UF/IFAS GLOBAL BLOGS
Join UF/IFAS Extension Polk County experts for an on-demand series of four, 15-minute online educational workshops to help you plan a beautiful summer garden of flowering plants. Topics include summer flowering annuals, perennials, wildflowers, and bulbs. (Click the… Read More
Calling all gardeners (and all who want to be gardeners)! Would you like to learn how to help our natural environment and add beauty to your yard? Join in this year’s annual international celebration of Pollinator Week! This… Read More
If you give mom a plant for Mother’s Day, you might appreciate the aroma and aesthetics of the flower you bought – and flora in general. You might even wonder how the plant got to the retailer or… Read More
Crape myrtles are all around good tree selections for the landscape. When left in their more natural form with just a little selective pruning, crape myrtles can provide shade during our hot summer days. Learn the many qualities… Read More
The principles of the Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ program are often applied to lawns and ornamental landscapes, but they can be applied to edible landscapes containing vegetables, herbs and fruit trees too! By following the nine FFL principles, you can produce… Read More
It is a great time of year to refresh your landscape beds with mulch. A good source for (free) mulch is fallen oak leaves, which are in abundance this time of year. Oak leaves are a lovely shade… Read More
Have you visited the Florida-Friendly Landscaping (FFL) Demonstration Gardens at UF/IFAS Extension Polk County in Bartow? These gardens feature the nine principles of FFL and received a state award in 2019. The gardens are open to the public… Read More
When it comes to butterfly gardening, monarch butterflies seem to get all the love. Monarchs are the butterfly “homecoming queens”! They are drama queens, too, as they lead fascinating lives of intrigue, participating each year in a miraculous-seeming… Read More
Throughout the year, I collect pinecones, acorns, grasses, and seedpods in my yard and on hikes (where permitted). However, in the fall I really step up my activity. Mother nature is drying some of them for me this… Read More
Social distancing has become an all-too important description of our healthy relationships with one another during the pandemic. Did you know plants can benefit from “distancing” too? In fact, for central Florida gardeners, “distancing” in our landscapes has… Read More
