Now I don't feel so bad, thank you! My potting area looks as bad as yours - greenbriar, wild blackberry and skunk vine has taken over, I hate the thought of wading into that mess, great big cockroaches hiding amongst the empty pots too - but I'm going to have to someday.

Thing is that in Florida that kind of clean up is not just dirty and sweaty, but also scary. You never know what kind of creatures you will find. You can't really wear protective clothing either unless you want to pass out from heat exhaustion.

Hi Dirtygardener! Looks like you've got some work ahead of you. Have you considered mowing an area short, getting large sheets of cardboard from an appliance shop (they usually don't care if you take it from their dumpster), overlapping the sheets and piling mulch on top? This would be the easy way out for making beds without having to pull a weed. Not only that, but the weeds will stay away for a long time. You can do small areas little by little, go at your own pace, and not break your back. That's how we did our yard. It takes a lot more cardboard than you'd think, but there's no hurry. If you can get a tree company to dump a large load of wood chips in an out-of-the-way area, you could do it all for free too. Just a thought. Love that beautiful bromeliad in your last picture. You will show us an after picture, won't you?!

Anna

Oh bless you, bless you!

I was feeling so guilty over not having the gumption to do more than a couple of hours of yard work on Sat.- which amounted to mostly pulling down balsam apple & coral vines & gingerly trimming away some of my GIGANTIC winter squash vines that took over everything (& are STILL pumping out flowers & fruit). My backyard is buried under masses of Summer wilderness.

& I agree that it can be a dangerous proposition to start attacking that stuff - paper wasps decided that the big squash leaves were perfect for nesting & they are well hidden in there = (
OTOH, I think they've been responsible for controlling the pickleworms, etc., so it's mixed blessing.

Yes, that is a bromeliad. I have a lot of them that I got free from a friend...huge ones that cost $50 apiece at Tropiflora, and little ones that are pretty common, but still pretty.

I WILL post "after" pics as soon as I get out and get something done. Soon, things will stop growing out of control, so it will look pretty nice through the winter, if we don't get another killer freeze.

Carol, balsam apple is what has covered my areca palm. I'm sure there is something alive in there somewhere, but I'm afraid to start digging in it because of the wasps. I did learn that if you do it in the evening, right before it gets dark, they are sleepy and don't attack you. Still, I might just spray the whole thing with roundup and be done with it.

LOL, want me to post some pictures of mine to make you feel a bit better now? Course I have a secret weapon. I put some bird netting around it and send the chickens in to work on the overgrown areas and I use the excuse that the weeds are free chicken feed. I don't know if everyone believes me but it really is true to a point.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo album of my yard not too long ago

Well, now I feel a little better. I see you have a dogfennel about the size of the one growing in the vacant lot next door. I wish it was useful for something.

I also wish I could have geese or chickens, unfortunately, this city thinks it's actually a metropolis, so we can't. They cite "bird flu" as an excuse. Funny, but I can have pigeons, doves, or tropical birds, but no chickens. Stupid people.

When I lived in the country, my goats, ducks, chickens, and geese kept all the weeds at bay.

yea, codes tend to suck! And the nosy people who wander the neighborhoods looking for places to complain to code enforcement about. There are people in my neighborhood that have tried to stop my veggie gardening but luckily the county has no codes that say it is illegal, so then the nosy neighbors complained that I was running a nursery in a residential area (cause I had quite a few plants growing in nursery pots) Each spring after the freezes a new complaint comes in and code enforcement has to show up and tell me to change something.

Ah well.

I have some who live behind me who call regularly. The city tells them that they do not enforce back yards that aren't visible from the street. LOL

I do need to clean up the front and sides, though, or somebody will say something. I usually get at least one notice at the end of the summer, but that's o.k., because by then it's cool enough to clean it up.

I actually had a backyard nursery at one time, albeit small. I got turned in, but I live in a no-deed restriction area and I had a license to grow and sell plants, so they couldn't do anything. The cop that came by laughed and said it looked better than his wife's growing area in their back yard.

