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BeFloridian.org
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October-November 2013
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Fall In Florida: Dig It with Plant Sales Galore!
Autumn is a great time to rejuvenate your yard, with days still long and warm enough to give those new flowers, shrubs and trees a great head start before winter. Head out to one of these upcoming plant sales to stock up and get planting!
October 5: Manatee County Master Gardener Plant Sale from 8:30 am to 1 pm at the Manatee County Extension office in Palmetto
October 12: Master Gardener Plant Sale 8am-1 pm at Sarasota Extension Office, Twin Lakes Park, 6700 Clark Rd., Sarasota 8 am-1 pm FREE ADMISSION!
October 12: Fall Native Plant Sale, Pinellas Native Plant Society, 9 am to 4 pm, at Wilcox Nursery in Largo
October 12-13: USF Botanical Gardens Fall Plant Festival, 10 am-4pm Saturday, 10am-3pm Sunday, admission $5
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Be Floridian Haiku Contest: Three Lines of Poetry Perfection
The recent haiku contest on our Be Floridian Facebook page brought out the poet in many of our Facebook fans, who were asked to post an original haiku describing what it means to Be Floridian.
A haiku is a non-rhyming 3-line poems with 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second and 5 in the third. Our winner was Kevin Shea Songer, with this delightful entry:
Blue ocean and springs,
Flowers dripping rainbow hues
Paint sun's rise and set
Kevin won a set of postcards featuring reproductions of vintage orange crate labels donated by Old Time Florida Publications.
Here are some other entries we loved:
Dark chocolate night
A star shoots over the palms
Florida August
- Larry Berglas
Hurricane season
Buying water, making ice
Hail, December first!
- Erin White
Now...in the garden
Fireflies dance among flowers
On grass, moonlight falls
- Christy Herzog
Early morning sun
Blue skies with white puffy clouds
Twilight comes too soon
- Joyce Johnson-Bendowski
Salty blue hot keys
To slow rolling red clay hills
Beauty all between
- Kevin Shea Songer
Turquoise sun nineteen
Sixty swims in blue green place
Sarasota grace
- Charlene Jones
Colors of Flowers
In the sunshine blow my mind
Lovely Florida
- Hernando County Florida-Friendly Landscaping Program
Thank you to everyone who took the time to write a haiku!
Like our Facebook page so you can participate in our frequent, fun contests
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 | | Be Floridian Segment with Karen Fraley |
What's the connection between your grass and seagrass?
Watch this video to learn how what you do in your own yard affects the health of estuaries like Sarasota and Tampa Bays. Host Amanda Dominguez of Sarasota County's Natural Resources Department talks with naturalist Karen Fraley about the link between the grass in your yard and the underwater grasses that are the foundation of healthy estuaries. And we know that healthy estuaries translate to more Florida Fun for all of us!!
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Our Florida Yard gallery showcases less-lawn landscapes like this one -- where lovely sunshine mimosa is used instead of turfgrass.
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Check out our Photo Galleries on Pinterest
Be Floridian is now on Pinterest! Check out photos of our pink flamingo flocks (including our mascot Felix), native plants, Florida landscapes and aquascapes, and examples of Florida-Friendly Yards.
We especially need photos of less-lawn or no-lawn landscapes so we can show fellow Floridians how beautiful and easy-care these yards can be.
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Need some expert advice on
Gardening Like A Floridian?
Check out the Garden Coaches, Landscape Designers, Lawn Care Companies and Nurseries that support our mission to protect the waterways that make living in Florida fun by clicking here
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Classes and workshops offer free or low-cost instruction on how to save time and money by practicing Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ principles. Check out your county extension service to get started or to learn advanced skills. Most workshops are free or very low cost.
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Pinellas County Videos: We All Live In A Watershed
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Don't Let Those Leaves Leave Your Yard!
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Our Be Floridian partners in Pinellas County continue to spread the message that we all live, work and play in a watershed.
