact they are friendly. The common Spinybacked Orbweaver, Gasteracantha cancriformis, are often called "crab spiders", because they look a little like crabs. The Spiny orbweaver is a beneficial spider that feasts on garden pests, and flying insects such as whiteflies, mosquitoes, and wasps. Outdoors they spin their webs within trees and shrubs. Their webs are about 12 inches across, with many connecting strands. The patio is covered with them, but the lowness was bugging me! I discovered a solution by accident, when a helium balloon got loose on the patio. As it floated around inside the enclosure, the spiders relocated to spaces beside the high beams where the balloon couldn’t affect them. Problem solved. Now we buy balloons just for the purpose of releasing.
Nature has a solution for everything. We just have to be patient and observe the world around us, and pray that my Ensign wasp… my “super spy fly” friend…. doesn’t decide to visit the spiders. |
CAROL ELLIS
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February 2024
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