First Post x 2 (also on Florida gardening page)

Intro and first post. I've been watching numerous gardening sites for years, but never chime in. A little about myself. I live in North FL zone 9a. Throughout my yard I have peaches - this is the first year the biggest tree is finally bearing (a lot), I've had to strip around 200 because they were so crowded, plums, muscadines, blackberries, raspberries, citrus, persimmon, loquat, pear, Asian pear, bananas, cherries, apples, crabapple, apricot, alpine strawberries, and lots of tomatoes in containers and in ground. Wow, looking at this list looks like I live on a farm, I don't, I live on a 1 acre lot in town. Many of the fruit trees are first year so it will be a while before there's any fruit. I wish my yard was bigger or had fewer big trees so I could put in even more.

I would be remiss if I didn't also mention my one big fig tree, it's a Celeste. I've never tasted a ripe fig so I'm hoping it will get a few this season, first season was last year and the few it had dropped off before they were ripe. This tree was a pick my daughter made when we took a trip to Just Fruits and Exotics. I also have a tiny TC Italian Honey and a Petite Negri. Last fall I bought a bunch of cuttings and kept them outside with covers over the winter, they did fine through the winter even started growing roots and a couple of leaves - until the squirrels discovered them. The squirrels took every cutting out of the container and ate every bud off, then threw the stripped sticks on the ground. I tried burying all the sticks to see if any would sprout, all but one has basically rotted. I purchased a fake owl that I move around every few days that seems to be working for now.

I won several auctions on ebay, and everyone has been very generous with cuttings. One person sending an already rooted extra cutting, and one sending a bonus variety I didn't even order plus lots of extras. Some cuttings are already getting roots and will be potted up outside soon. So far for cuttings I have Panache, Black Mission, Texas Blue Giant, Salem Dark, Longue D'Aout, Paradiso (bonus), Bataglia Green, LSU Purple, and others I can't remember at the moment. My future plan is to do an espalier of several varieties on the backside of a blackberry trellis (the blackberries have a limited lifespan if they don't taste better this year).

Now for a shameless plug. I have recently finished my first book and am trying to get a publishing contract through Kindle Scout. There are lots of fruits and vegetables mentioned in the book, including fig. It's about a group of mutant teenagers, in a post-apocalyptic world, trying to save their colony from early death due to residual effects of radiation. If my book is selected from the campaign everyone who nominates it will get a free copy. Take a look and see if you like it. I appreciate any support. Link https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/3LSTJE2E75R5Q?token=191-8180153-7118311_668010011_1_0&ref_=ks_h_crsl-668010011_pc

If the link doesn't work you can just do a search for kindle scout and it should pop up, my book is under the sci-fi section - THE RAD MISFITS

Kudos on your one acre garden. Seeing your post makes me feel better about my less than an acre yard. My back yard has an easemeant thru most of my back yard. I have 2 dwarf apple trees, 1 dwarf pear, 1 dwarf multi grafted asian pear, 3 dwarf Japanese persimmons, 1 multi grafted dwarf cherry, 1 multi grafted dwarf peach, 1 multi grafted dwarf plumcot,1 multi grafted dwarf apple, 1 multi grafted dwarf orchid tree, 1 rusian pomergranate, 2 blackberries, 1 grape vine and 2 muscadine vine and 9 4'x4' raised vegatable bed. Wow! I got dizzy just listings them. LOL! My multi grafted trees will not be producing fruit for another 2 to 3 years. The large pots along the left side of the second picture contain some of my fruit trees. This is the garden in front of the easement, along the side of the house. The first picture is my garden behind the easement. I have one of my Japanese persimmons in the large black pot and my pomergrante in in the small raise bed by the large black pot.

I'm just happy my husband never complains when I make up reasons for us to run errands at the home improvement store. I almost always buy something from the garden center. He likes to buy rose bushes and plant them, then I take care of them :-) It's a fair trade-off since he never says a word when I buy more plants.