After The Deluge: A Photo Diary

Thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea, the summer rainy season got off to a rousing start in my garden, with more than 10.5 inches of rain in the past seven days!

In between soakings -- and partly to relieve the forced "cabin fever" of being cooped up -- I strolled through my yard. Taking the time to look at my plants in detail reminded me of  how rainfall amplifies their beauty. Fresh and clean, even the most mundane of plants assumes an aura of newness, a sheen of self-satisfaction. 

Is there anything more lovely than a garden after a rain? 

Magenta passion flower is dripping with happiness...

A simple echevarria shimmers with pearly drops...

 Perfect oval beads dangle from the tubular flowers of firecracker fern...

 The huge flat fronds of Monstera deliciosa, also known  
  as swiss cheese plant, are dappled with raindrops...

 While this cluster of buds on  
 the agapanthus (Lily of the    
 Nile) looks as though it can't 
 wait to pop open and
 welcome the sun.

 Dainty cutleaf coneflower, a Florida native that fares much better in my landscape than the more common purple variety, stands proudly like a golden sentinel among the orange cuphea (cigarflower) and purple porterweed in my butterfly garden.


 It's summer in Florida, and my plants couldn't be happier. 
 How about yours?

A "Micro" Miracle

Three years ago, Rick and I took a micro-irrigation workshop at the Hillsborough Extension office. We received a free starter micro-irrigation kit at the end of the class.

We brought the kit home and put it in our shed, intending to install it in a few weeks.

There it sat, collecting dust and nibbling around the edges of my guilty conscience, until last month. 

The thought of enduring another spring dry season of hauling buckets and hoses around the yard to water my beloved plants was just too much. Added motivation came when my yard was selected for a neighborhood garden tour -- a can't miss opportunity to showcase the eco-friendly elements of our low-maintenance landscape. Installing micro-irrigation moved right to the top of the Honey-Do list!

Yes, we have a drought-tolerant landscape. And yes, it mostly survives on the rainfall Mother Nature provides. But there are always times, especially in the spring, when Mother Nature is stingy, I am refreshing my landscape with new plants, and we may not get a drop of rain for weeks.  I have a lot of money, sweat and love invested in my  landscape, and I don't want to see my plants keel over and die.

For the last three years I have hauled watering cans from my rain barrels until they ran dry, and then hand-water plants to keep them going during the usual March-May drought period. But standing in my yard with a hose in my hand does not meet my definition of "low-maintenance." And, even with a shut-off nozzle, it's still wasteful.


Enter micro-irrigation. Short of Mother Nature herself, it's the most efficient watering system around. Traditional  in-ground irrigation systems typically apply 3 gallons of water per minute. Our micro-irrigation system uses 10 gallons of water per hour! Plus, micro is so easily customized that you can virtually ensure the water goes only to your plants -- no more watering sidewalks or streets!

Other benefits:

• Micro, especially drip irrigation, applies water directly to the root zone of a plant, reducing evaporation, runoff and pest problems. It's ideal for watering plants on steep slopes.

• Tremendous flexibility in tailoring irrigation to the differing needs of new versus mature plants.

• The system connects directly to your outdoor water spigot.
• Ease of adjustment: As you modify your landscape over time, moving the tubing and/or spray heads to accommodate the changes is a snap. We've already moved our components a few times to get the spray heads away from fast-growing plants that caused interference with the water stream.

• Micro-irrigation is so efficient that it is usually exempt from watering restrictions, except for the time-of-day limitations. Of course, that doesn't mean we run ours every day; after all, we are committed to conserving water. But it does mean we don't have to remember which day is our "watering day."

Alas, micro-irrigation is not recommended for use on lawns, but that is just another great reason to ditch your lawn in favor of landscape plants!

Micro does take a while to install -- pretty much an entire weekend. But it truly is easy to do.  

And our free starter kit wasn't nearly enough to cover even our small urban lot, so we had to make multiple trips to the store for additional tubing, extensions and spray heads. We used a combination of Mister Landscaper products available at Lowe's, and DIG products available at Home Depot.

All told, we spent about $250 on the system - including the required backflow preventer and pressure regulator for our outdoor faucet, and a good-quality digital timer so our system comes on automatically early in the morning, two days a week.

Currently only our backyard has microirrigation. But we are so pleased with it, we already have decided to install it in our front yard too.

Our only regret? That we didn't do this a while lot sooner. Like three years ago! 

Do you have micro-irrigation in your landscape? Please share your experience installing and using it. If you don't have it, I'd also like to know if I've inspired you to give it a try.

For those of you who haven't yet "waded in" to the world of micro, here are some online resources to nudge you off the fence:

A Guide to Micro-Irrigation for West Central Florida Landscapes

Tampa Bay Community Water-Wise Awards: Efficient Irrigation (Video)  

Micro-Irrigation How-To Videos (Mister Landscaper products)

Hillsborough Extension Garden Blog


Free micro-irrigation workshops are offered by many Extension offices. Sign up early as the classes fill quickly!

