Back in the Game

The air is fresh and clean, the sky is clear and blue, and it's time to venture out into My Florida Backyard again! So far, all we've done is pull some weeds, but it's made enough of a difference that we can finally admire the autumn splendor of Muhly Grass and Winter Cassia.

  

Much better than when I did my last post, right? There's still a lot of work to be done, but it's nice enough that we can spend a little time out there without feeling sad and a little embarrassed. And just in time, too, since migrating birds like these little Yellow-Rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronata) are starting to make their way back south for the winter.

And pulling weeds does reveal the occasional surviving gem, like the tiny delicate blooms of Georgia Calamint (Calamintha georgiana), still hanging on in one corner of the butterfly garden.

So there's a lot to look forward to in the months ahead. And as soon as this wind leftover from Crazy Storm Sandy (as I've started calling it) dies down a little...

... it'll be time to get busy in the gardens again. First up, hopefully this weekend, is the butterfly garden. Just look at all the room we have for new plants! 

I'm Livin' in Shame

So I have to admit something, and it's something that's pretty embarrassing. So embarrassing that it's kept me from writing a new post in well over a month. But I think it's time to get this off my chest, get it out in the open and start figuring out a way to deal with it. So, are you ready? Here it is:

We seem to have lost My Florida Backyard.

Summer invaded, and this year, we let it win. The invaders, led by the Spanish (Needle) have completely taken over, and we just haven't had the energy or enthusiasm to do anything about it.

It started out slowly, but quickly picked up speed once August hit. See, the problem is, I actually work as a gardener. Once you're forced to spend hours a day out in the hot sun pulling weeds for a paycheck, it's suddenly just not as much fun to maintain your own garden, especially during the horrible hot days of a Florida summer.

It makes me incredibly sad, so sad that I have only been in the backyard about three times over the last month. I just can't stand to see it this way, but I can't seem to find the energy to go out and get sweaty and dirty on my precious days off. So, the garden has disappeared into a horrid mess of weeds and overgrowth.

But while we're feeling pretty overwhelmed right now, we haven't given up hope. We definitely plan to rescue My Florida Backyard, just as soon as some pleasant fall days arrive. In a lot of ways, it will be fun. There are certain places where we pretty much have to start from the ground up, and we can choose new plants and create new garden themes and all kinds of fun stuff. We just want to do it when the sun isn't quite so hot, and the humidity isn't quite so high, and the mosquitoes aren't quite so savage. But My Florida Backyard will certainly rise again.

Because the wildlife is still there, and we still love it. So we'll be back in action again when Florida's great fall and winter weather starts to kick in. That's a promise. Until then, you won't hear much from us, most likely. But be sure to hang around and come back once things get going... because someday soon My Florida Backyard will be better than ever!

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.

It's a New Year

2012 is here! The holiday season kept us busy, and the new year was here before we knew it. We did find some time to put up our favorite Christmas gift in the garden - this butterfly-shaped bird bath sent all the way from Ohio (once again, thanks, Dad!).

We haven't had any bird visitors yet, possibly because our yard is suddenly full of stray neighborhood cats. And that brings us to the matter of...

My Florida Backyard 2012 Resolutions:

1. Figure out how to deal with the stray cats. We're cat lovers here in My Florida Backyard, but ours never get any closer to the great outdoors than watching it somewhat wistfully through the screens of the back porch. These stray cats (we've counted four different ones at least) like to lay around in the gardens in the sun, keeping birds from the feeders and the new bird bath. Any suggestions?
 
2. You wouldn't think there'd be room for any more plants in our gardens, but there are a few we're determined to track down and add this year anyway:
• Carolina Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens)
• Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans)
• Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)
 
3. Plant around the mailbox. We've just let the grass take over around our mailbox area, but this is a great place for sun-loving, drought-tolerant plants. This year, we want to find some easy-care plants to put there, and landscape it more attractively.

So that's what we're planning for 2012 in My Florida Backyard. What about you? Have you made any resolutions for your gardens in 2012? We'd love to hear about them. Happy New Year!

Down to Earth

A few years ago, the National Wildlife Federation published a great article called “How Green is Your Garden?“, encouraging gardeners to consider the carbon footprint of their gardens. (Did you know a garden could even have a negative effect on the environment?) She offered six tips for reducing your garden’s carbon footprint, and I was inspired to spend some time examining those tips and deciding if they were too difficult for an average gardener to implement.

Below, you’ll find the six tips along with a brief summary of my thoughts on implementing these tips in an average garden. For a detailed look at each tip, click the links to read my original posts from 2009. Happy Earth Day!

