Philosophy
I just wanted to take a moment a briefly discuss several topics that I have learned about through my years of gardening in South Florida- "bang for my buck", maintenance nightmares, and organic gardening.
Bang for my buck involves choosing plants that give me as much as possible in the way of pleasure and blooms. It could be incredible foliage, or it could be that the plant provides food for butterfly larvae, but the plants in my gardens have to give back something for all the love and care we provide.
If I choose a plant that just does not justify the space it takes up in some fashion then it simply must go. I have such limited space in which to work that I just don't have the luxury of keeping non performing plants just because I was stupid enough to buy them in the first place. I can name 100 plants that I have used and then later removed because they just took up space and didn't thrill me. All my Zamia cycads, countless bromeliads, even palms and other exotics- gone. As one mans trash is another mans treasure the plants are not destroyed but given to gardening friends who have better uses for them.
This is pretty much where we are sitting right now!
Maintenance nightmares are those plants whom I love but are just too labor intensive to keep up with. I garden for pleasure so having plants which rip my skin to shreds are being removed. These mostly consist of bromeliads in the Aechmea genus- lovely but pulling weeds means gloves, long pants, and long sleeves. It's 100ºF here folks- I'm not putting on any extra clothing for any plants!
And I loved all my Plumbagos- but realized that the bulk of my weekly pruning chores involved keeping them in check. I filled up a pick up tuck with Plumbago trimmings at least once a month for years before I finally wised up- the last of them are coming out this year.
Ditto Queen Palms. I find Queens to be some of the most lovely palms out there, but the fronds have to be manually removed. This is easy while they are small, but after a few years required a professional tree trimmer much too frequently. Their flower and fruit drop is excessive so we finally made the decision to remove all of them and replace them with self pruning palms whose dead fronds simply fall to the ground.
Our Desert Rose
Organic gardening
My first several years of gardening in South Florida involved pesticides galore- Cygon, malathion, sevin, diazinon, dursban etc. - all the nasties. I used systemics, drenches, and everything in between and still found more pests each year.
As my own personal life philosophies changed over the years so did my opinions on pesticides, and in 1995 (ish) I made the decision to discontinue their use. The oddest thing happened- I quit having so many pest problems!
Natural controls do work- ladybugs do indeed show up. Birds come back. Everything leveled out and pest problems became a thing of the past. Of course I do occasionally see aphids- I rinse them off with water. I rub scale off with my hands, and pick off any stray mealybugs I run across. Aside from those I rarely see a pest with the exception of my large Desert Rose which sees Oleander caterpillars every summer. I've taken to keeping a pair of hemostats next to the plant so I can pick them off.
I find pest control to be more about observation than anything else- if you find the problem before it becomes too widespread it is easy to deal with. Even my orchids are raised organically- sure I see cosmetic damage, but I am learning to let go of that as an issue.
I am not saying never- if I had a terrible problem on a very costly plant I might use a pesticide. I have not in 10 years, but I am not discounting the possibility. I just think they are an absolutely last resort and their use is to be carefully considered. Spraying a $2 plant with something as damaging to the environment as some of these chemical sprays is just asinine.
A long time ago I heard a phrase which really made sense to me-
Do what needs to be done when it needs to be done, and the way it needs to be done.
I have tried to the best of my ability to apply that to gardening. It eliminates the redoing of chores and projects done badly, and means caring for my plants in a manner kind to the environment, healthy for me, and best for them over the long term.
That's my story!
