Florida Summer Gardening is HOT!

Here we are in the early August sunshine trying to work in our central Florida garden! Whew. I did manage to plant about 3-4 dozen campanulas for next spring's blooms. But with the heat we have right now, they may be toast. Heat index for today is to reach 104 degrees. Too hot to do much of anything except wilt under the blast.

The zinnias planted back in, I think it was May, are doing just all right. The marigolds I started from seed look dazed and confused. I put sunflower seeds in some liner trays, they sprouted, but look as though they'd rather be in Alaska right about now. But then after all, this is the hottest time of the year here in our central Florida garden.

We did receive the balance of our poinsettia order which is about another 50 plants. We are going to try to pot them up this weekend in 4" pots from the liner trays they arrived in. That way they can put down good roots. This year we will be more diligent about covering them in the evening to ensure they get the required number of dark hours so they turn their color earlier. We didn't do that last year, and the poinsettias didn't color out until into late December. By January though, they were spectacular which didn't help us for our Christmas display!

Scott and I have talked a number of times over the last few years about creating and keeping a central Florida gardening journal for real people, and we have at last begun that journey. For a bit over a month now, we've been listing out what we did in the garden for the previous week, the plants we ordered, seeded or planted. We also list when we fertilize, with the type and amount of fertilizer spread, when we put out insecticide for the FIRE ANTS!!!!! GR-R-R-R....we hate them! And we list things such as when we prune certain plants, the areas we tried to grow certain plants and the results we enjoyed (or not!). So, we'll see if we can keep up the discipline of the weekly diary. Who knows, we may turn it into a blog all by itself, or even start writing our results out here.

How to Grow Summer Flowers in Central Florida Garden

The foxgloves and delphiniums have withered despite the deadheading and extra care given to keep them vibrant. Summer in central Florida gardens is pretty brutal for most of the cottage garden variety flowers. The trick here for the foxgloves and delphiniums is to make sure they don't dry out in the very sandy soil. We regularly add mulch, fertilize, and, I think most importantly, we try to put these northern beauties in places where the midday or afternoon sun is cut by the tree canopy. But by the midsummer time when the sun is the highest in the north, even our shaded areas are reduced. So we have replaced the delphiniums and foxgloves with zinnias, salvia and the small trailing petunias.

Hollyhocks, though, are another story. They seem to thrive in almost anyplace we put them. In fact, they drop seeds and sprout volunteers in some of the most unlikely places. We look at these baby plants as a windfall and carefully transplant them to areas where they can grow. We did find that they like areas of the yard that are on the dry side, but they still need some watering if we don't get rain for a few days during the heat of the summer. Otherwise, these hollyhocks require nothing, not even staking due to their tap root. We had heard over and over that hollyhocks don't grow in Florida. We can easily prove that wrong!

Florida Garden Pics

As promised, here are some pictures of what we've been up to. These are of the liners in our "nursery." Top left picture in the foreground are teeny hollyhocks. Next step up and behind are rudbeckias. Top right shows the New Guinea impatiens already transferred to 4" pots, and the lower left is some azaleas in the front.

We have them on a timed sprinkler to get watered once a day early in the a.m. That's the best time to water here in central Florida. Watering at night does not give the foliage and mulches time to dry which promotes disease and fungus. By watering in the early morning, the plants' leaves have the opportunity to dry and not be as susceptible to moisture-caused problems. This area where the plants are "staged" gets early morning shade, dappled shade in the very late afternoon, but full sun during midday. This gives them an opportunity to grow strong but gives them a rest just after the peak sun of the day. It's really been working for us. Next post I'll include some of the other pics from the flower garden that includes Iceland (yes, in central Florida!) poppies.

Busy, but still in our Florida Garden!

Been busy in the garden, and on the roof. We’re re-roofing the house, including a tear-off, adding skylights (the house was dark, dark, dark!), and improving rain-shed with a cricket on the chimney. Rain-shed is extremely important in Florida where it may rain everyday in the summer months. We had to take off gutters and rain has absolutely pummeled the flowers beneath the drip edge. But I do have some pictures anyway of what we’ve been up to in our Fabulous Florida Garden.

