Garden Web, Fire Ants, Other Musings

[marlasmom]

http://www.gardenweb.com/ - a wonderful site you may want to check out. Someone near me posted an inquiry as to where she could buy datura - (I have written about this before - it is a beautiful plant that Park charges $3.95 for one seed for. It is hallogenic (sp?). I will have seeds this fall if anybody wants any. ) Anyway I answered that I have a few extra from the seeds my sister sent to me and if she wanted to come to Winter Haven she could have them. She wrote back that she is giving a seminar on growing roses in Florida in Winter Haven this afternoon and could I bring them to the seminar. Obviously she is afraid to come to my house. Gosh I haven't robbed or pillaged anybody for quite a while but I decided I wanted to go to the forum anyway. At least someone can tell me why my roses are turning yellow, seemingly overnight.

The damn damn fire ants. I look like I have leprosy. They bite and little postules form and then they fade into horrible scars. I have used so much poison it's unbelievable but that they say is the only way to control them. I fear for the dog and for children but I don't want them bitten either. No matter how much I use and I have distributed it everywhere as the directions say, the minute I touch the ground I get bitten. No repellent seems to work. I am about ready to give up gardening. I guess I need long pants, long sleeved shirt, heavy shoes, gloves. Should be fun when it gets really hot. Something to look into for anyone who is thinking of moving down here.

The flowers they sell in flats are expensive, of poor quality and no variety. I am starting to seed my own. It's easier here than at home for some reason. More light I guess.

I am working on the lawn and it's better but not good. I think having a lawn in Florida is nearly impossible, but with a small yard it's necessary.

Lots of things I planted seem to have stalled in their growth. Apparently I am supposed to fertilize much more frequently than I did at home. A result of having sand and not soil I guess.

I'm out to spray weed and feed on the front lawn, then to look at a car, return my video tape, respond to the inquiry i got with my Disney card application for a copy of my social security card and utility bills (did anybody else get this?) and then to the seminar and then to pick up some cups my friend wanted and didn't buy so that I can send them to her.

See what a scintillating life I lead.

 

[amid chaos]

Well, it sounds as if you are doing fine...except for those nasty fire ants....sure hope someone comes up with a solution for you.

Enjoy the seminar today...sure wish we could all join you!

 

[TigH]

Have fun at the seminar. It's very nice of you to share your seeds!

Lawns are a lot of work. It has taken us a few years to get ours looking green and lush. This year we have a wonderful crop of dollar weed mixed in with our grass. I am hoping that those "dollars" will help me attract the other kinds of dollars into my life!

Fire ants are a pest. You must be producing some kind of ant phermone (sp?) I get bitten every so often, but in our yard it's pretty easy to figure out where they live. They build pretty noticeable mounds, so we avoid them. I won't let my husband use ant poison because I don't want the dog to step in it. I have heard that sprinkling grits on the mound might work at killing them because they eat the grits and then explode, but that might be a garden myth. I also heard that they eat fleas, so I am willing to let them share my yard.

The annuals I have seen at Home Depot and Lowes are not the greatest, but I have seen some that look good. I guess it depends on the store. There is a nursery in Oviedo called Lucas Nursery and they seem to have a very nice selection of plants, including annuals that I don't see at the home improvement stores. Back in Maryland it seemed like the flats of annuals were expensive. I thought the prices here were pretty low, so maybe it just depends on what you were used to paying before. I am sure you will have great success with the seeds you are planting!

Sorry to hear your roses aren't faring well. I just go to EPCOT and enjoy the ones planted there. I never had much luck with them up north.