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Tip #1:
Reduce the size of your lawn. Better yet, consider eliminating it entirely.

There's definitely an initial investment of time in changing your water-hungry lawn to a greener garden. However, down the line, your payoff is very rewarding indeed! Our lawn maintenance is almost zero during the winter months, and during the summer months, it takes only 10 - 15 minutes a week. Take the time to do some up-front work, and reap the benefits in the long run.

Tip #2:
Use hand tools instead of power equipment.

Although tools like a classic reel mower may take a little more exercise and cause some Beaver Cleaver remarks from neighbors, today’s models are easy to maintain and operate. If you’ve reduced the size of your lawn as suggested in tip #1, then this tip becomes pretty easy to implement. Plus, hand tools like rakes are a heckuva lot cheaper than leaf blowers.

Tip #3:
Choose materials with low-embodied energy.

The most difficult part of this tip is probably the research involved. Just remember to consider the total amount of energy involved in manufacturing the materials and transporting them to your yard. Choose materials like wood or crushed shell over concrete bricks or solid cement. Ask questions to find out where and how materials are made, and choose locally when possible.

Tips #4 and 5:
Emphasize woody plants that capture more carbon than fleshy herbaceous species. Plant trees and shrubs where they will block winter winds and provide shade in summer.

The key here is to remember that “woody plants” doesn’t have to mean trees. In a small lot, you may not want to plant many more tall trees than you already have. However, you can choose shrubs or woody plants that provide the same benefits. Plan your plantings to help your house conserve energy, sit back, and enjoy! (Don't forget - you can get 10 free trees with an Arbor Day Foundation membership!)

Tip #6:
Minimize, or better yet eliminate, the use of fertilizers and pesticides on your property.

Most Florida-Friendly plants will need minimal fertilization to thrive in our sandy soil, but when fertilizers are necessary, choose natural over synthetic. Depending on where you live, these may not be available locally, involving a little more work combing the internet. As for pesticides – many of the bugs in your garden are beneficial. Fire Ants? Don’t get me started on Fire Ants. Try a natural killer and spot treat only when you find them rather than putting down a broadcast killer on a regular basis.

I'll Buy That Dream

I have fond memories as a kid of getting the Sears Christmas Wish Book every year in late fall - it had page after page of the toys and games that would soon find their way onto our lists for Santa. My brother and I would pore over the catalog, separately and apart, revisiting our favorite choices over and over until the pages were worn. The dream of what we might get was almost better than the delight of Christmas morning.

As an adult gardener, I find the same delight each winter as the spring seed catalogs begin pouring in. Page after page of blooms and vegetables and fruits, new pleasures and old favorites, bright colors and promised fragrances... I keep them by my chair on dark winter evenings and pore through them page by page. I dog-ear the pages, compare options between catalogs, and dream dream dream about bringing all that color and life from the pages of the catalogs into My Florida Backyard. The catalogs are free, but the pleasure they provide is priceless when winter nights seem long.

I don't always have a lot of luck starting plants from seeds, but every year I allow myself a budget and, after much careful research, give some seeds a try. As a Florida gardener, I know that many of the blooms offered in the catalogs might not grow here, so I spend time on sites like Dave's Garden finding out if others in similar areas have raised this plant successfully. I check the FLEPPC's list of Invasive Species to be sure I don't accidentally introduce something into the ecosystem that could do more harm than good. I decide if there's really a place for each plant in My Florida Backyard, and determine the potential wildlife value - when you have a fraction of an acre, every square foot counts.

Then I make my lists. I visit each catalog's website, and fill my shopping cart with every seed that made it through the research phase. Then, I start making the hard decisions; if I bought every seed that caught my eye, I'd spend hundreds of dollars and couldn't possibly accommodate all the plants. So I winnow the lists down, slowly, over days, until my mind is made up. And then... I click "Buy" and wait for my little packets of dreams to arrive in the mail.

Here are just five of the seeds that are catching my eye this year, and the catalog offering them (pictures come from those catalogs websites). We here in My Florida Backyard would love to hear about your own experiences with any of these, especially from those living in zone 9a or 9b.

Gaillardia, Punch Bowl Hybrid (Burpee)

We have tons of luck each spring with perennial Gaillardia pulchella, also known as Indian Blanket or Blanketflower. We threw down a packet of seeds a few years ago, and they come back over and over and over again. This makes us hopeful that this lovely pink variety might also thrive. These seeds are a little pricey at $4.95 for a packet of 100, but if they thrive year after year like the gaillardia we have now, they'd be cheap at twice the price.

