I've recently visited my grandmother in Guangzhou China and during my visit there she introduce me to a veggie I've never had before. I believe she called it fan gua. My Chinese still needs work but I think it means sweet potato squash( or melon or gourd. I don't think there is a distinction in Chinese). Anyway it's a small squash with an oblong shape a bit like a small spaghetti squash. It's green with a bit of yellow to it and it taste a bit like sweet potato. My grandma likes to just steam it and eat it. Has anybody else heard of this? If so does it have another name? I tried to do a search on fan gua to learn more about it but the searches came up empty.

Katkin, I used to have the globa from Lady, but I am not very good with dormant things, and I misplaced it somewhere... Any ginger that you want to bring me is fine (I have butterfly ginger, kahili ginger, Daniel weeks, alpinia formosana (pine striped), costus osae, costus specious, alpinia japonica, costus comosus, costus stenophyllus, Costus stepladder (Costus malortieanus)alpinia purpurata, alpinia nutans narrow leaf, Costus cuspidatus, costus woodsonii, hedychium kewense,costus barbatus than the edible gingers: regular ginger, turmeric, galangal. These are my gingers. Anything that I don't have would be great. Nytrinigemini if you have an extra anise hysop, I would like that a lot. I love anise flavored tea. Thanks Veronika

Interesting discussion. Reading what others have said set me to thinking. It seems it would be best to consider growing foods that give high yield with not a lot of effort and they have to be foods that I like! I would definitely do sweet potatoes and some kind of bean. But what foods can you grow without the use of pesticides in Florida? I would use onions, garlic and herbs to help keep some of the bugs away. I've read also that some insects don't like marigolds. I'd have to research more on using plants to protect other plants from bugs. Of course, citrus fruits, mangoes and bananas. I read recently about a peach tree that has been developed to grow in Florida. Tomatoes, squash, peanuts. I like the idea of chickens for fresh eggs, but I couldn't slaughter them myself. (Yeah, I'm a wimp.) And a dairy cow would be useful too. But if things got really bad and you couldn't get butter or vegetable oils, I guess olives would be nice.I have no idea how many trees you'd need to be able to press enough oil to make it worth while and if you've got olives,capers would be nice too. I would really have to try growing coffee.

Jo, congratulations on your wonderful seven acres! I know you will have fun trying all kinds of things and playing with it. Your pond sounds great too. I certainly am no expert, but we used to have acreage east of town that we planned to build on. Circumstances happened and we ended up moving in town. Our property had a large pond and many undulations of dry and wet spots. You are lucky to have lots of time to observe your property during all seasons, and be able to plan well. Do you know where on the property the house will be? If you do, steer clear of planting anything even remotely close to it. Think construction trucks and workers that don't care about trees. Many, many of them. As the seasons come and go, plan what you will want to do with your land, and sketch it on paper if you can. Start planting trees in areas far away from the home to be built. Perhaps on the property borders where you might want screening from a neighbor. Every time it rains, mark the low points. Don't count on remembering. You won't with 7 acres. Mark the wet spots, or the consistently dry spots and start there. Remember that fill is expensive, and there are regulations about how much fill can be brought in. You won't be able to bring in fill for all your property. When you have a good idea of high spots you will want to plant trees, think native first. Florida Native Plants nursery in Myakka, east of Sarasota is a great native nursery that is probably 45 minutes from you. There may be one closer. Large oaks will help the house look in scale with such a large property. Plant some as large as you can afford in areas where there is no danger of heavy equipment coming close to them. A clump of native slash pines look great in the distance, and is great for wildlife. Some possibilities for low areas you determine you'd like to plant in are cypress, sweet bay magnolia, sweet loblolly bay (I think) and wax myrtles. I'm sure there are others. Just keep observing and marking, and things will become clear to you. When your home is built, then you might want to do some tropicals close by it, some flowering trees? As far as the pond. Talk to your county extension agent about what not to put in it. Cattails may find there way into it, and I'm not sure about this, but I think they can get to be a real pain. Find out about what marginals and submersibles are native and won't become an invasive nuisance to you. A large stand of pickerel weed can be really pretty. There are native waterlilies that are lovely. Time is your friend. Use it wisely to mark your best and worst areas. Get some screening and shade trees going, and plan, plan, plan! Most of all, have fun with it! Anna