One book that I have been enjoying is called Gardening and Landscaping in Central Florida by Marlys Bell. It does not tackle the Tropical look specifically, but illustrates all the issues that living in zone 9a/b has to take into consideration. Throughout the book it gives suggestions for what types of plants to put in for what kind of situation and goal. "If you want green and lush through out the year, try these..." type of suggestions. It also doesn't cover some of the more exotic types of plants that might be used, but more covers the ones that you "plant and forget" as the book tries to follow the Florida Friendly concepts of "Right Plant, Right Place", "Water Efficiently", "Mulching", "Appropriate Fertilization", "Responsible Pest Management", "Recycling", "Reducing Storm Runoff" and "Protecting the Waterways". I don't think this book by itself will help you to achieve that Tropical Look, but it can definitely help you to make sure landscape works instead of having to be replaced a few years down the road. Another book to look into is free over the internet and has lots of good information about Landscaping in Florida. The Florida-Friendly Guide to Plant Selection and Landscape Design (for some reason the Update Message button keeps adding a space at the end of this link and breaking it. If/when you follow this link, check the address bar and remove the spaces from between the d and f in pdf) was put out by the University of Florida and is chocked full of good information. And at the end of this pdf is a rather large illustrated list of plants to consider for use. But you have to read over this list with care as it covers all plants for all of Florida, so a beautiful, tropical looking palm might turn out to be Zone 11 recommended. I like this book so much that I downloaded it to my computer so that I always have it on hand instead of having to find an internet connection and to check online. If the above link takes you directly to the PDF file instead of giving you the option to download it, you can right-click the link and choose "Save Target Link as..." to save it to your computer. Those are the only two books that I have to suggest, as they are pretty much the only books I have so far (well, I also have Florida's Best Native Landscape Plants but this will definitely NOT help you to achieve the Tropical look... well... it could... but not to the extent that I think you're looking for.). But these two are so full of information to take into consideration that I wish I had found them when I first started working with my yard. Edit: And now that the caffeine has penetrated my system a little more and my eyes are a tad bit more open... I realize you never really said you wanted the Tropical Look... just you wanted a book about Tropical Gardening... Oops. This post was edited by Leekle2ManE on Sun, Apr 14, 13 at 7:52

Great care must be taken with choosing canning books. ;) Many that are still on the market are outdated and unsafe because they do not include all the revisions and changes for safety made since 1994. So while you may wish to "collect" old one, please do not use them for canning guidelines. And if you are unsure if a book is safe, tested, and approved, feel free to ask here. The most commonly recommended book and the one that is ideal for the beginner is the Ball Blue Book, an inexpensive paperback magazine-sized book sold where ever canning supplies are sold for $5-6. It is current, safe, tested, and approved. It covers all the basics and provides step-by-step directions and photos that new canners find especially helpful. Lots of recipes too. You will find many discussions here about it that a search will pull up for you. The link below will take you to several previous reviews and discussions on books that are available - both good and bad ones - so feel free to browse through them and if you have any questions about any of them, please let us know. Welcome to canning and to the forum! ;) Dave PS: you will also see many references here to the National Center for Home Food Preservation - the 'bible' for home canning. Be sure to check it out too http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/ Here is a link that might be useful: Book Discussions...

I have tried square foot and mulch gardening and I was not very satisfied with either. With square foot gardening, I had soil-born diseases and nematodes build up season after season until it was difficult to grow even the easiest vegetables. Finally I tore the raised beds out and started in ground gardening and I am much more satisfied with the results. I have found that with many veggies a progressive thinning technique works best. Sow lettuce, cilantro, mustards, collards, kale, swiss chard, carrots, onions, arugula, lettuces and other salad greens fairly thickly. Thin to the healthiest plants, using the thinnings as early harvest, until you get to the widest recommended spacings, or even wider. Plants like to breathe here, and because our sand tends to be poor the extra root space does them good. In general I have had better luck with wilder varieties--collards and Kale rather than cabbage or broccoli, wild arugula, green chards rather than colored ones, hot or hottish peppers rather than sweet ones, and so on. I've had much better luck with bulk mushroom compost than than the bagged compost or even homemade. I've had the best luck with tomatoes when I give them lots of space--at least 4'x4' area for an indeterminate tomato, or more. Same for eggplant. Very large containers--25 gallons plus--work best. All except for the very hottest/wildest peppers do better for me in pots. They seem to be especially susceptible to soil borne diseases here.

Hi Kris, I guess I do have a 'collection', but I'm sure it would be laughable in the eyes of 'serious' plant collectors: Waterhousea Floribunda : 'Weeping LillyPilly' Acmena Hemilampra : 'Blush Satinash' Acmena Ingens : 'Red Apple' Acmena Smithii 'Rheopytic Race' Syzygium Alatoramulum : 'Tinkling Satinash' Syzygium Angophoroides : 'Yarrabah Satinash' Syzygium Oleosum : 'Blue LP' Syzygium Leuhmanii : 'Riberry' Syzygium Wilsonii : 'Powderpuff LP' Syzygium Boonjee : ? Syzygium Australe : 'Aussie Southern', 'Aussie Copper', 'Express', 'Hinterland Gold', 'Compact Form' No Syz. Francisii - just too big for my block - but I think I've got most of the commonly available varieties. I wont mention the exotic Syzygiums and Eugenias, as some readers may be offended :) Cheers, Artie