I am sooo sorry! I did not understand the love of plants until I got a house with a big yard and grew attached to certain things. My hubby transplanted a few items and when they died, I was kind of mad at *him* for doing it!

I am a 3rd generation native Miamian, so I am used to this weather and stuff. My mom is big into genealogy and when she traced our roots back to Georgia, she went to visit relatives and brought back a dogwood tree. She watered it and messed with it...and cried so hard when it finally died.

Anyway, don't have any advice or tips or anything, just want to say that I am sorry, and from one "dirty" to another...that sux!

Sorry to hear that, but it happens to everyone, we all lose a few plants here and there. You just gotta try again, and hope for the best.
Siam

Well maybe it is time to figure out what works for your garden. I am not terribly educated on gardening so I rely on trial and error. One thing neither me or the weather have managed to kill for example is cuban oregano. It survived months with ZERO care. I simply take a cutting and stick it in the soil and mostly it survives. It smells amazing and can be used in cooking. It may or may not survive in your garden but you need to find 'your own cuban oregano':-) One think that helped for me was to walk around the neighborhood and look at what was planted in the gardens of the oldest houses and those in gardens that did not seem to get lots of care.

Best.

Take it to Babylon and make yourself some hanging gardens. :) or a Bamboo trellis with something like Morning Glories to run over the top to provide some shade/cover.

I was at the Botanical Gardens in Gainsville yesterday and they've got 8-10' pieces of bamboo from $1-$2.

I didn't have room to bring them back this time but will go back and get a bunch! Gonna build a wall to shield the back patio/house walls with easy to grow Morning glories etc with em.

Take heart - I console myself over the loss of carefully tended plants by considering the NEW things I might get to replace them - & reminding myself it's a learning process...

Oh, dear. Please don't give up! I was so sick last year I thought I was going to die. I gave away alot of my plants. I didn't die. I am alive and happy if not totally well. Get yourself some more plants and keep trying. Try something different. If you grow in pots, grow something in the ground instead and visa versa. I pray that things will grow better for you!

Hang in there, Dirty. Sorry about your lost plants but something will always work in your yard. I've killed more plants than you can imagine before finally being realistic about my growing conditions (my yard gets brutal afternoon sun) and trial and error has resulted in a pretty nice looking yard.

Everyone is better with certain plants. For me, geraniums are a waste of my time. Were the coonties in pots? They grow wild all over FL. Put them in the ground and forget about them. Don't water, don't fertilize. Do nothing. They're even in the mediums near me and get nothing but mowed over in the spring. Hang in there.

Sorry for the rant against Gainesville. It's not a bad place, but I've just lost so much in the last few years -- my job, my house, my car, all my retirement money -- that my plants were all that kept me going. Of course, I lost plants every year at my old place, so I don't have a clue why I didn't expect to lose any here. I still have plenty, it's just that the ones I lost meant something to me. The geranium is one from a dear friend who was like a mother to me, who passed away this year. She gave me one every year, and I killed it. I had managed to keep this one alive for three years (this species are tender perennials), and now she's gone and it's gone, and I'm just sad about it.

I don't really have a "yard" -- I have a patio in back of an apartment, and actually, I have no sun at all here. What's making me craziest is the freaking noisy neighbors upstairs. I am not used to being in an apartment with noisy neigbors. My house was very quiet, in a very quiet neighborhood. The noise just rubs my nerves raw. They have been quieter since I banged on the ceiling yesterday and let fly with a few choice words. Hey one, can only take so much of two young French students copulating in the LR right above my head! They have two perfectly good BR's! LOL

Every day, someone is talking about or posting pics of some plant I had to leave behind, and it makes me so sad. I never thought I'd miss my yard and plants this much. They were an awful bother when I had them.

Gainesville seems to have a lot of little cottages for rent, so next May, when this lease is up, I'm going to try to find one with a little yard to it so I can garden outdoors again. I think that a tiny little yard is what I need to be happier; not big enough to be a major bother, but big enough to grow a few veggies and some outdoor plants. This new life is just hard to adjust to. I haven't lived in an apartment with no yard for 25 years.