My Big, Bad Gardening Boo-Boo

Just when I think I'm actually getting the hang of this Bay-Friendly Landscaping, reality slaps me right up side the head!

And I have no one to blame but myself. 

Two years ago, I planted a pretty low-growing groundcover native to the Pacific Islands called  dwarf chenille plant, (Acalypha pendula), in my mulched beds to take up space.

It took up space alright. This innocuous looking plant, with its pretty red fuzzy blooms that resemble caterpillars, has become what my husband calls my "biggest gardening mistake ever."   

As Scooby Doo would say,  "Ruh Roh."


Chenille plant loved my yard, too much. It spread, and spread, and spread. It also started to climb.

It climbed up the shrubs.

 

It climbed up the trees.

It climbed up containers.

It spilled out over the edging of my landscape beds.

It grew on top of landscape fabric intended to suppress weeds. 

It grew in my shell pathways.

By now, you get the picture.

Before I bought this plant, I did what I thought was the responsible thing, and researched it. It was not listed as invasive in any of the sources I found, including the University of Florida EDIS database that I consider the most accurate. One Extension publication even recommended it as a groundcover in areas without foot traffic, which is exactly where I put it.

To be fair, the EDIS Fact Sheet says it is "not known to be invasive."
I suspect that horticulturists just don't have enough evidence about this plant's greedy nature yet, because it is not that commonly used. It's usually sold in hanging baskets, which is exactly where it should stay, based on my experience.

You have been warned.

About a month ago, we began removing it. I spent two days, about 4 hours each day, pulling it up. My husband joined me for one of the days.

A week later, it was back, popping up everywhere. We spent another few hours ripping it out.

Same thing last weekend. Rick and I each spent two hours on chenille destruction duty. We have traded in what was a very low-maintenance landscape for what seems like endless chenille patrol.  

      Four loads of chenille plant in three weeks!        

Unlike plants that grow individually from seeds, chenille plant grows by underground rhizomes that seem to have no beginning and no end. This makes it very difficult to control. There is just no way to successfully hand-pull all the rhizomes. 

After last weekend's waste of time when we should have been fishing, cycling or just sitting on the deck with a little umbrella drink, I added a new layer of pine bark mulch to my landscape beds and laid pine straw on top of that. It may slow the invading chenille, but I don't think it will stop it.

As much as I hate to say this, I think we are headed toward chemical warfare. With a plant that is as aggressive as this, a good herbicide containing glyphosate may be our only solution.  I have not used a chemical in my yard in years. But I need to defeat the chenille plant before it defeats us.

This hard lesson has reminded me of how vulnerable Florida's hospitable climate is to invasive plants and animals. It also reinforces that plants behave differently in different places and conditions. What is invasive in one yard may be well-behaved in another -- though I have since read complaints from other gardeners about the invasive nature of dwarf chenille.

But, as someone who has successfully eradicated a large plague of air potatoes in my yard, and who manages to keep in check the annoying Mexican petunias that continue to pop up 15 years after I first removed them, I know an invasive when I see one.

Stay tuned. This battle is just beginning. 

I've Got The Blues

Yes, indeed, I have the blues, but I'm not bawling.

This is the kind of blues that gives me a big grin.

My Blue-eyed Grass is in bloom! Those dainty little blossoms can cheer me up like no other plant in my yard.

Formally known as Sisyrinchium angustifolium,. this oh-so-pretty native plant  only blooms for a few weeks each Spring. But what an impact it makes!

Blue-eyed Grass is not a grass, but a member of the iris family. A perennial, it grows in a clump and stays short, about 1-2 feet high and equally wide. Mine is a gift from a friend, and it has grown and spread considerably in the last year.

Blue-eyed grass is a wonderful border or filler plant. The foliage looks nice even when it's not blooming. Frankly, I sort of forgot it was there until it bloomed last week. I didn't even notice that it was getting ready to bloom!

Now, it's impossible to ignore. I could look at it for hours, I think, especially in the early evening as I sit on my deck with a glass of wine. It's just plain adorable.

The 6-petal blooms stand tall and proud on individual stalks, with yellow centers. The petals vary in color. Mine are a deep blue, almost purple shade. 

Its native habitat is open woods, moist pinelands, meadows, marshes, the edges of swamps and along roadsides. 

But it's the perfect urban garden resident, happy as can be with very little care once established and tolerant of both full sun and light shade.

If you want to dig the blues in your garden, contact a native plant nursery. Florida Native Plants Nursery in northeast Sarasota County carries it, and owner Laurel Schiller is a fount of native plant knowledge. If you know of other sources for this plant, please post them in the comments section.

I did actually see blue-eyed grass very recently at a Home Depot as well -- one of the Florida Friendly Plants grown by Riverview Flower Farms. 

Or, make friends with someone who has this adorable flower in their garden and is willing to share the easily divided clumps with you. You won't be blue with this happy face to welcome Spring!

 

 

I said COONTIE, Not Cootie!

One of the most neglected, unglamorous and trouble-free plants in my yard is the coontie (Zamia floridana).  This native Florida shrub is a member of an ancient family of plants called "Cycads" that have flourished on our planet since the time of dinosaurs. They are true "living fossils" worthy of a place of honor in modern suburban landscapes.

