Hello to all of you wonderful FL gardeners. I've never enjoyed lurking anywhere so much!

I was born in Dade County back before there were paved roads all the way down the state. We drove over more than a few "corduroy" floating bridges, too.

Almost 3/4 century later, I'm back in FL. Found my EDEN in a piece of swamp in Lake County.

I've done Mstr Gdn courses in 3 other states and look forward to joining a class here. Meanwhile, I am working on the Mstr. Naturalist Certification. Completed one of the three sections. And I absolutely recommend this program to other folks who seek to commune knowledgeably with FL's natural environment.

I'm also the oldest, moldiest compost guru imaginable. Every time we move, I tote along my composting worms! Used to be this was not mentioned among the family. And certainly not to co-workers. But I've come out into the open in the last few years, and it is _wonderful_. I give away starters but never ship. Speak up!

Thank you for providing a caring community of gardeners for all of us in this fabulous state.

Welcome Everyone!
I'm so glad you found the forum and even more glad you decided to jump in and write.
Many voices / one heart

Hello garden webbers. I have been lurking here for a couple of years and have occasionally asked questions. Most of my knowledge about Florida gardening comes from you and from books recommended by you. Thank you very much!

Florida was not even taken into consideration when DH and I looked for a place to retire. However, our son moved to North Florida, married and stayed. So here we are in Leesburg in Lake County, but unfortunately, I am not here yet full time. Each week after I have been gazing at the conservation area behind our house, it becomes harder and harder to return north to NJ.

My goal is a yard with mainly native Central Floridian plants and others that take drought, floods, wind, cold and heat. DH's dream is a maintenance free tropical garden. Guess who has won so far. :-) (View of conservation area behind newly planted backyard corner)

{{gwi:837988}}{{gwi:837990}}

Welcome to Florida, I hope you enjoy your new home here. I'm a Florida cracker, and my Mom and her sibs were born and raised near your area, in Mount Dora. I know the area pretty well and there are some lovely spots. Looks like you have one of them.

You won't be disappointed with the native Florida plants, mix it up with some other low maintenance things and a good dose of pretty flowers!

Hi all-

My name is Randy, and yes, I'm female. . One DH in my life (is that good?!), three sons, seven grands. We share our home with Simon, a little pound-kitty I found here in Ft Lauderdale. At least that's what I told DH when I asked if I could get a kitty. When I got him home and opened up the box, out popped my huge 22 pound Himalayan! DH was instantly in love.

I am not new to GW, but fairly new to Florida. Born and lived several decades in Ohio, transplanted to Savannah GA where I stumbled upon GW. That's where I fell in love with the south. While I was busily removing all grass in our backyard there, creating my own tropical paradise, his field of work was in an upheaval. Before I finished that Savannah yard, his work took us to WA state. With several job-related moves in WA, we stored our belongings and moved onboard our 1971 42' Morgan sloop. We spent our weekends exploring the San Juan Islands in upper Puget Sound cruising (far cry from gardening!) My most surreal moment while living there was the day we found ourselves sailing off Orca Island, in the middle of a pod of Orca whales! One came up right alongside the cockpit, with his big eyeball just checking us out! At that time we had a 29 foot sailboat. Shortly after that, we got a bigger boat!

Then the job call came to come to Florida, and we found ourselves living onboard in downtown Fort Lauderdale, right off famous Las Olas Boulevard. But, as I do most the refit work on the boat, we decided to move on land for some of the larger, messier jobs. Found us a nice little rental, an Old Florida house - Flamingo pink, trimmed in white, with green shutters. Although my landlord takes care of lawn and plantings, I have a nice sunny patio, a little shady back patio, and a small covered walkway, facing south, ready and waiting to be home to potted plants! Whoopee! I had parted with all my pots, seed trays, plants, trellises, even the garden swing, during the last move, so I'm truly starting over again.

Thanks for the wonderful friendship here. Also thanks to all taking the time to write about themselves here.

