Sounds like a good plan Ricky. I gave up on killing the dang bugs :(

I plan to get as many FL native plants growing in my yard. I rent and can't do too much to the property, but it is my hope that whenever I must leave the premises, what I'll leave behind are some flowers that will continue to bloom.

And I've got seedlings growing in preparation for a big garden of FL native milkweeds.

I'm ripping it all out and redoing it. It's all been an experiment, and many things didn't work out as planned, so I'll be making a lot of changes. I'll be writing a blog post about my plans.

Honestly, I have too many plants to list. Every week I buy more. Some are shrubs, some blooming shrubs, many flowers, some fruit trees. Decorative bananas. A new flowerbed out front. I need to get the camera, replace the dead batteries and take some pictures.

greenthumbs2, you sound like me at my old house. I wanted one of everything, and it got completely out of control and too much for one person to handle alone. I loved my yard, but when I start to miss it, I remember mowing the grass in the heat and then I don't miss it. Of course, if you can afford to hire help, you're one of the lucky ones who can have a landscape you love without killing yourself. As for me, never again will I try to take care of a large yard on my own.

clean out my greenhouse and wage war on the rats that have a highway running through there!

Clean out the bromeliad bed. I planned on doing that last year. See how well that worked out.

Pull out at least one plant (2 or 3?) that have overgrown their area.

Figure out a plan for all those free red bricks I have stacked up out there

just filled/turned/added cow manure/added peat moss/turned over again/watered/raked/water again/seeded with peas/3 types of swiss chard, violette, cauliflower, cardoon, basil, 2 types of fava beans, on 4 raised beds of 4ft x 10 ft...

4 more beds to go in a couple of weeks

I bought over 200 bulbs.... Oh my I am gonna throw them in the ground all crazy. I'll try and plan but I will be tired, over whelmed, and frustrated before iam half done, so crazy will become the final outcome, but I am looking forward to it!

Almost every one was on sale and claimed to be in my zone (one said 1 zone higher, but I wanted to try it anyway) they were fall bulbs, I know it seems late to plant a fall bulb, but heck the weather is crazy lately so why not give it a try!

I have a a few baby fruit trees ready to go to ground. Some yellow rain lilies and a bunch of flower seed to start. I'm hoping to add a bee hive and maybe expand my vegetables.

I'm redoing my one and only sun flowerbed. I give up on most perennials. It will be at least 50% native eildflowers - I collected seeds last year and some plants I rescued from construction sites. The other half will be mostly cosmos and zinnias with just a handful of perennials.

Veggie-wise the only ones that consistantly do well in this Florida zone for me are cubanelle peppers, eggplants, "toy" tomatoes, and herbs (basil, parsley, dill, oregano, thyme).

I am giving corn one last chance this spring.

I do miss my northern gardens.

Hey all,

Thanks for all the responses. Sounds like we are a very ambitious group :)

I'm also excited that I'm going to be putting in new butterfly gardens and expanding on an existing one. Who hoo!

Bea,

I too often miss my Ohio gardens...always seemed so much lusher and healthier. And, I remember the excitement seeing that first crocus peeking it's head through the snow. And the glorious Fall colors..amazing. But, my trip home last week in the cold and brutal wind was enough to make me glad I'm down here :)

Rhonda

DH is getting a tractor this week. So sounds like a bigger veggie garden is in the future. Hopefully he can also deepen and widen the swale on the South side of the property so that I won't be so nervous about tropical storm deluges. Other than that, I just want to be able to keep the weeds out of the beds, not much changing of anything right now. I have a bad back and the weeds are my biggest roadblock to happiness.

Just put in a Florida Prince peach for my first planting this year... Finishing up some chainsaw work on the property and will then begin to add to my project which began February 15 2016. Plans for spring include: loquat, sweetheart lychee, Sapodilla (haven't chosen variety yet), Barbados Cherry, Macedamia nut, grape vines, blueberries, blackberries, gojiberries, many kinds of bananna around the pond. When that's done I have other areas that I will work on but not sure what the plan is yet. Oh moving raised garden beds to sunnier location. Forgot, pigeopn peas, sweet potatoes, longevity spinach, Katuk, cranberry hibiscus, and many flowers to draw in bennificial insects. Perhaps honey bees in the fall but still learning on that. Lots of wood chips to spread as well. I'm sure there is something I'm missing or will add as I go. Happy gardening.

