Author Archives: theshrubqueen

Rustic Hacienda Concept – Third Contractor Encounter

I’ve decided the design concept for the landscape is Rustic Hacienda. Our house is psuedo Southwestern in appearance, I think the former owners went to Santa Fe at some point and picked up some architectural details and incorporated them into a 1960s vintage ranch house. It is a pretty off the wall residence for two design professionals who met at a big Architecture firm. In keeping with the Rustic Hacienda concept I have had a cattle fence installed in the back for the cattle/Greyhounds. Generally I refer to my dogs as horses, they are 70 and 90 pounds. Small horses. We even have a ranch gate.  My sister clearly thought the fence was weird, but she really did not get the concept.

These fences are common in this area and will last at least 30 years. My husband, the fence builder and I were standing in the yard laughing that the fence would outlive all of us. Either that or I am going to be a really old lady PO’d because the fence needs replacing. The guy who built the fence was an actual cowboy who wore spurs. I got the vapors when I saw them; pure masculine footwear.

Which brings me to my third contractor encounter. I asked the fence builder if he could refer someone to do the concrete work. He did and this guy said ” I can come over next week.” I had high hopes for this, then he sent me his price. $40 a linear foot! for the curb. I almost choked. Of course, no driveway included. I decided to call a friend of mine who builds things like this in Atlanta to get his opinion on the price. His opinion, no more than $10 a linear foot. At this point, I have decided to get out of the concrete business altogether and go to PLAN B.

 

My Dog had a Chiropractic Adjustment

I have a retired racing greyhound, two in fact, I have had a couple of greyhounds for years. They are great dogs, I think everybody should have one (or two) My large spotted dog, Charles, woke up last Sunday in pain. I mean, I was scared there was something seriously wrong.

Off to the emergency vet we went. They said cervical disk disease, in layman’s terms, a pain in the neck. The vets gave him (apparently) some extremely strong new drug (starts with a bu) Charles stood in the Living Room for 10-12 hours panting and slobbering (I thought he had peed on the floor – that much slobber) I thought it best to leave him be on Monday to recover and got my regular vet to give me some special food (Science Diet I/D) great stuff if you have a queasy dog. But, he really wasn’t eating and was still staring off into space Monday night. I called first thing Tuesday and took him to the vet that morning.

I live, as far as I am concerned, in the middle of nowhere, yet, our vet is into alternative medicine. She clearly disapproved of the bu-whatever they gave him, said “his neck vertebra is out of alignment”and proceeded to adjust it. A canine chiropractor. Charles is fine and can shake his head again. I think it took nearly a week for the bu-whatever to work its way out of his system. Fortunately, I did not give him any of the additional drugs the emergency vet had prescribed. Painkillers, steroids and and Pepcid for his stomach. Greyhounds and other sighthounds have very little body fat and metabolize things differently than most dogs. My vet did blood tests to make sure the bu did not damage the dog. It didn’t, I am glad I did not give him any additional drugs.

I would not go to a chiropractor, and certainly would never have dreamed of taking my dog (and paying for it) The dog spinal adjustment turned out to be a very good thing. Maybe I will go.

Second Contractor Encounter

We have this electrician working on the house, he has been around so much I feel like he is Eldon, from Murphy Brown, the television series that so offended Al Gore. I was telling him about my concrete curb woes and he says “I know a guy, he has got to be good, the famous Treasure Coast pool builder uses him” Sounds great..

I call this guy, he says “I will be over in 2 hours” I think, “Oh, no, not again” So, he shows up, of course, I have a drawing – and I can tell he thinks this is vastly weird. I just can’t believe how many things get built with no one thinking about it long enough to draw a plan. Scary. So, he gives me this really great price but alas, he does not know how to do the driveway either…I am thinking ??? I say OK will this price include broom finish on the concrete (the most common thing ever done to concrete, it just means is is literally swept with a broom while wet so the surface won’t be slippery) This contractor does not know what that is either.

I decide to keep looking.

Non Toxic Weed Killer

Non Toxic Weed Killer

Here it is. Dead Nut Grass. I love it. My mother called these “those awwfull sand burrs” Well, they are awful but this evil weed grows as far north as Minnesota and has higher reproductive powers than rabbits. I am not sure awwfulll sand burrs properly represents the dilemma.

These are correctly referred to as sedges, I think perhaps that gives a herbicide resistant coating to the leaves. My yard being as unmaintained as possible was infested with this plant. For the most part, I can ignore them – it looks sort of like grass if mowed. However, in the paver walkway, it is kind of offensive.

I read up on the weed killers for these things and if you have well water and domestic house pets or children or if you want to support plant life as we know it in the near future; the prescribed herbicides are not desirable. What kills the nut sedge/grass/ sand burrs also kills every else and for a long time after, do you really want this chemical in the groundwater. Really? Ever?

So, I decided to try the non toxic version. Which, oddly enough, kills the evil sand burr/sedge and does not kill your dog, child or render your front yard infertile for generations. I found the recipe here and there online and one of my Greyhounds seems to find it tasty (?) OK, he is a dog. Maybe this is dog salad dressing or something, just stay away from those mustard relative weeds..Dogs love them and they irritate the dog colon. Not pretty, you end up at the Emergency Vet getting Sub-Q fluids. A whole ‘nother post. Charles, the large spotted Greyhound, is OK. Even though he ate the non-toxic weed killer.