Randy aka girlsaylor

We built new house last year and I am working on the landscaping this year. We are part timers here spending the summer months in Fair Haven New York. I have enjoyed gardening for the past 35 years and look forward to the new challeges here. I really enjoy reading and learning from this forum.

Hi! I'm Cora and I live in Jacksonville. I'm not a native Floridian but I DO have a certificate (thanks to a former neighbor) declaring me to be an "honorary cracker". I'm formerly from Ohio so this boy teased me incessantly for being a damnyankee. And I fed him anyway, since he always showed up at supper time! With the presentation of the certificate, the teasing stopped.
Being from rural Ohio, gardening and the putting up of the harvest was as natural as breathing to me. I loved the feel of the warm earth between my bare toes and the way the morning glories made a tent over the corn, the taste of a sun warmed tomatoe right off the vine. Many good garden memories.
My first Florida garden was in our surburban back yard about 20 years ago. It was a great way to relieve the stress of a day at the office. Then life sort of got in the way.
About two years before retirement, I began buying up crafting tools (a Dremel, small sander, soap and candle molds, etc) and subscribed to Florida Gardening. I already had the most needed garden tools.
I had promised myself two things for my "golden years"; I was going to make whatever struck my fancy, be it doll or drum, and I was going to have a real garden.
So in the past couple of years I've attempted to recapture the good feelings of planting and growing and even occaisionally harvesting. My primary impetus has been this forum; thank you all for your wonderful open friendliness and willingness to answer even the dumbest questions. Not to mention your collective sense of humor. Hey, life is not only fun, it's funny!! cora

Hi Everyone. I'm a newcomer to this site but not to gardening. I've enjoyed it since I was a child. My dad's father was a Texas farmer so maybe it's in my genes to love gardening. Mom was a city-gal from Bronx, New York. So, I'm a little bit city but prefer the country lifestyle by far. I don't live in the country though, as Fort Lauderdale is surely metropolitan. My neighborhood is a darling little hamlet, a peninsula, which is only a few blocks away from city life but seems like miles away due to its strategic location. I've lived in this area since I was three so guess I could be considered a native. Right now the temperature is about 70 and is supposed to go to 57 by morning. That's quite unusual in April for this neck of the woods. But I'll take it gladly, and so will my globe artichokes! Perhaps the cooler temps will encourage my seven beautiful plants to put forth buds. I'm quite knowledgable about gardening matters and will no doubt be trying to help you with some of your questions and even asking a few of my own now and then. God bless and happy gardening! :)

Hi! I'm Karen, born and raised in Daytona Beach, and living in Deland the past 10 years. For the first nine of those, I never gave thought to a garden, or even stepped foot in my yard! I paid my neighbor's son to mow the grass, and left it at that - then one time while I was griping about the high price and low flavor of my Winn Dixie tomatoes, somebody said "Hey, you ought to grow your own, it's easy!"

NOW, much to the befuddlement of my poor patient neighbors, my front yard sports tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, okra, watermelon, swiss chard and two kinds of onions, even as I speak - and I spend a lot of time blessing this forum for a thousand helpful hints! Thanks, guys! :)

Hi! My name is Tracey and I'm a lurker. I live in East Orlando and up until last June I lived in an apartment. I have very little experience as a gardener but I'm learning something new every day. I am willing to try to grow almost anything. It started with a couple of pentas I put in the front of the house for some color. I was amazed when they were still living a week later. I was hooked.

I live with my fiance and we have 3 indoor kitties and one outdoor kitty that "came with the house". He is my gardening buddy and thinks he is helping when he tramples something.

Currently, I am trying to grow tomatoes, ice cream bananas, pentas, coleus, a daisy bush and daylilies (which I think are my favorite so far). This forum is a blessing for me because I have learned a lot and I always have a question that needs an answer. Thanks you guys!

