Tag Archives: Landscape

Winter Containers for South Florida

Here comes the Work Shop

Here comes the Work Shop

My husband likes to work with his hands, when we moved to South Florida there wasn’t enough room in our house for a workshop so we had one craned it. The picture is the shop being lifted over the house..I’ll get to the containers in a minute.

The shop ends up looking a bit like a trailer but with some landscaping and a porch it fits in. These sheds are fairly common in South Florida, I have never seen them before – they are even built and attached to the ground to resist hurricanes.

The whole adventure left me feeling a bit like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Maybe in reverse.

After all this, my husband who has clearly been living with me too long decided he wanted some flower pots (containers if you are a landscape professional) on his shop porch. I put some containers together with the usual suspects last year sometime – yes, the annuals last that long here. It seems crazy to me as well. They last so long you get tired of them. When I lived further north I always did the containers twice a year, changed the colors with the seasons and enjoyed the variety.

Imagine my surprise when the old summer reliables, Bronzeleaf Begonias, rolled over and died in the summer heat. Time to revise thinking to plants that live in say, the Sahara. Pentas and Lantanas. I had gotten bored with Lantanas in Atlanta and really still am, they just smell funny. If I want fragrance, that is so not it.

The Lantana and Pentas were pooping out so I was trolling around in our yard to see what I could find to replace the spent annuals. One of the fun things about living in Florida is you never know what you might find growing in the yard. Boston Fern grows wild in the side yard so I dug a start of that and then found some Purple Wandering Jew (Zebrina), a Burgundy Bromeliad and an unknown groundcover Bromeliad (from a garage sale) that needed to be divided  and added them to the ‘Florida Friendly’ (this is a Florida Extension Service sort of approved plant) chartreuse Sedum that was already in the pots. As an aside, who ever heard of a sedum that does well in partial shade – this does. Whatever it is.

Groundcover Bromeliad and Sedum

Groundcover Bromeliad and Sedum

Voila, a purple and chartreuse themed container garden. The Bromeliads seem to be perennial in containers – the big Burgundy one was divided from a container I have had on my front porch for a year or so – I started with one and now there are three in there. You just never know what you will find growing outside…

Newly planted containers

Newly planted containers

 

Fall Color in South Florida?

 

Golden Raintree

Golden Raintree

Fall color…in South Florida. This is a seek and ye shall find situation. I have found some signs of the Autumn season here in the tropical Zone 10A hinterlands. The Golden Raintrees started blooming in late September which kind of freaks me out as I associate these trees strongly with Summer. The above pictured Fall color is actually seed pods – which are kind of cool and are fall color as far as I am concerned.

This is a Koelreuteria bipinnata, some call it a Chinese Flame Tree, some call it K. elegans. People in Florida seem to think this tree will grow as far north as Zone 7, this is not true. I am guessing maybe Zone 8. It’s friend Koelreuteria paniculata grows further north (to Zone 5 – I seem to remember these while in Chicago) and has brown much less attractive seed pods. Both are sort of weedy, rambling trees, but the flowers and pods make it worth having. I think well drained soil is key with these trees; my mother killed these trying to grow them on what she referred to as “road bed” yellow, impenetrable clay.

I planted some Muhly grass, for its pink clouds of flowers blowing in the wind during Fall. Mine are just starting to bloom and I am hopeful they don’t reseed everywhere and overrun me..always a concern in a no frost environment. More touches of Fall include the Pennisetums, which are in full bloom here as well, but apparently Miscanthus doesn’t grow this far south.

Muhly Grass

Muhly Grass

I thought Miscanthus grew everywhere! Oh, well. I have Bromeliads..

Happy Fourth of July

 

Happy Fourth from my garden in South Florida!

These plants are currently blooming in my garden:

Miniata Bromeliad

Miniata Bromeliad

The red is a Miniata Bromeliad-Aechmea miniata, this bromeliad is reported to bloom at any time of the year, in my garden it blooms in summer. A reliable perennial south of Orlando, the backs of the leaves are grey mottled and shiny green on top. Foliage is not too sharp for a bromeliad and they seem to double in quantity every year.

Bridal Bouquet Plumeria

Bridal Bouquet Plumeria

The white is Bridal Bouquet Plumeria-Plumeria pudica. An evergreen Plumeria that is not fragrant but flowers on and off through the rainy season. The name is apt, it would make a nice bridal bouquet.

Blue Plumbago

Blue Plumbago

The blue is Plumbago – Plumbago auriculata. I think of this as the Mophead Hydrangea of the tropics. Reliable blue flowers primarily in the rainy season this is sort of a creeping shrub. And sort of indestructible, a good thing.

I hadn’t considered a patriotic planting for the Fourth, but I got one.

American Rustic

Extreme Low Maintenance Container Soap Aloe and Sedum

Extreme Low Maintenance Container
Soap Aloe and Sedum

Is there a new style of gardening emerging in America?

I think so.

Based on what we have learned over the past forty years, our style and outlook on gardening are changing.

During the 1970’s, Oehme van Sweden, Landscape Architects in Washington, D.C. pioneered ‘The New American Garden’. Their gardens featured perennial grasses in large sweeps and largely ignored lawns. These guys were the original purveyors of the Miscanthus craze that continues to this day. I had Miscanthus strictus in my yard for about three years, as a striking accent plant it worked until it got big and flopped over; this grass once flopped was 10 feet around and not very striking. Unlike my southern mother, I am not a plant staker. Plants have to stand on their own in my garden or they asked to leave. Unceremoniously.

