Hi Mike

Welcome to the forum from another Pinellas gardener. First of all, you are killing me with your alocasia and colocasia. I need to know your secret to growing them so large and lush. I can never get mine more than a couple feet tall. I have a small yard also but like you I try to get as much in it as possible. I hired a local teen to come help clean out and organize my backyard. I used to raise and sell plants online but got out of it a couple years ago and just let it run amok. As soon as I repair the back fence I want to create something like you have along the back with what plants I have left. Then I can sell off the nursery table and pots left and use that space for edible plants and exotic fruit trees. I have several plummies from thailand seeds that haven't flowered yet because they are in pots to small and need to get in the ground. It's hard to find time when you're tied to a desk 5 days a week and can only garden early in the morning or late in the day due to sensitive skin.

Jan.
Pinellas Park

Hey Jan, thanks for the welcome. I've only been gardening for (nearly) a year, so I know what it's like trying to renovate and make due with the space and conditions provided! Secret to Alos and Colos isn't much of a secret at all: soil, water, fert & heat. That part of the yard was initially baked to dust. Had to heavily amend the soil with manures, leaves, milorganite, floor-dri (!) and anything else that would 'fatten' it up. Once I knew the soil could maintain some semblance of moisture, I did my planting and started a regular regiment of fertilizing (miracle gro all purpose blue) and watering.

The sun can still bake the plants crisp, but by densely planting and having musa basjoo growing (eventually tall) in the background, there's enough shade to prevent the soil from drying out too quickly, and giving these beauties a chance to shine.

If I have one regret with my garden planning (property is about 1/3 an acre /w pool) it's not having edibles and fruit growing, so color me envious with your plans. My yard was so barren, my first and only concern was adding a lot of green with some colors as an after thought. In time I'm sure my plans and interests will grow, but lord knows I have enough on my plate already.

It looks great for only a year; If you ever want some edible bananas come on down and dig some up.
Jan

Hi Mike, hope you don't mind if I make a suggestion that will save you some time and money over the summer. So far, you've done everything right, in amending the soil so well, etc. What I'd suggest now is to switch to a pelleted, slow-release fertilizer to replace your Miracle-Gro regimen. Here are the reasons:

MG is a soluble fertilizer, readily available to new plants getting established so it's good for what you've done so far. But since it is so soluble, if you fertilize on your regular 2 week ? interval, and it pours with rain the next day, all your nutrients are flushed down through that porous soil, away from your plants. Now they have to wait another 2 weeks for you to fertilize again. Going into June, we can expect regular downpours. (let's hope!) The other down side of using a soluble fertilizer is that it ends up washing out in the storm water into the rivers, lakes and eventually out to the Gulf.

What I use year-round for the whole garden is a pelleted, timed release general fertilizer, some thing like Osmocote, Nutricote or Dynomite. Anything that says on the label "lasts 3 (or 4, or 6) months". I get the one that claims the longest release time, since here it has to last from June through September. In our hot, humid climate, the pellets do release a bit faster than the labels claim.

Don't know about Pinellas, but down here in Sarasota County, we have a fertilizer ordinance that forbids us from fertilizing our gardens with anything containing a nitrogen component (the first of the 3 numbers on the label's fert. analysis) between June 1st and Sept. 30th. It is to prevent excess fertilizer runoff into the waterways during the rainy season. So here we are at the end of May and everyone is fertilizing their plants with slow-release to last through the summer.

It's a more responsible way to go, not to mention it will be cheaper and less work for you in the long run. Btw, it's also good to keep amending the soil with maybe a truckload of compost every spring. Our county landfill makes great compost and it's available free for the taking (but you have to go get it and load it yourself). The organic material breaks down and disappears over time. All that good cellulose fiber acts like a sponge to hold the moisture and nutrients around the plant's roots so there's nothing better than compost as an amendment.

I agree 100% with Elaine.

I don't disagree with you at all Elaine. I've got 3 largish bags of Osmocote ready to go for everything in the yard. Pinellas is definitely a part of the fert. ban. My goal was to build up the bed quickly, in time for the rains and heat to handle most of the rest of the growing season. The only thing to watch out for is temps. The hotter things get, the quicker the pellets break down.

Everything there now is the first step in a larger, longer plan that definitely included amending/re-amending the soil. I don't have room in my yard to mature some hot manure, but I've got a bead on composted source. I also started amending my compost pile with some fresh seaweed. Despite my best wishes, my compost pile doesn't fill up half as much as I'd like. The lawn is thin and gets mowed back into itself, so everything added to the compost is kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, and trim waste. Due to that, I use my compost pile more as a microbial enrichment additive than as a full on bed-building solution. A shovel here, a shovel there, etc. The seaweed should help add some additional goodness to the heap, and with my shovel-here, shovel-there regiment, salt build-up shouldn't ever become an issue.

Mike

Mike, I think you might be very interested in this article. This would make a big difference I think in your yard & sounds like something you would be willing/into doing. Check it out:
http://garden.org/ideas/view/d...

Excellent, glad to hear you're on top of the fert thing, then. So right about the pellets releasing faster in hot weather, too.

Seaweed is great, and has some added minerals but I gave up on that because it's so messy to collect and transport enough of it. The sea salt is pretty well rinsed out of it by rain before you put it on your plants.

