A subtropical
garden may seem very topsy-turvy if you're accustomed to gardening
anywhere else. Alice's Wonderland couldn't have been any wackier.
What can you expect when butterfly ballots showing a popular majority
for one candidate can metamorphose into victory for the other?
In this land of riddles, for instance, we have annuals like impatiens
grow into shrubs and live year after year while perennials die
off in a season. Warm season, long-day plants like petunias and
tomatoes go into the ground in winter. Farmstands close in the
summer; in winter they lure visitors with "you-pick" strawberries
and tomatoes. Plant labels that read "full sun" really mean partial
shade.
I think, though, that I'm beginning to make sense of it. With
one Florida summer under my belt, I know now that summer is far
too hot and humid to be outside, and most of nature seems to agree.
With few exceptions, plants retreat into what's called "heat stall,"
a dormancy of sorts, that preserves their life force. In spite
of the long days of summer, growth slows, most fruiting stops,
and flowers become scarce. Weeds, alas, are the big exception
to the rule. In the heat, they thrive, growing like wild fire
until perspiring gardeners pluck them out.
Summer has its beauty, don't get me wrong. Problem is, it's mostly
viewed through a window in an air-conditioned room. Fantasize
about a garden up north growing vigorously year round. Now imagine
what it would be like to take care of it--weeding, watering, digging,
raking--at its coldest. The only
difference is that instead of cold, it's hot.
The result? Nature makes the best of the rest of the year, especially
winter, which becomes prime gardening time and growing time, as well as
a desperately needed respite from the heat. Even though the days are short
and
water is in short supply, conditions are more conducive to plant growth,
albeit slow by most standards, and flowering.
At this very moment a wonder inhabits my backyard, a papaya tree. It is heavy
with at least a dozen football size fruit that's ripening yellow
and orange. As an eight-inch seedling won in a plant raffle, I
planted it out in late May (seven months ago) and it now reaches
12 feet, which is actually short for a papaya.
Other plants I consider winter wonders are bougainvillea and poinsettia.
The bougie, as it's known, is a sprawling, spiny shrub that would be unremarkable
if it weren't for its wildly colored flower bracts that light up the landscape.
It'll bloom sporadically all year as long as it's kept on the dry side,
which is hard to manage when it's anywhere near a lawn sprinkler.
So when the short, dry days of winter begin so does profuse flowering.
The poinsettia, a popular holiday plant, is at home in this subtropical
clime and needs no special conditions to thrive. It grows into a large
landscape shrub and colors up its flower bracts without any coaxing in
the short days of winter.
Some of the riddle can be explained away. Petunias, for instance, which
require long days and summer heat to bloom, are planted in the short, cool
days of winter in Florida. Growers have learned to simulate long days with
artificial lighting, and apparently Florida's winter sun is warm enough
to keep them happy. Summer, I've learned firsthand, is too hot and humid
for them. I 'm told Christmas cactus, a popular holiday plant, needs a
dunking in ice water to set buds when no frost is to be had, roughly the
equivalent of being outside for a couple frosty nights up north.
Another riddle of sorts is the current fascination with deer ornaments
as part of the holiday lights. This year, in addition to icicles, light
grids, and tree wraps, life-size deer appeared. These decorations move
their heads from side to side to mimic grazing. Many gardeners, myself
included, consider the sight of a deer in the garden a horrifying specter.
The fact is that gardeners in Florida don't worry much about deer. The
indigenous variety, the dog size Key Deer, is concentrated in the southernmost
part of the state. Even there it doesn't present a problem because of steadily
declining numbers that have earned it endangered status.
In colder climes co-existing with deer is no joking matter and one that
I have wrestled with. Deer trails traversed my New York gardens, evidenced
by tracks and droppings and the inevitable damage. I don't mind sharing
my garden with wildlife--up to a point, but when evergreens turned into
skeletons overnight and prized flowers buds disappeared, it was more than
I could stand.
