[troy1smith]

We are heading to TV in July from MN. One of the reasons its taken so long for us to buy in TV is my wife loves to garden, We have been coming down in Feb for years. Most back yards don't have much for flowers or gardens. It seems like everybody hires prof lawn people to do there yards . Are there restrictions on gardens? Do you need a permit to put one in ? My wife would be a fish out of water with out a garden. She has a lovely yard here in MN

[redwitch]

Some people do have mini-gardens in their back yards. And many gardeners do wonders with the landscaping. A friend of mine had a butterfly garden that was a joy to look at and the butterflies truly loved visiting her home.

There is also a community garden where things are grown to give to local charities.

I do know that one of my friends had had a large, low box with real dirt put in her yard for a garden. Community Watch told her they would let her have one season but then it had to go although I'm not sure what the deed restrictions say about this.

[kittygilchrist]

Originally Posted by troy1smith

We are heading to TV in July from MN. One of the reasons its taken so long for us to buy in TV is my wife loves to garden, We have been coming down in Feb for years. Most back yards don't have much for flowers or gardens. It seems like everybody hires prof lawn people to do there yards . Are there restrictions on gardens? Do you need a permit to put one in ? My wife would be a fish out of water with out a garden. She has a lovely yard here in MN

Several garden clubs, UF's extension office holds intensive Master Gardener classes annually and holds plant clinics. You can garden within your own property if careful not to grow stuff like (LOL) corn and okra in the front yard.

[Ohiogirl]

Better yet, buy a CYV with a corner lot, plenty of room to do whatever you want.

You can also interplant veggies among your other ornamental plantings, but if you want to do a traditional vegetable garden (which I think is what the OP means by garden), then behind CYV walls is your best option.

By the way, herbs, lettuces, radishes, etc. do wonderfully in pots or large window box type containers. I have also grown sugar snap peas on a trellis.

[troy1smith]

Thank you for the suggestion. She also has a Fairy garden box ( pd $ 250 for it last year )
Her and the Granddaughter play in it. We had planed on bringing that down. Sounds like there might be restrictions on something like that.

[redwitch]

If the Fairy Garden Box will fit on the lanai, it would be perfectly permissible and sounds adorable. If you plant things that will fit under eaves (in the back of the house to make folks happy) or in your lanai, all seems to be well. The issue seems to be with ground boxes for a full garden, a garden in the back, side or (gasp) front rather than lawn or chicken wire to protect plants.

I have several friends who are avid gardeners. They all have found ways to have their garden, just in different ways (container veggies, flowers rather than edible items, etc.). I think your wife will find many happy ways to plant and grow things here (and some definite new challenges in coping with our "soil" and weather).

[Madelaine Amee]

Originally Posted by redwitch

I have several friends who are avid gardeners. They all have found ways to have their garden, just in different ways (container veggies, flowers rather than edible items, etc.). I think your wife will find many happy ways to plant and grow things here (and some definite new challenges in coping with our "soil" and weather).

I am a gardener. Had a huge food producing garden in NH. Tried it here for a couple of years and absolutely could not grow in our soil - our soil here is sand. I used to get bags and bags of compost (I tried everything) to amend the sand and turn it into soil and nothing worked. The rain actually washes soil through the sand. But, that said, there are ways around it. I grow tomatoes in pots, beans in pots, herbs in pots ............ and I keep trying different ways of doing things. Our food growing season is completely the opposite to yours, you need to garden in our winter i.e. November through April to achieve decent results, then just let the native plants, bushes and flowers, enjoy the hot summer. If you are an avid gardener, it is very frustrating, but as time marches on I am finding it bothers me less and less and I am finding other interests - there is so much to do here. Plus, she might be very happy volunteering at the community garden which is a real garden with real soil and they grow real food to feed the soup kitchens in the surrounding area. If she joined these people she would also pick up loads of tips on growing down here.

Only thing to do is to give it a try ..............

[Madelaine Amee]

Originally Posted by redwitch

I have several friends who are avid gardeners. They all have found ways to have their garden, just in different ways (container veggies, flowers rather than edible items, etc.). I think your wife will find many happy ways to plant and grow things here (and some definite new challenges in coping with our "soil" and weather).

I am a gardener. Had a huge food producing garden in NH. Tried it here for a couple of years and absolutely could not grow in our soil - our soil here is sand. I used to get bags and bags of compost (I tried everything) to amend the sand and turn it into soil and nothing worked. The rain actually washes soil through the sand. But, that said, there are ways around it. I grow tomatoes in pots, beans in pots, herbs in pots ............ and I keep trying different ways of doing things. Our food growing season is completely the opposite to yours, you need to garden in our winter i.e. November through April to achieve decent results, then just let the native plants, bushes and flowers, enjoy the hot summer. If you are an avid gardener, it is very frustrating, but as time marches on I am finding it bothers me less and less and I am finding other interests - there is so much to do here. Plus, she might be very happy volunteering at the community garden which is a real garden with real soil and they grow real food to feed the soup kitchens in the surrounding area. If she joined these people she would also pick up loads of tips on growing down here.

Only thing to do is to give it a try ..............

[villager]

I would rather scrub toilets than garden. I would be more than happy to give her our yard to putter in and do whatever she wanted!

[travelguy]

my neighborhood has fenced backyards (the only one in TV). we can do anything in our yards; vegetable gardens, flower gardens, water gardens.....you name it! i think that there are restrictions on traditional vegetable gardens, but i suppose in courtyard villa areas one could do it also.
you will have a blast gardening year-round!

[Dafoe]

Our neighborhood has all sorts of flower gardens in the back and some wonderful fruit trees and fun things we can't even dream of growing in MN! There are some great new hybrids so you'll need to do some transition to southern plants versus our Minnesota hardy plants! Where are you from? We are also from MN and my husband retires at the end of Dec.

[Ohiogirl]

Again, I think the OP is talking about a traditional vegetable garden, and again, you can interplant, and grow stuff in pots or on your lanai (if it doesn't need to be pollinated), or grow anything you want in a CYV neighborhood.

One comment. I have been growing a (one) tomato plant since last October - got 3 little tomatoes maybe in Dec. or Jan. Covered it whenever frost threatened. Got new blooms and maybe 8-10 green tomatoes this spring. Harvested 1, 2 more were turning red and the mockingbirds pecked out from below, just picked 2 more that were barely starting to turn red and are sitting on our counter. About 4-5 more (pretty small and still green) that we might get before leave for up north (and it also gets too hot here for tomatoes).

So - a lot of work for about 5-7 tomatoes (but they taste pretty good).

Next year (in Sept) going to try cherry tomatoes, hoping I can find one of the Sungold ones (yellow cherry tomatoes).

[troy1smith]

Thank you The wife will take on the challenge , she loves flowers

[troy1smith]

We are in Brooklyn Park Suburb of MPLS Our kids are coming down also and live outside the Villages . They are from Elk River

[kittygilchrist]

If you haven't already bought, you should have your soil tested and examined by UF's extension office. There are many types of soil and ranges of PH in TV. Including clay, which is just not going to drain with our summers. You can build a type of stacked block quasi-fence. Check that out in Gilchrist community south of 466A.