Join us for the Walkabout!

Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ Walkabout

Join us at the Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ Walkabout to stroll through historic Palmetto’s Florida-Friendly landscapes gathering ideas to for your own yard.  Observe beautiful water conserving, environmentally friendly landscape designs.  Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer questions and point out highlights.

This FREE tour will take place October 30^th from 9:00 a.m. - Noon.  Pick up your map at the First United Methodist Church parking lot, 330 11^th Avenue West, Palmetto.  For more information please call Michelle at (941) 722-4524. 

Note: This is a self guided walking tour.  Please come prepared with appropriate footwear, hat and sunscreen.

Squirrels in the Landscape

Squirrels can make interesting wildlife neighbors and often can be attracted to your landscape with minimal effort. Attracting squirrels with feeders, however, is not recommended because it often causes more problems than benefits. One of the major reasons that squirrels cause problems here in Florida is because people feed them using a bird feeder or a corn cob feeder designed specifically for squirrels. Feeders often encourage more squirrels to live in an area than can be supported by the neighboring habitat. When this occurs, squirrels may search out nesting sites in your home and cause property damage. Many squirrels that take up residence in an attic or garage ceiling can be traced to a feeding situation. Should the food ever be reduced or eliminated (you move, go on vacation, or you quit feeding them, etc.) the squirrels often respond by chewing up nearby vegetation.

Grey squirrels are one of the most frequently encountered native Florida mammals. They have large, bushy tails and chisel-like front teeth that can chew through almost anything. The bark on certain trees is enjoyed by squirrels. This can cause small to moderately sized branches to die and then fall from the canopy. 

Unfortunately, there is not a lot that can be done to control squirrel populations. They have ample natural habitat and food with our native vegetation. They are territorial so as soon as one dies or is killed there is another one to take its place. They can be legally caught in live animal traps and relocated to another site with the approval of the property owner. Poisons cannot be legally used to control squirrels.
  

Sometimes squirrels can be repelled from garden areas with a hot pepper spray. Blood meal and garlic also seems to repel squirrels. Landscape cloth can be laid over garden areas to prevent digging by squirrels.

The above information was compiled from the following sources http://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/giam/index.html and

http://brevard.ifas.ufl.edu/Forms%20and%20Publications/PDF/Feeding%20Squirrels.pdf