A combination of dish soap, vinegar and rubbing alcohol works. Truly meaningful, I am not sure I would use this stuff on my beds or lawn, but walkways, etc. YES!

Locavore shell concrete and my first contractor encounter

Locavore shell concrete and my first contractor encounter

This concrete is used in my neighborhood. It speaks of what washes up on the beach around here. Of course, I love it. So, me being me, I trolled around and found the guy who installed it. Of course, me being me, it is very expensive and labor intensive -Locavore concrete! who knew.

Since we really could not afford this insanely cool concrete for our driveway project, and I had decided to recreate the pea gravel driveway with a concrete curbed guest parking space. The contractor referred a local guy to do our teensy curbing project.

I called this guy and he says “I’ll be over in 2 hours” I am thinking, not a good sign. Long story short, he leaves an estimate on my door step that sounds pretty good. My husband says “it doesn’t say he is putting anything to drive on back in. This seems (foolish in retrospect) unlikely to me..I say “of, course he is going to put something back – we have to be able to drive on a driveway.” So the guy calls me while I am frying chicken and says “I don’t know how to do the driveway, I am just going to scrape the front yard off and put in a curb” which really means you can’t drive to the garage and you will have to park on the grass (I use that term loosely) until you happen to find someone who knows how to do a driveway. Seriously?? Yes, I burned myself and then refilled my empty wine glass.

I declined the offer and continued my search.

Another Lovely View

Another Lovely View

Here is another view of the front. I have decided to put 2 guest parking spaces in and retain the pea gravel driveway outlining drive in front with concrete curbing.
There is not a bit of landscape in the front yard worth retaining with the exception of the trees on the far edge.
The visible tree in the first photo I posted is a old Jacaranda that I believe the hurricanes in 2004 blew out the top. This tree has to go because you can literally see through the trunk. Can anyone say not structurally sound?

The Before photo

The Before photo

House as we bought it. This is the beginning of my Landscape Renovation story. This photo is what we bought, I look at it and wonder “what were we thinking?” Then, I know, in my heart I can fix this and make it work. I have redone many horrendous yards, this one, mine, may take the cake. Thus far.

What I do not recall is, who the SUV belongs to. Maybe a rental? Maybe the realtor, maybe it will come back to me or I will ask Larry.

So, yes, we actually did buy this in exactly this state. My favorite landscaper in Atlanta said “Amelia, the landscape there looks Venutian, as in the planet.” Really, Venus with intractable weeds. Believe it or not, at some point, through archaeological digging we discovered there was a pea gravel turnaround in front of the house, I will post another picture of the front.

Cocoplum – Chrysobalanus icaco

Cocoplum

Ahh, the ubiquitous Cocoplum, the workhorse shrub for the Treasure Coast. You gotta love it ..takes a licking and keeps on ticking. This picture is from the Winn Dixie parking lot. The shrub is irrigated but it also still alive, amazing.

Cocoplums are native to South Florida and will grow in seaside areas and elsewhere with little or no supplemental irrigation. The are two varieties- the coastal, which is low and tumbling medium texture shrub and the inland which will reach heights of 15 feet and may be pruned into a nice small tree. The inland variety is typically used as a clipped hedge and has a reddish tint to the new foliage.

You have to find a true Zone 10 native if you are looking for someone who actually likes to eat the Coco Plums. The shrubs do bear fruit, apparently, it is something like grits if you grow up on it you like it otherwise, not so much…the people who like Cocoplum fruit are usually true connoisseurs of mangoes as well and hopefully, if they grow Mangoes this is whats is in your gift basket, not the Cocoplums.

The further north you get

This week I have been doing some work in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area. I was sitting with a friend in traffic on the 1-95 entrance ramp and I asked her how many people were in the Miami Metro area, she asked Suri (being an IPhone fan) Well, Suri couldn’t find it, but me-the anti-Suri (and I love my Android phone) could find it. The answer being 5 million in the Great Miami – Ft. Lauderdale Dade Metro area. Or something like that, so, I decided to look up Metro Atlanta, oops, 5 Million as well. Really, the whole reason I left Atlanta. OK, maybe I did not know 4.98 million of the other people but their cars were certainly in my way – a lot. 

Basically, we have Atlanta with palm trees and seemingly many more high rise buildings on the beachfront. Several people have commented that South Florida is too crowded. I think they are referring to Greater Miami whatever. Here on the Treasure Coast things are less developed and the locals are making damn sure it stays that way.

Peculiarly enough, during the course of my business in Miami – I heard the comment “the further north you get the nicer the people are”…I am not sure about this not finding people in Miami to be particularly nasty or whatever generates this comment. I have also encountered some rather odd theories about the not niceness of people from New Jersey. Curious, my Mother, a dyed in the wool Southerner, discounted Yankees as a group..not nice at all..No real exception for New Jersey. And if there had been one, I would have heard about it.

I digress. I will have to say I am not finding people in this area to be that much nicer. If it is true that the further north you get the nicer the people it stands to reason that people from New Jersey should be really nice. I suppose I will have to scratch my head over this for awhile. What is nice about things north of Greater Miami is that if people know you, they will send you a bill rather than requiring a check on the spot. Traffic is much lighter, as an escapee of a large metropolitan area, practically non-existent.  Maybe that has something to do with, as well as a generally low stress ‘we can do that man~ana’ attitude. I think that drives the people from New Jersey crazy.