The Daily Mail

Well, the new year is less than two months old, and we're pleased to announce we've already completed one of our New Year's Resolutions. We finally took some time to add some plants around the mailbox, adding a little shot of color to the area.

We had a few challenges to meet, the main one being that the people who owned the house before us had placed lava rock around the mailbox area without putting down landscape fabric underneath. In the intervening years, the lava rock settled down into the soil, making it very difficult to plant in this area without digging up all the rock first... something we didn't really want to have to do. So instead, we used some edging and filled it in with fill dirt and potting soil. Then we added our plants, society garlic and bulbine.

Society Garlic (Tulbaghia violacea) is native to rocky grasslands in South Africa, and thrives in Florida's climate without being invasive. It grows and spreads by rhizome, and after a year or two you can divide and spread it to other areas if you like. It tolerates dry conditions but also withstands our humid summers, as well as withstanding temps as low as 20 degrees.

Society Garlic has a flush of blooms in mid-winter (right around this time) and then off and on throughout the spring and summer. It rests in the winter. The foliage has a strong garlic scent, but the purple flowers themselves are surprisingly sweet-smelling. The bulbs and leaves can be used just like garlic.

Society Garlic mixes well with - and is often planted alongside - Bulbine (Bulbine frutescens), another plant native to South Africa. They thrive in the same conditions and have similar foliage, so they look nice planted together.

Neither of these plants have particularly showy flowers, but their foliage remains green all year round and they'll do well in the dry sunny area by the mailbox. Later this year, we plan to add a flowering vine like thumbergia to climb up the mailbox pole and add some more color. This landscaping may not be exciting or flashy, but it's easy to care for and Florida-Friendly - and we've checked one of our resolutions off the list!

Share My World

Introducing a new monthly feature here at My Florida Backyard: Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day! This monthly event was started by a blogger named Carol at her blog, May Dreams Gardens, and now over 100 bloggers participate, sharing all of the blooms in their own gardens on the 15th of each month. Starting this month, we do too!

Blooms in My Florida Backyard seem to be about three weeks ahead of normal this year, thanks to the very warm January. The mild freeze this past weekend scared us a bit, but there was no real damage. Below is a collage - click here to view a complete slideshow.

There's a lot going on here - in the coming days, look for posts on our mailbox landscaping and forcing tulips. The Hippeastrum out front is about to burst into bloom too, so expect to see that post soon. In the meantime, if you have your own garden blog, why not join in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day? If you do, drop a link to your post in the comments below - we'd love to check it out!

The Pelican Brief

Every winter around this time, we get a very strange visitor to the lake in My Florida Backyard. It's unusual and yet expected, so even though we're no longer surprised, we're still always pleased to see him. It's a Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), which are common as dragonflies along the coastal waters but somewhat unexpected on a shallow inland lake more than five miles from the coast.

This brown pelican is an adult in non-breeding plumage - pelicans in breeding plumage have dark brown necks and white heads tinged with yellow. We've never known for sure if it's the same pelican that comes back each year (it's certainly possible - pelicans have been known to live 30 years or more), but it's definitely only a single pelican at a time. Sometimes he's part of the massive groups of water birds that congregate on the lake in the winter (see this previous post for an example) and sometimes he's on his own.

Some days we only see the pelican in flight overhead, soaring up and down the string of stormwater lakes that dot our neighborhood. Brown pelicans are unique among pelicans in that they look for food from the sky, diving in headfirst like a sleek arrow. Other pelican species hunt more like dabbling ducks, swimming on the surface and bobbing their heads under to catch fish. When the brown pelican bobs along on the water, he's just taking a rest between diving missions.

He looks large next to this flock of Double Crested Cormorants, but brown pelicans are actually the smallest of the eight species of pelicans found worldwide. The White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), found in some areas of Florida during the winter, can be more than twice its size. Still, the brown pelican is a commanding presence on our small inland lake, and we enjoy having one around every winter!

Two Little Flowers

The spring rehabilitation of My Florida Backyard has begun at last! We started small, with our favorite cool season wildflower - it's Tampa Vervain time! Each year, we wait eagerly for Tampa Mock Vervain (Glandularia tampensis) to start showing up at nurseries. Butterflies love it, and it flowers non-stop from now until the hot and humid summer days set in.

We mixed it with another tiny flower that butterflies adore, gold lantana (Lantana camara 'New Gold'). We like this lantana because even though some varieties of L. camara are found on the invasive lists, 'New Gold' is considered sterile and doesn't spread beyond where you plant it.

Purple and yellow is one of our favorite color combinations - together the two just look so happy and spring-like. And this will make a nice little corner for butterflies to visit while we work on the rest of the yard and gardens.

There's plenty more planting ahead this weekend in My Florida Backyard, so drop by in a few days to see the changes!