Their latest effort: A new series of video PSAs promoting simple ways you can protect our waterways while caring for your yard, driving to work or enjoying a picnic or boating excursion.
As the videos point out, "A watershed is the land, the water and everything in between." Using fertilizer correctly, washing your car on the lawn rather than driveway, and blowing leaves and grass clippings back onto your lawn yard rather than in the street where they wash down storm drains, are just a few of the practices that protect the bays, lakes and oceans that make living here FUN!
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Photo by Amanda Dominguez
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Things That Make You Glad To Be Floridian
Here are our top 10 reasons we love living here. Are any of these on your list?
1. Plastic Pink Yard Flamingos are totally acceptable yard decorations
2. Key Lime Pie made with fresh key lime juice
3. 663 miles of beaches!
4. Grouper sandwiches
5. Average winter daytime temperatures of 72-74 degrees
6. Flip Flops in January: Why Not?
7. Seeing the terrified expressions on the faces of our visiting relatives from "up north" when they see their first REAL LIVE ALLIGATOR!
8. Margaritaville? It's here!
9. We have an official state marine mammal (how cool is that?) and it is the Manatee
And finally...
10. We live in the Land of Flowers. Really. That's what La Florida, the name given to our state by Ponce de Leon, means.
Florida is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Ponce de Leon's arrival in 2013. Visit the Viva Florida website to learn more about this beautiful, diverse and quirky place we call home.
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Photo courtesy of www.hoeandshovel.com
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Summer Fertilizer Bans End: Time to Prep Your Landscape for Winter
Thanks for "Skipping The Fertilizer" Over the Summer
To Protect Our Fun!
Summertime restrictions on the use of lawn and landscape fertilizers containing nitrogen ended on September 30. The rainy-season bans help keep fertilizer runoff from polluting the waterways that are our main source of fun. Thanks to all our friends who skipped the fertilizer this summer! If you do plan to use fertilizer, October is a good month to do so. Remember to use slow-release fertilizers that provide nitrogen to your lawn and landscape plants gradually, over a longer period. Not sure which fertilizers are slow release? Check out our primer. You can also find a listing of ordinance-compliant fertilizers on our website. It may still feel like summer outside, but cooler temperatures are coming and now is the time to do some pre-season sprucing up:
- Give your plants a final pruning to reduce that leggy, end-of-summer growth. Fall-blooming flowers can be cut back once the blossoms are done, and dead, damaged or diseased branches of shrubs can be trimmed. A light pruning is best at this time of year -- foliage is a natural jacket for plants during really cold weather, so don't leave your greenery naked and defenseless. And now is not the time to prune shrubs like azaleas, camellias, redbuds and Indian hawthorns.They won't set their spring blooms if you whack them now.
A note about Crape Myrtles: Drastic pruning of these beautiful and very popular trees is a no-no! Crape myrtles will still produce beautiful flowers and
maintain a nice shape if you just remove branches no thicker than a pencil. A study done by the University of Florida shows that correct pruning will actually produce double the amount of blooms and fewer suckers (baby plants growing from the base of the tree). Please don't commit crape murder!
- Reduce irrigation of your lawn and landscape beds. Shorter, cooler days mean less thirsty lawns. If you have an irrigation system with a timer, reset it to water once every 10-14 days in the cooler months. Of course, if it rains a half-inch or more, you can skip watering entirely that week.
Did You Know? If everyone in our region skipped one week of watering this winter, we could save 1.9 Billion gallons of water!
- Give your yard a vitamin pick-me-up by adding organic matter such as homemade or store-bought compost to your soil. Better soil leads to healthier plants! And, along those lines...
- Don't bag those leaves that fall. Really, we mean it! They are free mulch and free fertilizer, adding nutrients to your landscape as they decompose. Spread or rake them into your landscape beds and let them work for you. They also can be added to compost.
- Divide and replant perennials and bulbs that have grown too large or look tuckered out after our long summer. If you don't have room for the transplants, give them to a friend or hold a neighborhood plant swap.
