I lived there for 40 years before moving to west Orange County for a career change, but most people work at the Space Center and it’s affiliated vendors. There’s a popular helicopter school there as well.
It grew to what it is mostly back in the 60’s for trades people that worked at the Cape and nearby boat builders like Sea Ray Boats in Merritt Island. The town stayed the way it did because the city counsel and government didn’t want it to grow like most surrounding towns to the south. Eventually Mims and Scottsmoor to the north grew and Port St John to the south. Even more people left for Viera. I stayed because I surfed Playalinda and New Smyrna Inlet, the waves south of the Cape, being weak, was never an option. Another draw to the area is for fishing enthusiasts due to the Mosquito Lagoon to the northeast and the ease of getting into the St John’s River to the west along both SR 50 and 46. Hunting and wildlife management areas were and still are in place to the west and north, basically stopping Orlando’s suburban sprawl eastwards past Geneva, Chuluota, and Bithlo/Christmas. Generally, housing is cheaper and there is no real traffic issues. There are very nice neighborhoods sprinkled throughout, especially around the La Cita golf course, and the western and southern portions of town. There are some but not many neighborhoods with small lot sizes, most everything is .20 acres and above, with numerous large areas of town having multiple acre lots, very similar to Vero Beach. The town is just big enough to where you don’t know everyone, but most people living there have been there for multiple generations. I can’t go back to Playalinda without bumping into people I’ve known for 35 years.
As far as trees go, I had a couple large mango trees that would fruit every year, and I know several people with large consistently fruiting mango trees. Actually with climate change, the growing area has pushed into the Mims/Scottsmoor area. I’ve seen large fruiting coconut palms in Mims. I know of numerous large lychees, longans, carambolas, even adult sized jackfruit trees in Titusville. All the standard low chill sub tropicals perform well there like blueberries,loquats mulberries, persimmons, and white sapotes. As far as veggies go, my grandparents had an 1/8 acre veggie garden in Mims while I was growing up in the 70' and 80's that supplied 4 families.