We’ve been ordering liners (baby plants, really no more than seed starts) of hollyhocks, calendula, New Guinea impatiens, rudbeckia, to name a few. We’ve also ordered rooted poinsettia cuttings for a holiday display that will knock your socks off! We did them for the first time last year which was a learning experience. Hopefully we’ll do better with them this year.

We’ve also started a weekly garden journal where we keep track of when we prune, fertilize and all that Florida garden stuff that keeps the place from looking like a jungle. More pics to come, and maybe even post the weekly journal notes (hopefully with pics) for sharing successes of varying degrees. Notice there is no mention of “non-successes!” There are no non-successes; there are only varying degrees of attempts at new growing ideas in our Florida Garden!

Florida Flower Garden

Here are the promised pictures of some of the blooming delphiniums, the self-seeded dwarf hollyhock and the one (so far) blooming foxglove - all of which I've heard absolutely cannot be grown in Florida!

Found Friends

I was just out on gardenweb.com for the second time - EVER. And I LOVE it! What a bunch of great people out there who have come to know and love each other and each other's gardens. They ask questions, post pictures, pose problems and get solutions from like-minded people who have the same planting passions.

I only made the time to read on the Florida Gardening forum pages, and what a treat! I posted on a few of the questions, but read many, many more - both the questions and the comments made by so many other contributors. I'm beginning to see how and why people are able to become addicted to the computer. With so many helpful, friendly, SYMPATHETIC gardeners out there, I could spend days, maybe weeks or even months, just following their threads and the links posted by generous gardeners in efforts to help others.

On another note, I did take pictures of the delphiniums and dwarf hollyhock yesterday. I just have to take the time now to download the pictures from the camera and get them posted here. It will be in the next few days - been too busy reading and writing on the Garden Web! The Garden Web could be my new "black hole" of time.

Central Florida Biting Bugs!

Yes, it is that time of year.... The no-see-ums are in full war-waging regalia and out there just waiting for us to offer up our most tantalizing skin for them to chew on. Last night just walking around the front flower beds, I could feel them. Now, mind you, I had on long sleeves and slacks, but I could feel them immediately on my hands, neck, and even in my hair. They were biting my head where my hair was parted!

I thought I would be able to plant some more Champagne Bubbles poppies and red Rocket snapdragons, but it was not to be. The little, barely seen chewing monsters took that away from me last night. I've tried the yard sprays that are supposed to drive away biting and stinging insects, but it has no effect on these little varmints as soon as the breeze blows the spray vapor away. These sprays are effective on our little teensy mosquitos, but not on the no-see-ums.

So, I will have to cover myself with the sticky, stinky bug repellant to try to hold the nasty biters at bay long enough to get the rest of my baby plants into the flower beds. Then there are the Gerbera Daisies to plant, oh, and the rest of the delphiniums, snaps, poppies, fuschia, Home Run roses, and the azalea cuttings. I'll just have to fill a big vat with repellent and take a dip!

Florida Delphiniums

YES! Those cool-weather beauties known for their presence in English-style gardens are blooming in my front yard in sub-tropical Central Florida. Further, a self-seeded dwarf Hollyhock has begun blooming where the seed fell from last fall's display. I left the baby plant where it sprouted, and it is now rewarding me with that all-elusive, more temperate zoned beauty.

In Illinois it is not too uncommon to see Hollyhocks and delphiniums (the fuscia plants are still in their coddling stage in 4" pots) in the colder Zone 5 areas. Grandma's flower garden about 35 miles northwest of Chicago regulary rewarded her (and us!) with the stately Hollyhock spikes, many times growing over six feet tall! But people that "close in" to Chicago are no longer the gentrified folks of Grandma's day. True areas dedicated to artistically planted cutting gardens are rare or non-existent in most areas as the pace and distractions of life have exponentially multiplied since Grandma planted her dalias, foxglove (and I'll tell you about THOSE IN MY FLORIDA GARDEN in the next post).

