Gardening Is So Different Here!: Re: Dilemmas of Florida landscaping

» plantsandpots - Re: Dilemmas of Florida landscaping

In response to message posted by FYNFAN:

Hi Teresa and welcome to Suite! I am the CE for Container Gardening here at Suite and a fairly recent transplant to Florida (from California and prior to that, Toronto). I am still trying to get used to the fact that we have sand, not soil, here to grow things in!! I'm in St. Augustine, fairly close to the ocean. I put in roses last summer (yes, I know, one is not supposed to plant in the summer!) and they are doing quite well...it's only a few bushes so far. Except for one hybrid tea, I put in all OGRs because they are supposed to have better disease resistance (and they're all on fortuniana rootstock). Anyway...I digress. I'd love some info/advice on how to work with our sandy soils...what sorts of amendments do you recommend and what do you do to keep the "soil" reasonably healthy?

I did my Master Gardener training in CA and did advanced courses in IPM and therefore am a committed organic gardener. I haven't gotten involved here yet with the MG group, but plan to this summer. Another topic which would be useful in my opinion is how to live peaceably with the bug population here in Florida without resorting to pesticides and insecticides. I swear I've never seen bugs so big!!!

I'd love to listen to your radio show...but I don't imagine we get it here. Are you in the Orlando area?

Anyway, some thoughts on future topics. Look forward to reading your articles.

-- posted by plantsandpots