New Soul

We usually focus on what's growing outside in My Florida Backyard, but we've had a recent new addition inside we wanted to share. We've added a new kitten to our family, and he loves watching what's going on in the gardens just as much as our other two cats.

"What's going on out there? I wanna see!" 

"You're an odd-looking fellow. Do you come here often?"

By the way, we're getting ready to do some planting in the gardens this weekend. Check back soon to see what's going on!

New Attitude

As a follow-up to our last post about the National Wildlife Federation's disappointing partnership with the Scotts MiracleGro corporation... National Wildlife Federation and Scott's MiracleGro issued this joint statement today:

So, you might be wondering... what exactly is this pending legal settlement that's causing such problems? Why, nothing more than the discovery that from 2005 through 2008, Scotts sold 73 million units of birdseed coated in pesticides that was toxic to birds. Even after being told by its own scientists that the birdseed was likely causing damage to birds along with fish and other wildife, Scotts continued to sell it (the pesticide was meant to keep insects from eating the birdseed while in storage). And as of Friday, Scotts pled guilty to this in federal court and agreed to pay millions of dollars in fines. (Learn more here.)

Up until now, I'd been willing to say that I could understand why NWF decided to partner with Scotts, even if I didn't support the decision. After all, it takes a lot of money to support the kinds of really good programs that NWF has (and they really do have some good programs), and a corporate partnership with oodles of money could be very tempting. But the more I think about it, the angrier I get. Because there's no way that at least some of the folks at NWF didn't know about this lawsuit in advance, and yet they had the gall to make their partnership announcement just days before the settlement took place. NWF agreed to make a deal with the devil, and they wound up with major egg on their face.

In my book, NWF has a of work to do to regain my trust before I'll be trusting them with my donated money again. And as for Scotts? I've purchased the very occasional MiracleGro and other Scotts products in the past, but you can bet that I won't in the future. Over and over again I learn the message... it's better to spend a little more money to deal with smaller companies who truly have an interest in protecting the environment. The fastest way consumers can send a message is with their pocketbooks.

OK, enough of the soapbox. Back to all the good things that happen in My Florida Backyard - we're still spotting lots of monarch and sulphur butterflies, but no red admirals or buckeyes yet. Has anyone seen these spring species flying in Central Florida yet? Let us know!

Sometimes They Disappoint You

We generally avoid political type issues on My Florida Backyard, but a recent news story caught our eye because it involves the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). My Florida Backyard has always been proud of being an NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat; our whole gardening philosophy has always been based on it. So we were disappointed to learn that NWF has announced a partnership with Scott's MiracleGro, the mega-company that manufactures the most commonly used chemical pesticides and fertilizers in the country.

Wildlife habitats have always been about putting the needs of wildlife above the convenience of humans. Broad application of fertilizers may keep the lawn green and the flowers constantly blooming, but the runoff of phosphates into waterways causes major pollution. Ants and other garden pests can be irritating, but overuse of pesticides throws off the balance of nature, killing all insects without regard for their place in the ecosystem.While we use the very occasional dose of MiracleGro or other fertilizers here and there in the gardens, we have a much higher focus on using the right plants in the right place and adding compost to enrich the soil. As for chemical pesticides? They don't have a place for us.

Here's the interesting thing, though. The reason we started eliminating chemical pesticides and fertilizers from our habitat was at the advice of NWF. When certifying our habitat through NWF, we had to meet five criteria, which we documented on the Our NWF Wildlife Habitat page right here on this blog. The first four were "Provide Food", "Provide Water", "Provide Cover", and "Provide Shelter to Raise Young". The fifth requirement was "Sustainable Gardening Practices", and included the following (among other items):

Organic Practices: Eliminate Chemical Pesticides • Eliminate Chemical Fertilizers • Compost

I just visited the NWF Certified Habitat page and guess what? The fifth requirement of "Sustainable Gardening Practices"  IS NO LONGER THERE. I just cannot believe this is a coincidence. An organization cannot partner with the largest producer of chemical pesticides and fertilizers and also advise against the use of them.

While a corporate partnership doesn't have to be bad thing for a non-profit organization, and I don't like to jump to conclusions, NWF has left me little option here. I can only believe that this corporate partnership will result in the watering-down of NWF's political stands and the actions they take. As long as NWF chooses to pursue this partnership and make overt changes to their recommendations as a consequence, I cannot in good conscience endorse their organization. Like many wildlife bloggers, I'll be making changes to that portion of this blog soon. It won't affect how the blog runs, of course, but National Wildlife Federation's Certified Wildlife Habitat will no longer be the model we use in My Florida Backyard.

That's all for the politics, folks. We now return you to regularly-scheduled Florida wildlife-watching.