The Consummate Gardener: Florida Gardening and More

I weeded a large section of the front yard yesterday - the garden to the right of the driveway. It desperately needed it, because it's hard for me to work outdoors in the summer due to my lupus, so it was horribly overgrown. The next door neighbor is putting his house up for sale, so he asked us to clean it up. The picture was taken months ago. The bags of soil were dumped there by my roommate, and since she isn't about to do any manual labor, they are still there. I'll move those tomorrow, because like I said -- she ain't gonna do it!

I started by digging up a ton of bermuda grass, which will just come up again next year if I don't take some drastic measures to insure it doesn't. I took out some giant cactus that are not what I wanted, and don't have gorgeous, large, red fruit and beautiful flowers like I thought they would. Took out a large perennial hibiscus that was overtaking the driveway. Pulled out some old, dried-up crabgrass and trimmed the dead leaves off of the banana trees, during which time I discovered that someone (probably my brainless roommate) had ripped some banana leaves down, leaving huge wounds into which ants were already climbing intent on killing the plants. I'm probably going to just sell the banana plants. They are MINE, after all; came from my old house. I will sell most of them to someone who will dig them, and move a couple to a place where they are farther away from people who don't know what they are doing (like my roommate).

I still have a ton to do out front. I'm glad the horrid looking back yard (not my responsibility) is hidden by a stockade fence, because trust me, if a prospective buyer saw THAT mess, they would run the other way quickly. The entire back yard needs to be pulled up and started over, but like I said, not my responsibility. I'll do the front, because I like the neighbor and really want him to be able to sell his house. His wife is fighting cancer, so they need the money, I'm sure. Plus, he is just very nice.

Of course, I worked too hard. I was angry at the time, which is when I tend to overdo things trying to work off the energy. I'm sore today, despite having slept on a heating pad last night. I'll survive, though, and the yard looks a lot better.

Microgreens are something anyone can grow in a sunny window, balcony or outdoors with very little gardening know-how. Microgreens provide nutrition and fiber to your diet that you don't get in cheap, processed foods. To make them even more amazing, they grow to edible size in as little as two weeks! Kids love helping to grow them, and love eating them. You can easily grow many dollars worth of greens for your family quickly, even without a yard or garden.

For more information, read this article I wrote on the Survival Food Gear Blog.

Microgreens, A Fast Food

By Hans Hillewaert CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

I'm moving to a colder place, so I have to get rid of most of my tropicals. Not all of them, because I would die without some plants in my house, but the ones that grow outdoors at least. I let go of some today, and it broke my heart to part with some of them, but they're going to a good home. A very nice older lady and gentleman came, and like me, they like the small plants. I love growing things from one cutting into a huge plant. In fact, I'm taking cuttings of most of the plants I'm selling that will grow indoors, because I just can't bear to part with them entirely.

When I moved here, my house in North Port hadn't been auctioned off yet, so I went over and dug up some of the remaining plants. One that I was shocked to find any left of was my Heliconia rostrata, or hanging lobster claw. I dug the tiny piece up and put it in a pot, and it has almost died a few times, because it kept falling over. But I kept it alive, and today, I let the nice lady and gentleman have it. I'm sure it will be happy under their pine trees, at least I hope so.

I recently had my old laptop die, and lost my external hard drive, so a lot of my pictures of my blooming plants actually in bloom are gone. That makes it sort of hard to sell some of them, because people want to know what they look like when they are in bloom. Right now, I'm looking for pictures of all of them on Wikimedia Commons so I can put those with the ad. I did that with my queen's tears bromeliad, and sold it for $20 out of bloom.

So far, I've made $40 on plants and traded one for a nice wooden wine box, so closer to $45. I made around $300 selling plants when I left North Port, and ended up giving hundreds of dollars worth away so they wouldn't just sit there and die. I don't have room for much propagation here, but a lot of the plants I brought here have grown so much, I can easily take cuttings and start a nice 6" pot without anyone even noticing. Still, I don't want to keep too many, but a few little pots of this or that will be a nice addition to the apartment, and help keep the air cleaner.

