New to America & New to Daves Garden

Hi - it's so good to know that there are as many enthusiastic gardeners here as in UK. I have an empty North Florida garden to fill - having left an English garden full of wild flowers herbs & birds & other wildlife

WELCOME!hang around here and you will be so loaded with plants, you will be looking for more ground!LOL!

Welcome to Dave's Garden, Fringedweller! Louisa, one of our dearest DG'ers, is also from England and now lives in Virginia -- I believe she came here five years ago. Have a good time in the US, and on DG!

Thank you for the welcome - it is so good to know that through the common thread of gardening people can share so much information through the internet.
I'm looking forward to making a new garden & DG's site will be invaluable with the knowledge it contains - it's addictive viewing!


ooops! I think this should have posted on new members

This message was edited Thursday, Dec 19th 5:46 PM

Welcome to the USA and Davesgarden. An empty garden to fill, oh how delightful! Have fun.

Welcome to the greatest site around...you will learn not just gardening here...you will also lear to like the people and wonder how you ever got along with out them. Jo

Welcome Fringe,
What was your zone in England? Will you have to learn about plants you couldn't grow in England that you can grow in 8A?
TLC

Thanks again for the warm welcome & Yes it will be a totally different type of gardening
We did not have zones in England but we did have a lot of COLD rain.Plus very heavy clay soil
Some of the plants are the same but will grow much quicker here as it is so much warmer. Its fun finding out that there are so many to choose from
The first piority is to get a few trees in place - I can't wait to get started
question - why does it come up on screeen under new member "NO" when it should read YES

This message was edited Friday, Dec 20th 8:45 AM

Where are you talking about fringedweller?In the member lists?

Usually if you have a typo in the site itself,you can go to the Dave's Garden forum and post there. Dave handles most of the bugs,problems or requests for things from there.The site has grown so in the last couple of years that it's easier for him if it's brought to his attention there.

By the way,here's a big West Kentucky welcome to the US and to Dave's!

Welcome from Ohio, Fringedweller! Howie and I can relate to cold rain and clay soil, but we get a lot colder than the UK does, LOL. :)

Welcome fringedweller! I am just down the road from you so come on over and visit! There are quite a few members from this area and we love to help people fill their yards.
I hope you enjoy this area.

Thank you weeds for the welcome invitation - I hope to fill garden eventually with plants that encourage butterflies,birds etc into the garden - My garden in England was bare when I moved into it & within 5 years &no pesticides etc when I left it was teeming with butterflies/moths/frogs/birds & a resident hedgehog.
In my new Florida garden I put bird feeders up in a tree outside even before I got the furniture sorted inside (priorities) but so far no takers? we did have a beautiful bald eagle sitting up in the trees at the back though which was exciting.
I'm so glad I stumbled upon this DG's site it's such a great idea for sharing ideas tips etc.I hope to join a garden club too when I find one local.

Ahhh yes.....you'll have hummingbirds here in the US!!! A real treat for people from across the pond to see. You gotta get you some hummers. They'll start migrating back from Central America the end of Jan.,so get you a couple of feeders and check out the Butterflies and Hummer forum.

From one Brit to another - welcome to DG. I have clay soil - you're welcome to it!! :-) I've been here almost 6 years and thought I was an accomplished gardener but had to learn all over again - well almost!! It's great fun for the most part and working on another new garden, new home, for the past 18 months. Still lots to learn because it is a different ball game but am ably assisted in my endeavours by the very best of people here at DG. I hope you enjoy gardening and living in Florida. I know you are certainly going to love this friendly site.

Thanks Louisa for the welcome - I am already addicted to this site and amazed at all the firendly information sharing. I also thought I knew about gardening but as you say it is indeed a different ball game - but what fun to have to learn again?
The whole "moving" experience has been a bit of a roller coaster & certainly not easy but I think I'm getting there!
I can't wait to get started on the garden

Fringedweller,
How did you fare through your first southern storm and your first southern Christmas? I would love to hear your comments as you get use to this area!
Good luck,
Connie

Hi Connie I had to laugh about getting through the first southern storm as within 2 days of our arrival we were on tornado alert & it rained & thundered for days around here!
& even now I have just looked out & the frost on the lawn is quite hard (just like England)
we have had quite a few jokes made suggesting we are guilty of bringing our awful English weather with us.
I look forward to the warm sun - I'm an optimist

OH, nothing to worry about. You will get a lot of HOT sun for a long time. Enjoy the not so hot right now and let your body rest for the soon to come weeding, buying, trading and planting frenzy.

