Hello, From Florida

Altamonte Springs, Central Florida to be exact. (Zone 9)

My name is Stephanie, or Steph, or Stephi, Im 28, a Student, soon to be vet tech, but at the moment I am a homemaker, I enjoy the time I have to work on my crafts & in my garden.

I am a new gardener, so far I have a rose, shade & container garden, Id like to have a water, veggie, herb, & night gardens. well, Id like to have all kinds really. Lucky for me I have alot of property, so I can usually pick an area & make it what I want it to be, I already have an area picked for my veggie garden next spring.

One of my many loves (besides gardening) is music, of all kinds, cooking & baking, my 3 dogs & 3 cats, & thrift store/yard sale/junkering, I love to find old things & create new pretty things out of them for my house and/or garden (usually my garden.)

....throw in the fact that I am "punk rock" with fire engine red hair & several tattoo's & I am a pretty weird mix, Most people would never think I enjoy planting seeds, instead of some form of criminal activity.

Never judge a book by its cover, I am one of the nicest most honest people you will ever meet.

I love seed trading & learning new & unusual ways to do things in my garden (I learned yesterday that milk kills black spot on roses.) which are 2 of the main reasons I joined. I hope to make some good trades learn some stuff, maybe teach someone something they didnt know (but I am pretty new at this so I usually am the one learning.) & meet some good people.

well I think thats about it, any questions just ask!

Have a beautiful day!

Toni - Thanks for the welcome! I love Texas, my husband was born & raised in Austin & I lived there a long time, I miss it so much. I will get started on those pictures right away, I lost the cord to my camera so I have to buy a new one, but I will post pictures as soon as I can.

KG - Thanks! my intro is my way of "warning" people I guess, I don't like people to think I pulled one over on them because people look at me & think "theres no way she is into gardening" when I LOVE gardening, not to mention scrapbooking, sewing, painting, etc.

Netty - No problem on the blackspot tip, it worked for me but my rose garden smelled a bit odd for a few weeks!

Frank - Thank you, I will check out those links!

GG - you put the milk in a spray bottle & spray the entire plant, be sure to get the tops & bottoms of the leaves, I also spray a good few coats around the bottom of the plant incase of fallen leaves, the sugars in the milk some how kill the blackspot, I sprayed my roses down daily in the morning for 2 weeks after watering (because the water washed the milk off & it rains every afternoon here which washes it off also.) & poof the black spot was gone, it does tend to smell funky in my hot florida weather though, so most people mix it with half water, you don't have to do that though, I didn't because it works better if you don't, but if you cant stand the smell, then mix it.

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"Gardening, once it ends being an enjoyable act, will lose the simple wonder that comes with each new bloom" - M. Fitzgerald