Gardens Florida

Monica Moran Brandies

Starting from scratch

Barbara Thompson has a unique gardening background.

 

“My Grandmother lived in Key West and grew what seemed like every plant and fruit tree that existed.  My Mother, sister and I lived there a couple of times when my Father’s Navy ship was out to sea,” she says.  “In 3rd grade my ‘show and tell’ was about the ‘jungle’ in my Grandmother’s back yard.”

 

“In the 70′s my Grandmother left Key West and moved into our house in Illinois.  Every spring she planted flowers and vegetables.  She was also very good with house plants.  That’s were my love of gardening originated,” Thompson says.

 

When she and husband Mark moved to Brandon 24 years ago, they built their present home and started landscaping literally from scratch.  Mark is the garden architect who decided where the trees, including five crape myrtles in various colors, and bushes should go.  He also planted them all.  They both share the mowing,  edging, and raking.

 

Barbara has taken several classes at the County Extension Office including Compost Happens and the Rain Barrel Workshop, and is a graduate of the first Community Forest Steward program with Rob Northrup.

 

Their home is on a corner and is also unique in that the door between the kitchen and the garage is their main entry with a very small but lovely, shady yard in front.  The side has more turf and larger gardens along the house and surrounding the side patio and French doors to the dining room.  The other side yard, inside the privacy fence, is very narrow but lined with flowers on one side and young fruit trees on the other.

 

Mark laid the long brick walk that leads past a screened garden room and all around the pool enclosure to the back gate. He also put in the patio floor, all with bricks recycled from the Hillsborough Hotel in Tampa.

 

They have an irrigation systems that waters once a week during the dry months and Barbara water the container plants and window boxes with the hose. Barbara feeds with Miracle Gro every few months.   Most amazing, she has succeed with window boxes.  See details below.

 

 

 


Window boxes are possible here

 

Why don’t more people in Florida plant window boxes? Because they take constant care, especially watering?  So do other container plants but many of us have many of them.  Window boxes should be easier than hanging baskets, since they have one long side protected from drying wind.  The biggest drawback, it seems to me, is that you can’t move them out of the spotlight when they have their down time.

 

There is one gardener that has found ways to succeed and has done so for many years.  Barbara Thompson now has four colorful window boxes.

 

“I had impatiens in all of them over the winter,” she says, “but the others got downy mildew and looked so bad that I threw all the plants away so it wouldn’t spread.”  The problem hasn’t spread to the box has on her kitchen window.  It is very striking.

 

“One year I planted only red impatiens for Christmas but I  don’t think it was as pretty as the mixtures of reds, pinks, salmons and whites,” she says.  “Impatiens are my favorites because of their billowing effect.  They get very tall and drape over the front of the box.

 

“I water them when the plants start to droop.  Depending one rain (or lack of) and  temperature, it’s usually 2 times a week.”

 

“We put in our kitchen window box after our house was built 24 years ago.  I started out mostly planting petunias.  It was very sunny because the oak tree in the front yard was a baby,”  she says.  “The dining room box we’ve had for about 10 years.  That’s when I started planting impatiens since it’s almost always shady.  My husband gave me the two bedroom window boxes this past Christmas.  They have reservoirs in the bottom and wicks so I only water them once a week.”

 

She uses Miracle Grow potting soil.  She doesn’t change the soil often, only when plants die from a fungus or disease.  She does put on a top layer of Miracle Gro Garden Soil when she replants.  She does that in May and early November.  Begonias and New Guinea impatiens do well during the summer months.  Impatiens, petunias, geraniums, and oyster plant are good for the cooler months.  She revives what she can and discards the others.  “I’ve had impatiens that lasted 2 years.”

 

She feeds them with Miracle Gro once a month in the summer, every other month in the winter, when they also need less water.  Constant color is possible in window boxes even here.

 

Tree trimming time again

“We need to get our trees trimmed, and maybe some of those behind the fence removed,”  said my spouse David.

