Greetings from Sunny Flori-duh!

Hello everyone!

I'm new to Dave's Garden, but I've already found it to be a wealth of information and community. I've also noticed a few other Tallahassee members, so it's nice to be in such good company.

I'm a big fan of flutterby (because that's what butterflies do... they flutter on by!) and hummingbird gardening. I'm also trying to become a self-taught herablist. I grow a lot of herbs and am always looking for new and unique plants to try out. Right now, I have a cardomom plant that a neighbor gave me (which I'm trying to keep alive over the winter). I'm also a big fan of palms, tropicals and bromeliads. I pride myself on being able to grow Zone 9-10 plants here in Zone 8!


Also, I have a small greenhouse (about 8 x 10) that the previous owner of my home built (which is why I bought the house). I'm looking for tips on keeping it warm enough so that my tropicals don't go all dormant before February.

I'll post a photo of myself and of my yarden and greenhouse later.

Nice to meet you all!

Nice to meet you Dogzilla. Sounds like you are going to keep busy with your tropicals. I have an 8 x 10 greenhouse here in Iowa and when it gets down below 20 degrees, it takes two 1500 watt electric heaters to keep it warm enough. I would think that one heater would keep your greenhouse "frost free". Since I lined my greenhouse with the greenhouse bubble insulation, I can keep it around 50 degrees even with the outside temps down around zero. That stuff really does help a lot. I'd like it better if I didn't have to use two heaters, but that's Iowa for you. Enjoy Daves. Hope to meet you in the forums soon.

Shirley

welcome and hello from new york state

Keep an eye out for Floridian and weeds.....both are from your lovely State and love flutterbyes as well.

Welcome to the garden Dogzilla from a wannabe Snowbird! ;)

Wow, you all seem pretty friendly! That's great.

Brugie, you sort of answered one of my questions about heating a greenhouse. Obviously, mine is not insulated well at all, so I'm finding it difficult to keep above 65 degrees in there. I'm running a 1500 watt electric heater about 12 hours a day and it just doesn't get that warm. I wasn't sure if I should get a more powerful heater (this is one of those el cheap-o $10 space heaters) or try to seal up the nooks and crannies better...

Now, I'm originally from Ohio, but I've forgotten what that white stuff is. So my whining about trying to keep the greenhouse above 65 probably sounds pretty silly to all of you up north.

I love your screen name!!! I assume you have a dog? LOL!

By the way - check out this link - it was just e-mailed to me by my extension office yesterday. It looks interesting about medicinal herbs!

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/staff/jmdavis/medicinal.html

Welcome! You are going to love it here!

Nicole

Yes, I have two Boston Terrors (that's NOT a typo) and their nicknames are Dogzilla and Croco-dog. There's also a really fat black and white tuxedo-wearing cat (black face, white milk mustache) named "got milk?" (I make the vet use the question mark on his chart!)

Great link! I think I love this site already.

Hee hee! My riding instructor had a Boston terror when I was a kid. I knew him from a pup and saw him several times a week but regardless he would BARK his head off whenever he saw me! I have a mix, a Rottie, 2 parrots, a fish, and an almost 3 yr old - oh and yea, the one that is the hardest to take care of - my DH! :-)

Lots of pet/plant/etc etc lovers here!

Here's a picture of Christmas at my house last year. Note there's an unnamed white cat on the far right. That's Tribble and unfortunately, I lost her earlier this year to heart failure.

On the left is Hurshell aka Croco-dog, Next is gotmilk? aka Fatty McFatass. Smothered in the blankie is Tipzy aka Dogzilla.

Sounds like he was happy to see you. I have a friend whose brakes squeal. They hear her coming from about two blocks away and start in on the barking until she walks in the door. They love her because she shares her food with them!

Here's a photo of a hurricane lily known as lycoris radiata (also red spider lily). These are really cool plants. They pop up in North Florida in September or October, which is peak hurricane season (as you may well already know). Typically, we have to get 6-8 inches of rain within a couple days in order for the blooms to shoot up. There's no foilage until the flower dies back. Then the foilage sprouts up for a few weeks until the first frost. Then the plant completely disappears until the following hurricane season. How cool is that?

This a zone 7-10 plant. For more on this and other Florida natives (weeds and non-weeds alike!): see www.floridata.com

That is pretty!

Well I am a dolt! It was a Shounser - horrible spelling I know! - Those are cuties!!!!

I do love natives and try to plant at least SOME in my yard... I am learning more and more as I go!!

Here's my 2 goof balls - the Rottie is an affirmed airhead! He's very sweet just a bit lacking on common sense. My mix is a toy addict - I swear she has OCD - no really - I think she could benefit from some medication. She's so attached to the toys!

Nicole

Well duh! Here's the pic!

What gorgeous pups!

Actually, I've had both my dogs on meds for behavioral issues. Tip has OCD basically, which means she can't control her licker. Hursh was a rescue and had severe separation anxiety which prevented me from being able to housebreak him. Both were put on Clomipromine (brand name clomicalm) which mellowed them out just enough to let them focus on me so I could administer behavior modification (training). The drugs are expensive, although they did help, but the behavioral mod is very time consuming. It's not a solution for everyone and perhaps the toy addiction is not bad enough of a problem to warrant all this. See your vet if you want to try the dogzac!

Maybe I will get her a prep then I will take it! LOL

My Rottie is a licker too but he's not ocd - just annoying.

Remember that old cartoon? Can't remember the name but it's some critter or something going where did he go bob? or something like that anyway - remind me of my poor Austin (Rottie.)

My mix was left a a gas station at 9 weeks but luckily didn't seem to suffer too much due to it..

I do remember that cartoon, but I can't remember which one it was or what character that was. Sounds like the one with the big chicken and the little chicken hawk, but I could be conflating that with some other cartoon I watched in a haze of sugar, back in the 1970's when I was a puppy!

Hursh was the stud dog in a puppy mill for the first five years of his life. Sounds like a great gig, I know, but he had no human interaction. Never had a belly rub. Never had a treat. No scritching behind the ears, nothing. It took me and Tip about a year to teach him how to act like a dog! He was a mess. Now's he's all chubby and living a life of luxury... and he knows it!

(And, actually, you can take the dogzac yourself! It's the exact same medication prescribed for humans, only smaller doses. Some vets even try other human anti depressants like Xyban or Wellbutrin, but Clomipromine is the only one approved for animal use. I'm constantly surprised at the number of drugs that my dogs and I can share, including their painkillers (Rimadyl, like Advil for dogs), and muscle relaxers (Robaxin, mellows everyone out nicely). DISCLAIMER: My vet would kill me for publicly making the above statement. Friends don't let friends take dog drugs.

Ahem. ;>)

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oooops! There goes my keyboard! Spilled water all over it!


Sorry bout Hursh poor fellow! I have heard that before about stud dogs..

I believe you are right about the cartoon too!

Hmmm - pup in the 70's - me too! Not many of us round here either - most are quite a bit older. There's a lot of wisdom on this site! :-)

Well now I need to make a stop off at the vet's office on the way home... ;-P

Heh. Be sure to tell the vet that you promise to give the drugs to the dog...

Just curious -- where is Kannapolis?

North Carolina

The NASCAR capitol of the world! LOL