I was born, and raised, in Tampa, Florida and am proud of my native Florida roots. I have studied, gardened, landscaped, and enjoyed our plant and animal ecosystems for over 40 years. I noticed a long time ago that the Florida normally depicted in movies and magazines is not my Florida, but rather a glitzy, often gaudy, cosmopolitan Miami-kind of Florida, which is quite different from most of the rest of our Sunshine State.
The Florida I know and love is a delightfully diverse collection of local plant and animal habitats from our hardwood hammocks, with their several hundred-year-old oaks, to our saw grass marshes and inland waterways with their manatees and otters. Once you move inland from our coastal beaches, you soon discover a world of surprising diversity and beauty. A place where the fox or the bobcat is as likely to appear as is the palm tree in the tourism poster you have likely seen before.
Several years ago I founded the Hernando Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society in a grass-roots effort to bring together people with an interest in natural Florida and their fellow students from academia, forestry and wildlife habitat management. I found it uncommonly rewarding to serve others who share a common interest in our endemic plants and animals, and the plant society was the perfect outlet for my enthusiasm.
During this time I was also a Master Gardener with the Hernando County Extension Office, and would later be offered a position by Hernando County to run their just-created, âFlorida Yards & Neighborhoodsâ program. Unfortunately, persistent illness prevented me from accepting this position, and I was eventually forced to drop out of both the Native Plant and Master Gardener groups.
I have been fortunate enough to see several of my articles published in Eco-Florida magazine and many of my photographs in Gil Nelsonâs book, Floridaâs Best Native Landscape Plants, and the Florida Association of Florida Native Plant Nurseries Guide.
SharonsFlorida.com is an extension of my life as a naturalist. Here you will find articles Iâve written over the years, some originally for the plant societyâs newsletter, as well as my recent publications. Visit Sharonâs Florida eBay Store to purchase seeds and other garden related items. Please take a look around and learn something about central Florida today.
Thank you for stopping by and have a great garden!
Sharon
sharonsflorida@gmail.com