Sustainable Gardening for Florida [Paperback]

Ginny Stibolt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 13, 2009

"Tells us how to manage our gardens, yards, landscapes, and water with the least possible adverse impacts on the environment. It explains why sustainability is important in a crowded world, and how we can use basic ecological principles to live with, not against, nature."--Steven P. Christman, editor, Floridata.com 

"Brings important environmentally friendly gardening information together in one comprehensive reference. Will be of interest to environmentally sensitive gardeners and homeowners, landscape architects, landscapers, nursery owners, wholesale and retail growers, land managers, park managers, and more."--Gil Nelson, author of Florida's Best Native Landscape Plants

 

Sustainable gardening is a broad topic that includes best practices in gardening, organic gardening, making the best use of local resources, growing your own vegetables, saving water, and doing the least amount of damage to the environment. In Sustainable Gardening for Florida, Ginny Stibolt presents easy money-saving projects that help to reduce Floridians' collective ecological footprint.

 

The state's unique features and climate provides both challenges and opportunities for gardeners. Stibolt provides detailed instructions for various projects that promote a successful gardening experience within the tropical climate. She includes interesting and doable projects and property management techniques that should have a significant beneficial effect on Florida's environment.

 

This wide range of techniques, which features a combination of eco-friendly landscape design and organic practices, offers new ideas and new ways of approaching common environmental subjects at a personal level and for community-wide action that will make a positive impact on the state, one yard at a time.

 

 

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

"Tells us how to manage our gardens, yards, landscapes, and water with the least possible adverse impacts on the environment. It explains why sustainability is important in a crowded world, and how we can use basic ecological principles to live with, not against, nature."--Steven P. Christman, editor, Floridata.com 

"Brings important environmentally friendly gardening information together in one comprehensive reference. Will be of interest to environmentally sensitive gardeners and homeowners, landscape architects, landscapers, nursery owners, wholesale and retail growers, land managers, park managers, and more."--Gil Nelson, author of Florida's Best Native Landscape Plants

 

Sustainable gardening is a broad topic that includes best practices in gardening, organic gardening, making the best use of local resources, growing your own vegetables, saving water, and doing the least amount of damage to the environment. In Sustainable Gardening for Florida, Ginny Stibolt presents easy money-saving projects that help to reduce Floridians' collective ecological footprint.

 

The state's unique features and climate provides both challenges and opportunities for gardeners. Stibolt provides detailed instructions for various projects that promote a successful gardening experience within the tropical climate. She includes interesting and doable projects and property management techniques that should have a significant beneficial effect on Florida's environment.

 

This wide range of techniques, which features a combination of eco-friendly landscape design and organic practices, offers new ideas and new ways of approaching common environmental subjects at a personal level and for community-wide action that will make a positive impact on the state, one yard at a time.

 

 

About the Author

Ginny Stibolt is a botanist who writes about Florida gardening for the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union, Vero Beach Magazine, and on the web at transplantedgardener.com. Half of all royalties she receives from book sales will be paid directly to the Florida Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Florida (September 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813033926
• ISBN-13: 978-0813033921
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #967,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've been a gardener all my life and earned an MS degree in Botany from the University of Maryland. All of my previous experience and education did not help one bit when my husband and I moved to northeast Florida in 2004 and attempted to garden here. That first fall I planted 48 tulips in various parts of my yard to see where the best spots would be so I would know where to plant more the next year. The next spring only one leaf sprouted! One of my neighbors said that everyone knows to put them in the refrigerator for 6 weeks before planting. The next year I tried that, but they didn't do much better. So why do the stores even sell tulips here and how come the directions on the bulbs don't provide better guidance?

The tulip lesson was only one of the many I experienced in my Florida gardening adventures. I figured that I was not the only transplanted gardener, so I opened my botany texts, bought some Florida-based books, joined the Florida Native Plant Society, and began to research Florida gardening. I started writing a more or less monthly column sharing our successes and failures. I posted these columns on this website, in Jacksonville's newspaper, The Florida Times Union, and then on www.floridata.com, an online plant encyclopedia. Many of the columns have been picked up by other organizations such as master gardener newsletters and I've been writing a gardening column for Vero Beach Magazine.