Hi All:
My name is Shirley & I have lived in central Fl all my life.Born in Lake Wales, now I live between Ft Meade,Lake Wales & Bartow near Lake Buffum.
My DH & I live on 2 acres with 3 dogs, 1 cat & many, many plants( my hobby-not his).
He's into hunting & fishing & I love reading & plants-all kinds. Right now I'm hooked on all the different kinds of staghorns. I have 12 of the 18 different kinds & am learning about each one & how easy or difficult each kind is to grow & maintain. I was going to collect cycads, but the uncommon ones are sooo expensive. I have a few zamia furfacieas(sp?) & floridanas. I did break down & buy a Blue Bushman & another one that starts ith a "d". I can't remember the name right now. Blue Bushman looks alot lika a horridus which is a very wicked-looking plant.I have tried veggie gardnening & have had good years & not so good years-don't know if I planted at the wrong time or what. Got plenty of blooms , but no veggies.
Right now, I'm trying the up-side-down tomatoes in coconut fiber baskets. They're doing ok, but curling up towards the sun. Hope the weight of the tomatoes pull them back down if they get that far. I planted herbs on the topside-they're doing very good.
I have learned alot on this board, & will continue to visit. Ya'll are so informative & funny, too.
Got to go now,
Bye
Shirley

Aloha! I'm John and just found this site a week or so ago and joined yesterday. I've been in Florida for about 15 years now but never did much more then keep containers. Mostly ti plants and plumerias. The ex got them in the divorce so last summer I decided to actually make a garden. I don't have a lot of practical knowledge, but I bought a lot of books and am a quick study.

I have the typical Florida soil that's 90% sand 10% teflon and 0% nitrogen. I've never seen waterproof dirt until I moved to Florida. I was told the constant rain ionizes the soil so that water can't pass through it well and that I need to ammend the soil with lime to fix it, but that seems kind of dangerous, especially since I don't know what quantity to use and I know what happens when you play with lime. I've been adding compost, sphagmun peat moss, blood meal, and a little fertilizer to try to turn this muck into quality flower beds. So far the plants seem to be happy.

Since I don't have the money for a massive landscaping project I've been making my own flower beds as I can and learn as I go. So far I have half the east fence in the backyard setup with a 4 foot bed, most of the south fence has a tiny 1-2 foot bed meandering along the fence-line, and a couple other spots are setup in self-contained areas. My next project is the north fence. I'm trying to grow everything from seed, or as close to it as I can so I can learn how each plant needs to be cared for. Its very rewarding to watch the seed grow into a plant which then takes a spot in the yard, flowers, and matures into a wonderful plant. I usually walk through the yard every morning and evening to check on the plants, see what's popped out of the ground or flowered, and curse the squirrels for tearing up my flower bed and killing another seedling.

I'd love to have a butterfly/hummingbird/bird garden. The problem? A hawk has spent several hours a week perched on my fence for the last 5 years and started nesting 2 lots down this year and I suspect that if I do manage to attract hummingbirds I'll simply be feeding the hawk.

Thanks for all the info and warm welcome. Hopefully in a year or so my yard will truly be a garden.

Hi, I'm Mary and I moved to Tampa 7 years ago from the Garden State. I have always loved plants with gigantic leaves and so Florida is a dream come true! When we moved down here, we sold all our gardening tools thinking we would buy a condo and have someone else do the work. Of course, that didn't happen so we had to re-buy all our gardening tools. lol!

Although our lot is small (50 x 100), it presents some challenges. We have four giant oak trees and lots of shade. I have one spot on the southwest corner of the house, that might be considered full sun and that's it. I have a potted Meyer Lemon in that spot because I just had to have a citrus plant (after all, it is Florida!).