Ah, but I digress from the above stated titles of Delphiniums... sorry. The King Arthur strain have done the best of the types I've tried. I love having fresh cut flowers in the house, so the "chore" of deadheading is no chore for me. My flowers almost never get to the stage where faded flowers must be cut. The flowers are normally cut and in the kitchen in a vase long before they have the first hint of a droop! One of these days (soon, I promise!) I will take some pictures of the delphiniums and the volunteer hollyhock and post them here as proof that these cool-weather, English garden types can be successfully grown, and loved, here in Central Florida!

Home Gardens

Gardening and landscaping in Florida is different from any other place in the U.S. that I can imagine. Sand. And with that sand comes all types of bugs, snakes, and crawly things gardeners in other regions and temperature zones can only imagine. In Illinois the only nematode I ever heard about was in the dozens of gardening books and magazines that I had on my shelves.

That said, gardening books pertinent to and specific for Florida are very few. Oh, there are some on the local bookstore shelves, but with the specificities of Florida conditions from region to region, area to area, and even from neighborhood to neighborhood, the hapless gardener really has to get his or her hands in the soil -er- sand.

But I do have gardening books. From time to time I'll review some of the books, newsletters, and flyers that I've seen for various areas of the country. Some of my favorite include the "home remedies" for weed eradication, insecticides, and plant foods. I've always been fascinated with the idea of leaving little or no lasting footprint anywhere on the good green earth. I don't litter, smoke, spit, or waste water. I do recycle, of course, and try to use natural gardening techniques. One gardening book I've had for years and years is called "Square Foot Gardening." It proposes that you can garden intensively in small areas, and since such small areas need so little, yet intensive care, a bit of extra attention to the details will yield a bounty of fruits, flowers, and vegetables in your home garden plot. I don't have the book with me, otherwise I'd list the author and publisher.

I'll get better with these blog postings and try to be more organized in the future, but until the next time, go stick your fingers in the good green earth!

Gardening

After growing up in the Midwest (Zone 5 for the initiated - just plain cold for the uninitiated) and cutting my "growing" teeth on midwestern clay, cold-wet springs, summer drought, and sub-zero winters, gardening became a passion for me in my grandmother's immense flower garden and the family vegetable garden and home orchard. The landscape of northern Illinois is varied, to say the least.

Gardening and forming a landscape in all areas is a thrilling, and sometimes humbling, experience. The home garden, filled with flowers, fruits, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, corn, peas, snappy green beans, and all manner of root vegetables, brings to the table all the goodness of nature at its best!

And you can do this too.

I'm not one to swear off all forms of modern-age fertilizers and other helpers, but I now know that it can be done. Compost is your friend. It will break that hard clay into a friable landscaper's and gardener's friend. It will add moisture-retaining humus to that sandy soil, and help give a gravelly plot something for a plant to sink its roots into.

Now in central Florida, I've forgone the bitter, biting winters for a subtropical paradise that includes hurricanes (!), nematodes, daily afternoon deluges, sand, sand, sand, and even more sand. Oh, and did I mention sand? Landscaping and gardening in sand is a daunting task, but it can be done. And I find I REALLY DIG IT!

As a certified master gardener in Florida, I find that even those flowers, fruits, and vegetables that everyone has told me, "will not grow in Florida!," CAN be grown in the home garden and landscape successfully.

I have the proof and I'll post the pictures of my hollyhocks, delphiniums, foxgloves, and such here as they come in. I have the neighbors ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the sweet peas and zinnias. Oh yes, the obligatory citrus trees are along the back fence bordering the neighbor's bland, green landscape, but there are blackberries on another part of the fence, and grapes grow on yet another section. Figs, loquats, bananas, and pineapple join to make this an edible landscape, all on just an acre of land; and that acre includes the house, garage, and pool! You don't need oodles of space to grow your ornamental and edible landscape.

Now, join me as I help you, too, find the magic in your own backyard and turn it in to Garden Gold!