New member from St. Louis, MO

I thought I would say hello and introduce myself. I would have done this sooner but there are so many research resources on this website that it can be overwhelming and not leave any time to post. I subscribed to have access to the plant files but found so much more. What a great source of information. I grew up around gardening and have continued to love the art to this day. Do I consider my self a good gardener, NO.? I only have so much space and I am constantly replacing plants. My poor friends avoid me come spring as the no longer have room for “these plants would be perfect in your yard!” :) I am originally from Hawaii and would like to recreate my home in the Midwest into a tropical paradise (Good luck I know). This crazy idea has led to my currently planned planting scheme of tropical plants or at least tropical looking plants. It has been interesting to try and grow tropical plants with low toxicity as I have a mischievous dog. Two rules for plants 1. Low toxicity. 2. Cannot remotely look like a chew stick LOL (My bad). Not an easy task. I am interested if anyone else has to deal with these parameters. Luckily I have a front yard to plant some of the more interesting albeit toxic plants. I am growing seeds now and hopefully I will have my tropical garden soon. Long winded I know. Well anyway I am looking forward to speaking with everyone.

Welcome jwrmo! I'm glad to hear you've been gardening awhile. As for me, I'm just learning. Maybe I'll be able to pick your brain from time to time in some of the forums. Coming from Hawaii I'm sure you miss your tropical paradise. Hopefully you'll find some hardy tropicals that will do nicely in MO. I like the basics...cannas, hardy hibiscus, and brugs. I'm sure I like others, I just haven't discovered them yet.
I understand your delimma about having dogs around your garden. I haven't had a problem with them chewing any of my plants so far. They are more interested in chewing up pine cones. I do try to train my dogs to learn which areas are off limits. Using garden borders and lava rocks helps to keep them from making beds out of my beds. Also, instead of my plants becoming 'fire hydrants', I have discovered they had rather go on the large rocks located at the corner of some of my beds instead of the plants. Have fun exploring DG!

Happy Gardening!

Deborah♥

hello and welcome form upstate new york where the temp. ws close to 70 degrees yeserday on jan6th. you will love it here with us.

Hi all and Welcome jw.

If you plan that type of garden, look at some the threads that bwilliams has started on the Tropical and Aroid Forums. He has a Tropical Paradise and he lives in KY. He is also very knowledgeable on aroids.

Hap

Thanks all for the welcome, and thanks for the advice. I am looking forward to learning from everyone.

Happy Birthday to you!!!!!

Welcome JW, you'll have lots of learning, sharing and chatting about everything in and out of the garden!