Don't forget most extension offices also do soil testing.
You can bring in a bug to ID or a sealed baggy with some chewed up leaves to get help.
They also have a Speakers Bureau and you can hear lectures or get them to come to an outing and speak for you.
Ours gives rain barrel workshops also.
If you have time on your hands and would like to volunteer the Master Gardening Course is great to take. Due to the economy most have suffered painful cutbacks and layoffs and would appreciate the help.
We are getting ready for our Christmas party where we exchange garden related gifts,,,, FUN!
And yes the website is fantastic. Just google IFAS(Institute of Food and Agricultural Services) and you will find it.

Hi Heather,

I'm in the Cape also, and have just started gardening with herbs and veggies. I'm determined to try it all organically, and it seems to be working "so far". Where did you find the extension? Is there one in the Cape? Or - gasp - is it across the bridge ?

Laura

Hi, Laura. It seems that the Lee County extension is off Palm Beach. I'm linking to their website below. Lots of great info. I think I'll see if they will come out and test my soil and maybe help identify a few plants and let me know if I should be concerned about the location of a few of them.

Good luck with your gardening! It'll probably be spring before I can really 'garden'. Right now I am trying to clean up the weeds and overgrowth that have taken over the place while it sat unattended!

Heather

Here is a link that might be useful: Lee County Extension

Another Cape Coral gal here also, raised in N. Ft. Myers. :) The Lee County extension office is at Terry Park on Palm Beach Blvd. I am trying to grow as chemically free as possible; it's working well for me too at this point. I'm growing a lot of veggies and herbs, trying to be more self-sufficient on my little 1/4 acre. I grow mostly in containers; I don't have nearly as many bugs as when I plant in beds in the yard.

Louise

Hi Louise and Heather,

I'm growing in containers, also, on my lanai with southern exposure.

Have you heard of the ECHO Global Farm Research & Learning Center right here in NFM?! It looks like a really cool place and they give tours. They have a whole section for Urban Rooftop Gardening, so I think I'm going to go check them out. They also sell seed! I attached the link to their site.

Laura

Here is a link that might be useful: ECHO

Hi, guys! Yep, Louise, you probably guessed from the online name that I, too, was raised in NFM. Just recently relocated a few miles to NE Cape.

I currently only have a pepper plant growing in a container, but have been contemplating more. However my yard came with a small raised be with southern exposure, so I am going to try that, too, and see which way I have more success.

I am also trying to go as organic and natural as possible, so we'll see how that goes, considering the caterpillar problem that I have here. Either of you have those white cats that make the cocoons all over the side of your house? They're driving me nuts!
{{gwi:985184}}

Yeah, I've passed by ECHO a couple of times when going down Bayshore, and finally got around to looking them up on the internet a month or so ago. I also came across them again when trying to learn more about the moringa in my yard. ECHO did an article on how the moringa may be one of the key players in solving world hunger. Interesting. They have a lot of great info, and I'd love to take a tour there sometime.

Take care girls!

Heather

I toured ECHO several years ago, I've actually been there twice. It's a very interesting place and they do a lot of important work. I have been wanting to go to the Edison Home's garden shop and maybe buy some plants propagated from the ones that Thomas Edison grew himself - have you been there lately? I am a bit late in getting my veggies in, but I have tomato and cucumber seeds planted along with lettuces and herbs. I also have lots of aloe plants that I keep dividing, one of them is a "pass-along plant" from my aunt that she got from her uncle many years ago. :) I want to plant more flowers to attract birds and bees...lots of seeds but haven't gotten around to that yet.

Louise

Hi, Louise! Other than going to see the Christmas lights once, I haven't been to the Edison Home since I was a kid. I've been saying lately that I need to go again, so that I can now see it through an adult's eyes. I don't remembering hearing that there is a garden shop there. That would be neat to get plants that he grew! I know that a lot of their plants were damaged or destroyed in Charley. I wonder how their gardens look now.

Can you believe that aloe seems to be one plant that I canNOT grow well? My aloe plant is so pale and pitiful looking. I don't know why. I don't water it, except a drizzle every now and then. Mainly let the rainwater keep it watered. Being a succulent, I assume that it shouldn't be watered much? It's in the sun. Not sure why aloe can't thrive under me, considering it seems to be about the easiest thing to keep alive by everyone else!

I, too, hope to have a garden to attract lots of birds and bees-- and butterflies, too! Oh, so much work to do! Right now there is a huge flock of grackles in the neighborhood that keep wiping me out of bird seed. They will go through an entire bird feeder in an hour. I may have to wait until the grackles head back up north before I can regularly keep the feeder full. Otherwise they will eat me out of house and home!

Heather

I just went to the Edison House in late October! It was fun but a little pricy to do the tour. They do have a small area where they have put out plants to sell, but they are things grown by the botanist there that are plants you see on the grounds. I don't think they're propagated from Edison's original plantings...though maybe the ficus they have was started from his giant Banyan tree there. They say it was shipped to him by a friend and at the time of planting it was a 4' twig. If you've seen it now...well...let's just say it's much bigger! Anyway, they didn't have a big selection, but I got my Devil's Backbone there--it was one of the nicest looking plants they had, and it's doing fabulously at home now!