Puglvr, Silvia, June, Susie, Mocropot, Tom, Sunworhipper, Hester, Keiki, Rhonda, Walli, Journey, Jane, Cocoa, Gary, SJN, Lorraine, thanks for the garden love! I’m getting braver with sharing my photos. Ya know, you gardeners set the bar pretty high. :) Sylvia, I can’t help the orderly bit. I think it comes from my years as an accountant. And I have a mother who organizes everything, even labels the shelves in the refrigerator. So I can’t help myself sometimes. June, you are right about the battiscombei. I started it last year from cuttings and then planted in them in the ground. This year, it really took off! I guess “year 2” for this plant is the year. It loves full, all-day sun, which is amazing. It blooms right through 90+ heat and sun. Great plant. Susie, you are welcome to steal combos and anything else. I don’t think that combos or design are my strengths but I am good at copying, too.  Sunworshipper, the rain lilies came from a seed swap with Tom, Tina and Keiki! I have them all over the yard and use them as borders. They form a nice clump and love full sun so they are easy-peasy. Hester, I have copied lots from you. I always drool over all of your photos for hours at a time. Rhonda, I do not protect the Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow from freezes. I posted a long post about it this morning. Please see the link below. SJN, I have three Red Abyssinian ‘Maurelii” bananas. I do not protect any of them on most nights but I did wrap blankets and towels around the bases (yes the BASES) on the coldest nights. (As I’m sure you know, but for the benefit of any newbies, it is more important to protect the roots and heart of any plant than the leaves in order for it to survive.) They are all in the ground and have been for about two-three seasons, so yes, they are out all winter. In late March, when I think (hope) we are done with freezes, I cut off all the mushy, dead leaves. The center trunks have always felt firm. None of them have died back to the ground. I will post a few more pictures of them today. I would love to see your new babies! (And we still need to plan to get together one of these days!…) I’m fully committed to shade gardening. I know that it eventually means I will have to take out some plants but there are so many great plants that grow in dappled light or shade. For those that commented on the amaryllis and pink polka dot combo, all of those pink polka dot plants came from volunteers all over the year. That plant (pink polka dot, hypoestes) is one of the staples of my yard. They are reliable, come back every year, require no protection in winter and reseed freely. They transplant soooo easily in March and early April. I just finished moving about 40-50 of them to the front yard oak circle bed. They will provide color when the caladium are finished. I can’t recommend pink polka dot (or white or red) highly enough. They are such a winner. By the way, that whole side bed is full of caladium. About the time the amaryllis stop blooming, the caladium come up. Here are a few photos from last year when the caladium were just coming up and the pink polkadot were newly transplanted (you can barely see them): JCTsai, yes, I do use some chemicals but not often. My favorite fertilizer is Milorganite and lately, what I call “fake Milorganite”. It is Green Edge. It has approximately the same P-K-N ratio as Milorganite (6-1-1) but a 40 lb bag costs the same $11.99 as Milorganite’s 30 lb bag. I broadcast it every other month from March to September. Here is a link: http://www.green-edge.com/ Thanks again, everyone, for all of the encouragement. I remember a few years ago standing in the middle of my back yard, after having taken out large sections of grass, thinking, “What I have I done?!?” Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Brunfelsia (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) This post was edited by love_the_yard on Sat, May 10, 14 at 10:36

Depending on where you are in Tampa you might have luck with Mango, Lychee, Sapodilla, or Sugar Apple. There are dwarf or "condo" versions of these trees that are ideal for smaller back yards and might allow you to plant more than one. Mango and lychee in particular are evergreen and add a great tropical look to the landscape. None of these are readily available in the supermarket (the fibrous things at the grocery called "mangos" are weak) so you'd be growing something that is unique and hard to find otherwise. Citrus is popular as well- you can get grafted trees now that have multiple types of fruit on one tree. Good luck!

Ooops, meant to post this on the other thread! Oh well, pretty much reflects the way it's been around here for the last couple months. The overall plan is to fence the area and plant all the deer favorites inside. The plants need to be shade tolerant so hydrangea is on the list and I'm sure there are others. Definitely need a fountain since the sleepy country road behind us turned into a busy expressway. Lowe's marked Knock Out roses down to $4 after the freeze so I picked up seven of those because of recommendations posted here that they are pretty easy. I will add a few antique roses from ARE and a climber. The way they display roses as integral with other plants in the garden is the idea I plan to copy also. This would be a good project to document so I'll try to keep you up to date.

Blueberries for sure - they are easy here in NC, I have 12 different varieties, the best producing is Tifblue, but some were from unnamed plastic wrapped box packaged no name variety from Home Depot that grow and produce just fine. Fig trees may get wiped out with ice/snow/freeze every 4 or 5 years but will come back from the roots. They do get quite large and I hate to prune them so they are out in the way back (all 12) and are now 15'x15'. Easiest is common Brown Turkey that is prolific but the best tasting are Chicago Hardy, Black Mission. and Celeste. My biggest success was with dual variety grafted Asian Pear, but just before they fattened up the squirrels carried them all off in a matter of hours. I've learned that I have to put bird netting over all for them to tangle in, and hot pepper spray consistently when the fruit begins to be fruit and to be patient. Other than that they are pest free and don't require much care, are very pretty trees that doesn't get too tall or wide -- well worth it when the little fruits sell at Market for $1.50 each!!!!! and they make wonderful jam. Consider strawberries for a ground cover and that vegetables don't have to be in a vegetable garden especially with your garden's orientation to the sun, carrots have lovely leaves, leeks put on quite a show, sweet potatoes are gorgeous. The dwarf tomato plants seem to keep a lot of critters at bay, and basil is a really pretty plant over all, no matter the color of the leaves. I planted cucumbers in my front yard once when I lived in a subdivision and all the neighbors went nuts watching them twirl and wind un-trellised, growing a foot a day for sure, completely covering the "decorative gravel" the HOA made us use instead of lawn. Lots of pickles were given out that year much to everyone's delight. Rosemary grows wonderfully well here without pests and replaces those ugly green meatballs the contractors plant from one end of the US to the other, still growing ugly for 50 years and totally worthless. Grapes like to take over and the Japanese Beetles love them (use BT every 5 years for easy elimination of that pest). I grow some just for stuffing into Dolmas but have not had much luck getting a crop of edible fruit all at once because the birds do too. They really have to be trained, like weekly it seems, to keep them in moderation. I had one grow up a 40' ham radio tower in one season. One thing to think about is your lawn. Grass and all its needs for yucky chemicals is not so good for things you want to eat, and pine needles are a fire hazard. Think xeroscaping or ground covers instead. My friend asked, "When do you have enough plants?", and I replied, "When you can't see the ground." And, think of the birds too. In the dead of winter they love the native American Beautyberry, Cotoneaster, Pyracantha, Mahonia (people edible for jam too), and lots of Viburnum in various shapes and sizes that also provide beautiful flowers pest free. Some fruits you do not want are: Apples - cedar rust disease carrier/host because of our native red cedar trees, Peaches - heavily sprayed with chemicals is the only way to get a crop (of chemical laden fruit), Pear trees - fire blight magnet, Paw Paw - very slow to fruit and not very interesting visually, only eaten fresh and rather insipid, Blackberries - take over the world with underground roots that pop up everywhere even years later and compete with our native seedy blackberries without flavor, Crabapples - deer magnets who will come back for years and paw the ground where they were forever and ever, Raspberries - never produce fruit after the first year and die consistently without reason, Rhubarb - will never produce because our climate is too humid and we don't get a deep enough ground freeze. To answer your question about getting rid of everything that is there now - here's my motto: "This space is mine!" Nancy