In more recent times (the last 600 years or more), bread made from flour from the coontie's stem sustained the native Calusa and Timucua peoples of Florida. 

But it's not their impressive lineage that has made me fall in love with them. It's their indestructibility. 

Put them in full or part shade, in just about any well-drained soil, and they'll thrive. They can even survive in full sun, though I don't think they look entirely happy there.

They are bonafide water misers, among the most drought-tolerant plants I know. I never feel the need to water mine, even in our rain-starved spring months. They do occasionally get scale and sooty mold, but neither are a huge problem and can be managed with a dousing of insecticidal soap or Neem oil. 

Coonties are good choices for coastal landscapes because they tolerate salt pretty well. And they scoff at cold weather. What's not to love?

I have about a dozen coonties in my landscape. I now know that there is some point during the late winter or spring when they will look like they're about to croak. Their fronds turn brown and droopy. Perhaps they suffer from some botanical Seasonal Affective Disorder. 

But just when I start to get really worried about them, they bounce back. So now I don't worry anymore.

Coonties are very slow-growing. It's illegal to harvest them from the wild, so the coonties you see in landscapes are all nursery stock. It at least 3-4 years for a coontie to reach a marketable 1-gallon size. Nursery growers invest a lot of time in them; that's why they are fairly expensive plants. 

But, Holy Cycad, are they resilient and durable! I love to see them in mass plantings, where they make a beautiful, fern-like groundcover up to 3 feet high. 

Female coontie cone

I love plants that are dioecious, meaning they have both male and female specimens. The female coontie produces a large, chubby seed pod that resembles a pine cone. The male's cone is much smaller and more slender. That's the only way to tell them apart.

Male coontie cone

The seedpods split open and eventually drop large seeds covered with a rubbery, orange coating called a "sarotesta" (No, I'm not that smart. I looked it up in the University of FLorida's EDIS plant info database!) In nature, this outer layer is removed by passing through the digestive systems of animals, being eaten by bugs, or by naturally disintegrating over time.

One year I tried to raise my own coontie pups. I eagerly scooped up the seeds, put them in a bucket of water to soften the tough orange coating and then used a pocketknife to scrape off some of the coating and nick, or "scarify" the hard pod beneath. 

I planted the seeds in nursery pots in loose-packed, well-drained soil, and waited. And waited. And waited.

Months later, a few of the seeds sprouted. Well, three out of 25 to be exact. Not exactly a result to crow about.

Since then, I decided to let Mother Nature do the germinating for me. Each year, I wait till the babies pop up, then I transplant them into pots and give them away. Sharing the "cooties." To me, that's what Florida gardening is all about.

Do you have this tough-as-nails Florida native in your landscape?

New Year's Resolutions for True Floridians

Let's make 2013 the year we kick our bad gardening habits and embrace gardening like the Floridians we are now, no matter where we came from or how we got here.

So fellow Sunshine Staters, back away from the power tools and pesticides, take a deep breath, and repeat after me: 

-- I WILL remove a small section of grass in my yard and replace it with... NO, not rocks!! How about a curvy bed of shrubs and groundcovers, or a colorful butterfly garden, a small water feature, or even a flagstone or pea gravel pathway?  

Curving walkways like this one featured on the 2012 Native Landscape Tour in Pinellas add visual interest to a landscape. Remember: there are very few straight lines in Nature!

-- I WILL remember rain doesn't water fertilizer in, it washes it away, straight into our bays, lakes, rivers and the Gulf of Mexico. I WON'T use fertilizer in the summer, and I WILL use slow-release fertilizer the rest of the year to prevent water pollution.

-- I WILL use the Right Plant in the Right Place. I WON'T be taken in by all those pretty plants in the nursery or garden center that rope me into those impulse buys. Instead, I will do my homework first, so I buy only the pretty ones that will actually thrive in the growing conditions they'll face in my yard.

-- I WILL plant at least one native plant in my landscape this year.

Native Dotted horsemint
(Monarda punctata) 

-- I WILL have my lawn mower blade sharpened this year, and make sure the blade is set at the right height for my grass (3-4" for St. Augustine) so my long-suffering lawn won't be scalped like a Parris Island recruit. Booyah!!

-- I WILL finally learn how to use the timer on my irrigation system so I can turn it OFF when I don't need to water every week, such as during winter when grass is dormant, or summer when it rains all the time.

 -- I WILL learn to love mulch with abandon, except for cypress mulch. I WON'T buy that, because it's made from cypress trees that Mother Nature needs in her swamps.

-- I WON'T scream and run for the poison when I see a bug (even a Big! Hairy! Spider!) in my garden. I WILL remember that 99% of all insects are either beneficial to us, or harmless to us, including spiders.

Reprinted from an article I wrote for the December issue of the Be Floridian newsletter
__________________________________________________________

   So, which of these resolutions are you ready to tackle in this new year? How many have you already checked off in your landscape?

  

Happy New Year from our Bay-Friendly Landscape to Yours!