Bay-Friendly Landscaping

Nature's Calendar on a Fast Track

2012-01-23T18:57:00.001-05:00

As we bask smugly in vintage Florida postcard weather this winter, let's pause for a moment to remember the roller-coaster ride of the previous two years:

Early 2010 was marked by the coldest January in a century, including 10 straight nights of temperatures near or below freezing.
The Summer of 2010 was the warmest on record for West Central Florida, with 151 days of temperatures that reached or exceeded 90 degrees.
December 2010 was the coldest December on record, with not one but TWO early freezes.
Summer 2011 was among the 10 warmest ever in West Central Florida.
The mercury hasn't let up in this winter of 2011-2012, with no end in sight to the exceptionally mild temps we've had so far.

Everything in Nature happens for a reason, and so it is with the wild weather fluctuations. Blame it on our changing climate.

Winter surprise: Blanket flower (Gaillardia) still going strong

I suspect not very many gardeners would argue that climate change isn't upon us. We see it with our own eyes. Flowers blooming earlier, leaves changing color later, or birds and butterflies coming and going sooner or later than expected. In my own garden, I've already had a few monarch butterflies hatching, my native Walter's viburnum is starting to produce its fragrant white flowers about two months early, and my red passion flower-- which normally dies back to the ground in winter - hasn't stopped blooming at all!

What winter surprises do you have in your garden?

Passion vine in full bloom in January!!

Rather than call it Global Warming, a more accurate term is Climate Disruption, or simply Climate Change.The earth's climate overall is growing warmer (and ours in West Central Florida along with it), but the trajectory is not a straight line, but instead a meandering one with all sorts of extremes thrown into the mix. Record cold, record heat, more intense storms, floods and drought. Think of all the catastrophic, record-setting weather events of just the past year: the Japanese tsunami, the horrendous tornadoes in Missouri, Alabama and North Carolina; the earthquakes in Virginia and New Zealand; the unbelievable flooding from Hurricane Irene.

Never thought I'd see wild cotton
in bloom this time of year

Gardeners, with their finely tuned powers of observation and love of nature, are perfect assistants for scientists studying the effects of climate change on plants and animals. That is why I am co-sponsoring, through my job with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, a workshop to recruit gardeners and other interested people to participate in a program called Nature's Notebook. I took this workshop myself last year and loved it. As I walk around my yard, I note which of the plants in the national database that are in my yard are blooming or budding, or actively growing.

Ditto for the birds, amphibians, insects and mammals that I see. I make note of the biological phase (singing, nesting, feeding, etc.) and then submit my observations online to the Nature's Notebook database, using simple electronic observation sheets. It's fun, easy and makes me feel like I am making a small but important contribution to scientific understanding of our natural world and how it is responding to our changing climate.

The workshop is Saturday, Feb. 11 from 9 a.m.- 2 p.m. at the Hillsborough County Extension Service. It is being taught by a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, one of the lead agencies in the Nature's Notebook partnership.

For more information and to register, visit www.tbep.org

Hope to see some of my gardening pen pals there!

Warm welcome: A monarch just after emerging from its chrysalis this January

Not Quite Ready For Prime Time

2011-11-09T19:54:00.001-05:00

Last year, the good folks in the City of Tampa Water Conservation Department asked me to be in a video about efficient lawn irrigation. Now, of course, we all know I do not have a sprinkler system -- heck, I don't even have a lawn! But they were convinced that I looked like just the sort of "average homeowner" they needed for this video. They even made it sound FUN.

In all honesty, it was fun -- despite the fact the outdoor filming took place in July and August -- what were they thinking? -- when I could literally feel the sweat running down my body and the makeup sliding off my face.

This is a 30-minute video, so be warned! Feel free to fast forward until you find the particular aspect of sprinkler system care and maintenance you want to know more about.

They gave me lots of great instruction and encouragement, and a very good teleprompter, and I did my best. We filmed at communities in New Tampa, which all seem to have large lawns and in-ground sprinkler systems and pretty high water use. I kept looking around and thinking about how wonderful it would be to create some layered landscape beds to replace some of the St. Augustine carpet. I loved it when they gave me a set of pruning shears to illustrate how to trim plants that are obstructing sprinkler heads. In fact, the pruning shears were really the only tool they gave me that I actually knew how to use. Despite appearances, I had never even seen a swing joint, flexible polytubing or a PVC saw before. Ask my husband, who is greatly amused by my apparent tool-savviness in the video.