In spite of our solar deficiency, we seem to have gotten some things to grow. My husband took a liking to ferns and so we are inundated with those crazy ferns that grow under oak trees, which he divides and transplants. Thank goodness he is starting to expand in different kinds of ferns! I am still learning (sometimes the hard way) about Florida plants. Here are some things I have learned: it's hard to grow grass in full shade; some roses don't need full sun; a lot of Florida plants have thorns (Bougainvillea, Crown of Thorns, Roebellini Palm) and I have been stuck by all of them; impatiens are a winter plant here; and last but not least, keep your ficus in your pots.

I really enjoy this forum (having lurked here for a while before posting) and hope to learn a lot more from all you wise Florida gardeners.

My name is Judi and I live in NE Florida on Amelia Island. I grew up in Tampa and Orlando. My husband & I have 2 sons, 2 great DILs and 4 grandkids. We share our house with a 15 year old African Grey parrot and a Bengal cat.
DH has always been an avid gardener. I worked in horticulture in Apopka for many years and hated to do yard work. Now I've come around and we spend most weekends in the yard.

My newest love is daylilies and DH loves everything!

Hello everyone! >>> My name is Linda and while I've lived in my home in Spring Hill over 6 years now, I just began to want to grow veggies and fruits this year. I have a wonderful hubby and five pretty kitties - who also love watching me work out in the yard from the screen room!

My property came with camphor trees, which smell great when you prune them - and a small patch of wild garlic. I'm starting to cultivate the garlic now instead of trying to kill it (trust me, the weedeater won't work!).

I'm going to start raised beds for veggies, and have a Meyer lemon and a Nagami kumquat tree - both are doing well in huge pots.

Looking forward to learning lots and lots from everyone here. My dad always had a garden when I was growing up, but that was back in Massachusetts!

My name is Dee and I live in Ocala (central FL). I started flower gardening about 4 years ago and now I am totally addicted to it. I work full time so only get to pull weeds on the weekend. My newest project is a fern area which I am planting lots of green stuff - different types of ferns, ivys, etc.
For the past three years I have been an impatient gardener and bought plants to put in. But this year I put in lots of seeds and am waiting not so patiently for everything to come up. I got started a bit late this year because of all our cold weather and didn't plant the flower seeds until two weeks ago.

I love this forum and especially the FL section!

Hello everyone, My name is Norman. I am a native Floridian, Born in Saraota and grew up in Bradenton. I am new to gardening. I grew up in a junk yard and the only thing we grew was black berries on the wines between the cars. My wife of 11 years now came from Ohio. She and my inlaws alyways had a farm and now still have a good size garden. We have 4 and 6 year old kids.
About 3 weeks ago we seen Tomato plants at Home Depot/Lowes. So we made a EarthTainer box and planted a better boy and a big beef tomato plant. Now that I have found this fourm we think that was a mistake. We had fun making, filling and planting and I was hoping that we would get some tomato to be proud of.
We have enough stuff to make a 2nd box and have been thinking about planting some cherry tomatos. It would go along way with the kids for something to grow. Maybe we should wait a few weeks and then start.
Anyay this a great fourm for Florida growers that dont know anything. Thanks for all of the info that you share.
Norman

Hi Norman and welcome to the forum!
You may have to replace those tomato plants a little later in the year but all the work you went through to set them up won't go to waste.
Kate

Thanks Kate, I did not want to just give up on them yet. This Wed. they will be 3 weeks old. They have double in size. I work 6 days a week and dont get to see how much sun they get. Yesterday I was trying to see, It looks like the sun hits them at about 1:00 and they are back in the shade about 4:00. The container does not get hot. I could move them for more or less sun. Any ideal on what might help?
Thanks Norman

I'd like to say hi to all the newcomers on this forum. I am originally from California and dh is from AZ. Although I am not new to GW, I am fairly new to FL. We moved to Clay County earlier this spring. My dh and I are medical travelers so we have lived and gardened in many different states in the US. We have 3 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats,a snake and a couple of crazy parrots. It has been fun to learn to try to grow different kinds of plants in different zones, soil, etc. I feel like I am always learning!
I like to grow tropical plants, read, hike, and fish. We are enjoying it here and looking forward to exploring more of this beautiful state.
~Lenette