Marigold, Snowball Hybrid (Burpee)

We're not really crazy about marigolds in general, but something about this white variety is really striking, and marigolds are pretty easy to start from seed. Marigolds tend to hold up pretty well to even Florida's brutal heat, so we could definitely see these finding a home in our low-maintenance front yard. On the other hand, these are another fairly expensive (for seed) option - $5.50 for 50 seeds, and marigolds are definitely an annual, so this wouldn't be something we'd get benefit from in the future.

Vinca, First Kiss Blueberry (Park Seed)

Vinca (also called periwinkle) grows easily from seed. We love the white and pink shades, and this new purple hue is really wonderful. Vinca withstands heat and while it may die back in a frost, it often comes back from the roots in My Florida Backyard. At $2.25 for a packet of 50, this is a great investment, as we'd expect to find these in the garden for years to come.

Salvia farinacea, Fairy Queen (Park Seed)

Salvia is incredibly popular in our butterfly garden, and perennial S. farinacea is one of our favorites. It survives crushing heat and a frost or two, coming back year after year, and the blooms are a constant draw for butterflies. This variety is a bi-color mix of blue and white, and at $2.25 per packet, seems a good value.


 

Monarda Bergamo (Park Seed)

When we were in Ohio last summer, we saw a patch of monarda (bee balm) absolutely covered with Hummingbird Clearwing Moths, and it made us want some for our own yard. However, most monarda varieties struggle with Florida's steamy summers, being very susceptible to mildew. (The exception is our native Monarda punctata.)  "Bergamo" claims to be mildew-resistant, and a packet of 50 seeds is only $1.95, so it seems worth a try.


There are plenty of other seeds that are on our radar for 2011, so we'll see what happens when we finally place those seed orders. What seed catalogs do you love? Tell us, so we can get them and find out what we're missing!

Blast From the Past

My Florida Backyard will be on its own for the next few days while its owners head north to visit family. In the meantime, you might enjoy this article I co-wrote with Kristen Gilpin, who runs the BioWorks Butterfly Garden at MOSI. It's an interesting look at how different gardening in Florida was 50 years ago, when DDT was still A-OK and the term "exotic invasives" just didn't exist...

Where it All Went Terribly Wrong: Post-WWII Landscaping in Florida

by Kristen Gilpin and Jill M. Staake

Most Florida gardeners today are familiar with the concept of “Florida-Friendly Gardening”. It involves simple steps like eliminating water-hungry turfgrass, minimizing use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to protect our waterways, focusing on native plants, and avoiding exotic invasives. But the ideas behind Florida-Friendly Gardening didn’t evolve overnight - instead, like many things, they were developed in response to serious mistakes Florida residents made in the past. A Florida gardening book from 1962 shows the astonishing turnaround Florida gardeners have made in the last 50 years.

The Way We Were: In the last one hundred years, Florida’s population has boomed to over 18 million residents. But in 1900, Florida had a population of 528,542 people and was a largely agrarian state. That all changed with the land boom of the early 1920’s and near doubling of the state population just after World War II. Low property costs, a gorgeous climate, and an inexpensive cost of living saw rapid Florida development. Urban areas sprouted vast tracts of suburban housing developments and millions of new residents streamed into Florida. These new homeowners were from all parts of the nation and looking for some ways to make their new properties look lush and tropical.

Gardening in Florida is like gardening no where else in the country. High temperatures, seasonal rains, and extended dry seasons test even the most experienced of gardeners. New Florida residents were looking for gardening tips and wanted fast-growing plants that would make their property look more established. Without  the Internet or TV gardening programs to consult, many residents of Pinellas and Hillsborough county tuned their radio dials to listen to Uncle Pasco Roberts’ Radio Garden Club.

“The Radio Garden Club is a 15-minute program over Radio Station WSUN (St. Petersburg, Fla.) five days a week (Monday through Friday) at 1:45 to 2pm. It is devoted to What Grows in Florida... How to Grow It... and Where to Get It.” (Florida State Horticultural Society, 1950)

Uncle Pasco’s show was so popular it led to the publication of The Book of Florida Gardening in 1962. It featured a month-by-month gardening guide and even a section on the newest gardening craze, hydroponics. It’s clear that Uncle Pasco wanted to provide his readers with garden tips that would help them combine traditional northern gardening with the exotic feel of the tropics. The first chapters of the book focus on establishing a turfgrass lawn (“No matter whether you have a modest or palatial home, estate of building, it usually takes a beautiful lawn to give it the proper setting,” he notes on page 15), along with planting roses, azaleas, and lilies - plants Northerners would be familiar with, even if they were a little challenging to grow in Florida’s climate. He also provided lengthy chapters on hibiscus, camellias, and gardenias, appealing to the desire to create a tropical oasis. Judging by the stock most nurseries carry, it’s fair to say these same desires exist among gardeners today. Although Uncle Pasco rarely recommended a native plant to these new Florida gardeners, many of his recommendations are still popular and acceptable in modern Florida gardens.