 

 

“How in the world will they get those out from behind the fence?”  I asked.  “It will cost a fortune.”

 

“We need to get our trees trimmed, and maybe some of those behind the fence removed,”  said my spouse David.

 

 

“How in the world will they get those out from behind the fence?”  I asked.  “It will cost a fortune.”

 

I didn’t even know who I would call.  The man who helped me through tree trimming trauma the four last times was not available.  I had a name of Asbel Parra, who was in
the crew before and I had heard good things about him.  I called, he answered at once, and came that day.

 

David promised to walk around with us when he came to make an estimate.  That resulted in double the work, but is well worth it.
Asbel Parra looked very young, but only the young can do  that climbing. He knew more about my trees that I did.  I am thrilled to hear I have three live oaks.  Asbel also figured out how to take the dying water oak trees out from the back before they spread disease.  Our good neighbors gave permission for them to bring their truck to the back through their less crowded yard.

 

Experience Tree Service, two brothers and their father, came and quietly pruned more than five large oaks.  Asbel climbed with ladder and rope, no lift bucket, and worked all the first day, with the shredder only on a few times.  The second day he had to be away in the morning, but told me his brother Ismael would be up in our largest oak for four to five hours trimming.  They were so quiet I hardly knew they were there.  By now I have learned to stay out of the way.

 

That afternoon Asbel walked me around again to check on all the smaller trees that needed trimming or removing.  Small trees are quick and inexpensive for them, but hard to impossible for me.  I had them remove everything that hadn’t proved excellent.

 

I didn’t have place for them to dump the truckload of woodchips, but they had a little extra time that day and used my cart and wheelbarrow to take it all to the back where I needed it.  That and the fact that they hardly damaged a single plant from the understory won them eternal thanks.  There were a few more plants crushed when the two large trees were taken out, but they will revive.

 

 

Asbel Parra grew up in Cuba where he often climbed palm trees barefoot to pick a coconut.  He came to the U.S. in 1998 and began working for Davey and then for IntegratedTree Service, learning as he worked.  He saved his money, and when he became a citizen, he was allowed to send for his mother Dania, father Fidel, and brother.
The three men have been  running Experience Tree Service for several years now.  They are licensed and insured for commercial or residential work and specialize in dangerous removal.  They also do landscape cleanup and hauling and are rated at the top of the   list and can be contacted at 813-695-8375.

 

I now have a new yard with more sun, room for more citrus trees, and much less pruning on my conscience.  And it didn’t cost a fortune.  The price was very reasonable, less than what we would have spent for lawn moving or pool care if we needed either in the years since we last had tree trimmers.  Also, we feel safer, but still hope for no hurricanes.

This food forest is thriving

Rosalind Baker calls her garden the food forest.   “For many years, I moved around a lot, but I always had at least a basil plant on the window sill,” she says.

 

Now she and husband, Patrick Mahoney, are  settled in and have trees, three citrus that were rescued from a grove being removed, three plums, two mulberries, two figs, an avocado, a mango,  and some shade trees.

She was still picking figs from her bush in mid November when most figs had already gone dormant.  The leaves on hers were perfect.  Most often they look rusty by late fall.  She also has blueberries and mulberries.

 

Most of their six acres is in full sun, ideal for growing vegetables and fruit.  This is her third winter with her herb and vegetable garden, a large L-shaped plot where these two vegans hope to grow much to all of their own food plus some extra for income.  They have a good start.

 

“We tilled the soil well before we started for the section with the cement block walks,” she says.  “It hasn’t been disturbed or stepped in any more than necessary since.”    She has pieces of plastic shelves for stepping areas where needed.  A plank from stone to stone would also minimize the compaction, but the black plastic is less noticeable and lets the air and water through.  All of this makes for the maximum benefit of earthworms and beneficial micro organisms working  underground.

 

She is not certified organic, but tries to work with nature as much as possible, no pesticides, feeding with worm tea and castings, and lots of mulch, a new layer every season, winter & spring.

