Wanted to give a shout out to the Extension Agents Roy Beckford, Rob Holm and Robert Klimson for all the great information and meeting hosted at the Roots Heritage Urban Food Hub yesterday. It was good to meet the master gardeners from the area and network with other urban farmers. Such great idea’s.
There is a Small Farm Conference slated for August 2-4 in Kissimmee, FL. The workshops offered are amazing, everything from Grafting, Beekeeping, Vegetable Gardening, Food Safety and Livestock. Hope to see you there!
I’ve moved to the land of GIANT HousePlants!! Everything that grows here, like outside, were at best house plants in my previous zone5-6 residence. They are now used for landscaping, big landscapes. I expected the citrus trees, lime, oranges, grapefruits, mango’s and even avocado’s but not prepared for kick of seeing ferns sprouting from palm tree trunks. 
For example, that a look at this Split Leaf Philodendron just outside the front door, it’s as tall as I am and the trunk snakes along the ground for several feet. The leaves are about two feet across, and so far it’s hatching one a week! Compared to the house plant size….who says size doesn’t matter???? 
The picture on the right is a set of crotons growing in the front yard. Their tough leaves and rigid nature make them a natural for landscaping here in SW Florida. They come in fantastic colors; yellow, orange, red, several shades of green and are easy to care for.
Many other plants that were confined to indoors are easily spotted. Boston type ferns are everywhere, considered a pest plant because of it’s tendency to sprout from crevices or tree bark. The shefflera come in a Dwarf size and a Mega size here. Even the dwarf shefflera will grow into a hedge here…just amazing. Bromeliads are grown here as undergrowth for their sturdiness and disease resistance. The variety of colors and shape for the bromeliads are visually stunning. Their blooms look like something out of a science fiction movie and have a very long show life. Sansevieria (or mother-in-laws tongue) is grouped in large clumps and even most weeds won’t punch through it. It’s dark green color plays beautiful contrast to silver foilage. Sansevieria’s spiky growth habit is a natural eye catcher in a landscape. Will have to plan on some when we get to planting our own yard. So houseplants of the North, there is good news from your freed and growing relatives here on the Cape… will continue my exploration and let you know.