My plants are like my babies. I'm always sad when they have to go, but then I get more and I'm happy again. This time, I'm going for something smaller -- like miniature African violets.  I'm sure in another few years I'll have so many of those, I'll be having another sale.

Photo By Karol M from Arizona, USA CC-BY-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

I love flowers. I've always loved flowers. I love planting things that bloom in my yard and then waiting patiently (well, sometimes not so patiently) for the blossoms to appear. I cry when flowering plants die -- no, really I do!

So imagine how disappointed I feel now. People are literally ripping out their flower beds to grow vegetables. I have nothing against vegetables, mind you. I am all for self-sufficiency and fighting Monsanto and eating healthy. It's just that I love talking about flowers, and now all anyone wants to talk about is tomatoes.

My portable external hard drive disappeared the other day, out of a nice, safe place in my bedroom. On it were dozens of pictures of flowers from this yard and my old yard. I'm praying with all my might that it will show up. Otherwise, all those pictures are just gone, because they aren't stored anywhere else. Well, a few of the are on this blog and a few are stored online, but most of them will just be gone forever if I don't find that hard drive. I also lost copies of every article I ever wrote, but those are online somewhere if I ever wanted to look them all up and copy them down again, which I don't. There was other important stuff on there too, but what I was most upset about was the pictures of the flowers.

To top it off, I just got a new computer. My other computer crashed completely, and everything on the old computer is trapped on the old hard drive. I am hoping that at some point, I can get that old computer fixed or at least get that information off the hard drive, but who knows? More flower pictures gone.

I don't grow vegetables anymore. I'm not saying I never will again, because I probably will, but in and amongst the vegetables, there will always be flowers for the bees and butterflies.  I will never tire of having beautiful things around me that burst forth with blooms.

So all you veggie gardeners, more power to you, but plant a few geraniums somewhere. They will make you feel better, even if you can't eat them.

My roommate is insane about not killing ants, even in the house. I'm in the "If I see an ant in my room, it's dead" majority of house dwellers. She's already started on me about all these natural ways to repel the ghost ants that take over this house every spring. I just bought some ant spray. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. The way I figure it, there are plenty more ants where those came from, and they are good communicators. Once they find out they're dying when they come inside, they'll stop -- or at least that's how it's always worked for me. I am not worried at all about ghost ants becoming extinct in FL.

This is also why the fleas have taken over the back yard so badly that I won't go out there. Unbeknownst to her, I have been killing fire ants and fleas in the front yard, and will continue to do so. I'm allergic to fire ants. My cat used to only need flea treatment twice a year, now she needs it once a  month, even in the winter, because I can't use anything to control the fleas and ticks in the yard. It's insane!

Sorry, but fire ants and fleas are pestilence. They came right out of Pandora's box. I'm all for being kind to nature, but there are extremes which, IMHO, are unhealthy and harmful to me and my poor cat, who has to put up with all the worms and fleas around here (which she never had before).  Giving her all these chemicals to kill them is completely unhealthy for her -- much unhealthier than a little Sevin dust on the lawn.

I can hardly wait to be free of this place so I can be free to keep my environment pest free without having to have an ecological diatribe aimed at me. 

Photo credit: Michael Wolf CCSA 3.0 / Wikimedia

February gardening in South Florida is generally a time of preparation, cleaning and replanting. Temperatures are warming, and there is generally no chance of a hard freeze. Now is the time to plant that vegetable garden you didn't get around to in September, or second vegetable crop can now be planted in order to get in a harvest before the summer heat hits. February is also a perfect time to refurbish those freeze damaged beds, or start a new one.

There is still time in February to plant most of what you didn't get planted in January. What most of our northern transplants consider summer vegetables still have time to bear before hot weather. February is a great month in the South Florida garden, and with the wonderful cool weather, one of the most productive months of the year.