I'm so glad I live way out in the puckerbrush on unincorporated county land at the very end of a dead end dirt road. Floral City is my mailing address because it's the nearest incorporated city with a post office. The only people I ever saw come way out here were totally lost or the Jehovah Witness that would find you even if you lived on the moon. Yeah, it's over 30 miles to go shopping but well worth the solitude (especially the lack of nosy noses). The only hustle bustle I see out here is when I go out to the hen house with a bucket of chicken feed and the girls rush out to greet me clucking noisily.... I absolutely love it!!

Lou

I used to live 7 miles from the nearest incorporated city, and 15 miles from everything else. We were called Pond Branch Community, but there were no real boundaries, unless you looked at the phone exchange. We had our own exchange, but no one really knew where Pond Branch started or ended.

Lou- you'd better stop telling everyone about your place or they will start moving there and ruin your isolation :) I really had no idea anywhere in Florida was 30 miles from a store. It sounds nice.

thank you so much for your beautiful pictures. I am so tired of feeling embarrassed about my jumble garden. This is the time of year when I am exhausted with summer.

I dont see why anyone would complain about 1 or 2 chickens. The neighbor's boy raised a few but they hung out on my deck. They were beautiful and they eat bugs.

Amberroses,

I'm around 15 miles plus from a city to go shopping, I included the trip back again, so 30 miles minimum for a round trip for shopping. I'm equal distance from three different cities. Brooksville, Hernando County to my south, Inverness, Citrus County to my north, and Bushnell, Sumter County to my east. I'm pretty much tucked in the southeast corner of Citrus County not far from the Withlacoochie River. Floral City is a very rural type small township with a gasmart and a few little shops that service the local farmers. One end of my property is fronted on a tar road and the other end is fronted on a dead end dirt road. I chose to build from the dirt road end because it was on a hill with better views. This is a picture of the view from the north side of the house, I'm still clearing trees to open it up.

This is a picture of the farmers field at the fence line.

More pictures of the property.

A picture of my barn I put up.

Inside the barn just after putting it up.

A picture of the loft I built inside.

This gives you a little bit of the idea of my little farm I'm building here. Lou

Ah Lou, you have so much SPACE around you! I moved directly to Pinellas county from rural Ohio so I am sorta impressed to see so much SPACE. I have been to Floral City to visit the Strawberry Festival. It is a nice area. If I had all that space I could have room for all the plants I want instead of trying to fit everything in my small suburban garden.

Thank goodness I have a very SMALL garden to clean up! But I DO so envy you who have so much space/acerage. The 7.5 acres we bought lies untouched because of the economy - just can't scrape up the $$ to build a dwelling. Lou, I'd live in your lovely barn if it meant I could start growing things on that land! cora

Lou, I don't live far from you, (just south of Brooksville) and the drive between Brooksville and Inverness is beautiful, especially in the spring when the Dogwoods and Walter's Viburnum are in bloom. We have just under 5 acres here and we love it. We live on an unpaved, dead-end road also. We came here 5 years ago to escape the awful traffic and noise of the Tampa subdivision we lived in for 34 years. But there are drawbacks - clearing woods to have gardens is back-breaking work, demands either very expensive equipment or the money to hire someone else to do it. We had planned to have a tractor but my job ended within a year after moving here and you can't buy a job in this area. So we were lucky to get hold of a DR walk-behind brush cutting machine and that has really helped. But nature is constantly trying to take it back and it's every weekend toiling - if you would rather spend your time running to the malls, bars, and sports events every weekend, better stay in the city or be rich enough to hire the work out. But, I don't have to worry about nosy neighbors or HOA's coming around telling me what I can and can't do, the only restriction here is that you can't raise swine, which is fine for me because they smell. I can let my grass grow to my eyeballs if I want, I can have chickens, goats, horses, if I want, I can paint my house whatever color I want. The one thing I was very surprised about is what you said, Lou, the Jehovah's Witnesses still come down my 150 ft. drive and knock on the door! I couldn't believe it. Can't wait till we get the fence done and can lock the gate.