That sounds like a good plan. I hope you are able to find a nice cottage with some sun and some shade in the yard. I couldn't live in an apartment either.
Marcia

Go visit Kanapaha & see how fantastic there plants grow, talk to them, I live out in Old Town & trying to garden in this sand is not for the faint hearted, its all about soil or the lack of it & water!

dirtygardener73:

One of my colleagues went through the same ordeal as you.. loud apartment with loud neighbours... She then managed to move into a community for residents over 50 years of age. She loves it. She says it is super quite and she loves the friends she is making. This maybe an option to check.

Best,

So sorry to hear about your friend and that poor geranium. Intellectually, you can tell yourself "there will be other plants and friends" but it just takes time to mourn and get through the pain. Good idea to rant and let it get out of yourself.

I lost my house with a huge garden that I spent years forging from the grass in OH '06 and had to move to an apartment where there was no place to even have pots outside. My family and friends came and dug what they wanted out of the garden but I was left with nothing but a few house plants in regard to gardening. I had noisy, mean, rude people with 4 kids upstairs, and somebody is hopefully doing a scientific study on those folks because they never slept. True freaks of nature. It was so dark, depressing, and noisy in that place - the worst year of my life.

While all of that was going on, I was also busy being pregnant/having a baby and my parents moved 800 miles away to take care of elderly relatives. When the lease was up, I spent the last money I had to rent a little truck, put what few items I could save in it, and dragged everything to AL to be closer to my family down here. I've had to learn all new plants and "seasons" and am still trying to adjust to the heat, and some of my houseplants that I'd had for decades were killed in various ways. But I've recovered and the past few years have been the best yet. Hopefully you will make some great new friends like I did and forge a new niche in your new environment. When you are really down, there is nowhere to go but up. Just hang in there, keep your mind open to new ideas and experiences, and you will "find yourself" again. If you try, and let people "in" to help you, you can make a life for yourself that you enjoy. Your idea to find a quieter place with little a ground space to garden is good. That's what I did. Actually, my yard is really big and I hate mowing it, but I know that's what allows me to "play" in the garden beds, and I've been converting more and more grass into beds.

If you are looking for the positive, you will find it. If you are looking for the negative, you will find that instead. When I moved here, I was not in a good mood and basically just very unhappy (nothing to do with the location, just the condition of my life at that point) but was lucky to find a this place and a job right away and just pretended like I was happy when at work or when talking to my neighbors. The people around me were sympathetic and commended me on "handling things so well." But inside I just felt like crying. But once I got used to it, it was like a habit I had learned. And I started to notice how happy people were to see me. Seeing their smiles and hearing them say stuff like "Good morning smiley" started to make me feel less pain, and then I started feeling good for real again. I also realized that without cable TV, I listen to a lot more music, which always elevates my mood. What can you do more of that...

Have you checked around to see if there are any community gardens that allow anyone to come in and have their own plot? We have a beautiful one here (well, in the very next community of Spring Hill) and it is wonderful for people who don't have their own space and gives them a chance to enjoy and show off their gardening skills and also to meet other like-minded people.

Dirtygardener, Some have already said it. Go to Kanapaha and volunteer. They would love to have your help and they are nice folks to know, especially if you are new in town.

Or, here's the link for the Gainesville community garden program. http://www.cityofgainesville.org/GOVERNMENT/CityDepartmentsNZ/NatureOperationsDivision/CommunityGardens/tabid/183/Default.aspx

Hang in there. Your neighbors do sound like a nightmare. Ugh!

Dirtygardener, you have alot of company here, and alot of company who have dug themselves out of the emotional loss of a beloved garden. Many here have suffered through job loss, loss of home, loss of loved ones. We eventually do find our way back into the sunshine, and you can too.

I know some have suggested volunteer work in a community garden. It's a great idea. Or, what about checking out the global movement of Guerrilla Gardeners? Some communities have so much need for some greening up, and some will surely welcome your expertise.

