Oh, so many things! Ruella, Campsis radicans, Chinaberry tree seedlings, crab grass, dollar weed - and the list goes on!

Call me weird, but I might miss the tracking/pulling/cutting of the invasives - guess it makes me feel needed. Having a picture perfect yard doesn't appeal to me - anyone can pay money for that - hence, so many boring "well kept" yards. However, I would not miss the heat and humidity that make the effort so unpleasant most of the year - and the biting insects as the summer day is closing and cooling to allow me to resume the "gotcha" game.

Well, I wouldn't replace a thing in my yard! Even the weeds that send up lil flowers. Nope, I'll take all of it, even the saw palmettos, it wouldn't be Fla. with out them!!

I will not miss the Crows, Bluejays, Squirrels, Possums, Raccoons, Black Rats, Moles, Poisonous Snakes, Skeeters, No-see-ums, Horse Flies, Gnats, Midges, Fleas, Etc. Etc. because those infernal creatures are everywhere I go!!

Lou

Hurricane Season and lubbers.

John

I will probably never move away, but, here are some things I would not miss if I did:

1. Wedelia - yes, I planted it, now I have to live with it. Even now I can hear each shoot growing, calling to me in unison, "Bill," they whisper, "You can't get rid of us, we're permanent. Stop trying, give up, accept defeat. We're taking over."
2. Raking up oak tree pollen. Beautiful trees but...yecch!
3. Mother of millions (also) - I actually potted one thinking it was a cool plant. Now I am surrounded. Even Round-Up doesn't kill it.

and finally......

4. Tourists with pale skin burnt red, black socks and sandals. Where, o'where are the fashion police?

As I said, I will probably never leave. But, if I could find the perfect place, it would be warm, but not too warm. There would be free beer for everyone and steak would be $0.50 per pound. No one would have heard of or speak the names of Charlie Sheen, Lady Ga-Ga, Prince Charles or that irritating woman on the Progressive Insurance commercials (named Flo, maybe?). And...everyone would garden to their hearts content but no one, absolutely no one, would grow okra. Or beets. Period.

I LOVE okra! But I agree with all the rest. Top of the list: Greenbriar (or Cat Briar), ARMADILLOS!!!, Lubbers, American Cockroaches (some call them Palmetto bugs - THEY'RE COCKROACHES!!!, Skunk Vine, Fire Ants, Love Bugs, Chinaberry trees, Stinging Nettle (also called finger-rot), Cord Grass, Torpedo Grass, Oxalis, Spurge, and northerners who move here and brag how everything is better back home. There are some others but these all drive me nuts. But I'm not moving so I'll continue to be crazy.

I'm not a northerner, but I am a transplant to the north now re-planting back to florida, bit by bit, and not to brag (and also not wearing black socks with sandals), but the greenbrier in fla is pretty weak stuff compared to what I deal with in MA. Maybe I don't have the aggressive stuff at my place. Also, talking of pulling weeds, I mean, it is dead easy in florida sand.

Probably trying to control invasives is a bit more difficult in the summer. I hightail my black socks, sandals, and burnt skin out of here well before then.

Did y'all know that round-up takes the minerals out of your ground pretty much permanently, makes them unusable for plants in the future? Which in soil that is already severely impoverished for minerals to start with is really a scary thought. Think starvation.

Can you please site your source for this claim?
Is there credible research to prove your statement?
How does glyphosate- the active ingredient in Round Up -
bond and with which particular mineral?

I was 'transplanted' as a seedling 59 years ago, so have almost no experience gardening any where else. Things I do know - pulling weeds in sand easier any day than from clay or hard pan; I managed to kill the mother of millions by layering newspaper, leaves, etc in the garden. BUGS! I guess they have a purpose, but so far as I can tell, it's to remind humans Ma Nature is still BOSS; snakes and other varmints - I learned to deal with them as a kid in Arizona. Biggest gripe: boas, anacondas, iguanas - all those exotic invasives. I think citizens should be free to kill on site. I live in the city but an 8 foot boa was found two doors down in a neighbor's back yard - with her two Bassett hounds. Fortunately, he wasn't hungry.

Otherwise, I LOVE living in Florida and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Well, maybe Arizona but how would I deal with all that DRY heat?
cora

Gatormom:

Look especially at line 1 in table 1. Glyphosate is a strong metal chelator, taking many of the critical minerals out of availability to plants. It is the exact opposite of what florida soil needs.

Here is a link that might be useful: no zinc, no brain

Greenbriar - maybe easy to pull out in sand, don't know, but where I am it's clay and woodland and it's everywhere and those bulby roots are massive in some areas. I decided to clear a small area at the edge of the woods - maybe 6 x 3 in size - took me 3 hours of hacking to dig up all the roots, and I have 5 acres worth. Looks like greenbriar is here to stay.

Good luck with killing that mother of millions lol. I am up near Jax and I actually found one growing in the waterlily pond after the freezes we had last year that got into the teens!! I was stunned. Also they turn up in the cactus pots, brugmansia pots that I keep up on my covered patio even through the winter even thought the MOM was nowhere near my patio :D

Been here all my life [long time] have traveled most of U S would not move anywhere else!!!

For all the crabbing I do about Florida's bugs & weeds, and I love living here, but the one thing I sorely do miss is that Florida creeks, streams & rivers have no freestanding gold in them and to an old fart that has Prospected all his life, that's a huge BUMMER!

Picture of one of my display cases;

Lou

Wow Lou you're rich! You found all that in creeks? Sorry you're missing the prospecting. Occasionally I hear that people do find priceless artifacts and fossils around here, but I guess that is not the same is it?

One of the things I have learned in life. The grass that all ways looks greener is usually over a septic tank.

Plant em if you got em.
Sam

I won't miss Spiderwort that is impossible to get rid off! I can't believe people buy it! They take over everything including the front lawn and are multiplying like crazy. They are very hard to pull out!

Neighbors have a couple of these trees, and the seedlings drive me crazy. I see them out of the corner of my eye. We pull them by the hundreds.

Anyone know the name of the tree?

CB

I will not miss the heliconias I planted which throw up new plants but never flower, or the pine cone ginger that takes over every summer but leaves a bare spot where nithing else will grow in the winter. Canna lilies which wander wherever they want. The lemon grass and ornamental grasse in my supposedly zero scaped front yard which pop up worse than the weeds. Potato vine and others like virginia creeper vines (that is the vine a previous poster posted a picture of, the one with 5 leaves) anyway, my 2 cents worth Dave

Hi CB
Your baby tree sure reminds me of the Chinaberry . . .

Susie

My neighbor to the left has a beautiful Drake Elm.

My neighbor to the right has a beautiful Drake Elm.

Below are photos of how my entire yard looks every Spring: every bed, every path, every inch, every crack in the sidewalk, filled with Drake Elm seedlings!

I would not miss them, Sam-I-Am. Would not, could not, Sam-I-Am.

Carol

Oak tree pollen, oak tree worms, oak tree seedlings, oak tree leaves....

pabrocb,
That looks like a seedling from the golden rain tree.
Things I won't miss - Lubbers, fire ants, the sqirrels that dig in my pots on the deck and seedlings of mimosa weed that come up everywhere there is bare soil.

I wouldn't miss the four o'clocks that someone "shared" seeds with me. Also the maple tree whirlie things that coat everything on the property. Mexican petunias should be banned as they runner under ground extensively and I've been pulling them for five years. Nandina also. Palmettos and palmetto bugs!

Mokikat, you are so right. Thank you.

This is the tree that surrounds our yard. The lantern seeds drift far distances. I pull them up by the bucket.

Koelreuteria paniculata

CB