Right again about getting so little compost from your home pile. Unless you collect grass clippings, or find someone who does, it's a challenge to make enough compost at home to be worth anything. I use mine for amending the potting soil in my outdoor pots and as a top dressing for the gingers and other heavy feeders in the ground. But when I make a new bed, or clear one out to re-plant we go to the landfill and get a load from there. It's really good stuff.

Don't forget: most coffee shops will give you their coffee grounds for free.

Ann, thanks for that link. I'd looked up some DIY vermicomposting guides before, but always held off on doing it. I can't promise I'll start now, but your post (and you) have reinspired me.

Elaine, yeah, it sometimes astounds me how much compost some folk can gather. 25 years ago, as a kid on Long Island, I remember my mom having a compost pile in the yard. It practically looked like a hay bale, and you could just see the smoke rising from it on cool mornings. I don't think I could pay for a pile that heats up and breaks down like that. Not anymore lol.

Hetty, I'm a regular customer at a Starbucks on the way to one of my jobs. I collect 30lb bags of grounds from them regularly. Unfortunately, they rarely make it to the compost pile, as I have so much real estate that needs the additives.

The biggest problem I've faced as a new gardener is the fact I was a new gardener. With big ideas, lofty goals, and little patience, I had A LOT of work to do, and not a lot of time to get started. I've built or torn down multiple beds since starting in July, and there's only so many bags of leaves, compost piles, or affordable amendments one can purchase before they run out of resources. That Tropical Bed photo was my "big" recent project, but I've had so many projects underway that every bag of leaves gets turned into groundcover immediately, or every bag of coffee grounds gets mixed into the cups of my bromeliads, etc.

I can't wait till everything is "done", and I can simply focus on stockpiling and tending to what's already there...for awhile

Btw- thanks so much to everyone who has been conversing with me. I really do apologize for carrying on and on. I feel like I've thoroughly derailed what should be a generic welcome aboard thread

You are not derailing this thread at all! No worries mate.

HI Mike.

What's this about putting coffee grounds IN your bromeliads? You put the right inside?

Hap

Mike
Do you have a pickup truck? I buy a potting mix by the truckload from a place here in Pinellas Park. It is state certified and consists of topsoil, aged horse manure, wood shavings and time released fertizer. It is about 25.00 for a half yard I think. A half yard fills the back of my S= pickup to the top of the bed and they load it for you with a backhoe thing. I have used it for years for potted plants and to work into the beds.

Nancy, A few used coffee grounds in the tanks of Bromeliads has two benefits: keeps the mosquitoes out, and lightly fertilizes. Good news is, there are only 2 (I believe) species of Florida mosquito specialized for nymphing brom tanks, so they were never that big a risk, but for the price of a cup of coffee, it's worth the protection. Just for the record, I don't put 30lbs of coffee grounds in my broms cups every week, not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of that. A small pinch in the tanks will be more than enough, likely for an entire month. I just meant to imply I have a lot of need for every resource I can get

Jan, that sounds like a pretty good deal. Sadly I am without a pickup. I read about a horse stable here in Pinellas that has piles of composted and/or uncomposted manure. For 10 bucks they'll load you up, or for 40-50 bucks (depending on distance) they'll haul out nearly 3 cubic yards to your home. That's the kind of goodness I can invest in!

Mike

You could rent a truck for the day. I believe U haul has pick ups for rent for 29 per day????

I keep coffee grounds in my broms, too. My DH, not a gardener, says he likes to go out and walk by the broms that smell like Starbucks.

Also the huge staghorn fern that's 'way up in the crutch of a big oak tree, I was advised to chuck the coffee grounds up there for it, too.

Holy cow, er horse, Mike! Nearly 3 cu.yards is a LOTTA manure! As Jan says, the average S-pickup holds about 1/2 yd. and a full size pickup won't hold a whole yard.

Elaine, toss some banana peels up in that staghorn too. They like the slow release potassium. Orchids do too BTW.

Mike,
Pinellas Park is a designated horse community. I am within walking distance of several horse farms. My next door neighbors have 3 horses. I can go load up anytime I want. There is one that will load for you for a donation to their special needs riding program. I go to the Oldsmar flea market once or twice a month and would be more than happy to drop off a load of the potting mix for the cost of the mix. It would have to be a Sat or Sunday.

Thanks, Mike, I will try it.
Hap

Elaine, yeah, it is quite a haul, and quite worthwhile, especially as it's only paying for gas and the rest goes to charity.

Jan, the very stable I was speaking about is in P.P. and is based on donations, we might be thinking of the same folk. That's so ridiculously generous of you to offer. Probably the nicest online gesture someone has made to me. Oddly enough, the back of my property is on Tampa Rd, so I know the Oldsmar flea market well. All the same, while I appreciate the offer, it isn't necessary =) My brother (in NPR) has left me a standing invitation to use one of his two pickups anytime I want. Between the incoming rainy season, and all the gardening balls I have up in the air, I'll probably hold off on heavy amendings until the fall arrives. Oh! And I forgot to address it in an earlier post, but if/when you get around to the reno, let me know. With a little luck I could probably provide you with a couple of different Colo pups. The Alos I'm not so sure about, they're a bit prudish, but most of my Colocasias are pupping up a storm. Parts of my beds are just INFESTED with Colocasia Illustris offspring.

Hap, good luck with your broms!

Mike