Corey,Florida Prince is my favorite you will love it.

Rita,

Yep..put hubby and the new tractor to work. I had a tractor with tiller and plow in Ohio and loved working the yard up with it...of course 1 foot of clay soil then solid limestone underneath you couldn't do it by hand :)

Wow Corey! Talk about an over achiever lol. Hope you have time to get everything you want done.

Rhonda

Glenn I have a Tropical Beauty I put in end of last March early April so this will be my second peach tree..

Rhonda I work on my property 5-6 days a week most of the day so time is no issue. Here is a list of what we planted in 2016 starting end of March early April. I cut down many large oaks, cut them up and woodchipped the brush. I moved over 300 yards of topsoil and compost by wheelbarrow and shovel that I brought in. I put in 9 12x4x 12 inch raised beds which I am moving now unfortunately because of bad planning. That was the hard work for 2016 now the fun part was planting. Keitt mango, Kent Mango, lost a rosigold mango to disease, Glenn mango, Valencia Pride mango, Altaufo mango From seed, Coconut Cream mango, bacon avocado, mexicola avocado, lost a Florida Hass to disease, Mauritius lychee, lost a sweetheart lychee from stupidity on my part trying to prune severely to a "better shape", Kari starfruit which I dug back up as it had a bad canker disease so I pruned it and potted it to nurse it bac, meanwhile I bought new Kari and planted it, kohola longan, Ruby red grapefruit, navel orange, Meyer lemon, pineapple orange, pink guava but unsure on cultivar, tropic beauty peach, saijo persimmon, 2 brown turkey figs, Jamaican cherry aka strawberry tree according to Floridians, mulberry but unsure of kind, two papaya from seed, 4 red lady papaya from seed, dwarf Cavendish banana, ice cream banana, white flesh dragon fruit and red flesh dragon fruit but unsure on cultivars, and 6 moringa which I took down recently because they had bad flood damage because I put them in a bad spot... Before this I grew one garden when I lived in Michigan so this was a year of serious learning. I have 3 YouTube videos which show what we done unfortunately I started the videos in August instead of February when the work began cutting oaks down. May all be blessed in their projects...

Wow Corey. You're a hard worker but it seems that you love doing it so that's the most important thing.

Can you post links to your videos please? Thanks.

Yes it has been a lot of hard work. I can post the links in a new thread...

Thanks Corey!

Well for a start...buy a compost tumbler and start tumbling, start making and using compost tea, widen the perimeter beds so the dogs can't walk around and not trample my plants ( they hate to walk on any kind of damp grass), Top dress all the beds with fresh mulch. As far as plants...keep nurturing my pot of mixed seeds brought home from Ireland, add more jasmines, buy a key lime, a Glenn mango, and a michelia alba.

dirtygardener73 - I understand where you're coming from. This is why I don't want plants that need babying, endless spraying, constant pruning and watering. Once all these plants are in the ground they'll get minimal care. That means fertilizing and watering during real dry periods. A bug spray or two. The survival of the fittest you can call it. But then I can sit back with a glass of iced tea and slide into senility watching them grow.

I was looking at pictures of my stairway years ago (I live in an apartment), and I was amazed(and a little sad) at how beautiful and colorful it once was. I really want it to look like that again. And the back porch too.

Its time to work on my courtyard bed, adding compost and manure, organic fertilizer, mulch, spray and water it with fish emulsion, seaweed, and EM, and I'm thinking of throwing some mycominerals and biochar in there too.

My veggie plot. Oy. I have no idea what I'm going to do with that. I haven't been too successful with veggies, so my enthusiasm for growing them has waned.

1. Create a native palm garden
2. Edge 2 of my other gardens
3. Move some of my bananas to a few locations
4. Add some grasses to the gardens.
5. Add a border to one side of the property.

Hubby wants to expand the veggie garden. He got a tractor but has to remove trees and brush first. Other than getting some Bahia grass seed down in a small area that's pretty much the only plan other than taking care of what we have.

I´m going to grow more Shiitake mushrooms (and will probably try a few others as well). My logs gave me a good harvest in February, March and April, in spite of the cold weather (picture: https://gardenpictures.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/winter-shiitake/ )