Wow - now I have garden envy @Rosy. Thanks for sharing the tropic plans. Yes I would love to grow my own organic coffee.
I do feel blessed to have a big garden space - about two-thirds of the property is well established and low maintenance. It's wonderful to have a nice place to sit or eat outside or have friends over.
Just watching the birds splash in their birdbath or laughing at the antics of the squirrels or enjoy the beauty of the butterflies dancing in the air or listening to the sound of the water from the fountain is like heaven to me.
I will be planting a couple of Honeysuckle on those garden screens I mentioned - looove that scent:).
The veggie garden was never on the top of my list, (mostly because it is so labor-intensive and it has taken me forever to reach a point where it functions like I want it to - a bit like a potager) although if nothing else I do grow a variety of peppers and different lettuces and at least one new vegggie every year.
I'm more into herbs - for cooking, tea and medicinal. Lately, I've been intrigued by rare herbs and interesting heirloom plants - luckily seeds are a lot more affordable than buying a plant.
It took me years to find veggies that grow well in Florida, like celery and potatoes incl sweet potatoes, things that we actually like to eat and are easy to grow in our microclimate. I hate to put in a lot of time and effort and money and have little to nothing to show for it - I always experiment and try something new each year, that's the fun part:).
Why I can't grow cucumbers is still a mystery to me after gardening in Florida for over twenty years. LOL
I swear gardening in Germany was a cakewalk compared to our climate here.
My newest endeavor is to try permaculture in one of the new garden areas. It is something that clicked with me the second I read about it, (besides I've always leaned toward a natural garden look and sharing some of the bounty with the critters) although I am determined to have plenty of flowers too. Sunflowers for the birds and us and who knew Turmeric had such lovely blooms. I've almost narrowed down which plants I will use in my "Apple Tree Guild" - we'll see how it all goes.
Took a while to find the right plants and nurseries and thanks to YouTube I finally found out more about permaculture in a more tropical setting.
I spent a fair amount of time this year reading garden books for information and inspiration - something I haven't done in years since I already have a nice garden book collection and was not ready to garden/design any new areas of the property. Now I have new favorites, tons of ideas and still hours of reading and re-reading ahead of me:).
My YouTube favorite is Morag Gamble "Our Permaculture Life" - she's genuinely awesome.
Books:
I highly
recommend Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway and Perennial Vegetables by Eric Toensmeier if you are interested in reading up on Permaculture.
The Beautiful Edible Garden by Bennett and Bittner was also great for two reasons - these designer ladies came up with their own principles for successful edible gardening for veggies, fruits and herbs. It included great tips, good visuals and very well thought out garden planning for new gardeners especially. I found it refreshing to read, modern day gardening in new and unexpected ways and I particularly liked that the emphasis was on beauty, because sometimes veggie gardens end up looking downright pitiful.
I plan to join a local garden group and experiment with Moringa, Bananas, Papaya, but I'm still hesitant about planting the Moringa tree.
Orange and Mandarin are next to be planted along with the edible Hibiscus.
One of the main reasons that I'm intrigued by permaculture is that if you do it right it can, once established, be easily maintained by one person.
The plan is to try out a few perennial vegetables in the permaculture area which should be less time, less effort and definitely less money. I've no idea if we will like the taste of these perennial veggies from around the world but I'm willing to try.
I've become quite anti-tomato over the decades - tomatoes are like the prima donnas of my garden - needing excessive attention, feeding and water - constantly. Not that I haven't had bumper crops in the past, but they don't forgive if you don't water one single day in our hot climate and I'm tired of that white stuff which kills the leaves and eventually the plant. I garden organically and have very few pest problems.
Tomatoes seem to do better if I plant them in the fall or the first week of February - right now I have only the one which so far seems to be fat and happy - producing lovely tomatoes. I plan on only two or three plants this year, Mr. R. loves tomatoes and it's enough to cook up a few batches of homemade tomato sauce or make pesto and salsa a few times.
Anyway, what I actually wanted to share is
1. A great nursery in California that I've had wonderful results - experience with - they shipped a few plants to Florida and all of them arrived in great condition and are thriving extremely well.
I like their plant info - they also show the plant zones.
https://www.anniesannuals.com/ For seeds:2. I've been happy with SmartSeedsEmporium on Etsy.com - good info and they always throw in a few extra seed packets. Highly recommended and fwiw I also ordered one rare plant which is doing well.
They also have their own website - although their offerings slightly vary from their Etsy store.
https://www.smartseedsemporium.com/3. I also discovered that there is an Echo Global Farm in Florida which has their own seed bank and nursery which I plan to visit. They seem to be involved with some sort of global hunger - global small farming - ministry?. You can order seeds, books, and supplies online.
It's one of the few places I've found that has seeds suitable for Southwest Florida (which can be persnickety) among other things, they also have seeds for perennial vegetables and heirloom seeds that should be fun to try in my new permaculture area - I hope:).
https://www.echobooks.net/bookstore/seeds/ - they have a separate seed section as well
and
retail@echonet.org
We'll see what ideas I come home with after visiting our local native plant nursery (Wilcox) in Clearwater, Fl and our local University USF gardens/nursery this coming week.
I've taken some time off from gardening over the holidays - thank goodness the weather has cooperated and we were cool and a bit rainy and overcast.
But I really need to stick with the program if I want to be done by spring, so we can sit back and relax and enjoy the great weather and the beautiful garden from March to June.
One can dream - right?:)
But I must say, it is super exciting to design a new garden for a new decade:).