 

Each section of the garden is slightly lower than the other, going down from the fence to the lawn.  Already she is selling produce to the friends in her yoga class.  She plants  both perennial and annual herbs and vegetables, and a few things for the butterflies and pollinators.

 

Her many colored lettuces and brightly stemmed Swiss chard looked lovely and lush.  Her tomatoes were huge and full of flowers.  “But no fruits yet,” she said.  And the next
moment she discovered not only first fruits but quite a few that were hiding under the leaves.

 

She will cover the tomatoes and basil as needed.  Most of her plants will come through and produce all winter no matter how cold it gets:  the arugula that she planted and the ones that self-seeded from last year, the kale, Swiss chard, collards, onions, and spinach.

 

A neighbor grows hamsters for laboratories and produces 6 cubic yards of shavings per week with bits of uneaten alfalfa pellets and such.  This he is glad to dump on their land where it becomes rich mulch quickly with some turning.  They already can sell it  to other gardeners: they do not deliver but will load your truck or trailer.  They also have some potting soil for sale, the kind that Rosalind uses for starting her seeds.

 

You can get in touch with her by phone at 352-804-9246 or by email at thefoodforest@gmail.com

One amazing rose garden

This is Louise Estes

Indira Mathews was told that roses don’t grow well in the Tampa area.  Three and a half years later she knows better, as some 400 rose bushes thrive and bear abundantly in her garden.

 

“Most days I can pick 100 roses,” she said.  “But we just cut everything back because I didn’t know you were coming.”  She also knows ever rose by name.

She could still and did pick at least 3 dozen for my friend Nancy and me before we left.   “I would just have to deadhead them later if you don’t take them,” she said.

 

She takes roses to church, to dinners for the needy so they can enjoy some elegance, and to nursing homes.

 

When she gave me directions to her home, she said, “You’ll see the rose bushes in the front yard.”  Indeed they extend from the back fence to the front curb, in neat beds that are edged with stone or raised with wood.  Most are in the ground, but plenty are in large pots.  The climbers cling to the back fence and the lattice around the patio and trellises.  There is just enough grass to make paths and set off the flower beds.

 

Her husband, Tom Mathews, is a retired neurologist and they last came from Dayton, Ohio, where I was born.  Originally, Indira is from Malaysia where her mother grew roses and  her sister still lives and was the first woman to win an award for rose growing.  She received a trophy from the King.

 

Indira has had busloads of visitors to her garden.  “The day I planned to disbud all the plants so that they would be blooming 40 to 42 days later for the visitors, my husband had to have unexpected surgery.  I came home and disbudded in the dark by feel and flashlight,” she says.  “I work in a rain coat or night goggles.  I can’t say no to my roses.”

 

Since her husband, like mine, is not a gardener, she hires the help she needs, someone to spray the roses every week or, in winter, as needed. They use the most Florida friendly sprays like neem oil.  “This has been the worst year for black spot that I’ve ever seen,” she says.

 

The lawn man mows and trims and brings her fertilizer in large bags.  She has tried every kind of fertilizer.  The garden is on automatic watering, some overhead, some low flow.

 

Herbs for Life: This book can make life easier

If you are looking for a book on growing and using medicinal herbs in Florida, you will be as glad as I am to see that Herbs for Life, by Linda W. Mix. R.N. is hot off the press and available for Christmas gifts.

 

It is a very easy book to use, mostly explained at the beginning.  “Herbs help bring the body into balance by strengthening the body’s systems and activating certain functions as needed.  Although each herb is capable to treating several different ailments, it will focus on the needs of the individual body,” Mix writes.

She gives tips on growing and harvesting herbs, making teas, infusions, decoctions and poultices.  As a nurse, she tells how herbs relate to pregnancy and how to calculate dosages for children.  And she tells the dangers and how to avoid them and how to work with your physician.