I must say that we are having very different gardening experiences. In Maryland we had clay soil and it was so hard to work in the yard. Weeds were cemented into the ground and digging was a nightmare. It would take me ages to clear a spot in the yard for a garden bed and when it rained the ground was just disgustingly muddy. Florida is my gardening utopia. Weeds practically spring into my hands when I am pulling them out. I use a hoe to clear a garden bed and it's like I'm pulling the hoe across the top of a pond of water. I can clear a garden bed in no time. Knock on wood, everything I have planted (save for one gardenia) has lived and thrived. I've even moved well established plants and they've lived. Our back yard was a mine field of junk that the original property owners had left behind. All the junk was hidden in an overgrown tangle of shrubs, vines, plants, etc. It took us lots of hard work to clear away the debris. We made more trips to the land fill (to deposit materials in the correct recycle locations when possible) than I can remember. We pulled out a rusty swingset, rustly ladders that looked like they belonged on the back of a van at one time, rusty beach chairs (lounge chairs) rusty bikes, about 30 rusty paint cans, over 100 pieces of rusty ribar (sp?) that were about 20 feet each, over 100 pieces of PVC pipe, over 100 pieces of PVC joint thingies. I can't even being to list the rest of the debris we removed from our yard. Now I am planting the Polynesian garden in the back corner of the lot where much of this junk had lived for probably over a decade.

Anyway, I wish you much luck with your garden/lawn. Ours has been a really fun challenge.

 

[marlasmom]

Thanks TigH. What a horrendous job in your yard. I can't begin to imagine.

I poison the fire ant hills and then I seem to get bitten anyway. I did read that pouring hot water with a little Dawn dish detergent added to it also destroys the fire ants. The fire ants do, however, seemingly eat termites.

In Illinois the soil was so rich - just plunk something in the ground and it grew. In New Hampshire we sometimes had to contend with a lot of rocks. Now it's easy when I'm not digginng around the crabgrass or the ants.

Why don't you plan on coming to see me some time. Despite what the rose lady seems to think, I'm really a fairly nice person. We can have a barbecue and sit by the pool with our watermelon margaritas.

 

[Mickey527]

My sister lives in Winterhaven and she is deadly allergic o fire ants. She has a disease called Systemic Mastocytisis and builds up too many histamines in her body. When something triggers more histamines (fire ants are the worse for her) her body goes into shock. She has to carry an Epi-Pen around with her. She was bitten when she lived in Texas and they think this was the incident that caused the overproduction of histamines because she never had a problem with bug bites when she lived in the North.
Last September we were visiting her when she got bitten by an ant that had gotten into her bedroom. We think her grandchildren brought it in from outside. She almost didn't make that one.
She has her house and yard sprayed twice a month and still has ants all over. They seem to be the hardiest bugs ever.
Be careful when outside.
I have been bitten at her house, but truthfully,the fire ants are a breeze for me when compared to the mosquitos we have here in CT. I scratch for weeks from them. And the tics, don't get me started with Lyme disease. Been there,done that. Peggie

 

[Tulirose]

Wow, if ever there was a thread about the trials and tribulations of gardening, this is it!

I never even heard of fire ants until Rajah posted about them.

TigH, sounds as if your previous homeowners were "not too neat" to put it nicely. All your hard work, I'm certain, is worth it and you are already enjoying some of the fruits of your labor. Good going there!

Marlasmom - Let us know what you learned about your roses. I found it quite interesting, your original post on this thread, how you kept referring to your previous residence as "home" and refer to where you live now as either "Winterhaven", "here" or "Florida". Looks like you're still undergoing the mental adjustment of your move.

I wish you well in your fight with the red ants. It definitely sounds like no fun at all. Do what you can to avoid them. I am certain that before long, however, you will make your yard and house a wonderful place that you will happily call "home".

P.S. - I was so involved in reading this thread I never clicked on your link to that website. Gotta go check that out. And BTW - Fooey on that rose lady but perhaps I shouldn't be so harsh. She obviously has not found the DIS and still believes that many people who surf the net looking to contact people are ax murderers!


But, seriously, it is better to caution on the side of safety in matters of meeting strangers.

 

[Tulirose]

PPS - I just clicked on your link and realize I already have that in my favorites! LOL 'smatter of fact, that is where I got in touch with someone last Spring for a plant exchange thing. Thanks for reminding me about that site. I had kinda forgotten about it after enduring the winter doldrums, etc.