Annuals to plant in February in South Florida:

Ageratum	Hollyhock	Begonia	Petunia	Candytuft
Alyssum	Dianthus	Celosia	Salvia	Vinca
Marigold	Nasturtiums	Cosmos	Portulaca	Impatiens

Vegetables to plant in South Florida in February:

Radish	Tomato	Onions	Beets	Cabbage	Eggplant
Broccoli	Peas	Potato	Turnips	Lettuce	Pepper
Celery	Mustard	Cauliflower	Chinese Cabbage	Beans	Cucumber
Squash	Spinach	Corn	Collards	Parsey	Kohlrabi

Bulbs to be planted in February in South Florida:

Tuberose	Dahlia	Eucharis	Canna
Caladium	Blood Lily	Lilies	Daylily
Agapanthus	Zephranthes	Calla	Crinum
Allium	Ginger	Montbretia	Watsonia

To those of you who read my other blog Maxing the Minimal, this won't be news. I'm moving into a new place of my own (finally) on March 1. I will have a nice yard to work with, albeit not much sun, but mostly pines, so not so bad. I'll finally be getting back to this blog. I should have posted more here,  but the gardening situation here has been horrific, so I didn't even want to talk about it. Needless to say, it's been mostly just trying to keep my plants alive, but I did get a couple of beds done, so I'll post those before I leave.

For now, here are a few plants I am growing here. I'll be posting many more pictures now that I have a better camera -- maybe even a video or two.

Stay tuned! and check out the new blog. It's outlining my purge of material possession and the move into my new home.

Silver Queen Sansevieria and Bromeliad Just Starting to Bloom

Neoregelia Bromeliad

Yellow Thai Crown of Thorns

Double Purple Datura

Double Purple Datura By Meneerke bloem GFDL via Wikimedia Commons

It's been an interesting year for me. After I lost my house and garden last year and moved away, I thought I'd never see any of those plants again. Well, the county took its sweet time taking possession of the house, so my roommate and I went over and took a lot of what was left in the yard. Luckily, some of my favorites were still alive...through some sort of miracle...and I got to dig them up and bring them here. Most lived, some died. Unfortunately, the plum trees didn't make it, but there were lots of other things that did, so I found places for them in Jillaurie's yard. Some are still in pots, and come winter, I'll be planting those somewhere, but it's way too hot to plant them now. But this is what's going on in the garden right now.

Well, no additional veggies have gotten planted here, because it's so hot, neither one of us has been able to get out to do much but weed. The large patch of Malabar Spinach has seen its better days, and most of it has died, but the ones I put on the trellis are doing well. I'm going to try to root some cuttings. Someone on Gardenweb said you can grow it from a leaf. Interesting. One tomato, the Cherokee purple, is hanging on in it's large pot. I planted the bell pepper cuttings into a large pot and they are starting to grow. I stuck 5 in together, so it will be interesting to see what happens there. Sweet potatoes are taking over everything, of course. This year, I'm actually going to harvest them. The Jalepeno died, but I managed to get the last fruit, so I'll be planting more. The Tabasco pepper is going gangbusters, and I also have seedlings that I'm thinking of growing as ornmentals in the front this fall. My friend gave me a pepper I don't know the name of, and a basil with it that I also don't know the name of. It hasn't had any peppers yet, so I'll post pics when it does so I can get an i.d. I also want to plant some of the mini bell pepper seeds this fall to see how they do.

The front yard is doing well. Some of the bromeliads are starting to bloom and put out pups. The giant Crinum I planted is blooming now. I finally got the card reader for the camera, so I'm going to try to get pictures of all this stuff.

That unidentified squash vine turned out to be a canteloupe. There is one tiny fruit on it, and the vine is still growing, so who knows what will happen?

The Confederate Rose that I put into a large terracotta pot is doing well, but needs watering every day in this heat. It's pretty much stopped growing for now, so I'm hoping it will put out some blooms this fall when it cools down. I have four babies I grew from cuttings, but one isn't doing so well. I need to repot the others This is a pic of the type I have. It blooms pink and stays pink, unlike the type that blooms white and turns pink.

Confederate Rose By Taken by Fanghong CC-BY-2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

I can see that the Aechmea blanchetiana  broms are going to have to be moved to somewhere that they can get more sun. They aren't as orange as I thought they'd be, because they are too shaded under the palm trees. Problem is, I have no idea where to put them. I'll figure it out. "Little Harv" is blooming. I'm so glad I got to rescue this one, because it was one of my favorites, with its beautiful, large silver leaves. Until I can get a picture of mine, there is a great picture at the Zone 10 website. Speaking of broms, I have two pineapple plants that are doing very well, one that isn't doing so well, but it needs to be moved.