Participating in the video reminded me of how important it is to water efficiently, no matter what your landscape. It is a fact that maintaining turfgrass generally requires more effort (and more water) than maintaining my grass-free xeriscape. But HOW you maintain your landscape is just as important as what KIND of landscape you have. A landscape with no grass at all can be a water hog if you have an automatic sprinkler system that isn't installed or programmed correctly.

Among the most common problems I see with sprinkler systems are improperly placed sprinkler heads or rotors that water driveways, streets and sidewalks instead of vegetation (contributing to stormwater runoff) and missing or malfunctioning rain sensors. I also see many broken sprinkler heads -- they are easy to run over in a car -- and often the homeowners don't even know the head is gushing like Old Faithful because the system comes on while they are snoozing.

This video's for those people. Really, they are just like me. And if this persuades even one person to fix a leaking head, or move a spray rotor or even replace a section of turf with drought-tolerant plants, then I'll be proud.

By the way, did you remember to reset your irrigation timer when the time changed last weekend?

Scary Critters Are Haunting My Garden!

2011-10-27T22:04:00.001-04:00

Since it's almost Halloween, when ghouls, ghosts and goblins are about, I thought it would be fun to look at a few of the fierce creatures I've found in my garden over the past year.

Leading off the Fright Parade has to be the gargantuan mama wolf spider I unearthed not long ago while cleaning out a plant bed. I immediately started shrieking, but somehow managed to refrain from bolting -- my typical spider reaction (see Blog Post titled "Confessions of a Spider Sissy"). When I calmed down, I noticed she was standing over a large egg sac, which she refused to leave even when my husband came running out in response to my screams, ready to squash her under his shoe. I could actually see her looking up at me warily, clearly ready to die to protect her precious eggs. You guessed it: I couldn't kill her. She was an expectant mother.

Instead, my husband brought me my camera, and I knelt down close enough to get this cool photo of her guarding her egg sac. For a severe arachno-phobic like me, this alone was a miracle. But when I backed away, she immediately crawled off the egg sac, dug a hole in the plant bed, came back, rolled the egg sac into the hole and then got inside herself, vanishing without a trace as she covered up the hole behind her. All this happened in less than a minute, and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed. This spider may have changed my entire view of the species!

Last weekend I was reading the Sunday newspaper when what appeared to be a small wolf spider crawled across the page. Aha, I thought. I know your mother.

Then there was the beautiful black and yellow argiope that set up housekeeping last fall underneath our gutters on the back deck. My husband grew quite fond of the big girl and would occasionally toss a gift of a roach or beetle into her web. I read that argiopes are a common garden spider but, sadly, we haven't seen one this year.

Another fearsome insect that is common in my garden is the assassin bug. Though they reputedly have a very painful bite, I leave them alone and they do the same to me.

Assassin bugs are named for their habit of lying in ambush for their prey, and then striking with startling speed and accuracy. They use their long "beak" to stab and inject a lethal toxin that dissolves their victim's innards so they can then suck up the liquified tissues. Oh the horror!

Fortunately the assassin bug eats many bad bugs, so best to live and let live.

Finally, let's end with my snakelike yard buddy, the glass lizard. Not a snake at all, but a true legless lizard, about 12-18 inches long, with tiny earholes and a remarkable ability to break off its own tail when captured -- thus the name "glass" lizard. We have several of these fascinating creatures sharing our landscape, and they live underground most of the time. We see them in duff, hiding deep underneath mulch, and even in our compost bin, The compost-dweller became a familiar sight, since he apparently lived in our compost bin for several weeks, making quite a living feasting on spiders, beetles, grubs and other creepy-crawlies there. We saw him every week when we watered and turned the compost, until he finally ran out of food, I guess, and moved on.

Now that I've given you a glimpse into my haunted garden, it's your turn. What's the scariest creature in yours?

Beating Winter to the Punch

2011-10-16T20:23:00.001-04:00

Readers of this blog will recall that it was the record-shattering freeze of January 2010 (remember the 10 straight freezing nights?) that launched us on our Extreme Yard Makeover. Like many folks, we lost darn near every plant in our yard. That's when we decided to "do it over, and do it right."

