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!

Months have gone by....

After not being here for some months, I'm back. Been taking classes toward my next degree, but the really fun thing I've started is teaching classes at the local college. I've kept my corporate day job, but now teach at night, and I absolutely love it.

Beginning with the Business Plan

1.

People thinking of starting a business commonly jump in without a written business plan. Oh, they've thought a lot about their business, how they are going to start it, and even how they plan to run it from 9-5 Monday through Friday. Sure, running your own business will be easy. After all, you are your own boss. No one can tell you what to do, how to do it, or when to do it. Why, you can sleep in on Mondays if you want. Yeah, it will be the easy life.

Time to wake up and smell the coffee. Running your own business will be the hardest job you've ever had with the longest hours you've ever worked, and has the promise to be the most fun you've ever had in your life. The risks are big and real, but the rewards can be more than you've ever dreamed. And those rewards won't necessarily be all in dollars. Business owners who love what they are doing don't feel as though they are working at all; in fact, when you love what you're doing, following your dream, the work is fun and fulfilling. It's almost as if you are at play all day as you engage your mind, body, heart and soul in your life's dream.

O.K., enough of the glamor. There's a saying, "If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there?" So true in the case of your own business without a written business plan. It's all fine to think about what you want to accomplish, and you may even have thought through some of the more dire "what-if" scenarios that popped into your mind. Those scenarios can easily de-rail a new start-up enterprise if there is nothing to prop it up on the right track. Enter the Business Plan--a written Business Plan, that is, wearing a blue super hero cape emblazoned with a big red BP in capital letters. The business plan is what can keep you on track, guide you over some rough spots, and keep you, quite literally, from losing your shirt. That does make it sound heroic, doesn't it?

No time

Have not had time to add to the blog lately, but will attempt to get it up and running soon.

Fast Forward about a Year

After all this time, this blog will become my business bulletin board that will carry all manner of business ideas - the good, the bad, and the ugly. This will be my sounding board, and if you decide that what I've written is no good, I would appreciate your input to point that out.

What's it all about?

Here is the first post on this blog. Been trying to decide between talking on books I'm reading (yes, that is plural) or listening to on CD or from Audible.com. Or also been thinking about gathering info on consulting work, project management, entrepreneurism, growing fruit and vegetables, self-sufficiency or a myriad of other topics. Or can just post on whatever comes to mind or my desk at the time I think of adding posts. I'll work on it and have to get back to you!