"Ricky" wrote in message Laurie,
Having moved from NJ 6 years ago to Boca Raton, FL (just north of Ft.
Lauderdale) I made a bunch of mistakes. You will as well so be prepared
for
them. First and foremost things grow here at a MUCH faster rate than up
north. It is very easy to overplant. We do have seasons here and you have
to
adapt your gardening to them. There are lots of great retail nurseries for
you but the one I would start you at is Jesse Durko's just off Griffin
Road,
west of Davie Blvd. Jesse grows the exotics that you won't find in most of
the other garden centers and definitely not in Home Depot.
Avoid any book by Pamela Crawford.
Plant only palms with a crownshaft - they are self-cleaning. By the
way,
only Coconut palms have coconuts.
Be prepared for crappy soil. Plan on amending before you start your
garden.
Start your garden as soon as you can!

Ricky


I second the info about fast growing. When I bought a house with an ugly
chainlink fence on one side, I divided up a clump of pampas grass and
spaced starts about every 15 feet along the fence (the fence was about 100
feet long or more). Then I put some odds and ends in between - a camellia
here, a magnolia there, a flowering cherry here, a crape myrtle there, an
eleagnus here, a bottle-brush there. Still, everything came in little
one-gallon pots, and initially everything was spaced at least 4-6 feet from
the next plant - it looked so bare, I was almost tempted to plant more stuff
in between. 3 years later, the entire fence was a JUNGLE! ! ! ! ! The crape
myrtle had grown to 20 feet, the magnolia was 15, the cherry was 15, the
pampas grass starts were each 6 feet in diameter, etc etc etc. The only
thing slow growing were the camellias. Then I realized I should have spaced
everything no closer than 10 feet apart, but it was too late. Oh well, that
is life in the deep South, with a 9-10 month growing season, and tons of
rain and warmth. Also, beware the little live oak and water oak seedlings
that you figure you can attend to next spring - by next spring they are
likely to be 6 feet tall.