I love nature...rehab wildlife, feed the birds and coons and possums here. Love animals...almost all of my pets were adopted or strays...have 4 horses, a pig, a chicken, 9 cats,
2 dogs and lots of fish.

I'm 60 yrs. old, married to a commercial shrimper for 41 years, mom to one daughter who lives and works in Houston.
I collect all kinds of old things, but especially anything garden related. Nice to meetcha!

Marilyn, I know quite a few shrimpers right here, and have been out myself a few times in the past. That is hard work!

Since we have not tamed our property quite yet, I say I am still beginning as a gardener. I seem to have inherited my grandma's green thumb, only hers was a darker shade than mine! I can grow many things, but am trying to learn how to keep all these bugs at bay! Oh, and we aren't sure whether we want to sell out and build a smaller home that we can simplify with. Our oldest is now married and our son is working on getting his own place, and since real estate is in demand right now here, we are considering it. DH says to do it like you are staying, but I don't know if I want to put my heart and soul into the yard and then have to do it all over again. So I am kinda in limbo right now until we make up our minds!
We have deer visit us, rabbits, armadillos (which dig around looking for grubs), coons, wild turkeys, etc. And a good ole wiener dog that will be 14 this spring, 2 young cats, but no chickens or anything. (Always wanted chickens, LOL!)

Well, enough rambling for now. If you have had success with any particular plants, I would be obliged to know about them. Great to meet ya!

Steve

We've been in remodel phase since last spring and the yard has taken a beating. Small city lot. Hope to transplant a couple trees this spring. I know fall/winter would've been better, but we're not there yet. Also need to create a few new planting beds. Mostly into gardening for the birds (especially hummers) and butterflies.

Looking for ideas for privacy plantings, not really hedges, but plants that do the same. Want instant height ... doesn't everyone, LOL? Maybe ligustrum, Chinese fringe, mock orange. Anyone have experience with clumping bamboo?

Have a small raised bed garden. Getting ready to start tomato seeds next week. I keep 'em on top of the fridge till they germinate then move them to a cold frame where they stay until March transplanting.

Hope this forum enjoys a measure of success!

I'm in Beaumont, TX and love to swap seeds and plants...
I've enjoyed gardening but hate the heat, humidity, and bugs; it will be perfect without them:)

Steve, my sister may me a broken plumeria branch and I tried to root it, but it got to much water and died:( and them I trade for one but it too perished.
The DH works out in Lake Charles.

I've got a few tropicals like canna, ginger, EE, and hibiscus.

I just love to acquire new plants and sharing them with other gardening friends.

Natal, I would also be interested in learning about clumping bamboo. We had an invasive variety in our last home and other than fighting to keep it under control, we loved it. The birds love it for cover. The poles are beautiful and the leaves though messy are pretty when they fall on the ground with their yellow color and interesting shape. It sounds nice in the breeze, too. We really enjoyed what it added to our otherwise formal garden there. It was sort of an exotic touch!

FrenchKitty, for the bugs, do you have martin houses? Anybody else have them? I just bought one to help with the flying insects! Purple martins are supposed to eat thousands a day! I read that the scouts will be coming through soon!

Glad to meet y'all! ...Mar

Houston/LaPorte here. I haven't done much in the past couple of years. Hopefully I'll be back on my small patch of city ground soon.
I'm hoping this cold front coming down will freeze and kill a whole bunch of bugs and other unwanted critters.

I was able to put out a whole bunch of watermelons. I had cucumbers out the waa zoo!!! LOL
Bugs got all of my muskmelons though.
That was a few years ago. I am about ready to git my hands dirty again.

I'm not to bright and have to ask for lots of help. LOL
I have fun, so that's all that matters to me.

The more info y'all put out the better I like it. I spend hours reading several forums here.

Well let me let you guys git back to your rat killin.

Glad to meet everyone !!!

OT: It is such a coincidence that you moved in 2 weeks prior to Katrina. Where did you move from? We moved in about 5 weeks prior and moved into an incomplete house that we were remodeling. Of course, after "she" blew through we had to redo most of what we had redone and some things are not completed yet, namely the fence, deck and landscaping in the back. I am sorry that you lost so many trees. We lost a few too, but were really very very lucky throughout the whole thing. Now we are just starting on the kitchen remodel that was supposed to be fall of 2005 which had to be post-poned due to the "aftermath" of the storm. I am a little tired of it all and having a hard time with all the decisions. Do you know any good local sources for "finds"??? ;) Sorry for rambling on.... I am really glad to meet you! Mar

What kind of "finds" are you referring to? Are you familiar with the area? My DH has been working on a home on the back bay for about 3 years now. Yeah, huge house. Off Jim Money road.

We are still working on finishing up this place as we are thinking about doing it all over again one more time. Just trying to figure if it is the right thing to do...

