http://www.thefloridanativegar...-perspective.html?m=1

perspective

Wow, really.........now we should embrace dollarweed in our yards as a welcome addition to our landscapes? Why am I not suprised?  Next we can encourage sandspurs, stinging nettle, fire ants and dirt to our yards and win "Yard of the Month" like they have done in Satellite Beach for the last few months. After all..... it's native and grows naturally in our native environment, and it's good for the lagoon.  Why don't we just stop trying to do anything with our yards and let Mother Nature do what she wants to. That's the current "feel good" topic now, right?  I'm all in.

Nah, we should definitely keep spending lots of money on poisons and fertilizers to keep our lawns artificially prim and proper so that we can then spend lots of time and money on mowers and gasoline to cut it down.

It's not about feel good. It's about adopting a more responsible approach to "stewardship" of the land we live on and nurturing a better relationship with the organisms to which we are intimately tied in the web of life. Roll that shit up and smoke it with some of your empire zoysia. Hakuna matata.

Thank you for the article. ...and the perspective.


edit: whoops, not sure why I thought Lek posted the original thread.

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If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Edited: 10/03/2016 at 08:23 AM by Karma

Several years ago, I saw a very outside-the-box idea for an interior low light, little to zero care trailing plant in a small ceramic pot with no drainage hole. Yes, it was dollar weed done well in dark corner as a hanging basket.

I used this idea when someone kept prodding me for info on how to get rid of his dollar weed problem in his yard. I explained the Scott's buyout of Ortho and how to buy the highest % of what he needed to target the weed.
He would forget what I explained each time and kept asking the same question.

So next time he asked - I had already made him a gift of an established hanging basket of cyclamen and dollarweed for his dark office.
He thought the plants were really beautiful!
teh!
I fessed up later to make my point about perspective.

Red mangroves make nice indoor plants.  They're happy in fresh water.

Dollarweed really does need lots of moisture.  

Karma, so your response is : "spend lots of time and money on mowers and gasoline" .... How much "stewardship" have you personally adopted? Can we all assume that you have cancelled the lawn maintainence company that cuts the grass at your place every week, so you don't look foolish in your statement? Didn't think so.

Don't mind people like you taking a stand on this current feel good topic, but you  need to back-up your words. Again, the dip-shit 2 door down from me has the feel good signs in his yard (Save the Logoon and Vote for the new lagoon tax).  On Tuesday, he had the Slug-A-Bug sign right next to his lagoon sign. Frickin' jerk. 

You really need to back-up your words on this topic, or they mean nothing.  And your sign-off phrase proves my point.

senseless; impractical; totally unsound:

these people are crazy---says so in the dictionary---that's definition #2

it's hard to try to reason with crazy people---keep tryin'

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Eight Reasons Why Spraying Pesticides
is Not the Solution
By: Rebecca Watson

Hey dad...

I have an undergraduate and masters degree in chemical engineering, and have specialized in understanding and modeling environmental fate of such chemicals as glyphosate and insecticides. I am the president of my local condo association. Each year I have ~60 yds^3 of mulch and ~40 yds^3 of compost delivered to my parking lot or to the site on the property where grass is being eliminated and replaced with beds. I collect card board from local waste bins and use it as weed matt before putting down the compost and mulch. I change each new zone to drip irrigation to assist in getting things established which also minimizes evaporation of the well water. As well, due to our collective addictions to lawns, my irrigation is salty, as I am on the barrier island. I have integrated many species of bamboo, cycads, palms, flowers, ornamentals and fruit trees into the community garden and have focused on using the plants to serve functions such wind break, sound break, nanny plants, and general aesthetics. I have a nice nursery of plants I've been given, grown from seed, or grown from cuttings. I have integrated and maintained a large community compost bin out of pallet wood and chicken wire, and I have built raised beds for residents to use for winter gardens. I currently still have a lawn contract (my neighbor's company) to keep stuff edged, but the requirement for that type of garden maintenance reduces with each new bed. Pruning and mulching are quickly becoming the dominant garden activity...harvesting will also soon become a major activity, though we are already seeing the fruits of my labor.

I also own a 5 acre organic tropical fruit farm in PR. I just closed on it and look forward to beginning this new chapter in my life. My neighbor's garden there contains over 450 species of tropical fruit and operates as a bird preserve.

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If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Edited: 10/03/2016 at 09:00 AM by Karma

I dropped a surplus plant or two to Karma's condo a while back.  The transformation wasn't entirely complete or perfect, but the new environment was coming along real well.

Before and After of one zone. After pics are a little dated now.










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If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Edited: 10/03/2016 at 11:18 AM by Karma

You can do both, I am , I have some st. auggy left over from the previous owners, misc. weeds and some generic grass seed I bought cheap from the big box store to fill in what became dead zones when my sprinkler pump went out for an extended time. 

I do not fertilize, insecticide, or use weed killer, everything grows togther and when mowed it looks fine.  Electric weed wacker for the detail work.  It is not perfect like my neighbors but it is green keeps the soil in place and when I cut the weeds they blend into the grass, sometimes I will hand pull some weeds.  I do water with well water on occasion but not too much.  I keep my clippings in the yard as well.

 

Too much emphasis is placed on having the perfect grass, but that seems to be changing around where I live, more zero-scape around the hood.

 

I also dedicated a portion of my front yard to a garden zone, Kale, tomatoes, peepers, lettuce,etc.  I think MORE PEOPLE SHOULD GROW VEGGIES IN THE FRONT YARD RATHER THAN GRASS.  (I have to do it in the front as the b-yard chickens will detroy any backyard garden, too much effort to keep them out).

 

Time to plant fall veggies soon now that the 90+ temps are getting less frequent. 100% organic, using only compost from the "bin".

Edited: 10/13/2016 at 10:57 AM by SurferMic

^^^^This ...that's what has happened with my grass. Still green...just not a "monocrop"

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If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Agreed there is a place for native plants in the landscape. OTOH Some of the native plant people are way over the top. I will never forget the lecture I got when a native plant nursery was delivering some plants to my garden center. The nursery owner delivering the plants spotted a recent delivery of +100 bougainvilleas in full bloom. He started sputtering about how non-native plants should all be banned from Florida. You should be forced to sell only sell native plants ........ yabber, yabber, yabber.

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The second mouse gets the cheese.

I would never limit myself to natives. I just make them dance with the rest.

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If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.