The term Xeriscaping was coined in the early 1980’s by a guy in Colorado. Since then the idea has caught on and is utilized in the United States and around the world. Permaculture is an Australian idea that expands and encourages permanent culture of the earth in the most sustainable ways. Basically the idea of Xeriscape is grouping plants by their watering and maintenance needs and only watering when necessary instead of just dousing everything. In permaculture the further away from the house you get, the less intensive the maintenance of the landscape. Intensively planted vegetable gardens near the house that fade away into the forest zone by zone. Of course, this is an oversimplification of both concepts.

While I appreciate the validity of both schools of thought, the difficulty begins with the fact that all this has to be figured out, zoned, designed and then implemented. I have yet to meet anyone who paid me to do a Master Landscape Plan for their house that did not change their mind about something.  Usually a significant something. Rare is the person who can make a plan, zone everything for water and maintenance and stick with the program. I certainly can’t. The older I get , the more I enjoy hardscape.

People seem to enjoy taking small bites of sustainability. A Rain Garden in a low spot in the yard. Using pervious gravel or mulch for pathways. Planting native plant material. Cutting out toxic pesticides and herbicides.

I have read of eco lawns becoming popular in the Western United States. This intrigued me until I saw what it was. More of the Wildflower Meadow romanticism that has been floating around for 30 years. I think Old fields look great weeds and all. However, I don’t want one in front of my house. I suspect the majority of gardeners like to have some lawn. I have a lawn, purposely sited over the septic tank. It does so well, we are afraid to fertilize it. It might overrun the house late at night.

Now there is talk of what is the Modern Garden. I am not sure Modern is the right word. Modern coming after New. It is all the same. Soon it will be the updated Modern Garden. All I (we?) really want is something we can plant and enjoy that is not too much work or a waste of resources! It seems like such a simple idea ? Here are some ideas to reach this goal:

Plant reliable, drought tolerant, non invasive perennials. In small doses.

Focus on natives with a soft lens. Some are great. Some are weeds. Do some research; plant the good ones.

Quit using Glyphosphate and anything with Atrazine in it. It is already in our groundwater and nobody knows how long it takes for the earth to metabolize it. Stop adding it. Non toxic weed killers and pesticides work. If you have a few bugs or weeds – get over it.

Support your local gardening community by planting seasonal containers, they are different everywhere. A pop of color near your favorite walkway is a pick me up every time you pass by. I like succulents for the summer.  My size limit is a 15″ wide container, if it is smaller, it takes too much maintenance, (watering). Buy a big pot, go to the local nursery, buy some flowers and hope for good advice. Embrace local..add some tropicals in the summer. Floridian growers need support too.

Use the most drought tolerant turfgrass possible. If it turns brown in winter, so be it. If there are a few weeds in it, so be it. The Golden Bear does not live at my house, I think he is retired..

I think people get overexcited about irrigation. I have never had separate zones because I am really frugal with water. The lawn has to need it badly before the water comes on, if I have a new  tree it gets a gator bag (this is a bag that can be filled with water, the water slowly leaks out onto the tree providing a few days worth of water). Irrigation does not abdicate anyone of the responsibility of paying attention. It will not establish anything but turf unless everything is wastefully watered.

I think the New Modern American Gardening Style is Rustic. The Rustic Style includes: Being mindful of water and its use, ceasing the use of toxic chemicals, a little brown and a few weeds are OK. Always have a nice container planting where it will be enjoyed. Add hardscape where you would like to hang out and relax, it is really less maintenance.

I think it was the Landscape Architect Dan Franklin, who said: “You should be able to take care of your garden in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee in the morning or a glass of wine in the evening” I am striving for that.

 

A Seashell Driveway

The driveway is in and it is a beauty. I am so excited after all those months of living with the weed pit as my front yard. The existing driveway was pea gravel overrun with weeds. The entire thing had to be scraped away and hauled to the dump.Image After the scraping and removal of the foul pea gravel a gigantic pile of shell and base material appeared. The driveway is constructed by scraping off enough material to have 4-6″ depth to backfill. The base area is graded for water to drain off properly then a base material is placed. The base is crushed shell about 2″ thick followed by 2-3″ layer of the shell for the driving surface. The crushed shell base looks like coarse sand and the shell topping looks like thousands of tiny shells. Because that is what it is. Theoretically,the crushed shell base course tamps down over time and forms a permeable stable layer for the driving surface.

Pile of Shell

Pile of Shell

Shell used for driveways is quarried for the most part on the West Coast of Florida. I believe the shell in my front yard comes from the South side of Lake Okeechobee. This is to a certain extent a word of mouth bit of info. The shell is from a broker who bought it from somebody who bought it from somebody else. Interestingly enough the shell is cheaper than pea gravel because it doesn’t have to be shipped as far from its source. Shell is not supposed to sink into the ground as gravel does, I am going to be interested to see how it holds up… TA DA, the driveway:

The Shell Driveway

The Shell Driveway

Now, onto the green part, Landscaping. Note the repulsive grass/weed groundcover..Ugly. Soon to be gone.

Christmas Palm – Veitchia merrillii

The Christmas Palm on Christmas Day.  This particular Palm I learned as the Adonidia. I think Christmas is a much better name; especially with the red mass of berries resembling ornaments during the holiday season.  These are also called Manila Palms as they are from the Philippines. Not an exceptionally cold tolerant plant they will grow in South Florida in coastal areas south of the magical State Highway 60 line. Many of these palms were lost during the unusually cold winter of 2010.

Christmas Palms can be used as single or multi trunk trees and grow to about 20 feet tall, this makes them excellent for residential use near buildings in the one to two story range. These are not a self cleaning Palm so fronds past their prime must be trimmed. They also add a tropical flair to pools and near spas, I have planted a multi trunk near my lanai to provide shade in the summer. And I am just waiting for some Christmas berries.href=”https://theshrubqueen.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/cam00183.jpg”>Image