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 sandbur...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/10/two-weeds-one-native-and-one-nonnative.html
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, grap...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/09/grapes-vitis-spp.html
Three birds perched on a snag. A ball moss (Tillandsia recurvata) also lives on this snag. Dead standing trees are snags. If a snag is located so that it will not hurt people or damage prope...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/08/snags-stumps-and-logs-provide-habitat.html
A small winged sumac in bloom, which attracts a wide variety of pollinators. Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum) is a deciduous, compact, densely growing, colonizing shrub that is native to all of...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/07/winged-sumac-useful-understory-shrub.html
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 ...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/06/shrubs-in-landscape.html
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 ...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/05/composting-in-place-part-2.html
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 Wh...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/04/white-wild-indigo.html
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 ca...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/03/carrots-most-satisfying-cool-weather.html
Lyreleaf sage (Salvia lyrata) is in the mint family. Lyreleaf sage (Salvia lyrata) makes quite a show in several areas of our front yard in the spring. We delay the first mowing of our lawn i...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/02/lyreleaf-sage.html
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 pollinat...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/01/ohio-spiderwort-pollinator-friendly.html
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 fo...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/11/pumpkin-carrot-onion-soup-recipe.html
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-pollinate...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/11/floridas-goldenrods.html
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? ...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/10/why-talking-about-native-plant.html
Hurricane Idalia 2023 Florida's hurricane season is from June 1 to November 30. These five months are also the wet season here when we receive up to 70% of our annual rainfall. Our hot wet su...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/09/hurricane-scaping-in-florida.html
Starry rosinweed is a star in your garden not only for its beauty and long blooming cycle, but also because of the wide variety of pollinators that it attracts. STARRY ROSINWEED (Silphium ast...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/08/starry-rosinweed-is-star-in-florida.html
I've covered this topic on my cruise ship presentations on coffee. A bit of plant science for this post... CAFFEINE IS THE MOST WIDELY CONSUMED PSYCHO-ACTIVE SUBSTANCE IN THE WORLD! Caff...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/07/why-do-plants-produce-caffeine.html
Pollinators love dill flowers. DILL (Anethum graveolens) is a fast-growing, cool-weather annual with a long taproot. It provides both a classic herb and a spice--the leaves are called dill w...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/06/dill-is-beautiful-easy-to-grow-herb-in.html
A scarlet rosemallow (Hibiscus coccineus): a Florida native There are 432 Hibiscus species that are found worldwide, and with their beautiful flowers, many are grown in gardens and some are...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/05/hibiscus-plants-with-most-beautiful.html
Netted chain fern: sterile fronds. THE NETTED CHAIN FERN (Woodwardia areolata) is native to eastern North America including most of Florida . It spreads via rhizomes and acts as a ground cove...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/04/netted-chain-ferns.html
Florida greeneyes bloom nearly year-round and attract many types of pollinators. Notice how showy the disk florets are with their extra-long stamens and their folded-down top edges. THE...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/02/green-eyes-beautiful-and-resilient.html
PLANT MORE NATIVES! In 2013, a volunteer beautyberry shrub near the edge of the lawn is surrounded by several water oaks. Ecologists and environmental organizations have been urging people t...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-hand-of-gardener-in-native.html
Order directly from our publisher: University Press of Florida Melissa and I worked with University Press of Florida to improve, update, and reorganize our book. The photos, including many...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/01/organic-methods-for-vegetable-gardening.html
A female red cedar with fruit. RED CEDAR (Juniperus virginiana) is medium-sized, dioecious evergreen conifer with female trees that bear waxy, berry-like cones, which many types of birds will...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/01/red-cedar-important-habitat-tree.html
CUCUMBER (Cucumis sativus) is in the squash family (Cucurbitaceae) and is more closely related to melons than the squashes, which are in the Cucurbita genus. It's native to India but has been u...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2022/12/fall-cucumbers.html
Beautiful marigolds! INCHWORM by Danny Kaye Inchworm, inchworm (two and two are four) Measuring the marigolds (four and four are eight) You and your arithmetic (eight and eight are sixteen)...
https://greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2022/11/marigolds.html