Pine Island

[SubTropicRay]

Some photos of my yet undeveloped future garden

[SubTropicRay]

[SubTropicRay]

[SubTropicRay]

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Ray,  

I look forward to seeing the transformation in the coming years!  You got a nice slice of paradise there and a great microclimate.  

So how many tractor trailers is it going to take to get your palms down there???

[SubTropicRay]

So how many tractor trailers is it going to take to get your palms down there???

LOL.. It's going to be an adventure getting that Dictyosperma down there.  You're coming here when?  Just kidding.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

I love that Dictyosperma!  How many feet tall is that potted monster now?  I gave my big one to Matt right before I moved.  Yours will love its new home on Pine Island!

[Walter John]

What image host are you using Ray, I can't see any pics, it's like Daryl's pics, I can't see those either. Something dipsy about my settings on my pc or something.

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Great Pics, Ray, looks like you have plenty of room, for now! LOL  

Sure wish i had those pines at Jackass Flatts, you have a lot of nice canopy.

[amazon exotics]

Ray, How soon until your move? Have you contracted anybody for land clearing yet? I live close to there and have a landscape company. I know you'll be doing your own landscape but I could clear the land for you, also, make sure you find a good home builder here. Alot of looser home builders. Bella is one of them. They have a class action suit against them. Make sure you do your research.

[Jeff Searle]

Ray,

   I bet you can't wait until you get started. Are you going to remove most of the pines and the saw palmettos? I'll be more than happy to donate a palm or two,maybe a carpoxylon if you don't have one already. Look forward to the progress, I'm sure it's killing you. Oh.....and a croton or two of course.

Jeff

[BigFrond]

After you bulldozed all the pines and planted the masses of palms, your place should be call 'Palm Island'.  You have quite a lot of nice land.  Please post some before and after photos.  I ranked these type of photos right after Bo's amazing pictures.

[Dypsisdean]

Ray,

I was in the exact same boat as you 4 years ago when I began my Hawaiian garden. I have one tip.

Take more "before and after" pics than you can possibly imagine. I thought I had taken plenty (several hundred). But you can never have enough, and they cost nothing these days. I wish I had taken more.

Besides the obvious reason of having something memorable to look back on, there will be times when you have worked so hard, for so long, and you look around and nothing looks any different. That's when you pull out the old shots and start realizing that you really are getting somewhere.  

And besides, it will give you more material for posting.

[NCpalmqueen]

Is this island somewhere in Florida?  (sorry...I have no idea)    Looks like some hard work up front, then you can plant to your heart's content.   Great piece of real estate.  You're not going to doze all those serenoa's are you?  I would love to take what you discard!!!  One man's trash is another man's treasure!  

[Walter John]

Take more "before and after" pics than you can possibly imagine. I thought I had taken plenty (several hundred). But you can never have enough, and they cost nothing these days. I wish I had taken more.

I couldn't agree more. I never took enough pics believe it or not. Especially with little things with seemingly not so much significance at the time, like a seedling (8 inch high) Ptychosperma elegans I once planted (cost me 2 bucks) for the heck of it, never took pics of it and after 4 years it has grown above my head now, man that would have been worthwhile photographing every 2 or 3 months really. Same palm would cost a lot more than $2 now, palms do increase value that's for sure, not that you'd ever want to sell them.

[Carlo Morici]

Wow.

What is the size of your plot? What will surround you? Neighbours or pinelands? What will you do with the serenoas? and pines? What will you do, in general?

Good luck, whatever the answers are.

Carlo

[amazondk]

Ray,

I saw some landscapes very similar well driving back from Tallahassee on the Turnpike to Fort Lauderdale yesterday.  I am sure you will create a great landscape.  What interested me more than the landscape was how the speed limit is obeyed.  I had to stay around 80 MPH just to keep up.

dk

[NCpalmqueen]

DK---They let you out of the Amazon????  

[Trópico]

Congratulations Ray!

You already have the canopy, and the palms.

You see? Everything included!  

[bgl]

Ray,

Looks like a fantastic place! Congratulations and good luck! And not that you need one more person to stress this, but I certainly agree with Wal & Dean etc.: take plenty of photos, even of stuff, or areas, that may not seem worthy of a photo. Those are usually the most interesting shots, 10 years down the road!

Bo-Göran

[Walter John]

(Wal @ May 27 2007,07:38)

QUOTE

Take more "before and after" pics than you can possibly imagine. I thought I had taken plenty (several hundred). But you can never have enough, and they cost nothing these days. I wish I had taken more.

I couldn't agree more. I never took enough pics believe it or not. Especially with little things with seemingly not so much significance at the time, like a seedling (8 inch high) Ptychosperma elegans I once planted (cost me 2 bucks) for the heck of it, never took pics of it and after 4 years it has grown above my head now, man that would have been worthwhile photographing every 2 or 3 months really. Same palm would cost a lot more than $2 now, palms do increase value that's for sure, not that you'd ever want to sell them.

And here it is today.

[Walter John]

and again..........

[epicure3]

You're going to have to get some of those Pine Island mangos as well. Good luck with the move.

[happ]

Have fun, Ray  

Will the pines provide enough shade?

[SubTropicRay]

Thanks everyone for the input and comments.

Cindy, Pine Island is the largest island in Florida.  It is situated just off the southwest Florida coast (near Ft. Myers and Cape Coral).  Judging by want is planted nearby, the climate is a solid 10b.

Jeff and Derek, Thanks.  I may take you both up on your offer when the time comes.  I do love the Serenoa and only want to clear what has to be for building.  The pines would be a bit more full were it not for Hurricane Charley in August of 2004.  As the pines look now, they will provide some filtered light.  That will be ideal for some of my shade grown palms which would otherwise be torched by full summer sun.  

The property is slightly smaller than .75 acres but large enough to plant out most of my larger potted material.  Dean and Bo, thanks for the before and after photo advice.   I wiull most definitely post photos as the "project" progresses.  I can't wait to dig my first hole.

As for living on Pine Island, that may be a few years off yet.  The stillness and peace I experienced there however, may move that date forward.  

Ray

[Central Floridave]

Looks like a clean slate to work with!

"Pine Island is the largest island in Florida"

Are you sure about that?  Merritt Island is pretty large.

[SubTropicRay]

Isn't Merritt Island connected to the mainland by a small land bridge?  Anyway, that's what the PI literature stated.

[mike in kurtistown]

I bought 2 1/2 acres on Pine Island near St. James City in 2001. Cleared all the Serenoa, but tried to save all pine trees of any size. Sale of that property during the real estate boom of 2005 financed my purchase of 8 1/3 acres on Big Island.

Pine Island is almost tropical, being out in the Gulf of Mexico and surrounded on all sides by water. It has a freeze about once every 6 years, but that doesn't keep nurseries from farming fields of coconut palms, foxtails, and royals. It is definitely south of the coconut line.

Droughts are the main problem for residents, but every time I visited my property, there was a Great Flood event. Drainage is also a problem, as is the possiblilty of salt water storm surge during tropical storms, as the maximum elevation on the island is 12 ft. Hurricane Charley (2004) didn't cause a surge, because the eye shrank to nothing just before it reached land on the west side of Pine Island.

[eastern.nurseries]

Here in QLD we would need a development application to our local council [ $600 ] for consent to clear a piece of land like yours Ray. Do you ?

[SubTropicRay]

Hi Mike,

Any freezes that do occur are marginal and infrequent.  There are too many 50 foot tall Cocos nucifera around for past freezes to have been of any significance.  

Ray