So What’s the Problem?  It’s when Uncle Pasco begins to focus on trees that we begin to see how these new residents quickly created an ecological nightmare for Florida’s native plants. Of the 24 trees he recommends in his chapter “Fast Growing Trees”, 18 (75%!) of them can now be found on the FLEPPC Category I and II invasive species list, which includes plants that are or may become “invasive exotics that are altering native plant communities by displacing native species, changing community structures or ecological functions, or hybridizing with natives.”

Let’s take a look at some of the recommendations from Uncle Pasco:

• Golden Rain Tree: (Koelreuteria elegans) native to eastern Asia, in China and Korea is a fast growing and colorful tree that does incredibly well in Florida. It is now listed as a category 2 invasive species in Florida.
• Melaleuca : (Melaleuca quinquenervia) is an aggressively spreading member of the myrtle family with blooms that attract butterflies and bees. Planted in numbers to help drain swampy portions of the Everglades, these trees quickly escaped plantings. Mellaleuca is highly flammable, which helped to worsen wildfires in the area and increase their intensity. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive in Florida.
• Tree of Gold (Tabebuia argentea) is native to South America where it was an important nesting tree for the highly endangered Spix’s Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii). Each year it blooms with brilliant yellow trumpet shaped flowers.
• Golden Shower Tree (Cassia fistula) is native to southern Asia and blooms with lovely yellow flowers each spring. It develops large seed pods and has seeds that are toxic.
• Earleaf Acacia: (Acacia auriculiformis) It is native to Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive in Florida.
• Australian Pine is native to Australia. Uncle Pasco Roberts notes that the shallow root system has been recently identified as a problem with the note “during the worst of hurricanes in the Everglades, they blew across the roadways and became a hazard.”. He further notes that the planting of this tree has become prohibited but continues to recommend it as windbreak protection perfect for wide open spaces and sandy beaches! It is now listed as a category 1 invasive and is prohibited from further planting in Florida.
• Chinese Tallow (Sapium sebiferum) is native to Eastern Asia and is now listed as a noxious weed on the Florida Invasive Species List. This tree had rapid growth and quickly outperforms native tree species. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive species in Florida.
• Mother’s Tongue Tree (Albizzia lebbek) is native to tropical southern Asia and drops huge seed pods over the course of two months in the spring. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive in Florida.
• Monkey Pod Tree (Pithecolobium) native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Uncle Pasco Roberts writes: “The tree is good for shade, ornament and for food for monkeys”. Well, at least our Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay can find some good forage out there!

Perhaps the most interesting recommendation is the Java Plum (Syzgium cumini), which is native to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Indonesia. Uncle Pasco particularly praises this tree for for its fruit, and includes a recipe from his wife for Java Plum jelly. He proudly credits himself with the spread of this Category I invasive in the Tampa Bay area, noting on page 61:

The author came across several [Java Plum] trees in Laurel, Fla. about 1949 and from seeds and small trees obtained... I have helped popularize this tree in Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties to the extent that there are many hundreds now growing and some have reached 60 to 70 feet in height. The first seeds I planted produced a growth of 20 feet within three years...

 Uncle Pasco does not recommend a single native tree from Florida or even from the Southeast United States. This sort of gardening advice is precisely what landed Florida in the spot it is in today. Costly remediation efforts are being conducted every year to remove trees like these that have escaped cultivation and are outperforming our native trees. Non-native species are often unaffected by local diseases and pest populations and can spread unchecked by the normal balances of nature. To learn more about the problems caused by invasive plants in Florida, visit the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council website.

A 1962 view of “pesky worms”: Uncle Pasco’s 50-year-old advice contains other recommendations that modern gardeners would do well to ignore. Among these are his recommendations on fertilizer (everything needs it!) and pesticides.