Hi Everyone, I'm Pam and so glad to have found GW about a month ago. DH and I came to Orlando 3.5 years ago and after resurrecting our house finally began to tackle the overgrown yard. While we have also lived in WPB and Ft. Lauderdale and have gardened our way to New Zealand and back, central Florida and our shady, shady yard stumped us. I took the Master Gardener training and volunteer regularly but consider myself a novice gardener. I am the Garden Volunteer Coordinator at the Polasek Museum in Winter Park where I'm really getting a fabulous hands-on gardening education. (All comers welcome!) Flowers and herbs are the primary emphasis in my garden though I did a few tomatoes in tubs this Spring. I'm afraid if I had to rely on my produce production to survive, I would starve, therefore I read the veg threads with awe and inspiration. My family includes my DH, Glenn and our Elvis and Priscilla, rescue daschunds, who can dig up a plant faster than I can get it in the ground.

Hi My Name is Lorraine aka rainy. I moved from Northern NJ about 10 years ago.I love this site! It's the first place I come to in the morning with me tea ! I've learned so much from all of you great gardener's. I have a DH ( who HATES yardwork ) I don't he can understand why I get such a thrill from gardening. Oh well.It works for me LOL I have 3 kids 12.14 and 17. Two furry children a big white Labby who loves to roll in dirt and chew on my lemon grass and a black feist (a kind of southern squirrel dog) loves to chase lizards.I live in Jupiter about 10 minutes from beach.Hmm I'm also a chronic plant mover lol well I call it experimenting . Whenever I'm having a bad day or really stressed I love to go outside and just yank out those weeds by their naty little roots LOL.Whenever I come to this site I get so inspired!! I was a little worried at first thinking this was a site for mostly experienced and master gardeners ..I can't say enough good things!!

Hi,
I'm Chris and I garden in the Daytona Beach area. Quite the exciting change. I moved here to begin the new year last year. My prior experience is in zones 7 and 5. This is hardly the marriage between them.
As an open minded gardener, I'm enthused about those things that would not survive in my prior climes.
SandandSun refers to the fact that I garden on what a local traditionally published garden writer referred to as the old dunes. Soil it isn't; my neighbors call it sugar sand.
I'd enjoyed many a post and finally decided to join due to an enticing offer in December. Your individual knowledge has helped me; maybe mine will help someone too.
My reading tells me that some of you are extraordinary gardeners.
I'm happy to be in such company.

Welcome S&S! I'm a transplant from further north too and have faced some of the same issues you face. Not the sandy soil though - that's a serious challenge but I'm sure you'll find someone here who can help.

Can't believe you found this old post but I'm glad you did. I'm sure we have lots of new people since last July and maybe some of the others will introduce themselves too.

Kate

My name is Cheryl and I live in Spring Hill. I moved here from Massachusetts in August of 2004 and I was gung ho to learn Florida gardening. When I first moved here I worked a 40 hour week which unfortunately, due to the economy, has dwindled to 12 hours a week.

I joined Garden Web when I first moved here and I was wowed by the collective knowledge. I planted a ton of stuff that first year, most of it willy nilly, not having a clue how BIG stuff grows down here! Unfortunately, I have arthritis and it is has gotten progressively worse, to the point that I cannot really get up and down easily to plant, weed, etc. I have decided this year that I am going to try not to give in to this and get back into doing something I love, even if I am not the greatest at it. I live with my oldest daughter and her husband and family. My daughter is a workaholic and works 5 days and teaches 3 nights a week so I cook for the family a lot and pitch in on housekeeping.
I would love to meet some Garden Webbers in person though I am not nuts about a lot of highway driving. I also feel inadequate in the face of the knowledge I see on here! But I love reading all about your gardens and try to apply what I read. I like flower gardening (especially butterfly) as my attempts to grow tomatoes and peppers was a disaster here!

