Food forest update | Native wildlife garden tour | Central Florida Zone 10A

In this episode, Dani discusses the ups and downs of the food forest and the importance of planting native plants. She also discusses why and how we designed our native habitat and takes you on a tour of the gardens. This is a long one folks, so grab a cup of tea or a cold drink and come on the journey with us!

Chapters are available for your convenience.

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Resources:
FNAI.org
FANN.org

Research referenced in this video:
Piel, G., Tallamy, D.W., Narango, D. L. 2021. Lepidoptera host records accurately predict tree use by foraging birds. Northeastern Naturalist 28(4): 527-540.
Tallamy, D.W. and W.G. Shriver. 2020 Insectivorous birds at risk from insect declines. The Condor 123: 1-8.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
02:03 Food forest update
02:11 The good and the not so good
10:42 The native garden
11:29 Why We chose a native landscape – a case for native plants.
17:09 How I designed our native landscape
23:50 Plant native plants instead of exotics
25:38 Native plants benefit and support food gardens
26:40 Canella winterana
27:43 Wild coffee
28:02 Red-tipped cocoplum
29:25 Red mulberry
29:44 We have grapes and blackberries
30:16 Tropical sage
31:15 Snow squarestem
32:32 Dotted horsemint
33:27 Camphorweed
34:19 Red mulberry size
34:59 Coastal allamanda
35:35 Jessamine
37:52 Fiddlewood
38:55 Starry rosinweed
40:01 Simpson Stopper
40:25 American beautyberry
41:58 Winged sumac
43:09 Sky blue cluster vine
43:36 Frostweed
44:42 Pineland lantana
46:24 White Indigo berry
47:05 Firebush
49:02 Silver saw palmetto
49:13 Fakahatchee grass
50:09 Live oak tree
50:30 Layers in the ecosystem
51:02 Muscadine grapes
51:38 Buttonsage lantana
52:59 Bahama coffee
53:41 Virginia creeper
55:40 Wild lime
56:30 Dwarf Yaupon holly
57:13 Dwarf sabal palmetto
57:57 Walter’s viburnum
58:17 Grayleaf teabush
59:20 Sea grape
01:01:06 False Rosemary
01:01:53 Coontie
01:02:38 Simpson Stopper
01:03:33 Longleaf pine baby
01:04:29 Chickasaw plum
01:05:08 Wax myrtle
01:06:44 Florida privet
01:07:09 Scorpion-tail
01:08:01 Marlberry
01:09:20 Rouge plant
01:09:46 Bahama cassia
01:10:14 Beggar’s tick
01:10:51 Frostweed gets tall
01:11:20 Creeping sage
01:12:22 Seaside goldenrod
01:12:43 Dune sunflower
01:13:18 Outro

Some Images courtesy of:
iNaturalist user: mefisher, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

[gordonspears]

Great tour. I also plant native shrubs and groundcovers beneath and between my fruit trees to support the pollinators. Ive noticed that in addition to the zebra long wings and the hummingbirds, firebush also attracts the green anoles.

[MrSwagden]

Thank you! love the sign "Peace begins with me"

[tcjones]

Awesome video! We are constantly trying to learn the native plants that are beneficial for our food forest, and this gave us new ideas. Keep the content coming, we really enjoy it!

[laos]

So beautiful - thank you for sharing. I've gotten many ideas for my own little plot in St. Lucie County 😊

[adamolsen]

Thank you for the tour! You have a lot of diversity just in your front yard. Do you find that the flowers on shiny coffee - Psychotria nervosa - are stinky? The flowers on my plants had an odor this spring. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fragrant either.

[tejcarbone]

I have read that passionvine only has a life span of 3-4 years. So that's likely why it was dying