Butterfly gardening has really only been popularized in recent years, so reading 50-year-old commentary on caterpillar destruction can be a touch unsettling.The beautiful Cloudless Sulhpur and Orange Barred Sulhpur butterfies host on many species of cassia, including Christmas Cassia (Cassia bicapsularis). Butterfly gardeners today welcome these creatures, but Uncle Pasco disagreed. In the planting guide for April on page 89, he says, “This is the month that most of the insects, pests, etc begin to show up in numbers... For instance those pesky worms appear on... cassia (Cassia bicapsularis)... and look like part of the foliage or flowers. Spray with arsenate of lead.”

Uncle Pasco seems to dislike caterpillars on general principal. The quick and darting Canna Skipper butterfly hosts in the leaves of native and ornamental cannas where it rolls the leaf around itself for protection from predators.  In the February planting guide (p. 86), he tells us, “One of the old time garden favorites that is staging a comeback is the canna... they are very easy to grow but are bothered however with leaf-rollers that cut good sized holes in the leaves. This may be controlled with a Chlordane dust.”

Not surprisingly, every pesticide Uncle Pasco recommends is now banned or not used in the United States. Chlordane was a carcinogenic insecticide that has not been sold in the United States since 1983; arsenate of lead was banned in 1988. He also recommends Nemagon (banned in 1975), Toxaphene (banned in 1986), and explains the proper application of DDT for flea control.

Lessons Learned: It’s important to remember that we can’t blame Uncle Pasco Roberts for his advice. A number of the species he suggests were also found listed in an article by the Florida State Horticultural Society from 1951 entitled Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for South Florida Homes by Frank J Rimoldi. Clearly, this was the sort of information that was available to new Florida residents in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and they didn’t know then what we know now. The gardeners of 50 years ago had no idea how out of control their plantings could become. No one meant to destroy native habitats, or apply pesticides that would cause cancer, but lack of knowledge caused widespread and far-reaching damage.

What should we as modern gardeners learn from Uncle Pasco? Perhaps the most important thing to understand is that we all must become more considerate and thoughtful gardeners. We should learn more about the plants we choose to put in our yards, and think about what will happen when we’re no longer there to take care of them. Mexican Petunia is tempting at the nursery with its fast-growth habit and numerous pretty purple flowers, but this Category I invasive is displacing native wild petunia (Ruellia humilis) used by Buckeye caterpillars as a host plant, and it’s nearly impossible to remove once established in a yard due to its deep root system and aggressive seed distribution. Florida-Friendly Gardeners are learning to consider native plants when possible and carefully investigate non-native species before introducing them into the ecosystem.

It’s really about a return to common sense. If we can avoid chemicals in the garden, we should, whether the EPA tells us they’re safe or not. Today’s “safe pesticide” is tomorrow’s DDT. When chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers are necessary, we can use them sparingly, rather than applying them widely and regularly regardless of need. Rather than looking for fast results, which Uncle Pasco and the new Florida residents of 50 years ago desired, we can plan for the future and work toward a yard worth having and enjoying - safely.

Uncle Pasco teaches us to learn from the past. As Dr. Dale E. Turner said, “Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.” We don’t need to cast blame on Uncle Pasco and his contemporaries, but we can certainly see where they went wrong and try to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

Back Home Again

We spent the last few days on vacation visiting some other wonderful Florida backyards, including that of Thomas Edison in Fort Myers:

It's always satisfying to return to My Florida Backyard, though. Before we even began to unpack, I was out the back door into the gardens, checking to see what had happened while we were gone...

The cleome began to bloom:

The little paw paw continued to grow like crazy:

And the first generation of monarch caterpillars took over the milkweed!

We never travel without checking into native plant nurseries along the way, and this time we discovered three new and great ones. We brought home a variety of new native plants, including wild lime, rosinweed, pennyroyal, yellowtop, aster, wild petunia, and sea lavender. Over the next few days, as we plant our new residents, I'll be posting more information on both the plants and the nurseries where we found them.

Visiting other areas can be a real inspiration for gardeners. Many neighborhoods in the Fort Myers area show a strong commitment to Florida-Friendly and wildlife gardening, and we came home with some new ideas and a lot of enthusiasm for continuing the work we've done so far in My Florida Backyard. Vacation's over - time to get back to work!

Don't Fence Me In

My Florida Backyard occasionally experiences pest problems - specifically pests with two legs and no concept of property line boundaries. I'm speaking of course of some of the neighborhood children, who sometimes like to use the gardens in our yard as their own personal short cuts. While we're definitely not the old, cranky "keep off my lawn" kind of people (we really don't care if kids run on the little bit of grass left in the front yard), we definitely don't like it when careless kids trample our precious plants.