We used to have a Purple Martin house and for a few years had birds. The problem in our yard was too many trees (unfortunately that's now changed) which obstructed their flight path, and the never-ending battle with sparrows trying to nest in the house. Make sure you buy a house with a telescoping pole, so you can lower it regularly to clean out those unwanted competitors' nests. Also, the timing for opening the house can be tricky. Too early or too late and you won't have birds. At least not the ones you want.

Mar, I haven't been home long, but no email yet...

I look forward to checking back! Good to see you all!

I do have some wild black cherry trees, and most of our trees are water oaks, but they are tall and spindly mostly from there being so many so close together for the eons before we built here. Where do you usually shop for the plants you cannot find around here? And when you have butterfly host plants, do they pretty much stick to those plants and not eat up the others around them? I love roses too, and there is a nursery nearby that sells antique roses that do well here, but I emailed the owner, and she says since the storm, all her potted roses have sprouted so many weeds, and the landscape fabric now has some kind of funky fungus on it. Don't know if that would be an easy fix or not.

This forum is a great idea, especially since the Gulf Breeze forum (on a different server) shut down.

I'm also in Brazoria County, TX in Lake Jackson about 8 miles from the Gulf and 55 miles south of Houston. Moved here about 1-1/2 years ago and I love the heat and humidity! Me and my 'Goldfinger' bananas want this arctic front to go back to Minnesota where it belongs!

Since I have a typical suburban sized lot I concentrate on plants that flower most of the year and I love architectural foliage.

Garden on!
Monica

I live in Jackson Co. on the Texas Coast, about half way between Galveston and Corpus Christi.

Lots of interesting subjects.

I have been a Master Gardener for the last 8 years, and am a Plant Propagation Specialist within the organization. They trained several of us for this, so we could go out and teach other MGs. Rooting stuff is one of my favorite things to do.

In that vein, plumeria is easy to root, provided you know one crucial fact about it. Most plants need to be kept moist while it is rooting, but not the plumeria. Cut it, let the end dry, (even for more than a day) and stick the end into rooting hormone powder. Then stick it into a hole made with a stick or pencil in moist medium. Medium can be peat/perlite, vermiculite, potting soil, or whatever you choose. The secret to rooting them is DO NOT WATER! They will rot and will not root.

Roses are just the opposite. You can't let them dry out, or they will die and will not root. LOL

This will be a fun forum.

Glad to meet you all!

Janie

Good to see this forum as the microclimate here is a lot different than the rest of the US. Lots of heat and humidity.

Jim

Just found this forum. I live in Houma, about 30 miles from open water, but just a few miles from swamp/marsh. We are about 5 miles South of Hwy 90. We didn't have much damage from Katrina (with North winds), but when Rita came (with South winds) and broke the other half of the tree roots, we lost a few fruit trees and have a bunch that are now crooked. We lost a few Hackberry trees, which we count as no loss, just a pain to cut up and remove. We only had roof damage from Rita and now have a new roof. We stayed home for Rita as it was further from us than Katrina, but I got scared. I am interested in some unusual fruit trees/bushes/vines. I tried growing some Cherry of the Rio Grande and Strawberry Guava, but I think between the goats and the frosts I may have lost them. I am hoping they come back. I am hoping to continue planting a few types of fruit every year until the yard (5+ acres) is full. I am looking for a good blackberry/loganberry/boysenberry to plant this Spring. I planted a Conadria fig and a Fuyu persimmon already this year. I enjoy reading everyone's posts, but don't usually post much myself.

~james

We now live on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, but for nearly twenty years, we lived on a river not far from Foley/Elberta. Ivan and Katrina (plus a few preceding hurricanes) changed life for us, too. We sold and moved to higher ground within weeks of Katrina, but we still miss the joy of gardening by the river.

When we first moved beside the water, we loaded our property with date palms, sagos, cannas, callas, pampas grass, gardenias, azaleas, crepe myrtles, camellias, roses, blue sky vine, ivies, Mexican petunia, Mexican heather, English dogwood, lily of the Nile, you name it. All were quite successful. We were pleased as punch with the ease of gardening by the riverside.

At first we weren't real fond of the cypress trees, but we tolerated them. Then one year when we got a late start on yard work, we noticed some birds eating something among some weeds beneath the cypress. Those weeds turned out to be natives that we've never been able to identify.

We were hooked and began to "allow" the yard to give birth to its native species. The more exotics we subtracted, the more natives we gained.