The Firebush is taking over the side garden, so I am going to have to try to cut that back a little. It's so beautiful, but they do tend to sprawl and take up space  very quickly.  The red crape myrtles are on their second bloom. I don't know exactly which variety they are, but they're gorgeous. I'm going to be deadheading them to keep them blooming, or at least get one more bloom out of them.

Firebush By Quadell CC-BY-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The Brugs aren't doing so well. They just hate this heat, plus the dryness has made the mites come back. No blooms so far, but I remember that they usually bloom in the winter and spring, so I'm just fertilizing and watering and hoping for the best. The double purple datura, on the other hand, is going gangbusters! I have quite enough seeds, so I'll probably start deadheading it to get it to bloom more. I need to pot up the Charles Grimaldi into something larger so it will grow and bloom this fall. It's tiny and already has a "Y". This is what it the CG looks like when it's in bloom. I have a Versicolor Peach, but it will never look like this picture, as they don't do too well in S. Florida. Too hot for them.

Versicolor Peach Brugmansia Wikimedia Public Domain

The tree-form Jatropha that I stuck into the ground is doing well. Obviously, it's rooted, and is now blooming, but not growing a lot. I need to fertilize it more, but it's right there by the datura, so that just sucks up all the fertilizer. I'm thinking I'll move the datura somewhere else this fall so the Jatropha can grow.

That's enough for now. I'll hopefully have real pictures soon.

I've gotten quite a few bargains from the half-price plant racks at big box stores. If you know what you're doing, you can save big bucks buying markdown plants. Some of them are past redemption and can't be saved, so are just a waste of money. Others can come be brought back to health with just a little time and effort. There are tricks to knowing what plants to take a chance on.  READ MORE...

I like to say that gardeners are the best people. I've never met a more giving, loving, caring community. But more than the people you'll meet, you'll learn a lot about yourself in a garden. Being responsible for keeping living things alive and healthy can be a humbling experience. I've discovered some of my best -- and worst -- character traits while,,,   READ MORE...

Credit: HotBlack at Morguefile.com

Imagine having fresh-picked, vine-ripened tomatoes from your garden in February when most of the north is covered in snow. Having gardened in Florida for over 15 years, I've learned more about growing tomatoes in a tropical climate than I ever thought I needed to know. One of the best things I learned, mostly through trial and error, was how to keep tomatoes growing year-around. Oh sure, sometimes there is a freak freeze, and you have to cover them all up and hope for the best, but most of the time, there is nothing to keep you from harvesting luscious, juicy tomatoes in South Florida for 12 months of the year.

Tomato plants provide easy propagation material by putting out shoots called "suckers" in the leaf nodes (where the leaf meets the stems). Called suckers because they suck nutrition from the main plant, it's best to remove them so your plant will produce the largest and healthiest fruit possible. Read Full Article...

Spanish Needle with seeds Photo Credit Wie146 / CCSA  2.5 / Wikimedia

(For all my Christian readers, this is tongue-in-cheek. I'm not a Christian, but I was for most of my life and respect the Christian religion. Please don't get all bent out of shape about it.)

I spent some time weeding the past couple of days, and I have come to two conclusions:

1) Spanish needle is the most noxious weed on earth
2) I am totally justified in not worshipping a God who would create Spanish Needle.

I'm now totally convinced that there cannot be a God, or if there is, he isn't a gardener.

Everything is a "disorder" now, so I decided that I must suffer from major FZDD, or Floridian Zone Denial Disorder. I plant things that aren't hardy in my area, then get all upset when they freeze.

Here are some symptoms of FZDD:

1. Inability to accept zone hardiness recommendations. This is characterized by the tendency to "ooh" and "ahh" over catalog items and the inability to keep from ordering things not hardy to your zone. Also includes confusion as to why northern plants can't be brought to Florida and thrive as they did where you came from.

2. Tendency toward "zone push". Characterized by thinking such as "It will be o.k. if I cover it during the cold", or "If it dies, I can get another one next year." Includes the delusion that shade growing will save many northern sun loving plants.