Welcome to Florida and DG, fringedweller. You should check out the native plant website: www.fnps.org There should be a chapter near you. They can provide lots of great information on native plants that will grow well in your area and bring in the wildlife. Gardening in FL is not like gardening in other areas of the US! Take it from a former Wisconsinite. Another good resource is the local County Cooperative Extension agency.

Thanks Butterfly - I will check both resources out
I realise now how different gardening here is as I digest what the garden section of the local library has to offer.
But it's fun to learn new ways & grow different plants than I'm used to & I won't miss that back breaking heavy mud that I had in my old English garden!

welcome

It It was interesting to me, after digging in hard red clay for years, to realize I can dig a big old hole with a spoon here!

OH, weeds, I can't even imagine! Digging in hard clay. SOunds like a lot of work. I guess sandy soil is a blessing in a way--much easier to dig in :)

Fringe: There is a book out that gives great tips on gardening in FL. It's called the Yankees Guide to Florida Gardening. Here's a link with some information: http://www.echonet.org/shopsite_sc/store/html/YankeesGuideFloridaGardening.html

Welcome Fringedweller,
I'm about an hour from you and you have some others closer. In a few years you'll be complaining about this Florida sand instead of the English clay. But the good thing is, lots of things will overwinter safely here that won't further north. I've got some things you need. Watch the Florida swap "thread" on the "roundup" forum. We may have a get together in a couple of months. You have to come if we do.

Thanks gingerlily & I would love to have taken you up on your kind offer but things have changed rapidly for me & my husband. we came here to be near our daughter & grandchildren & have been waiting our emigration papers to be sorted out for a year now - last week we went to the INS office Jacksonville (queued in the cold from 6am) only to be told our papers had been mistakenly returned. To cut a long story short we have no option now but to sell up & return to England as we are not allowed to stay in USA any longer!
How sad, I was really looking forward to starting a new garden with the help of Dave's Gardens friends

fringedweller,
How awful! Nothing can be done??? When do you have to leave?

If they were mistakenly returned, then it's someone else's mistake and they should rectify their mistake. I don't see how they can make you leave when it was their mistake. Fight it! Don't take one person's word for it. Go to their superior and on up until you get satisfaction. It's ridiculous! Let me think about who to contact to fight this. There has to be a way.

But we are partly responsible because we though we had done correct paperwork & therefore outstayed our alloted time allowed in the country, we were then given incorrect info from INS which we acted on. Just a mess which we are not prepared to fight.
We have already made arangements to go but I will continue to keep in touch with my Daves's gardens new friends from across the pond in England
& Thank you for your kind thoughts

I will be watching for your posts and hope all goes well with you move back.

I am so sorry that you must return to England -- what a terrible upset. Keep posting when you can, at least the Internet facilitates community, no matter where we live.

opps sorry wrong post place

This message was edited Aug 11, 2004 9:17 PM

maybe i'm the last to welcome you but a big hello from upstate new york

Nope. Hello and Welcome from California

Welcome from Tennessee!

My name is Marion and we came to live in California 40yrs ago, we live in San Diego County, in the foothills, lived for 3 yrs in Florida and before that one year on Vancouver Island I spent years trying to recreate the English gardens I knew and loved but couldn't then found myself getting more intriqued and falling in love with all the tropical flowers and plants and fruit trees, so I changed over to those around 12 years ago, and I love it.. I think besotted is a good word for it...I still love the traditional flowers that I grew up with. What I feel about the tropicals is that they are fun to grow...we have a lot of heat and dryness, so water is a problem, and we do get frost in the winter, however, trial and error like everything else. I have been aware of DG for a long while but just joined recently, don't know why it took me so long except that a recent illness has held me back for quite some time. I love reading everyones postings am finding my way thru as much as I can. Those jokes are the funniest...I think I'v started backwards....