Cannas gave way to golden club, hurricane lilies, cardinal flowers, joe pye weed and many more. Native azaleas and mallows rallied. With controlled burns, waterside lawn converted to yellow eyed grass, sundews and pitcher plants. Blue sky vine was replaced by groundnut vine (apios americana---can't say enough about the beauty), trumpet vine, sweet autumn clematis, etc. Gardenias and camellias were succeeded by oakleaf hydrangea, native tulip trees, dogwoods, dahoon hollies, titis, magnolias, bays, etc. Oh, the hornbeams...luv'd 'em! All of the above were volunteers. Didn't have to purchase a thing. Bird and animal life flourished. Except for the beavers, we absolutely loved it! That's not to say it's for everyone.

If you're new to living by the water, take your time and decide which way you want to go. If you do decide to go with bulkheads, manicured lawns and exotic flowers, please, please, don't introduce overly zealous invasives like rice paper plants and most bamboos.

Also, even if you don't think you'll ever flood, put your veggies, herbs and fruit trees in window boxes or planters so they can be moved before high water or floods. Once they are contaminated by flood waters, they can't be consumed. If the soil has ever been under flood water, it's best to consider it unfit for food production (think contaminated lettuce in California).

Now that I've talked too much, better add that we can't get a dad gum thing to grow well in our new yard, but we're not yet ready to admit defeat. Need major advice on what to do to this potter's clay soil. It's not red clay. This stuff is white and can be sculpted into Robert E. Lee's likeness!

Sorry I've prattled on, but wanted to give some food for thought plus get some advice, too. Thanks for any help you can give.

Have a good one!
Gin

JR

I am not far south of you, and we garden 12 months out of the year. I hate this weather, hate cold, hate cold and wet more. LOL

Gin, if you have a cotton gin around where you live, that trash from the cotton is wonderful compost to mix in with that clay. The clay is usually very fertile, it just doesn't have much air in it, and you are going to have to add a lot of amendments to your soil. We have black clay here. Black Gumbo, it is called, and it will grow just about anything. On the alkaline side tho, so I have learned not to covet azaleas.

Good Luck!

Janie

Janie

Alex--I have lots of plants that I can share with you. Send me an e-mail. You should also come to the Galveston Co. Plant Swap in May. Doesn't matter if you don't have plants to trade. I promise you'll leave with a ton of plants.
Jim

The previous owners have a couple of areas on the south side (front) of the house with plantings. I have a nice sized agave with some babies. A sago palm planted close to the drive and garage (don't those get really big?). Some elephant ears, cannas, and a couple of spiky plants I don't care for...they're mean! I'd like to fill that bed in more.
Another bed has tapioca plants, red hibiscus, and some kind of amaranthus, I think.
I also have what I've termed "palm island". 4 of them bunched up in the middle of a circle bed.

My backyard is on the north side, but the fence line seems to get a fair amount of sun. That's where our view is from inside the home and I'd like to start some beds with sturdy plants. We have 3 dogs, two of which are quite large and don't give a whit about the time and effort I put into my garden.

I'm grateful for any help you can offer! Thank you!

I live in Panama City Florida. I am a native..born and raised here in Panama City. My husband and I have just had our house built on the 3 acres we own, been in it a year. I grow over 200 roses so far...almost all of them are antique roses with some David Austin roses thrown in for good measure. I have a "pot ghetto" of perhaps 20 pots that I need to get in the ground. I love to root roses, it is easy when you root the antiques. For some reason they just root easy.

Our daughter is over in Pensacola going to the University of West Florida. She loves Pensacola, says there is more to do there than here in Panama City. We go up there a lot to see her...she is in her 3rd year as a Bio-Chemistry major.

Deb

Greenelbows, Chinese fringe tree is on my list. Great to hear that it grows so fast. My battle is the afternoon sun.

Mark

I've heard the same male/female info regarding swamp red maples. That's more good news on the Chinese Fringe. Did you have any trouble finding one?

I have some input on hurricane protection plantings. We live in a 100+ year old house and whoever planned the plantings here really knew what they were doing. Along both sides of our house we have Camellia trees and all over the yard are Live Oaks and Pecan trees. When Katrina came through we only lost one Live Oak and it was leaning a little already from a tropical storm. Luckily the lean was towards the woods! Anyway our house had very little damage while most homes in the area had a lot of damage. I really think the camellias helped keep much of the debris from hitting our house (they were rather beat up afterwards). After Katrina I am anti-pine tree. We saw too many of them snapped in half afterwards.

I'm mostly a bulb and vegetable gardener myself but haven't been doing either for very long.

I'm into palms and tropical/tropical-like plants. I love natives, too, and I try to mix the two. I'm so pleased with some of the posts of people being passionate about our natives and even replacing entire gardens of exotics with NATIVES. I must add that we have four native palms to play with: saw palmetto (Serenoa repens), bluestem palmetto (Sabal minor), needle palm (Rhapidophyllum hystrix), and cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto).

80 miles from Houston here.

I just spent 2 weeks RVing down I-10 to Florida.

I got some great ideas on plantings while tootling around. I am crazy for Palms and Tropicals.

Gayle