- Get those veggie gardens in gear! Fall is an ideal time to plant carrots, beets, broccoli, onions, all kinds of greens, even strawberries. Check out this handy guide for how-to advice.
- Want a splash of fall color? Now's the time to add annuals such as marigolds, petunias, alyssum, bacopa, snapdragons and verbena. But remember, these will die out when hot weather returns next spring, so if you want less maintenance, stick with perennials that keep going year after year or just use the annuals as bright accents in containers.
Remember, Gardening Like A Floridian means planting the right plant in the right place. Reducing or eliminating turfgrass, creating easy-care landscape beds of mixed shrubs, trees and flowers, and adding rain-absorbing pathways of shell, pea gravel, pavers, mulch or flagstone will reduce the amount of time you have to spend on yard work. That leaves you more time to enjoy Being Floridian this fall!
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Plants for True Floridians: Seeing Yellow
Florida Native
Narrow-leaved (Swamp) Sunflower 
Helianthus angustifolius
The swamp sunflower is a familiar site in Florida coastal areas where it grows wild in large patches. It's a perennial, growing up to 6 feet in height, and thrives in full sun. It's salt tolerant, at home in sandy soil, and can tolerate waterlogged soils for extended periods. This leggy sunflower lies low most of the year, coming to life in fall with glorious bright yellow blooms. But watch out - in full sun with plenty of water this native will reseed with abandon!
Florida-Friendly, Non-NativeAfrican Bush DaisyGamolepis chrysanthemoides
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Photo courtesy www.hoeandshovel.com
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Similar to the swamp sunflower, the African Bush Daisy is also a perennial that grows in patches but to a height of around 3 feet. It thrives in full sun and acidic to slightly alkaline soil. It is moderately drought tolerant, dying back in winter and resurrecting in spring. Plant this cheerful daisy along walls and borders or even in planters. |
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Sarasota, Manatee Residents
"Followed The Flock" to Fun and Prizes
Residents in Sarasota and Manatee counties "followed the flock" to fun, games (and prizes!) this year while learning about ways to prevent water pollution through responsible yard care. Follow The Flock used community events and social media to spread the message that "our yards are connected to our creeks and bays." The campaign was developed by the Science and Environment Council of Southwest Florida in collaboration with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program's "Be Floridian" campaign. Funding came from the Southwest Florida Water Management District and Sarasota County.
Like Be Floridian, Follow The Flock enlists the iconic pink flamingo lawn ornament to help deliver its message. The campaign includes a six-foot travelling education display, smartphone "Be Floridian Challenge" game, "Watershed Stewardship" pledge, a social media campaign, a rowdy flock of 60 lawn flamingos, a flamingo-hat balloon artist and a posse of flamingo wranglers. Displays promote messaging related to reducing fertilizer and pesticide use, reducing yard runoff, improving water conservation, and replacing sections of turf grass with the right plant in the right place.
Over the past year, Follow the Flock appeared at 20 outdoor and nature-based events, exposing more than 18,000 people to its hard-to-miss messaging. More than 1,600 people took the "Be Floridian Challenge" by either playing the game or pledging to do one of 20 things in their yard to help improve local water quality. Prizes included original Don Featherstone-designed yard flamingos; the grand prize was an Apple iPad!
The campaign was marketed using innovative targeted Facebook advertising linked to a Follow the Flock Facebook Page and the website. A follow-up email survey found that 90% of participants felt the campaign "taught them something new about how to protect water quality in our creeks and bays". We salute our partners at the Science and Environment Council with a big "flamingo wing flap" for their efforts to Protect Florida's Fun!
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Healthy seagrass needs clean water!
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Recipe for Relaxing
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We can't grow apples in Florida, but we can enjoy the bounty of apple-growing states like North Carolina, as we look forward to cooler nights and lower humidity. These muffins combine nutrient-rich apples and whole grain flour into hearty muffins that make a perfect autumn breakfast on-the-go!