3. Hoarding of blankets, sheets, plastic and other protective gear in order to make vain attempts to save non-hardy zone plants from cold snaps.

4. Excessive container planting, followed by intensive transfer of potted plants to a warmer place (like inside your house) when it gets too cold. This tends to result in making your house a winter jungle, which can only be traversed with care, through very narrow avenues weaving between the pots.

5. Compulsion to make things bloom out of their zone, when a dozen or more people have quoted you horror stories about how they have tried and failed.

6. Weatherphilia, characterized by constant monitoring of weather stations, weather charts, statistical data, and may include having a weather board on your wall with all the charts and data attached. Includes almanacitis, which is a obsession with almanac information, and may include a tendency to collect almanacs from 20 years ago or more.

7. Argumentitive syndrome, characterized by a tendency to contradict and condemn anyone who says you can't grow something in your zone, coupled with an uncanny knowledge of statistical and anecdotal data to back up your opinion.

8. Catalog obssessivitis, characterized by a tendency to order every gardening catalog from every zone in the southern hemisphere, and an inability to refrain from buying dutch bulbs and planting them in zone 10.

9. Extreme mood swings, ranging from excessive elation over a single bloom to crying jags and depression over the death of a plant. Anger over inability to make plants conform to expectations is common, and may result in violent ripping out or chopping down of non-performing specimens, coupled with uncontrollable outbursts of obscenity.

There is no cure for this disorder, but with treatment, a reasonable level of reality can be instilled into the sufferer.

Coleus is a good choice for summer color.

June is the beginning of the rainy season. It's hot, humid, and wet, as there are usually rainstorms every afternoon. Heat indexes can get into the triple digits during midday, and the air can feel like a sauna.

There is much to be done in the summer garden in South Florida, even some planting. This is the most important planting month for those without irrigation systems. Mother Nature does most of the watering, and plants can get roots established so they can withstand the dry season.

Plant Hot Weather Annuals

There are some annuals that seem to be bulletproof in the torrid Florida sumers. Old favorites like marigold, vinca, torenia and zinnia can be planted this month. Keep in mind that zinnia will have problems with powdery mildew as the summer humidity worsens. Coleus and caladium provide summer color when all other flowers have faded, but require shade from the intense sunlight after midday.

Grafting, Layering, and Rooting Cuttings

June is a great month for propagating plants by mechanical means. Some plants will root just by sticking cuttings into the ground. Make sure to water daily for the first two weeks if there is no rain, and twice a week afterward.

Pruning Hedges

June is the best time to cut back hedges and shrubs, but be careful not to prune back more than 1/3 of the plant. Cloud cover in June will minimize sun scale.

Be sure to remove all dead wood, hollow trunks, and branches that are crossing or rubbing against each other.

June is a busy month in the South Florida garden, so be careful to stay hydrated and do most of your work in the early morning and early evening to avoid heat exhaustion.

Source: A Garden Diary

Spring is busting out all over Florida, and minds and turning to gardening. Unfortunately, Florida has some of the worst soil in the world, so you are going to need some amendments. If you're like me, without a compost pile and can't afford to buy bagged compost, there is a free alternative that may be right down the street.

Free compost and mulch from Sarasota County has been a real boon for my garden the last few years. It is delivered to a local park once a week, and I have taken full advantage of it. Soil that was once barren is now rich, black, and crumbly. I use it for potting and building beds. It's great stuff!

Under Florida Yards and Neighborhoods, a branch of the UF/IFAS Florida Friendly Landscaping program, many counties provide free mulch and compost at locations thorughout the county. This is made from the yard waste picked up around the county during the year, and returned to the residents for use in their yards. While this isn't the highest quality compost, it's a great way to add organic matter to our sandy Florida soils. The mulch is not something you'd want to use for looks, but it's great for pathways, or weed control in large areas.

Using these free alternatives to bagged compost and mulch not only saves money, but saves our valuable old growth cypress trees, and frees up landfill space.

Call your county today and find out if they provide free compost and mulch for their residents. In some counties, even though the compost and mulch isn't free, it is sometimes sold for a very reasonable cost.

Resources:

Florida Friendly Landscaping Site