I found the most admirable part
of the cutting of the peppers was
the fact that Mr. Hager was right
there working side by side with us
in the heat and bugs. It was a lot
of hard work, and soon we developed
a system of me pulling cut
limbs out of the way and keeping
an eye on the ground where we
were standing, thinking we might
disturb a snake. I thought for sure
we would eventually run across
a rattler or copperhead, but we
never did. The only snake I ever
saw on the farm was a tiny garter
snake at the back fence. He wasn’t
bothering us, so we didn’t bother
him.
The farm land has a high partsper
million salt content, so it took
some research to fi nd out what
would be the best thing to plant in
those conditions. The owner of a
feed store in Hardee County made
a call to the University of Florida
and spoke with someone from the
agriculture team at the university,
and they suggested millet of a
specifi c kind that can tolerate the
salt.
I headed back to Placida with a
hand-cranking spreader and 80
pounds of millet. That afternoon,
after returning to the farm with the
spreader and millet, we immediately
loaded the spreader.
Mr. Hager looked at me and
said, “I could do this all day,”
Off he went, turning the spreader
handle and sewing the millet
seed. We took turns with the
spreader until all the seed was
sewn, and then we waited and
waited.
We were starting to think it just
wasn’t going to grow, so more
research was done. Next we tried
sugar beets and turnips. They both
started to grow pretty quickly, and
just when we were about to give
up on the millet, it started sprouting
up just about everywhere it
was sewn.
Above left, the dividing line between the farm property and Charlotte
Harbor Preserve shows what “Old Florida” really used to look like. Above
right, an old pig trap on the property. Below, true Florida prairie land.
The whole reason for planting was just to see if it would
grow anything at all, and as it turns out you can ... you
have to wait longer than you think. As soon as it starts
to sprout, the cows graze on it until it’s right back to the
ground.
After the invasive plants were under control the farm
began to take a new direction. The driveway was lined
with cabbage palms and seagrape trees; I think it was
somewhere around 40 or so on the drive, and several
more scattered around the front sections of both sides of
the pastures in front of the house. In total there are about
70 newly-planted native palms. In addition to the palms,
there have been several native pines planted along the
road in the drier areas, and a bunch of cedar trees
planted closer to the wetland area, to try to encourage
more of that type of growth.