So, we've decided to try a bit of a physical barrier in the part of the yard that receives the most unwelcome traffic. We wanted a fairly low-cost solution, and we didn't want something that would block our own view of the lake, so we went with this resin "snap-together" fencing from Home Depot. It's just  high enough that you can't step over it easily, but unobtrusive enough that we don't notice it much.

It also has the advantage of serving as support for one of our new additions, purchased at the USF Spring Plant Sale this past weekend.

This new resident is a Dutchman's Pipevine, specifically Aristolochia trilobata. We've been wanting some pipevine in My Florida Backyard for quite some time now, as they serve as a host plant for both Pipevine Swallowtails and Polydamas Swallowtails. With any luck, we'll have some caterpillars on this vine this summer.

A. trilobata is a neat vine, with its shiny tri-lobed leaves and crazy interesting flowers (see below) that explain the "pipe" part of the name. It will die back to the ground in a freeze, but recovers well once the weather warms up. We were pleased to find such a healthy, full plant for sale, because it won't take a few caterpillars long to chomp the leaves up pretty well.

We've only had the new fence up a few days, so it's hard to say if this will completely stop the unwanted kid traffic. But if nothing else, it provides a great low trellis for a vine that should add a lot of wildlife value to My Florida Backyard, and that's something we can feel good about.

Looking for Space

My Florida Backyard took another step this week toward the goal of eliminating as much boring, fairly useless grass from our front lawn as possible. This gives us more room for interesting plants that can attract wildlife and, quite frankly, look much better than patchy grass.

To that end, we decided to expand the front garden from two arcs:

Into one big arc:

Now the tantalizing question remains... what to plant in all the new space? We already have a lot of fountain grass and muhly grass lining the walkways, with plumbago bushes on the right side and beach sunflower under the tree. We'd like to continue with more yellows, purples, and blues - we do have some Blazing Star (liatris) bulbs to scatter throughout the new and old beds, so their purple should mix nicely with the purples of the muhly grass in the fall.

Any suggestions? Bear in mind that we have some pretty firm rules about not using supplemental irrigation once a plant is established... it needs to survive on the rain Mother Nature provides (or doesn't). This area faces southwest and gets lots of sun in the hottest part of summer. We'd like some low plants along the edge in front, and higher plants or even a shrub in the middle. We prefer native plants, though we're flexible as long as they're Florida-Friendly, and we really don't like to have to do a lot of maintenance in the front yard. Now, with all these thoughts in mind, what should we put in our newly-expanded garden?

Let's Start the New Year Right

Last night's balmy weather was driven out by thunderstorms and a cold north wind early this morning - not exactly the way I would have welcomed the new year, but we did get another one of those watercolor sunsets out of it.
Regardless of the weather, a new year has begun, and optimistic people everywhere are making resolutions. We're making a few as well, ones that we hope will help us keep My Florida Backyard a Florida-friendly wildlife habitat throughout 2010.

1. Pull at least one weed every day.
2. Fill the bird feeder at least once a week.
3. Keep the palm tree free of dead fronds and fruit (which draws wasps).
   

We also have a few goals for the year, ones that can't really be called resolutions because it won't be entirely our fault if the wildlife refuses to comply.

1. Draw sulphur butterflies and caterpillars to our yard by establishing cassia plants, native when possible
2. Lure in some hummingbirds, both with plants and a feeder
3. Provide habitat for tree frogs by installing a few treefrog houses

Mark Twain said, "New Year's Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual." Still, we'll do our best, because our resolutions are for the good of everyone who lives in or visits My Florida Backyard.

"The old year has gone...
All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!"
Edward Payson Powell

Make New Friends (But Keep the Old)

As we finish out the last few weeks of summer, I've been thinking about my butterfly garden and its successes and failures this year. Last year, when I was establishing the garden, my only real goal was to draw butterflies (of any kind) to the yard. This year, I expanded my goals to include drawing a wider variety of butterflies, and providing host plants to begin encouraging caterpillars to live and grow in our habitat.