We are animal lovers and have four dogs and two cats. We came down here with a teacup chihuahua and a toy fox terrier and rescued a pitt bull mix (she's a mush) and another chihuahua. Our kitties were thrown from cars on a busy highway and rescued by friends of ours.

Hi all My name is Andrea and I'm a transplant from a small town in Western New York State, Mt. Morris. I came to Lakeland via Leesburg, Fl. Both my son and daughter moved to Fl about 18 yrs ago, so when I could retire I followed them here. My SO and I have two cats that adopted us from a cat shelter, Charlie and Ling.

The love of gardening has been with me almost all my life but it sure is different here. I have searched and lurked on GW and usually find my answers in past posts. Someday I hope to go to one of the plant swaps.

Hello. I'm Miranda, and I joined the forum shortly after Mary's(gatormom2) yard tour.(Very fun!)
My mom is happyflgardner. I grew up with plants, but only got serious about gardening the last year or so. I live in De Leon Springs, a semi-rual area that does not have a single traffic light that I know of. I have lived here for two and a half years. My main focus on gardening is veggies. I want to have the knowledge and experience with gardening to be able to provide my family with good, healthy foods.

Welcome Miranda and Andrew - it is great to neet you via this forum and I do hope to get to meet you in person soon. I have two kittens that are almost a year old that I adopted from one of the Garden webers here. They are Precious Angel and Pumpkon Spice and they rule the house. Their alter egos are Precious Devil and Pumpkin Evil. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Linda

Nice to meet you newbies and to hear from the "masters". I'm Irma in St. Petersburg. Bought my first house 8 years ago and had to try to grow "everything" for the first few years. A few things lived. The creeping fig is doing well in covering the outside of the house. When it does I'll probably find out it was a terrible mistake. When I retire (soon) I will have no excuse not to pursue creating my dream landscape.
Hasn't this "winter" been interesting?!

Hi Chris, Cheryl, Andrea and Miranda, nice to have you with us...why don't you come to Willy's BBQ in the Orlando area 2/21? Miranda, things could be worse, you could live in Waldo where even you would not be immune to traffic tickets if you slip up ;-)

Tom

Actually, my mom and I are going to the BBQ. I'm looking forward to it.

Cool! Can any of the rest of you make it?

Hello, I am Woods. I moved to Tallahassee in December from the D.C. area. I have planted a Meyer lemon, a mayhaw, and two pineapple guavas since we got here. There is an established satsusma. I spend a lot of time pulling up many many ardesia(sp?). This is a great site although most people who post messages seem to be more south than here.

Welcome, Woods! I like to hear how the northers :) garden. Makes me both envious and thankful.

JWnesmith,

Ok, I gotta ask, are we related? My father and grandparents grew up in the Plant City area. Dad's grandfather came down from Georgia sometime after the Civil War to farm an area outside Plant City that was called Springhead back then. Checking Googlemaps, I don't find a place called Springhead anymore, but I do find a cemetery and a park southeast of Plant City and very close to Nesmith Road, which is where my great-grandfather's house was. I think my great-grandfather's people were from around Valdosta, but I might be confusing that with another side of the family that also came down from Georgia.

I grew up in the DC area (Alexandria), but never met any Nesmith family up there.

Anyway, kin or not, welcome. And, of course, welcome to everyone else... I'm still quite the newbie here on the forum and in gardening, but I can say this is a great place for info on our unique gardening.

Susannah Nesmith
Miami

Hello I'm Joe. I'm originally from Kentucky,the big "O". I have spent the last 39 years freezing in MA. I just reired in January and will be shortly leaving for FL. I have selected Lake Worth as my final answer. I have been doing tropical house plants forever. I want to do it all outdoors. Reality will set in. I don't have enough sun here for veggies but I want to go for it down there. I'm sure I will have to tap on your expertise. I have an affinity for Pachypodiums which I was surprised to see growing in multiple yards in Lake Worth, and this was after your frost. I can't wait for my big adventure.

