In Your Backyard: Walking In The Woods

Great weekend leading twenty adventurous hikers on the 4.5 mile Land Bridge trek for Walk Across Marion County. We had perfect weather to enjoy the vista of long-leaf pines, rusty lyonia, and scrub oaks. Evident also were prescribed winter burns in the preserved Greenway Trails region and the Ocala Forest.



Recent burn on one side of Hwy 19 and the thick underbrush of saw palmettos and wire grasses directly across on the other side.

These burns are necessary maintenance to keep the undergrowth vegetation healthy, reduce the intensity of naturally-occuring fires (from lightning), and encourage new pine tree seedlings. Driving through the Forest, chickasaw plums were in full bloom, along with redbuds.



Blooming cherry laurels will be an integral food source for Florida wildlife in the summer.

On the outskirts of the Ocala National Forest, just outside Umatilla, I had to turn the car around and snap some photographs and video a bald eagle having a fresh meal of rabbit. He didn't mind the heavy passing traffic.



Citrus was the hot topic last week on "In Your Backyard." Issues such as dried out oranges, the sweetness of oranges, suckering, and huanglongbing, or more easily referred to as citrus greening, a devastating disease for the citrus industry.

Here's a great IFAS publication on citrus problems in home landscapes.

Looking forward to your gardening calls today! What's going on in your backyard?

In Your Backyard: Chilly Willy, It's Supposed To Be Florida!

Robert Carrion's reality photographs from Montverde, Florida. Temperatures definitely hit the 20's, with wind chills in the teens.





For homeowners, watering your yard two to three days BEFORE a freeze will help keep it warmer than watering it during the freeze. Wet soil will generate more heat than dry soil. It also helps hydrate plants.

Wrapping them with frost blankets and adding lights underneath the plants will also add more warmth.

But if your landscape received snow and sleet, then you're probably going to see more damage to your plants than in a normal Florida winter. Here's how to check if your plants survived:

• Delay pruning for several weeks to see what has actually died.
• You can pull off any damaged leaves.
• Scrape bark for green growth underneath the damage. If it's black, then cut back till you find green cambium.
• Mushy stems are an indication of frost-damage. Cut back to ground.
• Don't fertilize or amend soil.
• Allow for rainfall and/or if none, irrigate once every ten days. Do not overwater.
• Frozen plants may take longer than usual (months) to recover so be patient with any plants that are favorites before digging up and throwing away.

More information on cold protection for your ornamental plants.

Why do citrus growers use micro-irrigation on their groves?

Spring blooming Trees for Florida:

Saucer Magnolia

Chickasaw Plum

Dogwood

Great Spring Catalogs:

Plant Delights Nursery

Tomato Growers Supply Company

White Flower Farm

K. Van Bourgondien & Sons

We will be talking about fruit trees for Florida with Chestnut Hill Tree Farms next week! You don't want to miss the next "In Your Backyard."