 

In the core of the book she gives the details: common and botanical name, parts used, description, cultivation, culinary uses, medicinal uses, others uses and cautions for 91 different medicinal plants with a colored photo of each from trees to ground covers that we can grow and use here. There are 245 pages.

 

Because she has done her research in the northern Florida panhandle, we might tweak some of the information to suit milder climates.  For instance, she says to plant nasturtiums in early spring, and we can plant them in late summer or fall.  Up there she says, “sometimes nasturtiums will last until frost if shaded in the hottest summer months.”  I have moved cuttings into the shade where they survived the summers here in central Florida, but they didn’t grow much until cooler weather.

 

She gives a long list of herbs to treat common ailments.  For arthritis and rheumatism, the very best are cayenne pepper, garlic, ginger, and horseradish.  For colds and sore throats, the most efficient are cayenne pepper, echinacea, elderberry, garlic, ginger,
honeysuckle, horseradish, lavender, rose hips, rosemary, sage, thyme and violet.

 

If you don’t grow your own herbs, you can buy them dried or in capsules at any health food store.

 

Check the website: www.MedicinalHerbsForLife.com.  The book costs $24.95.  Or you can send a check for $29.95 plus $1.50 sales tax to her at Linda Mix, Medicinal Herbs For Life, P.O. Box 36002, Panama City, FL. 32412.

 

It will easily save you in doctor bills and time off work and it will add to the joy of your life.

Published in the Brandon News section of the Tampa Tribune/Dec. 14, 2011

A novice garden already great

“I have all sorts of questions,” said Karel Bennet.  “My house is surrounded with potted plants and I don’t know what to do with them.”

 

But what this lady lacks in know- how, she balances twice again with enthusiasm.  Her mother Suzanne, who lives with her and is now wheelchair bound, was once a gardener, but Karel did not have any interest until she retired from the post office in 2003.  Then she got the plant addiction, which is just about the happiest addiction a person can get.  It was her mother who first showed her my column.

Gardening has wonderful rewards from the very first.  Even a life time does not answer all the questions since everything we learn just shows us how much more there is to know. Karel Bennet had successes blooming all over the place in late December starting with a red bougainvillea in the corner of the front yard.

 

“It dies to the ground every winter,” she says, but comes back like that (six feet tall and wide and drooping with color.)”

 

Under an oak tree on the other side of the front yard two large red poinsettias were in bloom along with the last of the blue torenias.  All around the dooryard were pots of plants, some of which she was hoping to give away before she has to carry them in on cold nights.  “My aloe is blooming,” she said.  “I didn’t know aloes bloom.  They also multiply greatly.  If anyone wants one, I give them a dozen.”

 

Her Christmas cactus was just starting to bloom.  “I didn’t know that the when the leaves turn red it meant they were about to bloom, and I was pinching off the red leaves, thinking something was wrong with them,” she laughs.

 

In the back garden around the pool, she has a herb garden in pots that includes the largest bay leaf plant I have ever seen.  “I try to give the leaves away, just like I do the plants.  But people who don’t garden, don’t garden.  I should remember that since I didn’t either,” she says.

 

Right now she is working too hard watering all those pots.  But she has a way with plants and her garden is going to bloom ever more abundantly as she learns more and more.  In the meantime, I have never seen anyone so excited about their garden. And her mother has a smile that lights up a day as she enjoys watching Karel making things grow.

 

 

Bonsai graces this landscape

I am in awe of even a single bonsai plant.  I have seen very few collections.  Never have I seen such a collection as Frank Celani has nor one so neatly integrated into the landscape.

 

How did he learn this difficult art?  “I’m Italian,” he says.  “It comes naturally.”  He learned by reading and trial and error.  “There is hardly a plant I haven’t tried as a bonsai.

“I was a strange kid,” he says with a smile.  “While others were playing cowboys, I was down in the woods turning over rocks.”  He belonged to the Bonsai Society for a while.  “But I tend to do things differently,” he says.

