Phone Apps | Gardening in the Panhandle

How Do I Find Plants to Suit My Landscape?

by Mary Salinas | Jul 15, 2014

We all seem to have this dilemma: A desire to re-landscape or just add a few plants to an area, but not knowing what would be the best choice. Plants need to be compatible with their location. The right plant should be chosen for the right place. Many have particular light, moisture and zone requirements in order to do their best. The ultimate size of the plant is also an important consideration; if you want to avoid constant pruning, choose plants that only grow to size you would like to ultimately have. Some great resources are provided below to get you the information you need.

UF IFAS Extension has a brand new app for your mobile device or web! The app contains a database of over 400 Florida-friendly plants is searchable by plant name, type, shape, native status, light requirements and more. The yearly subscription is only $1.99 to have great info on the go.

The downloadable 104-page Florida-friendly Landscaping Guide to Landscape Design and Plant Selection not only has photos and detailed information about plants by category, it also has great ideas on how to improve your landscape design!

UF’s Florida Yards & Neighborhoods maintains a searchable Florida-friendly Plant Database. Make choices based on region, plant type, light and moisture quantity, soil texture salt tolerance.

For native plants, the Florida Association of Native Nurseries has two websites where you can find plants for your particular zone, plant community (like at the beach or in pine flatwoods), plant type and by wildlife usage. There is a site designed for nursery professionals that lets you find local wholesale growers and also a similar site for homeowners that has resources on where to find desired plants at local nurseries.

Speaking of native plants, the Florida Native Plant Society also has a searchable list of plants appropriate for your particular needs.

Gardening Solutions has lots of great information for lawn, landscape and garden by category, and it is easily accessed.

Happy Gardening!

The Technology Garden

by Blake Thaxton | Jun 10, 2014

In this age of tablets, smart phones, and whatever they come up with next, even the gardener can benefit from new technology. Although gardening and landscaping to beautify our surroundings is a way to connect with the past, there are many new tools that are ready to help! Here are a few web sites and phone apps that may prove useful to the gardener.

Sod Solutions Area Calculator

Sod Solutions has made it easy to know how much sod you need to order by using a mapping system to create overlays that measure square footage. Measuring square footage can prove tough for irregularly shaped beds or turf lawns. This website can help measure accurately so one can also apply the correct amount of herbicides, pesticide, or fertilizer. The website can be difficult for the technology challenged among us. An easy solution is to find anyone under the age of 15 and they should be able to help!

Smartirrigation App: For Urban Turf

The Smartirrigation Turf app is designed to help homeowners with automatic irrigation systems in scheduling their watering times correctly. This app takes everything into account from soil type to local weather conditions. For example, you set a watering schedule for Zone X of 15 minutes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Then, it does not rain for an extended period of time. Because your lawn does not get the supplemental rain that was predicted, the app may tell the home owner to change the setting to 25 minutes. To read more about using the app correctly, click on the link above.

Other apps that might prove useful are:

NCSU Lawn Care App – An App by North Carolina State University all about lawn care.
SoilWeb for Iphone – Produced by The California Soil Resource Lab that will tell you what kind of soil you are standing on.
Leaf Snap – Developed by Columbia University, University of Maryland, and Smithonian Institution. The app uses visual recognition software to identify plants by taking pictures of its leaves.