To draw a wider variety of butterflies, I planted a wider variety and/or greater number of nectar plants. (Makes sense, huh?) This summer, nectar plants in My Florida Backyard included (bold items were new):

• Blue Porterweed* - This drew some smaller species, like the Horace Duskywing and Long-Tailed Skipper.
• Butterflyweed - This yellow milkweed type plant seemed to be a favorite of Giant Swallowtails.
• Tropical Lantana and Pineland Lantana* - A perennial favorite; this year I noticed Fiery Skippers and White Peacocks visiting these frequently.
• Tampa Vervain* - Similar to lantana, in a pretty purple color.
• Milkweed - Many butterflies, including Eastern Black Swallowtails, love to visit the flowers for nectar.
• Tropical Sage*, Red Salvia*, and Coral Honeysuckle* - Red trumpet-shaped flowers (as on the salvia to the right) draw butterflies and the occasional hummingbird.
• Mexican Petunia (sterile cultivar) - I've seen the occasional sulphur butterfly visiting these, a rare find in my garden.
• Plumbago - Another favorite of several kinds of butterflies.
• Firebush* - Gulf fritillaries love these.
  

I planted some new host plants this year, and learned that some things I already had serve as host plants as well.

• Passionvine* - I planted this in both native purple and non-native blue. The gulf fritillary caterpillars dined like kings all summer long, and we've seen plenty of empty chrysalises indicating their healthy metamorphosis into butterflies.
• Parsley - I added this for the Eastern Black Swallowtails and am raising several generations right now.
• Sicklepod Cassia* - This is a plant I learned about while volunteering at the MOSI BioWorks Butterfly Garden. It is the host plant for several sulphur butterflies, but I've yet to see any eggs or caterpillars.
• Tropical Milkweed - We planted some last year and added plenty more this year. However, wasps and ants took a toll on the monarch caterpillars, so I've taken to raising some in captivity for release when they become butterflies.
• Plumbago - Turns out this is the host plant for Cassius Blues, although I've yet to spot any.

I feel pretty good about my accomplishments this year, but next year I hope to have better luck with sulphurs. I'd also like to add wild lime for Giant Swallotail caterpillars, pipevine for Polydamus Swallowtail caterpillars, and get my hands on some pawpaw to draw Zebra Swallowtails.

The great thing about gardening for wildlife is that there are always new species to try to attract. A friend of mine says that since we have such small yards here in the 'burbs, she tries hard to plant only things that will benefit wildlife in some way. I've adopted this philosophy - no room for sterile ornamental plants here. My Florida Backyard is a NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat and proud of it!

*Native to Florida

Live and Learn

On July 7, My Florida Backyard hosted the second meeting of the Greenbrook/Brightside Adopt-A-Pond Project. John McGee, Hillsborough County Adopt-A-Pond program coordinator, was on hand to provide us with lots of information and materials to get our project up and running.

We were also fortunate to have on hand John Calvert, Plantation's new property manager, and Danny Church, Plantation's maintenance supervisor. We need the support of the whole community to make this project succeed, and John and Danny understand the positive impacts our planned improvements will have on Plantation as a whole.

John (McGee) began the evening by giving us an overview of stormwater ecology, and then asked us what our goals are as we begin work on our pond. Several of us listed the desire to create new wildlife habitats and improve the existing ones. Danny indicated it would be great if this program could help to stop erosion of the pond banks. We also discussed the possibility of maintaining water quality while using fewer chemical herbicides. John assured us all of these goals were very possible.

He then moved on to explaining the materials he brought to support our efforts. The most important is the giant Adopt-A-Pond Notebook. This book contains just about every kind of information we could need, including forms, program information, pictures and detailed description of plants, and a landscaping guide. Paula will hold onto one copy of this notebook, and Danny will receive another to be used as our group cooperates with the maintenance team to make the project successful.

John also brought copies of the Adopt-A-Pond brochure, stickers, and several reference books, as well as print copies of the Adopt-A-Pond newsletter, On Our Pond.

The group spent some time addressing concerns that while residents may work to establish new plants and habitats in and around the pond, well-meaning maintenance crews could inadverdently spray herbicides that would destroy all the hard work. Danny assured us that he would work with us and his crew to ensure that our pond maintains maximum health levels while protecting the efforts of the Adopt-A-Pond team. Danny explained that one of the main pond issues is controlling the very invasive Hydrilla. John explained some possible alternatives to the current methods, including the possibility of introducing a carefully controlled population of Chinese Grass Carp. We will explore these ideas further as the project progresses.

Finally, the group was ready to make some plans for moving ahead with the project. We agreed to focus our initial efforts on the playground area at the north end of the pond, where we can work to control erosion as well as establish wildlife habitat. John suggested he visit the area and choose the best plants (all native to Florida) to start the project off right, and we agreed. Some of the plants he may help us introduce include:

• Cypress trees
• Shade trees such as oak or elm
• Duck Potato
• Pickerelweed
• Cordgrass and Soft Rush

Our first planting is planned for Wednesday, August 12, from 6:00 - 8:00. John will be there to guide us every step of the way, so no experience in any kind of planting is required. All residents are encouraged to join in! We'll meet at the playground area. Be sure to dress in clothes that can get wet and muddy, and bring a long-handled pointed shovel if you have one.