We've all lost plants, more than I can count, on my end. I think some of the more successful gardeners here in the deep south have lived in their homes long enough to have some established shade-giving trees and plantings. Those without any shade at all have the brutallest conditions, for sure. I've lost a couple of fruit trees here this past Winter, in the drought. I tried so hard to keep things watered, but there's only so much one can do, when the landlord doesn't want to repair the sprinkler system. And I'm not about to pay for supplies and labor to fix the thing myself. So I grow in pots, and they are mostly in shady areas, where I have some chance of keeping them alive, even thriving.

Hook up with other people, not just gardeners. What were your hobbies in good times? Can you offer some expertise to a scouting group, or through some of the local associations? It's always amazing how friendships become just that more interesting when one discovers some common interests, previously not shared. If you were local, we would surely snag you for a garden swap. Just do it!

Randy

I can't volunteer at Kanapaha because I have no car and the bus doesn't go close enough. I was offered a community garden plot, but again, have no car and the walk is through a bad neighborhood. Plus, I'd lose it in the summer, because with my lupus, I can't even go outside in the heat, much less garden and they take it away if you don't work it. Nope, I'm done with outdoor gardening. I'd rather learn to knit. Maybe I'll get back into growing African Violets. They're lots of fun. The bible says to everything there is a season, so I guess my gardening season is over. I'm really enjoying not having to spend time out in the weather taking care of a yard. I don't think I could ever get back into that. Guess I'm just getting lazy in my old age.

Yes, to everything there is a season, DG. I let my garden get too big here in PA, so as much as I love my beautiful roses, clematis, etc., it's too much for me now that I'm retirement age. I'm looking forward to the day in the next few years that we'll downsize or move to Florida full time. (My Florida yard is much smaller!) Indoor gardening can be very rewarding, too. I'm sure you'll find a way to enjoy your time.
Marcia

Hope things will get better. Are you near UF? That's our major AG school, think they have a whole hydroponics/indoor garden. Wonder if you could help out there whenever you get an itch. Then it's not a commitment like a community garden.

I feel your pain about those neighbors! I tried to go to UF a few years back and I lasted for all of three months, broke my lease and moved to Tampa where it was quieter lol. I think they should warn people over the age of 21 that Gainesville is only for the young or young at heart who can stay up all hours, or for those with a TON of patience. I was none of the above and became incredibly depressed before I finally scraped up and got the heck out of there! I was two blocks from campus and I thought it was the most horrible place in the world - still do :)

Chrissy

Time changes our interests and what we are able to do. I finally have the time to do and it's hard to do much. I have Fibromyalgia, vertigo and sleep apnea. Plus lots of aches and pains. I'm not complaining and I don't want sympathy. I just thought I would be working all my life and not forced to quit. I'm just getting so I enjoy not having to work. Still trying to find a way to earn some money. I'm waiting to hear the judge's decision for Disability. That would sure help out alot. I'm used to pinching and saving and doing without, but this is getting ridiculous! I just started growing Af. violets from cuttings, it's so much fun! Good luck to you! I hope you find your niche soon!

I'm bumping this back up because I've been through so much since I wrote this. I left Gainesville in Jan. of 2012, lived back in SW Florida until May of 2014, then moved back here to give it another chance. Had a bad landlord at my first leased house, and now I've found a great apartment with a lovely courtyard and a 5' x 30' strip of yard I am allowed to garden. I'm finally happy and ready to settle in.

Had a garden plot at McCrorie community garden for awhile, and loved it, but had to give it up when I moved here. No community gardens around here, but I have the courtyard and at 11' x 14', that should be enough.

Oh my! Those noisy neighbors at my first apartment here were HORRIBLE! The house I lived in prior to this was in a very noisy place too, which is why I am here. It's so quiet and tranquil here. I have just enough space for me and my gardening without overtaxing myself. I'm within a mile of all the shopping I could ever want, and a new super-WalMart and Sam's Club going up as I write that will be open next year.

It's been a very rough time since 2008 when Iost my job, and it's taken me a long time to find a place to settle, but I think I have found it now. I think I will be in this place for a very long time.

Hi dirtygardener

I am glad to hear that things are working out for you and found a good place to be and space for gardening. Life has some ups and downs but the best thing to do is to be optimistic, keep us updated.

Silvia

Dirtygardener, brava to you for surviving all the transplanting. May you bloom beautifully in your new home.