While research and a lot of hope are pinned on a birth-control pill
for deer, gardeners must consider the alternatives. The most successful
remedy is a sturdy eight-foot. high woven wire fence. Other reports indicate
that two additional fence options are effective: a solar powered electric
fence 40 inches high and an electric fence 4 feet high and 5 feet wide,
angled at 45 degrees.
In my experience, a makeshift lattice fence will reroute them away from
your garden for awhile until their numbers and need for food force the herd
back. At various times, I tried human hair as a mulch and in sachets; hanging
bars of perfumed soap; and countless bags of Milorganite, a composted municipal-waste
fertilizer. I'm not so sure they did anything about the deer but at least
the Milorganite was also a fertilizer and the hair eventually increased
the soil's organic matter. (Perfumed bars are no longer recommended as
ingestion can make wildlife sick.)
According to www.mydeergarden.com, one of the most effective and natural
deer deterrents is predator urine. I carefully avoided use of predator
urine in my garden because of reports that it is inhumanely harvested from
coyotes. More useful than specific product recommendations, that web site offers
a searchable database of deer-resistant plants and a free monthly newsletter
full of good information. There's a new systemic product in the form
of a tablet that, when placed in the ground near a plant, absorbs the chemical
into the stems and leaves affecting the taste of the plant. Apparently
the product doesn't make the plant unpalatable enough to deter deer.
I never tried any of the do-it-yourself recipes for sprays but
did have some success with repellent sprays. The latest studies
show them more effective if rotated. A lot has to do with the
size of the herd of deer you're trying not to feed, its appetite,
and what you've planted. No plants except very spiny ones were
spared in a winter with snow cover and a big herd. But spiny leaves
are no guarantee of safety because new growth on such plants lacks
hardened spines.
In my northeast garden, I was fortunate to get away with a once-a-season-spray
like Tree Guard. It proved effective in trails by Consumer Reports Magazine
a few years ago. It won't prevent damage, but it did save just about everything
in my garden as long as I sprayed every three months or so, especially
on new growth. I also like that the product is free of animal urine and
slaughterhouse wastes. Note that Tree Guard is not recommended for edible
plants. Available from www.tomsgarden.com, Deer-Off is another once-a-season
spray that proved effective in those same tests. Gardens Alive, a catalog
for environmentally responsible products, says Deer-Off is safe and all-natural.
You can also safely use it on edibles -- in the vegetable garden and on
fruit trees -- something other sprays can't say. Deer-Off is available
from Gardens Alive (www.gardens-alive.com).
If the deer pressure is heavy, you may have to resort to weekly
sprays like Hinder or Bobbex. Besides being inconvenient, weekly
spraying may be logistically difficult since some can only be
applied when temperatures are
above 40 degrees Fahrenheit and conditions are dry. Check product labels
for
manufacturers' instructions. Available from www.tomsgarden.com
Gardeners also worry about cold protection, even in the subtropics.
In the
quest for variety, gardeners are constantly testing the hardiness limits
of plants. Tonight, for instance, forecasters are predicting frost
in Southeast Florida. It was luck that I planted the tender papayas on
the warm, south side of the house. That's makes a difference even in a
frost. Up north that would have been a problem. Tender plants should be
located with a northern or eastern exposure to avoid big temperature fluctuations.
A bigger problem is that the impatiens and angle-wing begonias in my
garden
are scattered all over. For those I'll use the same strategy I would
up north for a frost warning: cover tender plants as best I can with towels,
blankets, and sheets (no plastic). In the morning, before temperatures
rise, I'll uncover them.
For northern gardens, here are some general guidelines:
-
Apply a mulch, 3 to 4 inches deep, after the soil freezes. This never made
any sense to me until I understood why. The idea is to keep the soil cold,
which prevents the soil from heaving when temperatures change quickly.
-
Reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied after mid-July and
stop all fertilization by late summer. That minimizes new growth going
into winter that could get nipped by cold. The cutoff date for my subtropical
garden is November.
-
Use burlap tied or stapled around stakes to make enclosures that
protect young or tender plants from drying winds and fluctuating temperatures.
-
Water evergreens thoroughly as cold weather approaches until the
ground freezes. Use a spray anti-desiccant to protect specimen plants.