And so we did. In addition to following the "right plant, right place" approach, we also embraced "right plant, right region." We wanted cold-hardy plants that would survive a North Tampa winter. Not only does this make sense, it saves cents -- as in not having to continually replace plants each spring.

Beautyberry is a cold-hardy native that flourishes throughout the Southeast U.S.

It also saves us from having to dash around the yard wrapping and covering everything in our path on a cold night, when we'd rather be drinking hot chocolate in front of our fireplace.

Yet our attitude appears to be unusual, even in our own neighborhood. No doubt about it: residents of Tampa Bay love their tropicals!

We live in USDA Hardiness Zone 9A, though I often select plants from 9B as well. Anything below that is a no-go, unless it can grow in a container that can be moved inside during freezes. In fact, just to show I am not immune to the tropical allure, I recently purchased a stunning heliconia at the USF Fall Plant Sale. But I bought it expressly for a large container, and that is where it will stay. I can imagine, however, that my husband will have a few choice words for it -- and me -- when it comes time for us to tag team this hefty thing of beauty into the shed.

I was heartened to see that many of the vendors at the plant sale -- especially the Native Plant Society -- were actively promoting cold-hardy species. I bought two more rouge plants from them to go with the single lonely specimen I now have.

Ocala (yellow) anise is a cold-weather champion.
When crushed, its leaves smell like -- you guessed it -- anise.

We may not always have winter freezes, but I'm not betting against them. We are in a period of intense climate disruption, and on our way to overall warmer temperatures we are seeing wild extremes in climate.

A major motivation for our landscape makeover was to save time. In the Spring, we'd rather be fishing or cycling than planting. And we sure don't want to have to keep shelling out our hard-earned money for new plants over and over again.

Yet the lure of tropicals is so strong for many of us - why is that? All of Florida is certainly not Miami, yet to look at the most common landscaping plants here you'd think it was. Sago and royal palms, ti plants, crotons, and bougainvilleas abound. And none can tolerate freezing temperatures for long. Some can't even take temperatures in the mid-40s -- and you can be sure we will see those every winter.

Of course, there are always exceptions. Cold-sensitive plants grown along a fence, with a southern exposure, may do fine. Ditto for plants grown under the insulating warmth of an oak's canopy. This is where "right plant, right place" comes back into play. We were amazed at the way our large live oak served as a natural blanket for everything in our front yard. This is why our dracaena marginata tricolor, a definite tropical, flourishes there. Only the threesome on the very perimeter of the oak canopy showed any cold damage at all last winter, and then it was very little. Yet another reason to salute live oaks!

Our tri-color dracaenas are now 4 feet tall and
quite happy under the shelter of our large live oak

Some of our choices are marginal for our hardiness zone, but experience has shown they will come back strong even after dying back completely over the winter. Wild coffee is one of those, as is firebush. We can live with them getting whacked every winter because we know they'll "Spring" right back.

But the vast majority of the landscape is cold-hardy, for a reason. We learned our lesson in 2010.

The distinctive Weeping Yaupon Holly makes a lovely small specimen tree

Specimen trees like East Palatka and Weeping Yaupon hollies; foundational shrubs like Ocala anise, beautyberry, coontie and blue-stem saw palmetto; and groundcovers like bulbine, evergreen liriope and asiatic jasmine, take everything Old Man Winter can throw their way. Even flax lily and chenille plant, used extensively as groundcovers in our garden, weather the cold with little damage, indicating that there is some wiggle room with those hardiness zones depending on the specific conditions in which they are grown.

All it takes is a little thought, and planning -- and maybe a bit of luck as well -- to beat winter to the punch!

Seeing Familiar Friends in a New Light

2011-10-13T12:21:00.002-04:00

While bicycling recently on the beautiful Withlacoochee Trail, I was treated to the spectacular sight of masses of native dotted horsemint in full bloom on either side of the trail, which runs 46 miles through the Withlacoochee State Forest. When it blooms in such profusion, horsemint is a showstopper. Ironically, I hardly even notice it the rest of the year, even in my own garden.

