A Small South Florida Garden

These pages were last updated on 5-20-2012.
 
 
"Let me bring you love from the fields --
Poppies red, and roses filled with summer rain."
-- Jethro Tull, "Songs from the Wood"

 

My husband and I live in an ordinary suburban neighborhood in South Florida, on a long street of tract houses, all the same distance from the street.  We are busy people and don't have a lot of time to garden.  We have a sprinkler system and a lawn service that comes to cut the grass and do a little weeding.  They do not touch the edibles.  Every couple of months I work in spurts to prune and feed, and I walk through often to just look around.  At the beginning of the cool and warm seasons, I will do some planting to fill in spots where things have died or gotten old and overgrown, or where annuals need renewing.  I have had migraines for the last seven years, which kept me from doing much of anything for quite a while, but I’m getting back in the swing.  Our garden has to be able to survive and look good on a feast or famine care schedule, which may be a lot to ask.  But we have learned many lessons in seventeen years on the same property and things are coming together well because of it.  Many things have survived and filled in nicely, despite near neglect at times, and several changes of lawn help, not all of which did a good job.  We have a really good one now, though.

What follows here are the areas of the garden, their plans and current states, what has worked and what hasn't - in short, a story of the development of a small, suburban South Florida garden.  Throughout, you will notice a strong emphasis on edible and other useful plants.

For an idea of the proportions of the property and where the different areas are, see the overall property plan.

This website is still under construction, and many more pages are in the works.  The Potager page is unfinished, but still linked, as the information is all there, just not edited to look pretty yet. Check out the Plant Index for a quick way to find any plant listed on this site.

** What's New? **  It’s been a while since the site was updated, and we are taking it slowly.  As usual, the Garden Diary has been updated, and those for 2010 and 2011 have been uploaded.  There is also an account of a visit to a friend’s garden, inspirational for those interested in growing food in your own yard.  Stay tuned, as there will soon be pages on a continuous flow worm bin, and self-watering containers.  We have done a lot in the garden recently, especially in the realm of edibles, so will be uploading more pics soon for an update on the Tropical Vegetable Area, Potager, and Succulent Beds.  We also added a Utility Area, which looks way better, and leaves our Patio nice and clean for its next phase…

Feedback of any kind is welcome - please email me at info[at]stonepylon.com!
 
 


 

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Home  ** What's New? ** How It All Started * Garden Update October 2004 * Garden Diary 2008 * Garden Diary 2009 * Garden Diary 2010 * Garden Diary 2011 ** New! Garden Diary 2012 ** Rose and Perennial Court * Rose Update Feb 2003 * Front Garden Update 2008-9 * Behind the Wall * Herb Circle * Tropical Edibles Area ** New! Growing Dinner: Visit to a Homegarden ** Potager  * Potager 2004-5 * Potager Plan 2008-9 * Edibles 2008-9 * Crop Chart 2008-9 * Edibles Planting Schedule * Warm Season Planting 2005 * Succulent Beds * Wild Edibles * Caterpillars to Butterflies * Building Healthy Soil * Ecological Gardening * Index of Plants and Techniques Featured * Annual Vegetable Chart * Long Lasting Markers: Jewelry for Your Plants * Build a Gardening Notebook