Do you paint them white?

No, I paint them various colors, sometimes depending on what they will be used for. Like today I painted an old fabric softener bottle green because it is used to hold my 'Worm Wee Fertilizer'. I don't have a system of any kind, just whatever strikes my fancy... which often times means Rustoleum's Lagoon blue paint. I love that hue.

I've noticed this too, and not just with tools. Plants that are commonly planted in full sun need part shade. Part shade plants do better in near full shade. Some full sun plants roast in the sun. Everything usually needs more water and less sun than northern plant guides say.

Throw everything you ever knew about "northern"gardening out the door.You guys ever hear of Alys Clancey?She wrote a book in the 70's.Mike in lady lake-you may really like.She lived in Daytona.It is great info for Daytona.A oldie, but things have not changed.Has alot of good info.

Dirty is right as to the reason "our sun" is so brutal here vs up north. That's also why most plants whose provenance is up north don't do well down here. And why transplants find out the hard way that those cherished plants they carefully bring with them from up north don't last long.

Our sun is the only sun I know, so it has been hard for me to realize that the one size fits all description of plant care I find on tags just simply does not apply for my backyard.

I'd say it's the more direct angle, not distance from the sun...that's responsible for this effect in Florida and points south.

Definitely the angle. In terms of distance, the sun is so far away a few paltry hundred miles closer to the equator makes no appreciable distance. Climate matters too - everything is warmer already, so the air cools the plants less.

I didn't mean we were closer to the equator. I meant that we were closer to the sun. Imagine a huge ball cut in half, placed flat-side down with a light bulb over it. The top of the curve is closer to the light bulb than the other parts, with the light getting further and further away as you go down from the top. Which part do you imagine would get hotter? That is how we are closer to the sun. And yes, the angle. Again, the top of the ball would get more direct light, and the angle would change as you go down the sides. We are not only closer to the sun, but we have a more direct angle of sunlight. O.K., science lesson over. I don't really know all the scientific jargon to explain it. That's as close as I can get.

I understand what you mean, but the sun is 93 million miles away from the earth. At that extreme distance, being a thousand miles more or less away makes no difference whatsoever in terms of the light or heat.

You are right about the curve of the earth mattering though. Imagine the sun as a spotlight shining directly on the equator. If I stand right under it I get hit by more of the light than if I am way north. There the light spreads more because of the curve of the surface. If that makes no sense, I got this from a legit site:

On earth, the equator receives more sunshine than do the poles. This is due to simple geometry of the earth's curvature, a given amount of sunshine in a beam falling on the equator, which points directly at the sun, has a much more intense effect than the glancing rays spread over a much larger area of the curving surface near the poles

...but, but, but...as summer in the northern hemisphere comes on, guess which part of N. America is more directly angled at Sol? Yes, the northern latitudes, where daylengths get very long. Same doesn't happen nearer the equator. It's all about that tilt on its axis this planet has. And when I'm bored, I like to think about that. Imagine the collision or whatever it was that was able to knock a pretty good-sized planet off-kilter! And if it happened once, it can happen again. Whoo boy!

Hah hah hah. And here I was just trying to say, "It's Florida! You might want to protect your stuff people!"

Leave it to me...........

No harm, no foul as far as I am concerned. I just found it a little amusing. And a tad educational, though mostly it just reminded me of stuff that I had learned in Earth Science and Geology back in the day. And apparently forgotten.

Haha my bad. I love the science, and it helps me understand my garden better.

so bear with me or ignore the rest of this post, either way. :)

Its about the curve, and the tilt. The surface of the globe makes up a 90 degree arc from equator to North Pole. I'm rounding, but the earth tilts about 20 degrees. Florida is about 20 degrees above the equator, and points north even more so. So for example, Wisconsin is at about 40 degrees. obe way of looking at it is that the sun then will be 2x as intense on average over the year in Florida as it is in Wisconsin. Another way of looking at it is that in the middle of summer a garden in Wisconsin gets light at the same intsensity a Florida garden gets mid-fall or mid-spring. Or, a Florida midsummer is about as intense as an average day at the equator. Or, a Florida winter day is about as intense as an average Wisconsin day in day March or September.

I leave all the science aspects to the posters before me.:) Many, many moons ago I lived few minutes from the equatorial line, where you can stand with one feet in the north and the other in the south, the weather is temperate like 70 everyday of the year. In my house we grew a lot of plants, flowers, fruit trees and herbs, not tropicals because those grow around the other parts where it is warmer. There is no need for air conditioner or heater in the houses and there is light rain for the plants, gardening is easy.....

Silvia

That sounds like paradise...

Sounds like Hawaii. Except for the equator bit. I learned a long, long, LONG time ago from a trivia question on a packet of oatmeal: "What two states never see temperatures over 100 degrees?" I thought "Alaska and..." and purely to be a smartbutt, I added, "Hawaii". Turned out I was right. That was back in the 80's, I am not sure if that still holds true today.

I think you've neatly summed it up, oldmangroot. To wit, my last full day in Florida, abut two weeks ago Monday...lots of locals were complaining about the cool weather. Me, I was excited to do some more exploring. Long story very much shortened, i ended up at the Estero River Preserve. At one point about mid-day, i found myself sitting on a bench overlooking the river. I ate my sandwich and actually dozed off for a few minutes, with the sun peeking out every so often warming things nicely. That felt exactly like a fall day around here.

Sometime I'll tell you guys about the bear....if you're interested.

Bear?!? Come on, you can't leave us hanging like that...