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A Visit to Deb Peterson's Garden Good morning GB’s! I’m Deb Peterson You may know me as Fritillary and I am please that Sue has invited me to tell you a bit about myself and my garden. So come on and join me as we tour my digs in Florida! Then: I started gardening in the suburban Chicago area (zone 5) some 23 years ago. I also began a formal education in Ornamental Horticulture by completing two years of courses at the Junior college while working full time. During the 13 years that we owned a home “up north” I amassed a collection of about 300 varieties of perennials, trees and shrubs on our little ½ acre wooded lot. Now: About 9 years ago, my husband Carl and I chose to move to warmer climes. We bought a home in a sub-development on a salt water canal in Gulf Coast Florida (zone 9b).We still work full-time but the weather is so nice here we can go boating, play tennis and GARDEN all year long! Unfortunately as a gardener from Chicago, I could just about throw away all my textbooks on gardening because they no longer applied to the present location. I was in HORTI-Culture Shock! Gone was the clay that wouldn’t drain, the freeze-thaw springs that heaved up my perennials, the snow and ice that cracked the branches of favorite shrubs. Now I garden in sand that won’t hold water and has no nutrients, I contend with torrential daily summer downpours, months of high humidity and scorching sun, and no frost at all to kill bugs or rest my favorite bulbs. For months I pined for my peonies, hosta, delphiniums, oriental lilies, and hyacinths. Then I began to read. I learned that I could grow in the landscape a wealth of tropicals most others in the US and Canada could only have as houseplants. Today, 9 years later, I have amassed about 200 different varieties on our 120 x 90 foot lot. My new favorites are bromeliads, allamanda, caladium and tree ferns. Like many gardeners, all facets of nature intrigue me. So I set out to make my garden an oasis for wildlife. Little did I realize how barren my micro habitat really was. In the 1950’s, canals were dug and the land was strafed of all vegetation as roads and sewers were installed. It lay largely vacant till the late 1980’s when a few houses at a time were built. Without cover or food, the only wildlife that found it habitable was the water birds and fire ants. Compounding the problem, new residents preferred to plant non-native palms rather than deciduous trees. The result has been a very slow recovery of wildlife. Finally the food, water and cover I provided (including many native plants) are starting to pay off. This is the first year I have seen a rabbit and squirrels within the development in the nine years we’ve lived here! Now…… Monarchs laying eggs. Giant Swallowtail thrives on Citrus Eastern Swallowtails come to my Parsley The canal in our back is a nursery for many fish. I can’t take credit for what lives there (only delight in it!) In winter we are visited by as many as 40 Mottled ducks who enjoy my cracked corn mix. Egrets patrol the sea wall and Pelicans just hang out. Ibis comb the turf for grubs. All in all, this is a great place to live!   Organized by Kniphofia