There Were No Fences

  Ask nearly every real estate agent and they will tell you that one of the most important features of your home is its location. The same is true about the plants you have in your landscape. In my early years here in Florida, I believed that I knew a great deal about native plants and their functionality in the landscape.  After all, I had spent at least two years hanging out with experts, reading books (there wasn't an internet in those days or I would have been all over it), and playing with my plants. Truth is, I actually knew very little. Even today, after 30+ years of doing this, I learn something new all of the time and realize that there is still much more to learn. One thing I have learned, is that a plant's function in one landscape is not necessarily the same as it is in another.  This is what makes it so difficult to advise others on what to plant and why.  This was first taught to me when I planted an area of wildflowers at my new office at the Pinellas County Exte

  One of the great myths of native plant landscaping is that one can plant natives and simply walk away from them; that since they are native plants, they will survive on their own without management. It's a tempting concept and seems to lure a great many new acolytes to the movement.  Though it's wonderful to have new members joining us in that mission, it's a disingenuous concept and I have to believe that it ultimately discourages a great many once they see their landscapes fall apart from lack of management.   It's one thing if you are working in a previously natural area of some acreage that wasn't completely altered during development.  In some situations, these areas still contain some native plants in the seed bank and very few, if any, of the invasive plants typical to the yards most of us have. My landscape, however, is typical of what the vast majority inherit.  It's been a turfgrass yard for decades and it's situated in a matrix of invasive plant