Nostalgic

[the_pixie]

Well, it's been a good weekend in regards to getting things done, and I'm sore. The weather cooperated for the most part this weekend and thus I got some yardwork done that was sorely needed. We have a tree which produces round spiky seeds. Unforutnatly, the tree is quite prolific and it spreeds its seeds all over the yard. There must have been

Comments

[thagirion]

Hello there. My name is Des. I have been watching your journal for several weeks now and been enjoying your posts. I found you and followed you over from a post you made on TampaBayDogs. I'm a resident of Tampa and I love this city. I think you will too once you get settled in. Carrolwood is one of the nicest places and I grew up in a house in that area. I'm also a beginning gardener. You can grow several types of bulbs down here like hyacinths and tulips but so far what I've learned is that you treat them like annuals and throw them out once they are spent. Personally I don't like the sound of that and have six tulip bulbs I'm going to try to store and then put in the fridge to replicate winter conditions. Then see if they are still good next spring. There are so many wonderful tropical plants you can grow here that are very colorful and pretty. The plant life is totally different. The good thing is the nearly year round growing season. Spring for us starts in February. Feel free to stop by my journal and add me if you'd like.

[the_pixie]

Hello, destroyah_des! Sorry that it's taken me so long to respond. As I'm drawing nearer to the moving date, it appears that I just done have free time anymore (and it feels like my clock has sped up)! Can't wait until this changes again and I'm able to get back to normal.

Thanks for the invite, and I'll add you onto my friends page in just a moment. I would love to talk with you a bit more about what you've found grows well in Tampa. My bulbs here in Indy are sprouting up all over and I would love to get my yard in Tampa to be as active. The house we're moving into has a lot of really great shade trees, so this might help a bit with certain flowers to make sure they don't cook in the sun. Our back yard appears to be fairly treeless right now (however when we refence the yard we're going to pull a few of the trees into the back. As for the tulip bulbs, you should definetely try putting them in the freezer. My mom had told me that she got so homesick for bulbs when she was living in Texas that she bought some and put them in the freezer. She said that she had some really lovely flowers spring up the first year, however the two 5 year old girls across the street came and picked them within a day after they bloomed because they thought they were pretty. :) You win some and lose some, eh? Oh, she did say, be sure to label the bulbs so that you don't eat them. She had read somewhere that certain ones would make you quite ill if you accidently threw them into a stew (thinking they were onions).

[thagirion]

That's ok. I figured you're life is hecktic right now. I'm not one of those pushy types that needs an immediate response. Moving from one state to another definitely cuts into all your free time. I was a baby when we moved here from Ohio but I can only imagine what it must be like.

Cool I look forward to that. I love to talk about gardening, birds and art in my posts. There are some really good books in the local section that tell you want will grow well down here. You'll want to look into drought tollerant plants or native plants. For sun it's good to plant a butterfly garden with things like Lantana, Pentas and milkweed. If you have trees you'll want shade tolerant plants because the full sun ones won't do so well in the shade. I've read that bleeding hearts grow down here and I definitely want to get some because it's such a beautiful plant and they love shade. OH and Zinnias!! Zinnias are wonderful little full sun flowers that do so well and grow fast. Easily one of my favorites. Seeds are readily available in stores.

I'm not sure how to store my blubs yet or even when. I tried it last year with some hyacinths but I think I put them in too early. They didn't make it out of the fridge. :( I'll be sure to lable them. Wouldn't want them getting eaten that would be bad.