Muhly grass in bloom is a thing of beauty

The same is true for many of the fall bloomers in my yard. Take muhly grass, another native readily adaptable to home landscapes. Without its spectacular feathery pink plumes it just looks like a rather unkempt clump of tall grass. Handsome, yes. A head tuner? Not so much. But when it blooms, as mine is finally doing, it demands your attention! I have been looking forward to its debut for weeks.

Ditto for my cassia shrubs, which are just now setting those bright yellow flower clusters that will keep blooming right though winter. Or the native yellowtop wildflowers shown below, also resplendent with golden crowns.

Even the very drab native poinsettia, which pops up unbidden all over my butterfly garden, looks truly lovely with its delicate red face. This Florida version of Indian paintbrush brings some early holiday cheer to the garden!

But this year's award for impressive fall color has to go to my narrowleaf (swamp) sunflowers.They are at glorious peak bloom right now, helped by last weekend's slow, soaking rains, and they are fully 12 feet tall. Indeed, in the many years I have grown this native wildflower, I have never seen it reach such towering heights. Giant sunflowers, yes, but this native wildflower species, no. Perhaps its astounding growth is a result of the abundance of rainfall at my home this summer. Maybe it's my compost-enriched soil. Who knows? But these yellow flowers are soaring above my 6-foot back fence like giraffes.

Narrowleaf sunflowers towering over my 6-foot fence

I have even had neighbors walking by my house comment on them. I had to stake and tie them to the fence just to keep them from toppling over!

I like to cut the sunflowers and put them in vases in my house -- although short-lived, they brighten up any space. As you can imagine, I practically need a javelin to reach them this year.

A nursery grower who raises swamp sunflowers told me I can keep them from getting so out of control next fall by pruning them in mid-July. This will limit their growth to a reasonable 5 or 6 feet, while still allowing plenty of time for the flower buds to form.

Definitely a game plan for next year. In the meantime, I'll continue to marvel at my "sunflowers on steroids" and hope that my back yard isn't cited for interference with commercial air space!

What familiar friends do you look forward to seeing anew in the fall in your garden?

Tour of Native Landscapes

2011-09-26T16:55:00.001-04:00

This past weekend I went on a tour of native plant landscapes sponsored by the Pinellas Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society. This annual event is a self-guided tour of homes featuring all or mostly native plants. The tour is two days -- with South Pinellas homes on Saturday and North Pinellas locations on Sunday. Last year I did the South Pinellas tour -- this year I decided to see what homeowners in North Pinellas are up to, figuring that their climate, soils and plant selections would be more similar to my Tampa landscape.

On any garden tour, It's always inspiring to see what clever, creative ideas other gardeners are implementing that I might want to "borrow" myself. I always take photos to jog my memory later when I'm looking for an interesting planting scheme or a new way to use yard art.

This tour has the special twist of featuring an amazing variety of native plants -- most of which, sadly, can be only be purchased from a native plant nursery or grown from cuttings or seeds bestowed by generous native-loving friends (which is how I got most of my more unusual natives).

I tend to prefer landscapes with structure and design, and I found plenty to like on the North Pinellas tour, like this inviting natural path in a Clearwater back yard lined with firebush, beautyberry, tropical sage and ironweed.

I was also captivated by the charming seating area at this home, framed by an arbor bursting with coral honeysuckle, a favorite nectar source of hummingbirds.

Water features were present at almost all the homes. I loved this waterfall cascading down to a quiet pool bordered by ferns, salvias and other overhanging plants that give it a lush, tropical feel.

Or this large, beautyberry-fringed pond at a Safety Harbor home.

At the tour stop in Oldsmar, I admired the way the owners blended the natural vegetation -- pines and palmettoes -- with unusual natives like Lizard's tail and even exotics like crinum lilies and orchids. The landscape islands were bisected by a beautiful, curving brick walkway.

Who wouldn't want to sit here and just enjoy the scenery?

Or wander down the brick walkways and explore some more?

Yard art aficionado that I am, you know I honed right in on these whimsical little slippers planted with lovely native wood violets.