Hey, Joe! (Oooh...shades of Jimi Hendrix! I remember that song clearly. Okay, maybe not so clearly. There WAS that Purple Haze everywhere. How utterly ancient am I!!!!)

Anyway, Hey, Joe! Welcome to the forum. I hope you'll make as many great friends here as I have been lucky enough to do. I know you will learn all sorts of stuff. Collectively, this group has more knowledge about Florida specific gardening than you'll find anywhere I can think of.

Have fun!! I look forward to getting to know you better.

And to all you other newbies in this thread, welcome aboard. I've been away more than I've been here lately, so I've been remiss in greeting you all. Hope you're already having fun and learning new stuff, and sharing some of what YOU know.

Marcia

Hi Joe!
Is Moonlite BBQ still there in The Big O? OMG, that is some tasty q!!! I used to live in L'ville and traveled all over the state for my job. I never knew people ate mutton until I stopped at the Moonlite one day; after that I wondered why everybody didn't eat it every day! I know you've been able to find some good food in MA but I bet you still miss Moonlite. ....mmmmmmm, burgoo.....

Welcome to all the new newbees! Hope you can make some of the swaps this spring - don't worry about having anything to trade, just come and enjoy meeting people and seeing some beautiful gardens.

Kate

I suppose I should introduce myself. Well, my name is Jon, an go by jonny. Im a florida native and have been living here in the downtown orlando area all my life. I started a veggie garden a few years ago and have been growing the norms, though I have stepped it up this year and am also tackling flowers. Eventually I would love to sell my own produce at a local farmers market, but for now I just enjoy it myself, and usually end up giving some away to friends. I've been posting here for a week or so now, and you all have been extremely helpful, I just hope in time I can answer someone else's questions as throughly as you all have answered mine.

Jon

Welcome to the forum Jonny, from another central Florida native!

And welcome to Florida and to the forum Joe, in Lake Worth you'll definitely be able to do tropical! Enjoy.

Hello!! I am Jose and I'm also new to gardening. While my father has an amazing green thumb, mine is, well, not green yet.
My wife, Brandi and I live in Palm Bay, FL. We have a 6 mo. old baby (our 1st) and a 80 lb Boxer dog named Gunner.
I've been browsing this board for years but just recently decided to post since I have questions about my landscaping job I'm currently doing to my backyard (and eventually the front yard). So far I find it interesting and fun!!

WOOT!!

I was so surprised to see this thread today as I was creating an introductory post in my mind on my way home from work today. I realized that I jumped in a while back with a lot of hummingbird information without ever offering any introduction and figured it might be appropriate.

I'm Steve and live in Valrico (about 20 miles east of Tampa - east of Brandon) with my wife and 9 year old son. We're down to 3 cats, all indoors. Rowdy was my cat for 21 years before she passed away a couple of years ago, blind and with high blood pressure.

I'm more of a grower than a gardener. Most of what I grow is to supplement mother nature. I plant what the critters need, mainly birds and butterflies. We've planned the initial layout of the flowerbeds but in the end, things grow where they want to.

My growing started out on an apartment balcony because I wanted to attract hummingbirds.
{{gwi:837993}}

We bought our home in 2000 and gradually began creating a home for hummingbirds. In 2005, I created a webpage showing before and after photos of my yard. It's at: http://rowdy13.tripod.com/hummeryard.html
The photos aren't the best but you get the idea of what went into my yard. I was recently asked about flowerbeds and my response was that I see the whole yard as my flowerbed. This photo was taken earlier this year.
{{gwi:837996}}

Early on, I killed many a fuchsia and columbine trying to force my favorite northern plants to grow here but finally decided to reduce my stress and just let grow what wants to grow with as little effort as possible.

