No WAY! I thought you were a Floridian through and through. I wish you the best in selling your home and in your move. Colorado is fantastic.

Barbie

Good bye Ricky I hope you love your new place. Pop in and let us know how it goes.

Hey Ricky, we got you beat in Alabama(especially with the politics)! Enjoy Colorado. Too bad I don't want to give up my kids and grandkids, I'd be right behind you.

Ricky, I will miss your professional advice, even if it is for out-of-my-zone. Great reasons for leaving, though! Hope you enjoy "growing your own" there, if you're into that!

Best wishes and best of luck Ricky! Tho I don't post much any more, I do still read any post with your name on it. Your no nonsense approach to gardening [ I remember your "Free Yourself From the Tyranny Plants" article} has always been spot on and now I am kicking myself for never making one of your swaps back in the good old days.

Ricky,

All the best with your home sale and your move. You have great reasons for leaving....you must do what is best for you. Please keep us updated on the move. We'll miss you.

Rhonda

I certainly agree with you regarding the extreme stupidity of our state government. I believe Colorado is better in that respect.

In any state, however, it is one's friends and family that matter most.

Happy trails to you.

Don't get lost in a cloud of smoke:)

Oh, Ricky, I'll miss you! Even though we never met in person and I never got to Swapaque, I feel like I know you. (At one time, I did read most everything on your site, so I kinda do know you, LOL.) I guess this explains the 20 clay pots that had to go.

I hope you have a smooth move out west and enjoy your wonderful new adventure!

Please post into this forum now and again!

Carol in Jacksonville

To be honest, I don't blame you lol. I don't know if I will stay here either. You will be missed though, so if you get the hankering to grow a few tropicals please post here. I love Colorado and the west in general. I miss hiking in the Rocky Mtns.

We lived outside Yellowstone Park in WY for a couple years. I can tell you, it was so awesome but I love to hike, ride, camp, and fish etc. We could drive 50 miles sometimes and never see another human. There was no Walmart anywhere near us then. We had to drive to either Casper, WY or Billings, Montana (a long ways) to go to a Walmart or a mall of any sort. You never left town without topping off your gas tank. I came close to hitting moose and deer which would run out into the highway. Saw black bears and antelope on the hill behind our house not to mention mountain lions. When we would go hike and fish on the North Fork of the Shoshone River we would see Grizzly tracks and Big Horn sheep running up the side of the mountains. Great trout fishing there..Brook, Cutthroat, and Rainbow were plentiful. I need to plan another trip up there lol.

Every truck had a gun rack w rifles shotguns etc in the back window and a dog (usually a Australian Shepherd) in the back. When we drove down through rural Colorado there was much of the same except Denver which is a big big city. You will still have a lot of wildlife just different kinds. I always liked shoveling snow but the winters are really really long for me and the wind is bitter cold.

Aww no! I've learned so much from You! And I'm pretty sure many of my plants are still alive because of you!

Please post here later and show us your new garden!

So sorry to lose a great florida gardener and your insights to growing. Hope all goes well in your new adventures.

but about the idiots in state government? they are everywhere. there is not escape!

;-)

Ricky,

I hope you have fun on your next adventure. Colorado is supposed to be a great state with mountains, parks, and springs. It was a great pleasure to have met you and I am thankful for the advice you shared with us in forum. I hope when you settle into your new place you can share a picture of you new landscape. :)

Julianna in Fort Myers

Wow, I didn't realize you were planning to go soon! Well, I'm sure you'll love Colorado--it's so beautiful. I wish you all the best out there. In this market your house should sell pretty quickly.

The house in the middle of the garden.

Best of luck to you Ricky. The great thing about the internet is you are always close by. The bad thing about stupid politics is it can all change with one election.

Craig

I am sorry to see you go but I hope the move is the right one for you and your family. Please stop in. We moved here from the intermountain west to escape the snow and the even worse politics of one of your neighboring states.

Good luck in your home sale and your move.

Ricky make sure you keep in touch and come back and visit! You will be missed!

Helen

That's funny I just saw this AD in a Colorado forum

"After 19 years here, we're moving on, going to where there are no winters. Our house went on the market last night and as soon as it sells, we'll pack up and head south east to Florida.

The cold, the snow, the snowbirds, the garden maintenance, and did I mention the crazy winter cold? have all gotten to me. Add to that the extreme level of stupidity that's rampant in our state government and I can't justify staying here any longer."

Best of luck Ricky, I am a longtime "lurker" and very rare poster and have enjoyed your many posts and have learned from your experience... Thank you

I completely understand your desire to leave as I have left South Florida 3 years ago as well (after 32 years) due to the heat, the traffic, people congestion and need for more open space. I could not drag my wife too far away from number one grandson, so we opted for north florida. I take my cold spells one week at a time when I go skiing.... toodles...

Ha! That's too funny! Like they say, "the grass is greener on the other side" but in this case I have a feeling it's a different kind of "grass" that is beckoning. I can hear John Denver's words to "Rocky Mountain High" drifting in already.

But you will have pitty on us stuck with bugs and heat and check in on us every once in a while?!?

I can't say I'd blame anyone who needs marijuana for medical reasons for leaving the state and going where its more acceptable. Even if it is/was/is (who knows what will happen) medically legal here, there is and probably will be too much bs to go through to even get it.

My FIL died of pancreatic cancer years ago and he was really sick. He was too nauseous to eat and lost over 100lbs. They gave him everything for nausea and nothing worked. His friend gave him some 'pot' to smoke because it had helped his wife when she had cancer. It really worked for him and although he eventually died, he had a much better quality of life and gained weight and had way less hospital admissions. He lived 2 years longer than his doctors said he would and got to see 2 of his grandsons come into this world.

Amazing how FL can pump out the opiates in the pill mills getting everyone addicted but can't get it right to give sick people something less addicting to actually help them.

Ricky, I wish you the best in your future move and projects! We all have to find happiness somewhere. We will miss your expertise on the forum...

Silvia