While the sharp, hard spikes  on the seeds hurt our feet and embed themselves in the lawnmower tires, this is their method of dispersal.  Sand spurs Six species of sand spurs or sandburs (Cenchrus spp.) are native to Florida. They are true grasses in the grass family, Poaceae.  While native plants are highly recommended for sustainable, climate-wise landscapes, these are not desirable because of the hard and very sharp prickles that cover their seeds.  They have volunteered in our yard only out by the road where the other plants in our freedom lawn are a bit more s ..read more

A muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia 'Alachua') Credit: Ali Sarkhosh, UF/IFAS Florida's grapes There are six species of grapes that are native to Florida, while some have small ranges, grapes are found in all parts of the state.  - Summer grape (Vitis aestivalis) - Florida grape (Vitis cinerea var. floridana) - Catbird grape (Vitis palmata) - Muscadine (Vitis rotundifolia) - Calloose grape (Vitis shuttleworthii) - Frost grape (Vitis vulpina) The muscadine grape is native to all of Florida and from Delaware to eastern Texas. This is grown as a sustainable crop in Florida and has ..read more

A newly renovated house in our neighborhood with its newly-installed curb-appeal shrubs where there were none. Shrubs as the default foundation plantings Shrubs are easy for the builders to install and they give the landscape a "finished" and the expected look for a house. Here's a house in our neighborhood that recently went on the market after extensive interior renovations according to its online listing. But what bothered me was that they removed two mature trees on the west side of the house, which cooled the area especially in the afternoon, removed the awnings on the windows ..read more

I scored a huge load of wood chips the other day--mostly pines (with needles) & oaks. This close to our 30th load since 2004. I wrote "Enrich soil for crops by composting in-place" back in 2019 about how I build soil and our raised beds for growing our vegetables, which includes the whole process from building the beds (without hard sides) to trench composting to add additional organic materials to the soil. While no gardener can claim 100% success rate in growing veggies, over all I've been quite successful over the years with these wide-row beds. Plus, this article has ..read more

It planted itself in a location that's too close to  the sidewalk, but I'll leave it there since they don't transplant well. White Wild Indigo: A beautiful perennial pollinator plant White wild indigo (Baptisia alba) is a plant worth including in your pollinator garden. It is pollinated by large bees including bumblebees and carpenter bees. It's also a host plant for Wild indigo duskywing and Zarucco duskywing butterflies. The fruits are eaten by birds. While it's an important plant in the local ecosystem, it's toxic to humans and livestock. It is best propagated from ..read more

Carrots are native to Europe and parts of Asia and Africa, but now have escaped around the world and those wild carrots are known as Queen Anne's lace. Carrots (Daucus carota) are in the carrot family Apiaceae. While this plant family includes quite a few well-known and economically important crop plants as anise, caraway, carrot, celery, chervil, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, parsley, and parsnip, there are also a few highly poisonous species, such as poison hemlock, water hemlock, spotted cowbane, and fool's parsley.  The defining characteristic of this family is the i ..read more

A small fly-like bee was pollinating this flower. Bluejacket or Ohio spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) is native to most of Eastern North America and to most of Florida. It attracts pollinators, especially bees. Each day, one or two flowers bloom in each flower head. They open early in the morning and then wilt in the afternoon. Each flower head contains twenty or more flowers and new flower heads are formed throughout the long season from early spring to late fall. There is a long blooming season. There are three other species of spiderworts native to Florida: hairy spiderwort (T ..read more

A delicious, rich, thick pumpkin carrot soup This is a delicious, hardy soup using one of our many Seminole pumpkins. My husband and I worked together on this soup, which was three dinners for the two of us and two lunch servings. (See my Seminole pumpkin article, which has more recipes for this versatile squash.) Ingredients: 1 small pumpkin, seeded, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes* 6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2" segments  2 medium sweet onions, coarsely chopped 1/3 cup grated radishes* 1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary leaves, chopped* 1 tablespoon of fresh oregano leav ..read more

Goldenrods do Not cause allergies The insect-pollinated goldenrods (Solidago spp.) with their beautiful flowers have erroneously been blamed for fall allergy season when it's the wind-pollinated ragweed (Ambrosia spp.) with the unnoticeable green flowers that are filling the air with pollen when the goldenrods are blooming. The ragweeds do not need to put any energy into creating beautiful flowers or sweet nectar because the wind will blow anyway. As I understand it, some allergy doctors test people to see if they are allergic to goldenrod pollen even though that pollen is too h ..read more

Consumers are presented with this array of mostly nonnative plants in full bloom to plant so their yards can decorated with plants at peak bloom all the time. Where are the native plants? New homeowners and beginning gardeners find displays similar to this photo that I took at a big box store a few years ago. It's filled with mostly nonnative annuals in full bloom. Each tray is not too expensive, but after they fade in a couple of months, people are expected to come back to replace them with the next set.  Examples in garden magazines and gardening TV shows with their instant la ..read more