The Art of South Florida Gardening: A Unique Guide to Planning, Planting, and Making Your Subtropical Garden Grow (Paperback)

~ (Author), Coralee Leon (Author), George Curtis (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A unique guide to planning, planting, and making your subtropical garden grow.

From the Back Cover

Gardeners from Key West to Lake Okeechobee and on up the coasts to cape Canaveral and Tampa Bay know that gardening for the rest of the country just doesn't apply here. South Florida is unique, and The Art of South Florida Gardening is uniquely intended for South Florida Gardeners.

Author Harold Songdahl is a respected horticulturist who has planted, grown, transplanted, and propagated just about every kind of plant that grows here, experimented with hopeful newcomers, and accumulated first-hand knowledge and experience all along the way. He and co-author Coralee Leon have produced an indispensable resource, full of real information, practical advice, and hands-on guidance never before assembled in a book exclusively for South Florida gardeners.

The Art of South Florida Gardening makes gardening in South Florida inviting and fun, whether you're an old hand or have just moved here-and even if you've never before considered getting your hands dirty. Harold's warm, wise voice is always encouraging and enthusiastic, and Coralee's lively, engaging prose will have you reading as much for pleasure as for its solid information.

Once you start using it, you won't know how you've gotten along without it.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Pineapple Press (FL); 1st edition (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561640883
• ISBN-13: 978-1561640881
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,217,988 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Art of South Florida Gardening, December 27, 1999

By	Jim &Julie Scott (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews

Excellent primer for gardeners in the southern counties of Florida. Pen sketches. No photos, so you'll need a garden/plant photo book too.

Humorous tips and practical advice on Fl gardens, lawns, trees & shrubs along with their 12-month growing season. Includes short descriptions on some of the more beautiful or well-adapted plants to use in the suburban landscape.

The authors also cover specific challenges south FL gardeners face regarding soils, wet/dry periods and bugs. Conversational style and short chapters but thorough. Gets you to want to go outside and start planting! Excellent!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars You need to do some serious research because info is dated, January 7, 2005

By	Bruce Jackson "Florida Bushwhacker" (Cape Coral, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Like Linne Faulk, who wrote a related guide, I am a transplant from Michigan. Moving to Florida was just about equal to moving to another planet. My wife and I are homeowners in Cape Coral, found ourselves in Plant Hardiness Zone 10b, but you know, you just have to try different things. We have a butterfly garden which went way whacko with too many dune sunflowers and not enough tropical salvias, gallardias, firebushes, and Bahama cassia.

One item to update (this anecdotal book was published eight or nine years ago): There is still Miami sludge, Grade AA, but it is no longer known as "Florida Organix" or "daorganite". Further, in talking with the Lee County Extension Office, products such as Milorganite and Grade AA Miami sludge are being panned as less effective than originally thought.

Ultimately, I found gardening to be an art - you never truly master it. But while you're doing it, you must keep your mind constantly engaged because you do learn something new - sometimes paradoxical - every day.

I enjoyed the book immensely, especially the old-timer's (Mr. Songdahl) stories. Two of my favorites are the guy who put his whole lawn in a rock garden and bronzed his mower and the transplant who received a one-sentence report on the soil sample he sent back to his old extension agent in Iowa: something like "The only things you don't need are rocks and seashells." So true of Cape Coral, and it seems the only remedy for the packed ocean bottom we have for land is the annual amendment of compost or green manure. By the way, we're soon to come under water restrictions, so think more in terms of lots of native plants and very little, if any, grass. Being an old corporate accountant, that's my Plan B for what it's worth.

The wise gardener who is computer literate first will link with the Universtiy of Florida website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu. This site has been a treasure trove of gardening and horticultural information - along with "texts" to help in becoming certified as a Florida Master Gardener, one of my goals.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Charming .... but there are better books, January 13, 2000

By	L D STRATTON (Peoria, Il USA) - See all my reviews

The folksy information really isn't much for true gardeners but some may enjoy it. If you're really into gardening, there are far better books.