 

A retired contractor and realtor, he built all three of the patios behind his house with the bonsai plants in mind.  Some of these miniature trees are over 30 years old and several have been in the same pots for 27 years.  Two of them, a Concord grapevine that once covered a trellis and a bougainvillea had grown to good size when he cut them back, roots and tops, and made them into bonsais.  The bougainvillea is solid color when it is covered with flowers and the grape vine still bears some grapes that the birds enjoy.

 

Frank grows other things as well.  The front garden is very small but a bright green with a bottle brush tree, a small palm, and a dazzling patch of marigolds.  It reminded me of the gardens in Ireland.

 

There is a row of bamboo along the back fence that froze down the last two winters, but he used the stalks he cut off to build one of the patios and the railing of a small bridge over his koi pond.  In the small space at the side of the house is a colorful garden, almost all regular plants, but many in containers, that is a great surprise as one walks along the patios.

 

The bonsai plants take a great deal of care and commitment.  All are watered by hand-held hose because each plant has unique needs.   Frank has good help. Every morning his mother, a young 91, waters the front garden for about 10 minutes.  He waters the back for an hour.  In the dry times, he waters at night as well.  But once the rains come that will ease up.

 

“I weed the bonsais with tweezers,” he says.  He feeds them as needed.  His wife also helps with the weeding.  Their garden is awesome.

A garden of inspiration

Published in the Brandon News, Aug. 31, 2011

“My gardens are far from perfect but I have tried to decrease the lawn area in front by planting beds around the perimeter and having only a circle of lawn out front. It gets smaller each year!  I’m hoping to spread the beds 2 or 3 feet more when the hot weather passes,” says Marie Carlucci.

 

I’d say her gardens were very near to perfect.  She is fighting skunk vine but that is the only major weed, and she is keeping it in control.  I’m not sure any of us can get rid of that altogether without moving to another climate.

As I drove down the street, the first thing I saw was the large planting of Tunera alata, the creamy white buttercups with black and yellow centers.  Now I know why she said to come at 10 am when they would be open instead of at 9.  They close about 1 pm, but they are so gorgeous the few hours they are open that we forgive them for their part time flowers. Marie’s gardens reminded me again that I should have bigger planting of the best flowers for more visual impact.  I am going to work on that.

 

“I took the survivors of the freezes and dug up half, then cut some of them in half again and put them in the places where things had died out,” Marie says.  “I don’t buy much except from the Jail Plant Sales.  Many of my plants have come from there.”

 

“I am also learning,” she says, “to plant for layers of bloom, some tall, some low, and some for the middle.”  Beside her mailbox she had tall blue porterweed, red pentas for the middle, and dwarf lantana for the low growth.

 

Marie learned much of her gardening from her mother Anna, who comes down from the north for a few months every winter.  “As she gets out of the car,” says Marie, “she spots her first weed and says ‘I’ll get your tomorrow.’  She can weed all day.”  Marie’s husband Paul is also a good and willing weeder.

 

When they got married, the florist gave them the pot from which he had taken the pothos for foliage in her bouquet.  Thirty-eight years later she still has that pot indoors and a nice bit of the offspring growing along the garden borders.  But she had never let it take over, as it can in Florida.

 

This lady had a lot to teach me.  God takes us where we need to go.

Come to the Citrus Celebration

This post is from the 2011 event.  It is an annual event.   The date for 2012 is Feb. 12, Sunday, from 10 am – 4 pm.

 

When I went to my first Rare Fruit Council International sale many years ago, I was worried about planting fruit my family wouldn’t like.  Over the years this same organization has helped me and many others to find the very best fruits to grow in our gardens.

 

Coming up on Sunday, Feb. 13th –save the day–in the Horticultural Building at the Florida State Fair will be the 10th  Citrus Celebration there.  The group started it at USF Botanical Gardens in 1998.  The tasting begins at 10 am and continues until 4 pm.  If you come earlier, you can watch the members cutting up like you’ve never seen before.
This is your chance to see and taste many different kinds of citrus fruits to help you decide which kinds you most want to plant or even just to buy.  There will be many kinds that you will never find even at the best produce markets.