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.
-Frank Lloyd Wright

See also: Let it Begin With Me (First Adopt-A-Pond Meeting)

Accentuate the Positive

Once we had some ground rules laid, it was time to assess what we had already in the yard, and what we would need to do. Turned out, what we had was very little, and what we would need to do was a lot!

Here's what we had:

Front Yard: Mostly crabgrass. Walkway in good shape. "Gardens" filled with lava rocks and sad-looking potted plants. Healthy (if overgrown) holly bush and unidentified tree.

Backyard: Swing set inherited from previous owners and soon given away to next-door neighbors with kids. No landscaping to speak of.


Side yard: Overgrown weeds and not much else. (Note: The fence pictured belongs to the neighbor house.)
Yikes. Where to start? Well, we knew we wanted to eliminate as much grass as possible. Grass is the enemy of a Florida and Wildlife Friendly yard. Why? Well, grass is not really native to Florida. Some varieties, like Bahia and Bermuda, do reasonably well here, but don't really provide anything useful for wildlife. Plus, grass requires a lot of upkeep - mowing, watering, and so on. Grass just didn't fit with our guidelines.

We also wanted to add some type of pathway around the house from the front door to the back porch. Florida grass (except the St. Augustine on golf courses) is not nice to walk on in the best of circumstances. It's rough and scratchy, and usually contains unwelcome critters like fire ants. Adding a pathway would also add a little structure to the yard.

With this in mind, we began to plan. We took some measurements and sketched out the yard and house, and then began to draw in gardens and other features. I found the Florida Friendly Landscaping website to be immensely helpful with this - they have an interactive yard feature that gives you great ideas. We decided to cut out several arcs of gardens in the front yard and turn almost the entire backyard into garden, including a butterfly garden behind the porch.

We decided to use paver blocks set into sand for the walkway. This choice was economical and fairly earth-friendly. By setting the paver blocks into sand instead of solid concrete, we were allowing for rain water to get through to the ground below instead of draining away to storm sewers. Florida's aquifers need all the help they can get!

With our general plan in place, and nice spring weather upon us, it was time to get cracking!

If You Build It, They Will Come

When we first moved into the house in November 2007, we spent most of the first few months focused on the inside and basics - roof, windows, painting, minor repairs, light fixtures, etc. Finally, in March 2008, it was time to tackle the yard. To begin, of course we needed to assess what we had to work with and what we wanted to accomplish.

Our yard is tiny - about one-tenth of an acre. There were a few "gardens" around the front of the house, but the rest was patchy grass and overgrown weeds. On one side, the neighbors had a wooden fence. In the backyard, we had about 15 feet of yard from the edge of the screened-in porch; the remaining 15 feet or so down to the lake belonged to the community and was cared for by the HOA.

So, we didn't have much to start with, but we had very definite visions about what we wanted to create. Our main goal was to take our tiny piece of suburban Tampa and create our own mini wildlife refuge. We couldn't control what our neighbors did, but we could take charge of our own yard. We laid a few ground rules:

• Use native plants whenever possible. Other "Florida Friendly" plants could be used, but invasive species had to be eliminated if already present.
• Create a low-maintenance yard that would require minimal care, especially in the ridiculously hot summer months.
• Avoid chemical fertilizers and pesticides in general, and use organic-based fertilizers and pesticides on an as-needed basis.
• Garden for wildlife. Create an environment where creatures could find food, shelter, nesting areas, etc. and wouldn't be threatened by poisons or other harsh environmental factors.

As with most projects, we made sketches, laid down a budget (yeah, right!), and enlisted help (Thanks, Mom!). Over the last year, we've made remarkable progress, and today we have a yard that attracts dozens of birds each day, has a thriving butterfly garden in the summer and fall months, requires little watering, fertilizer, or pesticides, and just generally makes us happy.

My goal with this blog is to provide others with the benefit of our knowledge. I plan to show in detail how we turned a little plot of land into a thriving wildlife sanctuary, right here on the edge of a big city. I'll display pictures of our daily visitors and tell you how we bring them to our yard. And I'll share my ongoing successes and failures as I continue to learn what works in My Florida Backyard, so perhaps you can try the same in yours.