Dirtygardener,

Your Pond Branch Community that you left is exactly like it is here, same miles, I'm 7 driving miles from Floral City (lots closer as the crow flies) and 15 miles plus from everything else. All the neighbor land plots are 5, 10, 15, & 20 acres or more. There are a few grandfathered 2.5 acre lots, but very few. I bought my 10 acres back in the 70's thinking to retire here. We had a Doublewide MFG. Home put in here as most of the area is MFG. Homes. We also have a house in Apopka on a postage stamp lot which was my wife's daddy's home. She inherited it when he passed a few years back. There is no way I could live there in a HMO with no yard whatever and nosy neighbors. When I go to check up on the house they descend like mocking birds all squawking at the same time at my minimal maintenance. They just fuel my rage for HMO's.

Amberroses,

I'm finding 10 acres is a heck of a lot of land to manage for an old guy in his 70's. It seems to be taking forever to accomplish what I have in my mind for here. I cut a few trees and clean undergrowth each winter and push the jungle back a bit each year but it's taking longer than expected because I cannot work in the summer's heat. I haven't even started with floral plants as yet due to their maintenance would cut into my land clearing time. The only plants I've put in is my orchard trees as they need time to grow and fruit.

Corar,

I hear you on the economy keeping us limited on our endeavors. I wanted to build a real house here but settled for a MFG. Home because of the cost difference and I was able to build my barn with the savings. I also bought a leftover 2 year old unused FEMA trailer for very cheap from the Govt. and I use it as guest house for when the kids come to visit. The grand-kids love it and think they are camping at grandpa's farm.

Lou

LOL! I suggested a single wide trailer until we could build but son was adamantly against it. I think he was afraid of being labeled "trailer trash". A manufactured home sounds like an excellent choice but he has been designing this house since middle school. If built as designed, it will be so 'green', even the satellites won't see it.

Rita,

My parents when they retired and moved to Florida bought a house in Masaryktown on the corner of Hodza St. and Broad St. US41. That must be very close to your neck of the woods. It's a nice area there and I've wandered around the back roads when I was looking to buy some land to later retire on back in the 70's but ended up buying here which I don't regret. My mother sold the house a few years after my father passed away and went to live with my sister just off Hernando/Pasco county line road about a mile east of US19. I put up a chain link fence and that now keeps the Jehovah Witless out but I get their rolled up watchtowers stuck into the fence. Compost donations lol

Corar,

I guess the kids have a stigma about MFG homes but there are so many of them, especially around here, and I don't find them much different than a block built house on a slab. Neither house has any storage whatever, so we opted to build a barn for storage with the cost savings.

Wallisadi,

My mess is inside the barn, I just keep the roll up door closed and as far as the yard, I grow weeds on purpose and that way I have no disappointments :)

Lou

I LOVE this thread! My yard is a terrible mess right now, too, and today is the first day I've ventured out to attempt a clean up. There were so many Spanish needles and sandspurs growing, my dogs couldn't even go out! It DOES make me feel better about my yard after seeing that some others are in the same boat! ;) Come on FALL!!!!!! This is supposed to be a gorgeous week!!!!

Chloe,

The spanish needles and sandspurs are everywhere this year and both of us have been out there digging them up. The weeds are taller than I am and I could hardly see my orchard trees except for the ring of mulch holding the weeds back at every tree. My wife wants me to get one of those DR brush mowers to take the weeds down but I think it would just spread the sandspurs more thickly. I have just about eradicated a few areas now from spanish needles and sandspurs but my animals do drop more spurs here and there, but now the beggars tick plants are filling in those areas. Sometimes you just can't win. My tractor hay mower is six feet wide so I can't get it in there very well without doing damage to my orchard trees.

As 'Emily Litella' used to say on SNL "it just goes to show you, it's always something"

Lou