I've covered a wide range of topics over the years, but my columns are not armchair or ivory tower topics. I'm out in my yard with dirt under my fingernails, testing techniques and examining the results as I work to make our landscape more sustainable.

In March 2006, after hearing John Byram, editor-and-chief of University Press of Florida, talk about how The Press was always looking for topics related to Florida, I asked if he'd be interested in republishing a collection of my Transplanted Gardener columns. He declined, but asked if I'd write a book on organic gardening in Florida instead. I agreed, but after more research on the topics involved in Florida gardening, my formal book proposal was for sustainable gardening instead of organic gardening because it is a larger topic with wider appeal.

After much research and several rewrites, Sustainable Gardening for Florida was released in July 2009. Let me know how you like it.

Green gardening matters,
Ginny

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gardening with Green Goals, October 26, 2009

By 

Suzanne P. Dingwell "Native plant gardener" (Palm Beach Gardens, Fl) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sustainable Gardening for Florida (Paperback)

I have a whole shelf full of books on gardening in Florida, but I moved some old ones out of the way for this one! Sustainable Gardening for Florida definitely deserves a place on my shelf, and I highly recommend it for yours, too. As the first reviewer mentioned, there is plenty here for gardeners in any setting.

Ginny Stibolt, who is a naturalist with a degree in botany, as well as a talented writer, has created a timely, informative and practical guide on a broad range of gardening issues with the concerns of today's gardeners in mind. All the topics you would expect from a comprehensive guide are included: lawns, landscape, containers, vegetables, flowers. Also topics that have special import here, like "Dealing with Salt, Sand, Muck and Erosion" and "Preparing the Landscape for Disasters." On the fun side, there are detailed instructions for planning rain gardens, bioswales, bog gardens.

Each chapter begins with a discussion of the sustainability issues related to its topic. You'll learn why things are sustainable or not. Ginny does a great job of including just a dash of some easily understandable science that gives a solid platform to the readers' understanding of her discussions. Each chapter also includes a booklist and website list that are especially valuable.

Are there some words being bandied about lately that you hear over and over but aren't quite sure what they really mean? This book contains an excellent glossary. An extensive plant list at the end makes a sound resource for learning the good and not-so-good attributes of plants commonly used in Florida, both native and non-native.

I can't finish without mentioning the great diagrams, again so helpful and easy to understand. You'll learn some new tricks just looking at these! There was a neat idea for watering a strawberry jar.......but you'll just have to look for yourself!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a keeper!, September 22, 2010

By 

Caitlynne - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sustainable Gardening for Florida (Paperback)

I moved last year to Florida from Connecticut and quickly realized I was in a very different ballgame. Most of the things I'd learned from my mother and friends about gardening didn't apply- and certainly trying to garden "northern style" down here is a highly unsustainable practice. I took this book out from the library along with five or six others and read them front to back before attempting to garden at our new house. I returned all of the books and quickly ordered a copy of 'Sustainable Gardening for Florida' to keep at home. I continue to use it as a reference three months later, and each month I feel more confident in my knowledge of this landscape.
It's easy to be tricked into using unsustainable practices by the push for profit in so many industries- and of course, these unsustainable practices are not only unhealthy and often toxic, they will cost more money and suck more potential from your work and materials. I feel armed with the wisdom in Ginny's book to be able to choose the better way- better for me, my yard, my wildlife friends, and my bottom line! Thanks Ginny!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Water Smart, January 6, 2010

By 

Sam (Florida) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sustainable Gardening for Florida (Paperback)

Following the advice of Sustainable Gardening for Florida, we completely reworked our grass centric yard to one with reduced grass and many beautiful, native and tropical plants. As a result, the need to water our yard has been much reduced which is good for our pocket book and necessary since much of Florida has restrictions on watering.

The advice is practical, easy to understand and painless to put into practice. So many of our neighbors have complimented us on our yard and asked for advice that our holiday/house warming gift for our neighbors was and is Sustainable Gardening for Florida.