I don't think my own yard will ever be entirely native -- there are just so many wonderful non-native but Florida-adapted choices available -- but I love mixing the natives into my garden. They can't be beat for toughness and resilience, and our native butterflies and birds often prefer or even require them. As time goes on, I am bringing more natives, especially wildflowers like this dotted horsemint, into my landscape, joining the tropical sage, scorpion tail, mistflowers and narrow-leaved sunflowers in my Bay-Friendly plant palette.

The Fruits of our Labor

2011-09-01T08:55:00.000-04:00

Labor Day is the perfect time for all of us to put down the trowels and shovels, grab an ultra-cold glass of iced tea, take a comfy seat on our porches and patios, and just admire the fruits of our labor -- our beautiful gardens.

In the Bay-Friendly Landscape, the lushness of summer is still evident. Our yard has grown dramatically this year, thanks to abundant rain. We have not provided any supplemental water in at least two months. My primary chore this summer has been pruning, and pruning, and pruning again.

Butterflies and moths continue to visit, although their numbers are now tapering off. Sulphurs are the most abundant now, and their caterpillars are keeping the cassias nicely in check.

Sulphur caterpillar munching cassia

Recently, we have been serenaded in the evenings by an extremely loud cicada orchestra. I was lucky enough to see one of these gigantic, pop-eyed insects on the ground, presumably right after emerging as an adult in its winged state. But not lucky enough to have my camera with me, unfortunately.

Can anyone identify this moth -- perhaps a duskywing? It was feeding on the native mistflowers.

The lovely carefree caladiums are still going strong, their happy faces lining our front walkway by the funny antique sink that we use as a bird bath.

Fall is showing its colors already, in the festive purple beads draping the beautyberries, in the first feathery pink plumes on the muhly grass, and in the berries popping out on the East Palatka hollies.

As if they are running out of time,the chaste tree is sending up a furious shower of violet blossoms, and the majestic beauty hawthorne is putting out an unexpected second bloom.

Everywhere, things are happening, growing, changing.

But I'm just going to sit here for a while, quietly, and do nothing. It is Labor Day, after all.

Natives Gone Wild!

2011-08-21T17:45:00.009-04:00

When we first embarked on our landscape makeover in January 2010, we wanted to create a yard that would inspire others to step outside the traditional Florida landscape box -- a large expanse of lawn with a border of shrubs around the house, and a palm tree plunked here and there.

Beach sunflower is a colorful summer favorite

Working with landscape designer Lisa Strange we decided on a mix of native and non-native, but Florida-compatible plants. And, of course, as you all know, no grass. I asked Lisa to include plants that anyone could readily find at their local nursery or home improvement store.Thus our landscape features familiar friends like liriope, shell ginger, flax lily and African iris -- all of which I love and recommend highly.

But as time goes on I am drawn more and more to our resilient, adaptable natives. One that was slow to grow on me (pun intended) was the Ocala anise, a shrub we use as a foundational plant along our back fence. Last year when we planted them, I had to water them literally every day for months. I think I would have ripped them out if not for the the fact that I invested so much sweat equity in getting them in our root-infested back yard to begin with!

The anise have been amazingly carefree and drought-tolerant this year.I haven't given them any supplemental water since May and they look very happy.

Likewise with the coontie. I now realize that there is some point during every year when the coontie looks like it is at death's door, then it just bounces right back.

This summer I have added a few native wildflowers, with the emphasis on "wild." Some have grown so large and so abundantly they appear to be on steroids. The two narrow-leaved sunflowers planted last year have become multiple plants this year -- and they are nearly 9 feet tall! I had to stake most of them up to keep them from toppling over from sheer bulk, and they haven't even bloomed yet.

The distinctive Scorpion Tail

Another champion wildflower this year is the delicate, leafy scorpion tail, with its distinctive curly white "tail." Again, I started with two plants. Those two spread so rapidly and became so large I've had to prune them 3 times already to keep them from literally taking over my butterfly bed.

Mistflower can become invasive, and requires reining in occasionally

Not far behind is the dainty mistflower, with its fuzzy, pale blue blossoms and leaves that look much like a salvia. I purchased one plant last year, it didn't impress me much and then disappeared completely over the winter. To my surprise, it returned this year, with a vengeance. I now have a large beautiful clump of these pastel beauties and will have to keep it under control through pruning and pulling.

