Hi From Florida
 

I was referred here by bk from floridagardenexchange2 (yahoo groups). Thanks Bill...

I am located in N Central FL, zone 8b. Love gardening, esp tropicals (wished I lived in zone 10b or 11, but that's besides the point). Some of my favorite plants are bananas, gingers, canna lillies, palms, elephant ears, camelias, citrus trees..... (I'll stop there, that list would be wayyyy too long).

I am a married sahm in my 40's, with 1 child. We live on 5 acres in the pine flatlands. Have occasional standing water in some parts of yard after heavy rains, bone dry in May and a couple of other times throughout the year. We've only been here for a couple of years and I'm still learning how to grow things in this yard. (came here from Jax where we had incredibly rich soil that I could easily grow anything in).

Other than gardening, some favorite things are reef tanks, fishing, swimming, shrimping, (water activities in general), reading and horse back riding.

We are currently in the process of building a house ourselves (ie: no contractor or subs), what a pia that is.... Of course, when we first moved out here (living in trailer until house is down), I couldn't wait to start on the yard, cleared a lot of the property, planted fruit and nut trees, planted various shrubs along fence line, flower beds ect. Of course, I spent way too much on the yard, so now the house is going to be a while before we can afford to finish it :)... Forgot one important thing though - I have to keep up with weeding all these areas!

Anyhow, now you pretty much have my life story!

Chris

Re: Hi From Florida
 

isnt it amazing how the ground in jax is different from anywhere else in fl????hello and welcome!!!!! if your gonna plant nanas in a yard that ends up with standing water after a bad rain you might want to plant them in raised flowerbeds. welcome again to the org!!

Re: Hi From Florida
 

MSKitty, Thanks for the welcome. And yes, I'm really amazed at the difference in soil. I already have some varieties planted in various spots, some of which are doing ok, the others are actually not getting enough water.

After the house, our next major project will be running more water lines. At least we put one line in going to the front of the property, but if I need to water other areas, I have to drag what feels like miles of hoses around the yard. (And god forbid my husband mows, he doesn't bother picking up the water hoses first and just runs them over - so normally he's not allowed to mow).

The areas that have standing water are in the back yard where we left a bunch of woods with trails and along the sides of the driveway. Our biggest problem is that a good portion of the back yard around the house doesn't get enough oxygen; which I think is a combination of compaction, fine sand and when we get heavy rains, it sheets off our property towards our neighbors yard and the very back of our property line. I'm not sure if it's truly alluvial soil, but it might be in certain areas. Just when I thought I knew how to plant things, I have to learn all over again...

Re: Hi From Florida
 

Hey Chris!
WELCOME!!! Yep the Do-It-Yourself House is a PIA!..LOL
It took us 3 1/2 yrs. the only thing we ended up not needing was a Good Divorce lawyer...LOL Best of luck with that and by all means post some pic's I would love to see!!!.
Kylie

Re: Hi From Florida
 

Kylie,
Thanks. That divorce lawyer thought has crossed my mind a time or two during this; but I think we'll survive :)

Have to play around with the photos for a while to remember how to decrease size where I can upload them....

Re: Hi From Florida
 

on blue tool bar click on photo gallery, there you find place to click to add photos

Re: Hi From Florida
 

Pic's are very easy..The Blue Toolbar at the top~ "Photo Gallery".. It will provide options.. Create a Photo Alubm or just load . You can take them straight from your computer No Photo server needed..(Which is Very Cool) Browse~Open~sbumit/upload...If you need some help let me know...
Kylie
:pics:

Re: Hi From Florida
 

Welcome to the forum! Please do post pics of your place sounds intresting.:waving:

Re: Hi From Florida
 

Okay, I figured it out... The house isn't huge or anything it's 1993 h&c sf 2696sf under roof. I posted one of the front, the side and the icynene in the ceiling.

The brick is finished now, but we still have to do the facia/soffit, driveway pad and garage door for it to be complete on the outside. The inside only has the framing, plumbing rough, electrical rough and the icynene on the roof deck - still have a long ways to go inside. We hope to be able to complete it by next Christmas; although I would be tickled pink if we could move into it way before then. I'm really sick of this trailer.

We've mainly been working on clearing the land, getting rid of all the trash pits that were here, and fencing the property. Can wait to landscape around the house, but that will still be a while.

I can post a before and after pic of the property if you're interested.

Re: Hi From Florida
 

Holy smokes! I wouldn't have nearly enough energy to take on such an ambitious project. Hope all goes according to plan. Will belooking for the "after" pics. Good luck and glad to have you as a new member.

Re: Hi From Florida
 

Wow; you all have some energy! Welcome. Do you still have the reef tanks going? I've been a reefer since trickle filters (lol). Post some tank pics when you get a chance.

Re: Hi From Florida
 

Welcome Chris! What a nice house! How proud you must be doing that yourselves! Can't wait to see more pics!

Deb

Re: Hi From Florida
 

btw chris......jarred (mediahound) also has a fourm for fish people.... its called aquarium forum!!!!its for fresh and salt tanks!!! just thought youd like a heads up peoples.

Aquarium Forum - AquariumForum.com - Freshwater, Saltwater, and Reef Forums
there you go free advertisements....LOL!

Re: Hi From Florida
 

OMG! I just went through every file on my computer and photos I've saved to disk looking for pics of my tanks and I can't find the first one. Apparently I've lost them all. That really makes me sad - I worked hard on those.

Anyhow, I haven't had a reef tank since we've moved out here - I sold everything before we moved. Plan on getting another setup after house is completed at some point. But when I actually sat back and realized just how much money I had into it... I was a member of Reefcentral (Reef Central Online Community) my user id was chriss. I found most of the post I made on there, but none of my pics are still there - even on any of the forum topics. Guess they take up too much space and they have to cull them periodically. Anyhow, if you're interested, you can look up my user id and follow some of the posts in for sale categories - because I sold everything I had through RC... It shows every coral, fish and frag I had at the time and what kind of equipment I had. Hope to be able to have same or better setup in the future...

Thanks for the welcome.