When I was a child, we always went to visit my Grandma and Papa in their mobile home park. My cousins, brother, and I would walk the quiet streets with my Grandma, and we always ended up stopping by the neighbor's house. We called him, "The Rose Man." To this day my brother and I… Continue reading The Role of Roses
As summer just begins the heat seems to have skipped ahead to peak temperatures and storms over our house. We have had multiple days with temps over 100 degrees F like many around us, and we experienced a small tornado Monday night. Everyone is safe thank goodness but some of our shade structures at work… Continue reading Hot, Hot, HOT!!!
There's been quite a bit going on in our nation recently. Rising interest rates, inflation, higher gas prices, labor costs, the list goes on. It can be quite overwhelming, especially if you're a farmer. Lately I've seen many posts about farmers and sadly, a big portion were negative. How grocery prices rising are the fault… Continue reading The Threshold of American Agriculture
Buzzzz....buzzzzzz.... When people hear this sound things go one of two ways. Either the person hearing this smile and look around for the amazing pollinator fly by, or you jump back, swat, flail, or do anything you can to ensure this creature does not land on you. Whether you enjoy being around bees or not,… Continue reading Plant for the Pollinators!
Last weekend we received almost 2” of rain in one day, most of which ran off in ditches. This week I have not seen the first drop of rain and everything is turning into a desert. So how can we contain storm water for future use, with inflation on all fronts the last thing we… Continue reading The Way with Water
It’s in our DNA to go out in search of food, specifically anything sweet, because our primal selves needed the extra calories from sugars. Any type of fruit was a bonus to our diet, so our minds associate pleasure and happiness with eating sweet foods. Fast forward thousands of years when sweets are literally in… Continue reading Family Foraging
Living in Florida especially the central region often raises the question, is the sand that’s in my yard soil? Should soil only look like what’s in containers from nurseries or from a bag mix? Despite the commercialization of soil and a high-definition photographs making us all see soil as a dark rich composted mixture teaming… Continue reading Is Sandy Suitable?
If you’re anything like us, finding ”plant people” can sometimes be hard to find. I’m pretty sure our friends occasionally roll their eyes at us, because there’s always a plant story waiting to be told. This is why we are part of many various gardening groups, especially on Facebook. ”Addicted to Gardening”, ”Central Florida Fruit… Continue reading The UF Gardening Guide-What Every Florida Gardener Needs!
Starting back at the beginning of Covid our family found a lot of fun creating raised beds for flowers in our yard. It created at park feel, meadow look, and wildlife haven we got to enjoy every day. Some other advantages were eliminating areas of grass we had to cut and reducing water consumption by… Continue reading Building the Foundation for Spring Garden Beds
When you think of growing vegetables, what do you see? A raised garden bed? Maybe rows lined with produce? An EarthBox on your patio? We tend to envision this elaborate Pinterest project that never seems to come to fruition. It doesn’t have to be that complicated. You don’t need an acre of land or 4… Continue reading Incorporating Vegetables Into Your Landscape
The Veranda View 