A close look at dotted horsemint
reveals its exquisite beauty

Tropical sage with GIANT
narrow-leaved sunflowers in back

Tropical sage has reached near-invasive status in my yard. It grows to more than 4 feet high and spreads so readily that I am constantly yanking "strays" up and trying to pawn them off to friends, neighbors, total strangers -- anyone, please take them!

I have been noticing lovely dotted horsemint blooming along roadsides and in wild areas, and am hoping the lone horsemint planted this year in my garden will morph into a whole family next summer. I've left it some room to roam in anticipation.

Other natives I have just planted this year include spiderwort, blue-eyed grass, iron weed, greeneyes and elephant's foot. Most were given to me by friends who are just as enthusiastic about these True Floridian as I am becoming. With many natives so hard to find except at specialty nurseries, sharing extras from your garden is a great way to promote their increased use in residential landscapes.

I'd love to know what native wildflowers have caught your fancy this summer!

Confessions of a Spider Sissy

2011-08-08T11:03:00.010-04:00

Female black and yellow argiope,
a common garden spider

Since we have decided not to use any toxic chemicals in our yard, I have had to resign myself to living with creepy-crawly things like spiders. I've even grown to like some of the spiders, like the beautiful female black and yellow argiope that crafted a stunning wheel-shaped web under one of our gutters last fall.

I also admire the pretty little basilica spiders that have built their elaborate three-dimensional webs in so many of our shrubs (see May 2011 posting).

I have even become positively fearless about taking very close-up photos of these spiders with my macro lens.This amazes my husband, who learned early on in our dating days that a normal conversation interrupted by a sudden "shriek and bolt" means only that I have spotted a spider, not that I disapprove of his choice of outfits.

Once, on a remote island in the Bahamas, I actually jumped out of a moving car in a complete, brain-freeze of a panic when I saw a HUGE spider crawling on the inside window rim. Fortunately Rick was driving slowly on a dirt road and I was not hurt. Even though he got the spider out of the car, I spend the entire rest of the trip constantly inspecting every inch of that car.

The spiders in my compost bin illicit the same response. They are big, brown, hairy, hideous things. Wolf spiders? I don't know, because I don't stick around to examine them. I Shriek and Bolt immediately. I admit it -- I am a total and complete Spider Sissy. I am not generally a fast mover, but let me tell you I practically teleport when I see one of those monsters.

I do not recall the instructor in my composting workshop saying anything about GINORMOUS, GARGANTUAN hairy spiders in the compost bin. She showed us pictures and collection jars of worms, sowbugs, beetles, and little spiders. Little, non nightmare-producing spiders.

This photo is by Peter Hollinger, not me.
I am NEVER going to get close
enough to a spider like this
to get a photo of it.

Rick also recently found a black widow in the compost bin. I may never open the lid again.

My rational side knows that spiders are useful, beneficial creatures. They are attracted to the compost bin because it contains a wealth of easily available insect prey for them. They like dark, moist places. That is their nature.

I'm not getting rid of the compost bin. I love the rich, earthy soil it produces for my herb garden, my butterfly plants and my vegetable Earth boxes. I love knowing that we are not throwing good organic matter into the trash but instead are recycling it.

And I know if I wear good gloves when working with the compost I should not have a problem with spider bites. But I can't help it. If I see one of the monsters, I will SHRIEK AND BOLT. That is my nature.

We do have a secret weapon that we discovered while turning the compost a few weeks ago. A sleek, beautiful glass lizard, about 20 inches long. At first we thought it was a snake, but a close look (snakes don't trigger my shriek-and-bolt mechanism) showed us the little ear holes and head of a legless lizard. These fascinating creatures are called "glass lizards" because they can actually break off their tail if a predator grabs it to escape.

My Hero -- our spider-eating glass lizard.

We see our lizard in the compost bin nearly every time we turn the compost. We are now careful with our little pitchforks not to harm it because this little guy eats -- you guessed it -- spiders! Other insects too, but spiders are apparently a mainstay. Hallelujah!!

The glass lizard comes and goes from the compost through one of the air holes in the compost bin. We watched him slide through the hole when we disturbed him, but the next time we turned the compost he was there again.

Since it's actually the bacteria and fungi that do most of the work in breaking down the compost, I am quite happy to have this glass lizard feasting on any insects he finds in the bin. In fact, I'd like to roll out a welcome mat for him in the bin, or give him a little sign that says "Guard Lizard On Duty," if I weren't afraid to open the lid by myself now.

