Zephyrhills

Isn't that a fanciful name?? I've always loved that name for a city.

Isn't it amazing how you get a brief touch of 'kindred' hearts and souls through these blogs? I started it just to keep a record of some gardening things, thinking it might spur me on to more "actual" gardening and less passive gardening. lol. I've "met" a few people through their 'blogs'. Just by reading what someone writes from their heart, you get a glimpse of who they are as a person. There are some wonderful people jotting down their thoughts out there. How wonderful so many are willing to share their thought and their knowledge and of course their photography. Three that have particularly beautiful photography in them are 'Alice's' "A Growing Delight found at www.heathhill.blogspot.com , Kerri's Colors of the Garden found at www.colorsofthegarden.blogspot.com and Judith's web.mac.com/knitagarden/iWeb/weedsbetweenthecracks. I've had to 'limit' my time reading blogs as each one offers a glimpse into an unknown regions - Armchair travel - and insights that people have that echo or make clearer your own thoughts -and that's more fun than mundane things like dishes or gardening. lol. So many times someone will write something that triggers a long forgotten memory.

A note from someone mentioned Zephyrhills bringing up so many memories of when we first lived in Florida. When we moved here about 25 years ago, we decided on Zephyrhills. We came here in August and of course it was a sleepy little country town. At the time the airport hadn't expanded and was mainly used for parashoot meets on our side of town. We all listened for the "jump plane" and would run to watch for the tiny little black dots turning into falling jumpers and then shoots popping open. There were many days with no activity there and I used to take mini vacations (an hour or two) and go down to a small boggy area in the middle of the field. It was filled with all sorts of birds and little wildlife. I'm sorry at the time I didn't think to find a camera and 'capture' some memories on film. They eliminated this spot and more or less closed the whole area as it became busier. The city went from about 15,000 to 75,000 when the snowbirds came back. I walked into 'my' Publix one day and found the manager grinning from ear to ear and the store looking like an ant farm. I asked him WHAT happened to my nice little store and he only said "They're Baaaack". LOL Good for him, not to my liking as I loved the quiet, sleepy rurality during the summers.

Zephyrhills is one of the more 'hilly' areas of Florida. Many mornings I'd take my husband up to work in Dade City through the hills and farms. The sunrises were amazing.. row upon row of hills with early morning fog in the valleys and incredible sunsets touching the hills. There are so many RV and mobil home parks tucked into all the hills, that you have no idea how many people actually live within the limits of the city.

When we found we had to move to Florida I tried to find every possible positive thing about it, including the diversity of wildlife, the gardening year round.. We didn't know that Zephyrhills had sadly used the chemicals DDT and Sevin before they were recognized as harmful to wildlife and there were almost no birds that first year we were there. They had repopulated considerably before we moved away four years later and I would guess that they are abundant at this point.

I think all of Florida has the opportunity to see so many migrating birds.. all it seems to take are some trees or water or seed heads. We had a huge holly tree next to the driveway, covered with bright red Christmas berries. One morning we heard a huge commotion and went outside to see the tree covered with cedar waxwings and robins harvesting every last berry from that tree. It was worth the sight! We had 3 orange trees that had frozen long before we bought the house and were now sour oranges from the original root stock. There was always at least one bird's nest in each of the trees. There were also two pink azaleas in the back - 12' tall and about 14' across... Absolutely incredible when in bloom. A solid wall of bright pink. A small white azalea never had the vigor of the pink. Under one of the big oaks was the most beautiful blue hydrangea. How I wish I had started some small plants before leaving. Along the side of the house were some gloriosa lilies - first time I'd seen them. Someone had apparently planted their old eEaster Lilies as there was a bed full of them and Zephyr lillies.

Out front were two crepe myrtle bushes. Since Zephyrhills seems to get a lot of frosts during the winters, they froze back to the ground the year we had snow. In the spring them came up nearly 5' and were more beautiful than ever.

I worked as a Florist for MaryAnn on 7th Street, a sweet wonderful person. When I think of Zephyrhills, its MaryAnn that I remember. I had grand idea of growing lots of flowers while we lived there, but was still operating on the northern gardening timeline. lol. The first year I did plant a small vegetable garden. We thatched the lawn and I used that abundant mulch for my garden. I'd told someone the only thing I REALLY wanted was watermelons. I also row composted and of course used watermelon rinds etc. The bugs ate everything I planted, but one volunteer watermelon plant thrived. Watch out what you ask for! When we began to get the fall rains I saw why mulching wasn't too great an idea. Our yard rose about 8-10 inches with a tropical storm's water and nicely floated ALL that mulch all over a neighbor's yard. After re raking it again, we sent it to the city's compost yards.