Southern Gardening: What Do You Want to Grow Today?

SouthernGardening.org

A Guide to Southern Gardening by Jim Notestein

What do we mean by "Southern gardening"?

We mean the region known to gardeners as the Coastal South, stretching from the Gulf coast of Texas to the Atlantic coast of South Carolina. The region as a whole shares a number of distinctive characteristics: long, hot, humid summers; mild winters; abundant rain and sunshine (usually); many native plants; and best of all, the opportunity for year-round gardening.

We focus on North Central Florida because that's where we are, and because it makes a good microcosm of the region as a whole.

Why do Southern gardeners need a special website?

Because gardening here is different. We're in the transition zone between temperate and tropical climates. Advice you get from gardening books and instructions on seed packets may give great results in Ohio, but produce only weeds and frustration here. A plant that needs full summer sun in Michigan may look like it's been toasted if it gets full summer sun in Florida. Our mild winters don't kill off bugs and weeds the way northern winters do, and so soil preparation and planting techniques that work up north can yield a bumper crop of aggravation here. In other words, we need a site that tells us how to grow where we're planted.

How do we know all this?

Jim Notestein is a fifth generation Floridian, and local grower of nearly 40 years. He and his wife Emily manage the Plants4Life nursery in Gainesville and the ‘Agave Land’ nursery in LaCrosse. Their horticultural products include North Florida native plants, edible plants, cacti and succulents, bonsai, and rare plants and trees from Florida and beyond. Jim is experienced in the propagation, installation, & care of over 200 plant species, with a strong emphasis on Florida native plants. He has facilitated hundreds of small family food gardens in this area. Jim has also managed landscapes for pollination, pests, birds, butterflies, colors, fragrance, fire, heirlooms, lawns and lawn alternatives, restoration,light and shade, privacy and security, wildlife, water use and special sounds. He has designed and installed theme gardens, secret, sacred and xeric gardens, memory gardens, labyrinths and mazes, container gardens and coastal landscapes. He has done community food networks, contract growing, horticultural therapy, firewise certification, garden coaching, solar powered air conditioning, landscape structures, specimen plants and topiary art, water gardens and yard bells.

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