My recent post  Garden Paradise and the comments got me thinking about what is my Future Garden Paradise.

I am and have been working on my side garden and have decided to have a chartreuse and plum themed shade garden. I have been collecting plants and they are planted in the ground, oddly arranged so I can move everything around once I get the patio area situated. Every piece of plant material in the side was scraped out and hauled off. It was a real mess I poked at it with the pruners for a while, then realized a clean slate was a much better idea. I also capped off the irrigation in hopes of killing the creeping transcandentia that can grow over everything within a few weeks. So, I am hand watering my oddly arranged stock bed.

The semi clean slate

As a truly well seasoned gardener my considerations have become less aesthetically motivated and more ease of maintenance motivated. This is not an inherited trait, my mother, a great gardener, planted seven flats of annuals twice a year until she was nearly 80 years old. I had gotten my annual planting down to two flats mostly in pots. Even less nowadays, annuals in Florida seem a bit superfluous. There are so many plants that bloom year round here.

My Paradisical Necessities:

Year Round Color – with no yellow varigated plants: Some of the plants in the stockpile.

Flowers of Oyster Plant

Burgundy Bromeliad

The Mysterious Green Bromeliad

A well composed patio area with comfortable seating – cushions, ottomans, and somewhere to perch the wineglass are required.

I have been keeping an eye out for some interesting furnishings.

A bit of water sound, fish pond not necessary.

Water Feature in Waiting

A little fragrance. From the stockpile: Sweet Begonias and Gingers, the Begonias have a very subtle fragrance I usually notice in the evening. The Ginger is a bit more pronounced but not overwhelming. I have had clients complain that their requested fragrant plants smell like air freshener. Weird?

Sweet Begonias and Ginger (below)

Shells and Rocks.

I have larger shell for a edging band and the smaller shell will be used for the floor of the patio. Still working on the rock collecting. Florida is not very well endowed with Rocks.

Larger Shells for Edge

Shell for surface of Patio

There is the cast of characters, thus far for my Garden Paradise.  I need some more pieces of the puzzle, but it is coming together.