Apple Muffins
1 � cups white whole wheat flour
� cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup apple juice
1/3 cup canola oil
1 egg
1 � cup apples,* cored, peeled and finely chopped
Topping
Mix together 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl; set aside.
Preheat oven to 375�. Spray muffin pan with vegetable cooking spray or line with baking cups.In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon; blend well.
In a small bowl, combine apple juice, oil and egg; mix well.
Add apple juice mixture to dry ingredients and stir until moistened. Fold in chopped apples.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and sprinkle muffins with cinnamon sugar topping mixture; bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 to 2 minutes before removing from pan. Makes 12 muffins.
*Suggested varieties: Empire, Gala, Braeburn, Jonathan, McIntosh, Northern Spy, Paula Red or Rome
Recipe and photo from Michigan Apple Committee
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Palms For All SeasonsPalm trees are synonymous with Florida. They are almost as iconic a symbol of Florida as the plastic pink yard flamingo.
But not all palms are suited for all parts of Florida. Some species may be damaged by winter temps as moderate as 45 degrees. Many of the most popular, and expensive, landscape varieties are damaged when the mercury dips near or below freezing -- not an unusual occurrence in much of West Central Florida.
So, if you are tired of those chilly dashes in the dark on a frosty winter's eve, clad in bathrobe and fuzzy slippers, to bundle your precious and pricy palm trees in blankies and Christmas lights, consider these cold-hardy "palms for all seasons."
Needle Palm 
(Rhapidophyllum hystrix)
This tough Florida native scoffs at cold, and has been grown without protection as far north as Washington. D.C.! It's ideal for home landscapes as it stays fairly compact - about 6 feet tall and equally wide. Its name refers to the sharp black needles along its trunk -- folks with curious dogs and small children, beware. Tolerant of all types of soils, it prefers shade but can also get by in sunny spots. Needle palms are very water-thrifty once established.
European Fan Palm
(Chamaerops humilis)
The only palm native to Europe, this pretty multi-stemmed specimen also is perfectly sized for residential yards, reaching 8-15 feet tall and 6-10 feet wide. Multiple, curving trunks end in attractive gray-green clusters of fan-shaped leaves that resemble living sculptures. It's a slow grower, but rewards patient gardeners with its lack of fussiness -- thriving in all types of soils with no major pest or disease problems. Happiest when planted in part sun/part shade.
Bismarck Palm
(Bismarckia nobilis)
A show-stopper of a palm that flourishes from Sarasota south, but also does very well in the Tampa Bay area. This is one that needs space -- take care where you plant it because it will eventually top out at 25-50 feet! If you have the room, consider yourself lucky because the Bismarck is spectacular, with enormous, striking blue-gray fronds. Grow it in full sun, part sun or part shade and it is relatively carefree. This outstanding palms makes a grand statement in a landscape.
Lady Palm (Rhaphis excelsa)
 A lovely lady this is, with slender, deep-green ,shiny fronds atop clumps of bamboo-like stalks. Reaching 6-12 feet tall and 3-6 feet wide, lady palms crave shade. Plant these in mass, at least three feet apart, along a bo rder or fence as a natural screen, or near an entryway for a dramatic, tropical look. Lady palms also do well in containers.
Click here to learn about more cold-hardy palms and for tips on palm care. IMPORTANT: Do not plant palms too deep or too shallow! Those grown in containers should always be planted so that the top of the root mass ("root initiation zone") is about one inch below the surface of the soil.
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What's Be Floridian?
Be Floridian is an educational campaign sponsored by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. Our partners include Manatee, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties; the cities of Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Tampa; and a variety of landscape designers, gardening coaches, fertilizer companies and lawn care specialists. We are calling on all Southwest Floridians to help protect what makes Florida so fun -- our bays, lakes, rivers and the Gulf of Mexico -- by skipping the fertilizer in the summer to prevent water pollution and creating landscapes that flourish in harmony with Florida's quirky climate.
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