Did a little searching on this forum and Ricky and junglegal are my inspiration! I don't think I want to go quite as jungley - but I really like the natural feel to both their gardens. Until we tore everything out, we had those boxwood bushes that were shaped in balls and square hedges - yuck! I have no idea why the previous owners would have tried to turn it into a formal English garden. I would post a photo except I have no idea how. A bit more research required on that but it seems like everyone uses Photobucket and we use Picasa. There's really nothing to take a photo of anyway except scrubby lawn and big dirt areas where we took out most of the hedges, a really ugly juniper tree thing that's coming out, and some of those Pygmy Date Palms (I think) that I don't like either. The backyard is on hold - we've got to take out a laurel oak and decide on a pool, but that's where we'd probably put the royal palms - along the seawall. My biggest thing is trying to incorporate edibles into the landscape as much as possible after reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma". That's why I'd like at least one coconut palm (think "Castaway") and some fruit trees. I already have a Winter Mexican Avocado and a Key Lime tree from Jene's, still in pots, already made 2 Key Lime pies! The neighbor on the skinny side has agreed to "share" the fruit, so we can put the trees right on the property line there. We also already have bananas that we share with them, since they've grown up on both sides of the fence between our side yards. I just like the way bananas look - very tropical looking, and that Siam Ruby is gorgeous, although I believe non-fruit-bearing. I live in South St Pete right off Boca Ceiga Bay, so we don't take the freezes quite as badly as everyone else in our zone (which is why I can say "10a" when I think I'm supposed to be "9b"), and everything I listed grows in my neighborhood, except I don't see much citrus, avocado, or starfruit. Mostly because everyone is afraid of fruit rats and not very original in their yards. We have one jungle yard on my street and there's a native yard down a ways, but almost everyone here loves their lawns! Most people have just stuck a couple of palms in the middle of their lawns, but too boring for me, and that still requires a lot of mowing! Here's where I get really wacky - I'm thinking about setting aside the first 12' or so in front of the garage to put in a veggie garden. Then I'd put a small retaining wall in front of it and berm up a few feet, sloping down to the street. And probably put some vines or bushy stuff along the top of the berm to "hide" the veggies and the palms in front and on the side, too. The street runs north-south, so I'm pretty sure that area would still get plenty of sun during the growing season in fall/spring. My DH is totally against this. I think that even a wall or berm, without veggie garden, will give the otherwise flat yard some dimension. Or maybe the jungle look is enough. Just trying to sort through all this....

Thanks for the advice. Brute I will look into the compost but have run into problems like zakey describes, up North. Main problem was weed seeds and chemically treated greens. Our town, in NY would also collect horse manure from the neighboring stables and compost that separately. We would help ourselves to that each Spring. We also try to grow mostly organically. We were successful in NY and our soil was beautiful from years of composting. Florida seems another story. The soil on the Key is pure sand and I can see will take years to build up a thick layer of organic material. There is less rain and everything dries so fast in the heat. On Siesta, the wind blows off the water constantly which also dries out the soil and compost pile. Add to this, the plant material seems very tough and difficult to break down. Zackey, I would love to live on Siesta but prices here are above what we could afford. We are thankful our daughter and husband own a house here and we can stay until we find a place for ourselves. I'm practicing my gardening skills while staying here and have a lot to learn. Water is expensive to use. I would use rain barrels when I find a house. Sunlight is so much stronger than what I am accustomed to. Bugs are plentiful and have done a lot of damage to some of my houseplants. I have always had success using my homemade oil/soap sprays but these bugs seem to enjoy it. I posted a question above about moving my plants back inside as I am afraid of bringing bugs in the house. I am still terrified of Palmettos, but we seem to have won the battle inside the house. Haven't seen one in a month. The organic pest control seems to have worked. But, outside is another story. I see them at night on the patio and near the house. I do not venture outside at night. When we get a house, I would prefer to stay away from lawns. That will limit a large amount of greens for composting. If there is a lawn, I will collect the clippings for compost - even the grass here seems tough compared to the soft grasses up North. Sorry for the long response, so much to learn! Jane

Bill, 6b isnt too bad, the data they collected included the major freezes of the 1980's so that probably lowered your zone from a 7a to a 6b. But winters like this year is what kind of evens things out a little bit since it has been a very mild winter! We got down to 13F here which actually is considered a pretty normal lowest temperature for the average mild winter, but the duration of warm weather this winter is something I haven't seen here in many years. I think that if you get colder than your zone more than 2 times in a decade, then you shouldn't be classified in that zone. After looking at NYC records, its clear that it does actually fit that definition as a zone 7b which I thought was suprising. And as for Miami, the city center definitely wont go below 35F so its a solid 10b. The more rural areas outside the city did get a freeze during that bitter 2010 cold spell, but the coastal areas of Miami only went down to the mid 30s. Florida seems like it got a bit colder with this new zone map, one of a few places that showed cooling with this zone map. But the major cities of Southeast Florida (Fort Lauderdale down to Miami and points south) is all a zone 10b now and in the 1990 map, only Miami was in a small pocket of zone 10b. No Problem Joey! Randy, I always thought that the USDA zone map should be taken as just a guide. It gives people a good idea of what kind of climate they have, and I think the zone maps are really intended for those gardeners that dont really know a lot about their climate. Gardeners like all of us are aware that the zones dont tell even half the story. Minimal temperatures during the winter are probably the most important factor for most plant's survival, especially in temperate climates, but its not the only factor. And once you get past zone 9a, I think that the duration of heat and freezes is a lot more important than minimal temperatures. Its the same reason why a zone 10b in Miami can grow a ton more tropicals than a zone 11 in Malibu! And a zone 7b in New York and a zone 7b in North Carolina are 2 totally different climates. You wont see live oaks and spanish moss lining streets here in NYC, but you might see something like that in a zone 7b in the southern states. And It seems to me like some areas are a bit more detailed than others with this map. I see a lot of detail from this map in my area, but Northern Florida and Georgia dont have as much detail it seems. For example, I would definitely consider Savannah Georgia and all of Coastal Georgia a zone 9a, but on this map about half of Georgia's coastline including Savannah is only a zone 8b. And I think that some of the more rural parts of Northern Florida are a bit too warm on this map. -Alex

Thought I'd post some of my Sarasota and area photos just to sweeten the pot ;) Lettuce Lake park just outside of Tampa, swamp ecosystem. Dolphins in Sarasota Bay View of the bay from the top of the Ringling mansion Epiphytes at Myakka River state park, about 30 mins from Sarasota. Longboat Key beach Siesta Key beach Birds at Siesta Key can be a bit...insistent. Orchid, philodendron and Spanish moss at Marie Selby gardens (they focus on air plants) Mangroves off Chokoloskee Island (closer to Naples) Why do I live in Canada? This post was edited by robotropolis on Thu, Jan 29, 15 at 10:20