Please forgive my recent absence. Due to recent personal issues I've been been unable to participate and am now slowly trying to catch up on things. I still reject all ideas about chemicals, herbicides, salt water intrusion, etc. The distribution pattern does not correlate. To recap slightly, what I'm seeing (though I've not been out much lately) is vast normal areas of seemingly healthy trees in which one comes across single dead trees widely spaced--mostly oaks, but other species, too--and most alarmingly, groups (4-7) of dead trees. As anyone who lives around here knows, Oaks are the vast majority of existing trees in central Florida so it's no surprise that even if multiple species are uniformly affected, it would be Oaks that bear the brunt of the effect and suffer in greater numbers. (As soon as I get a chance I will try to make and post a video and will put a notice about it here.) Sometimes, the group will have other nearby individual dead trees very close around it... such as 4 adjacent dead trees, and within 500' of them, 4 or 5 more. Recently, of a group of a dozen or so palms, I noticed 3 adjacent ones, fresh dead. Another symptom that may or may not be related... I'm seeing many trees that from a distance look healthy, but have tip sections (approx. 3'-6') of branches that are flat dead. Some of these trees may have 3 such dead branches (as viewed from one side). Some may have a dozen. I'm in eastern Hillsborough County. Yesterday, I went to Brandon (a more urban/suburban area) and over there I did not see as many dead trees and dead branch tips. But there were some. Also, recently, I happened upon a land owner who was affected by dead trees so inquired as to what he knew. He was adamant that the death was caused by beetles. He claimed to obtain this information from someone who would know about such things, but our conversation was hectic as he was in the middle of work activity requiring his focus. And I had little time then, too, so was not able to get more information. However, I can believe that such a theory is far more likely than any chemical-based theory. I could imagine how beetles could move into an area and quickly distribute themselves on an adjacent group of trees. And on some other nearby trees. And then fly off to trees one-quarter mile away and do it all again. I can imagine, too, that they could do this in concert with some weather/climate phenomenon and seemingly "burst" upon the scene as a sudden catastrophe... such as the periodic "herds of locusts." They could do damage directly or be the carrier of disease a la the well known Dutch Elm Disease. However, I'm not in a position to research this information first-hand and there seems to be a lack of it coming through official channels. When I fist reported it here it was extremely new (to this area) so stood a good chance of not yet being noticed or having anyone ascertain its degree of impact. The overall distribution of this condition... what may or may not exist beyond my area, is unknown to me. Maybe we are the "epicenter." Or maybe this is just old stuff finally working its way through this area from other parts of Florida. I'm surprised that it is does not yet seem to be a major local news story or that definitive information is not coming forth via official channels. Then again, I've been out of commission for more than two weeks.

Well, I found this thread that was started almost a year ago to the day. Since I was late in starting my spring garden last year, I guess that might have been why I had NO problem with squirrels. This year I was able to get an early start and had most seeds/seedlings in the ground by mid-February (I live in the Largo/Seminole area). Here it is March 9th and the squirrels have pretty much destroyed at least half of each raised bed (I have 6). Planting corn was a joke. I planted it 3 weekends in a row and at first (duh) couldn't figure out what happened. But when the seedlings started getting chewed, and I had holes everywhere, it dawned on me. I sprinkled cayenne pepper over the watermelon seed mound I just replanted yesterday... only to go out this morning and find that they clearly like peppered watermelon seeds just as well as plain. I bought critter ridder yesterday too... and they dug right through it with no hesitation. I have taken the advice to put sunflower seeds on the opposite end of my garden and just give them something else to eat, but so far they haven't paid any notice. I guess I have to give it a few days. I'm an animal lover too, but boy do I get pissed off when I walk out every morning and see the damage they've done. Between them and moles, I feel like I'm losing the battle with organic, humane gardening.

I was so surprised to see this thread today as I was creating an introductory post in my mind on my way home from work today. I realized that I jumped in a while back with a lot of hummingbird information without ever offering any introduction and figured it might be appropriate. I'm Steve and live in Valrico (about 20 miles east of Tampa - east of Brandon) with my wife and 9 year old son. We're down to 3 cats, all indoors. Rowdy was my cat for 21 years before she passed away a couple of years ago, blind and with high blood pressure. I'm more of a grower than a gardener. Most of what I grow is to supplement mother nature. I plant what the critters need, mainly birds and butterflies. We've planned the initial layout of the flowerbeds but in the end, things grow where they want to. My growing started out on an apartment balcony because I wanted to attract hummingbirds. We bought our home in 2000 and gradually began creating a home for hummingbirds. In 2005, I created a webpage showing before and after photos of my yard. It's at: http://rowdy13.tripod.com/hummeryard.html The photos aren't the best but you get the idea of what went into my yard. I was recently asked about flowerbeds and my response was that I see the whole yard as my flowerbed. This photo was taken earlier this year. Early on, I killed many a fuchsia and columbine trying to force my favorite northern plants to grow here but finally decided to reduce my stress and just let grow what wants to grow with as little effort as possible. Steve Backes Valrico, FL

I've found that Aquaponics seems to extend the growing season for tomatoes a bit as does adding some shade for the hottest part of the day during the hottest part of the season. Even so, when the night time temps don't get cool enough, the plants probably won't set fruit but if they are indeterminate, they can just keep growing until the nights cool off and allow them to start setting fruit again. Be prepared for monster plants though and don't be scared to prune hard though that might make for some not so attractive plants. If you want to know about good summer crops for around here, sweet potatoes are good so log as you can provide enough water to them (leaves and vine tips are a handy edible summer green too.) Okra does well in the high heat as do many southerns peas and beans, yardlong beans seem to like the heat (peas and beans can also improve the soil by fixing nitrogen.) I'm trying out Strawberry spinach this summer as well as New Zeland Spinach since I don't like the taste of Malabar spinach though it is an attractive plant. Basil can grow on through the summer if you keep cutting it. Some melons can also do well in the extreme heat at least for a while though when the rains come you might need to watch for splitting. for some light shade mixed through the garden it might be worth planting some moringa or papaya among the garden space though these plants can be killed back to the ground by frost so might not be as useful long term in zone 9 and cooler. Mixing stuff like corn, sunflowers, and other tall stuff into the garden among everything else can help provide some shade and make a small garden more productive than if you simply planted just one type of plant. Mix things up with low growing plants to help cover the ground and keep it cool and moist then some middle level plants and then some tall plants all jumbled together and add some flowers and herbs into the mix and the pests get more confused and the beneficial bugs are attracted and the garden is more productive. Heck, I've still got lettuce surviving in my herb garden and it's been over 93 F here every day for a week!