Most of this fruit is grown, picked, donated, washed and cut up by members of the group. But if anyone has fruit they would like to donate, you can call Jimmy or Sally Lee at 982-9359 or Charles Novak at 754-1399.

 

Last year, after those freezes, everyone was worried about finding enough citrus.  But when they day came, they offered 72 different kinds of citrus for tasting plus samples of 8 other fruits for the pittance of $1 a plate.

 

Besides the tasting, there are displays to see that will surprise you.  Even most Florida natives are unaware of the many kinds of citrus that will grow here.   When we had the first of these citrus fests, Charles Novak, whose idea it was to begin with, said, “There are people out there who have never tasted a Page orange.”  At that time, I was one of those people. I bought a whole bag that first day and planted a trees in my yard soon after.  I had never tasted Ponkans either, and didn’t until our late member, author Lewis Maxwell said they were his favorites.  I bought the tree before I tasted that one, but have never been sorry.

 

Perhaps the best part of the Citrus Celebration is the chance to ask questions of the RFCI members and to compare your favorites with the people in line behind and before you.  It’s great fun as well as good eating and important research.  Don’t miss it.

Gardens Help Restore Lives

When Ella and Adrian Canencia first saw their current home, they realized it was much bigger than they needed and was also in terrible shape.   It had been a foreclosure, empty for two years, visited by thieves who took some flooring and removed the A/C system.  The neighbors were hoping it would be condemned.

 

But Ella Canencia says, “God gave us a vision of how this house could be restored and then be used for people to come and restore their lives.”  It took a great deal of work and money, but among the first rooms they refurbished were for her parents to move in.  And already they have another guest who is working with Ella in the garden where they have great talks about God.

 

“Many of my plants I got free when the apartment community where I work part time decided to redo their landscaping,” she says.  “I like to rescue plants.  God doesn’t throw us away when we stop blooming.  He welcomes us back with love.”

The Canencia house sits on a two acre lot with so many well trimmed oak trees that much of it is in shade.   There is a chainlink fence all across the front and, except for the wrought gates and entrance, it is covered with Confederate jasmine that has just finished its fragrant bloom.  There are areas of mulch surrounded by railroad ties around most of the trees.

 

Wisely, they do not fret over the “lawn” which is green year round with whatever God plants there.  Adrian does the mowing.

 

He also built a chicken house and pen in the backyard so they can have fresh eggs.  And they took down a fence along the driveway and used the planks, along with concrete blocks, to assemble a railing around the patio in the back.  With Ella’s plants, it is lovely.  So is the border around the front patio with her free peace lilies and spider plants and the plants around the front door.

 

She finds impatiens growing wild in the yard and is moving them up to a bed by the door that has a healthy sago palm as its center.

 

When I first saw this house while bringing communion to her parents, it was just after the freeze, and it was the only yard in the area that showed no damage.  They had covered their ti plants and potted poinsettias so they were all in good shape.  The next time is was our turn to come, the jasmine was blooming.

 

So long before I met the gardeners, I admired how they kept such a large yard looking so good.  “There is so much more to do,” says Ella.  But it is going to be a work of love and a place of serenity rather than a chore.  May God bless all who dwell or visit therein.

 

Today’s pick

I have long loved rex begonias and killed the few I tried up north as houseplants.  But they grow very easily outdoors in Florida in pots or in the ground.  They come with leaves of many colors, some with stripes, dots, or circles of green, pink, purples and yellow and various textures and have lovely spires of pink flowers in the spring.  They can be multiplied easily from divisions or cuttings. Most years they survive the winter in my shady garden, but I covered mine the last two years.  They thrive in partial to light shade.

 

Now’s the time to…

If you are interested in helping with the Canencia’s vision or know someone who needs a time and place to restore their life, you can call this couple at 813-972-5256.

They are happy to recycle plants, pots, and anything else they can use.