I want to start the new year off with an apology to Florida landscape companies. I drove by this community garden and saw the start of an installation where the ground had been turned over, very poorly weeded, and they even destroyed the agapanthus, leaving the dead stems scattered everywhere. I stopped to take photos when it dawned on me that it wasn’t the landscapers who had left the median landscape in such disarray but the work of a passel of hogs, probably with a litter of hoglets born in the fall. They had uprooted all the plants, turned over the soil and basically ate all the plants buffet-style.

Hogs are not native to the United States, but have been here for centuries, arriving with the Spaniards near Tampa in the 16th century. There are over 6 million feral hogs in the United States. The estimated dollars in damages is $2.5 billion dollars. They cannot be eradicated completely but they can be controlled. Any homeowner or community being annoyed with feral hogs can download this Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission pdf for more information on how to handle this state-wide pest.

So my humble apologize to landscapers this month for assuming it was Landscape Malpractice #33. But just wait till next month!