I heard a lot about Florida gardening when I lived up north.  I heard that fenceposts sprouted in the ground… that anything you plant grows… and that it was generally a gardener’s paradise.  I heard wrong.  Gardening in Florida is a challenge.  We have to deal with too much heat and the occasional freeze, awful soil, debilitating insects and disease, and always the wrong amount of rain.

Florida has the widest variety of insect pests, diseases and weeds in the United States.

There are many things that can improve your gardening success… and different people have different ways of dealing with the problems we encounter.  I feel the most important thing for my gardening, and the thing that is most responsible for any good results I have had, is mulch.  Mulch does many good things.  It keeps the soil cooler, breaks down to improve soil, and keeps down weeds.  If you are going to try mulching for the first time, it is a good idea to add some high nitrogen fertilizer to it, because the initial breaking down of the mulch makes nitrogen unavailable to the plants you are mulching.  In the long run, with continued mulching, results seem to exceed effort.

Another thing that helps ensure gardening success is planting things that like to grow here.  That is an oversimplification of course, and to be sure many avid gardeners thrive on growing plants at the limit of their adaptability.  However… it is so satisfying to grow some of the plants that positively thrive here.

Many of the plants that do well here are not the same ones with which most of us are familiar.  Trying some of these unusual plants can add a new dimension to our enjoyment of Florida gardening.  Who knows… maybe you too will find some new favorites.

Spilanthes oleraceae or Spilanthes acmella.  These herbs are also called Toothache Plant.  My kids had great fun with this plant and so did their friends.  Adults, too, have been know to indulge in the silliness.  The effects, from chewing the leaves, include an odd numbing of the mouth followed by production of copious amounts of saliva.  The saliva is tinted a brilliant green from chewing the leaves – resulting in absolutely remarkable green goobers.  An added attraction is the adorable flowers.  Easy from seed and sometimes reseeds.

Mimosa pudica – known as Sensitive Plant.  This sweet little plant is naturalized in several counties, including my own, Hillsborough.  It has attractive powderpuff flowers in pink, but the main attraction is its reaction to movement, touch, or lack of light.  It folds up.  Easy from seed and great fun.

Round-Up Rant

Okay - I am not an organic purist.  I've used Amdro occasionally and even sprayed Round-Up on poison ivy that was too close for comfort.  I don't begrudge people the use of Round-Up for certain types of weed control.  What I simply cannot fathom is what seems to have gotten really popular this past year - little collars you put under weeds to isolate them from other plants so you can spray just the weed.  Hmmm.... If you can go through the effort of putting the collar around the weed                  

YOU CAN PULL THE WEED!!!!

  I'm done yelling now.