Steve Backes
Valrico, FL

Well, hi there, Steve! Nice to know a bit more about you. That's quite the balcony garden you have there, and your new garden looks great, too. I love that you are planting primarily for critters! That's super! And it takes a lot of stress away when you don't worry overmuch about what you plant...just what you want to come visit it.

Thanks for sharing!

Marcia

I'm CJ and I live in Mount Dora (just north of Orlando). I grew up in south east Texas, weather a lot like central Florida but very different dirt. I lived in the "north" (Ohio and north Georgia) long enough to really appreciate Florida. I have two indoor cats and one mostly indoor husband. We lived here about 15 years ago (same house) and moved back last summer when I retired. I love tropicals but am concentrating on native plants for my outdoor garden. I also collect orchids and gingers. I love this forum: other forums and magazine articles seem to neglect the far south.

Hi I'm Phyllis and I love this site and, I love this forum, and I love this thread. These are new words to me and I love throwing them around. I live in Archer, just west of Gvlle. on the way to Cedar Key. My DH[whatever that means] live in the country on five acres. Due to health issues that are now being resolved I can do some real gardening again. Oh that's a joke because, I never was really good at it. I do a lot of container gardening and love herbs but have never had any luck getting the
perrinials to come back except one lavender povence that lasted for two seasons. I should have overwintered it indoors.
Aromatic plants are important to me
because I make pot pourri and other "smelly" things. I dry most of my herbs and flowers in a dehydrater but have used other methods I am retired now but used to work at Michaels as the event coordinator and jewelry instructor so I'm all about crafts. If any of you have the same interests please let me know.

I wil also be starting annuals, new perrinials( enlarging gardens]. My husband will have a veggie garden if we keep
the deer out of it. Sometime ask me about my beloved sweet bay that used to be 3 ft tall and is now 3 inches tall.

It's been nice meeting you all.

Phyllis

Hi Joe, Jon, Jose, Steve, CJ and Phyllis, don't be shy, jump in and you'll be the richer for it, what I've always said about this group is that you'll quickly get the experience of what would have been similar to a dozen octogenarians taking you under their wing and sharing their secrets with you! Welcome aboard.

Tom

Jose - you must be a special person - you have a boxer !! We are boxer lovers and have had many throughout the years - all rescue dogs . What a challenge a rescue boxer can be !! As if gardening this year is not difficult enough !

Our latest boxer rescue was kept at a wholesale nursery as a guard dog . Now that's a joke right there ! So now any time I go out to do some gardening , this boxer goes bonkers with barking at me . Lord only knows what was done to this poor guy by the workers at the nursery .

Welcome to all the dog and cat lovers . I have both or should I say they own us . Gardening and love of animals seems to go hand in hand .

Hi I am Jay and live in West Palm Beach. I have been posting but never introduced myself - well better late than never. I am into the edibles - If I can't eat it I am not planting it. Similarly If I can't eat it I am not feeding it - so much for pets.
I grew up in Guyana so I am accostomed to the hot weather - the soil here sucks. I do indulge in a lot of the asian vegetables also. My problem - I just cant throw away a healthy plant so I always end up growing more than I need.
I work at nights with a strap on light - it is cooler and that is when I have the time. I work with numbers during the day and I am also a master gardener.

I'm W.T. (Wally) and my wife is Gini. We're both Florida natives but spent a couple of decades in upstate New York, Maryland, Texas and Germany courtesy of the U.S. Air Force. We have gardened a bit in each of those locations. Gini has ten green fingers and I like the smell of dirt, so we're a great combination!

We currently live in Lakeland and have desolate front and back yards but are busy trying to change that! A few container vegetables is all we have at the moment but hope to have space prepared for a fall garden and we're about to start acquiring flowers.

Thanks for all on this forum who contribute such a wealth of knowledge and experience!

It's nice to be here.

WT

WOW, look at all these newbees! Welcome aboard! We were all newbees at one time! I will say that everyone on here has been helpful and I really enjoy the Florida Forum!