I think I'll ask my husband to do it for me.

Why I Love My Bay-Friendly Landscape This July

2011-07-12T20:23:00.013-04:00

Yes indeed. I am loving my low-maintenance, low-impact landscape right now. Let me count the ways -- at least a few of them:

1. While up and down my street I hear the sounds of lawn mowers and weed whackers, silence reigns in my yard. Wait! What's that I hear? Oh, just a bird singing.

2. I can watch my neighbors drowning in sweat as they labor in their yards while I sit on my front porch with a cool umbrella drink in hand. I'm thinking I really need to get that porch swing I've always wanted.

3. My rain gauges are now rarely empty. No more dragging hoses and buckets of water from the rain barrel to quench my plants' thirst. It's finally raining, nearly every day. And the plants look so dang PURTY after it rains.

4. Summer means butterflies! Several visit my yard each day. I am never too busy to stop and watch them. Last week our first sulphur butterfly laid eggs on one of the cassia shrubs. Our black swallowtail caterpillar has gone off to form a chrysalis. And a few more monarchs have emerged from their little cases, though we still haven't been lucky enough to catch one in the act.

5. July gives me the best of both worlds: My summer flowers are at peak bloom, AND some of the fall bloomers are just starting to produce blossoms too. Double delight!

Liriope is beginning its fall bloom cycle

My beautyberry is also producing lovely little pink blooms

I still can't believe it myself, but my grass-free yard really is a breeze to maintain. My biggest chores are deadheading and pruning the flowers and shrubs that are growing like there's no tomorrow. And every couple of weeks, Rick or I use our leaf blower to blow leaves off our walkways back into our landscape beds. We STILL have had virtually no weeds this year-- and the few that do sprout are easily pulled out by hand. Other than that, we spend a lot of time just admiring all our beautiful plants and wondering why the heck we didn't embark on our landscape makeover years ago. Bring on August -- we're ready!

Coleus is a versatile plant that comes in several different varieties,
perfect for mixing and matching

Our landscape earned designation as a
Florida-Friendly Yard last year

The Nursery is Open

2011-06-30T21:35:00.000-04:00

Is there anything more beautiful in nature than a butterfly? These fluttering slivers of stained glass are easy to attract to your garden all summer long.

The Gulf fritillary is a frequent visitor to my garden

Passionvine is a fritillary favorite

Butterflies need host plants (where they lay their eggs), nectar plants and shelter. Provide these and they will come!

Monarch laying eggs on milkweed

I am a butterfly novice, but there are so many wonderful references available from people who are true experts in the subject. For those who want to delve deeper I recommend these for starters:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw057
Butterfly Gardening in Florida
(University of Florida IFAS publication: an excellent overview!)

http://www.afn.org/~afn10853/butterfly.html
Florida Butterfly Gardening

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw311
Native Habitats for Monarch Butterflies in South Florida
(A must-read for all who love monarchs because of the concerns it raises about scarlet milkweed, the milkweed species most commonly sold and which most of us rely on to attract monarchs. Without a readily-available alternative, I am going to keep my scarlet milkweed, but I'll be on the lookout for other varieties too.)

http://lepcurious.blogspot.com/2011/01/preparing-for-caterpillar-season.html
A wonderful Blog about the Butterfly Garden at the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa.

In my garden I am learning as I go (aren't we all?). Last year we so enjoyed all the monarchs that came to our milkweed that I decided to see what else we could entice. This Spring I planted parsley for black swallowtails and cassia for sulfurs. Our first black swallowtail cat is now dining on the parsley, but the cassias have so far been ignored by the sulfur,.

Our first black swallowtail baby

My passionvine, which had just been getting a growth headwind after dying back to the ground over the summer, has already been stripped bare by the first batch of Gulf fritillary caterpillars. No worries -- it will come right back. Plus, I transplanted some a month ago to another section of fence and the fritillary scouts haven't yet found that one.

I'm also making more of an effort to learn about and provide a variety of nectar plants for butterflies of many species. I have really boosted the number of native wildflowers in my garden, thanks partly to gifts from friends, and now have mistflower, salvia, ironweed, elephant's foot, purple coneflower, horsemint, scorpion tail, blanket flower, narrow-leaved sunflowers, yellowtop, greeneyes and ironweed. Listing all of them has made me realize how much I seem to be trending toward native plants in my butterfly gardens.

Many of our native trees also are excellent nectar sources, including the Chickasaw plum and Walter's viburnum. I don't really see butterflies on mine, but the bees are crazy for the small white Viburnum blossom each Spring -- and the even smaller, but equally irresistible East Palatka holly blooms.

While on vacation recently in coastal North Carolina, I saw a lovely little butterfly garden in a boutique shopping village, with a sign identifying it as a "Certified Monarch Waystation." When I got home and looked this up, I discovered it is a program of Monarch Watch, sponsored by the University of Kansas. The program encourages homeowners, schools and businesses to create an oasis for monarchs during their long migration to Mexico. You fill out an application stating which of the monarch essentials you have provided and, if you qualify, you receive a certificate designating your habitat as a "Monarch Waystation." The certification costs $16 and there is an additional fee if you want the very handsome aluminum sign to place in your garden. My cynical husband views this program as just another way to part silly old me from my hard-earned money, but I think it is a great way to draw attention to the beautiful monarchs and show that you are giving nature a hand.

Our newest monarch chrysalis, draped in raindrops

What are your favorite butterfly plants? And, how many of you are seeing zebra longwings (our state butterfly) in your yards? I have not seen any for more than a year in mine. Am wondering if the severe winter of 2010 had anything to do with that.

The Tool I Can't Live Without, and General Ruminations on Rain

2011-06-15T09:48:00.000-04:00

There is one tool no Florida-Friendly gardener should be without -- a rain gauge.

The lack of rain at my Central Tampa home lately has me thinking about the value of this handy little device. It rules my world in a way no other tool does, especially in the dry months of the year. If I am not home when it rains, all I have to do is check my rain gauge to see how much water I've received. If it's a half-inch or more, I'm in high cotton! My plants are good to go for up to a week -- or longer, for the beds in deep shade.

This is a BIG DEAL for us as we have no irrigation system at all. Our landscape relies solely on rainfall, or hand-watering. Sure, we planted mostly drought-tolerant plants, but even they need some water.

An in-ground rain gauge

A rain gauge mounted on our fence

Standing in the heat after a long day at work and hand-watering (with a shut-off nozzle, please!) is not my idea of fun. Nor is lugging water from our three rain barrels. In fact, we actually have a micro-irrigation starter kit we have yet to install, but that is on our to-do list to help get us through these dry months before the rainy season begins. (I promise we'll install it, Virginia!)

Rain gauges are even more important for people with irrigation systems and turfgrass. If you know it has rained a half-inch or more the day or two before your official lawn-watering day, turn off the automatic timer and save yourself some money and all of us some water for our future.

Last Friday, it rained. Or so I thought. As soon as I pulled into my driveway, I went to check the rain gauge. It showed a paltry one-tenth of an inch. I checked my other rain gauge, hoping that there was a leak in the first one. No difference. Rain gauges are just not like those mirrors in the department stores that make you look much thinner in that cute pair of jeans on sale. They don't lie.

So, we watch and wait, and hope for dark clouds and thunder any day now.

FOOTNOTES:

Even if your rain gauges are bone dry, let your garden tell you when it needs water. This is true whether you have grass or groundcovers. Our landscape is proving to be a lot tougher than even we hoped. I babied everything last year because it was new, but now I am making myself resist the urge to water until I see plants wilting. Then they perk right back up.

Turfgrass needs water when the blades fold, or when you can see your footprints in the grass.

I water selectively. Beds in full sun, such as my butterfly garden, need to be watered more often than those in deep shade.

Oakleaf hydrangea and caladiums in deep shade are very water-thrifty

New plants always need to be watered frequently for the first few weeks, until they get a toehold in their new home. This is true even for our native and Florida-Friendly plants. New trees need LOTS of water. They are major investments; treat them with love.

When you do water, water deeply at the root zone. Don't just give the foliage a quick spray and think you're done. Water less frequently, but apply more water when you do. This encourages roots to grow deep and strong so they require less water over time. This is true for grass and ornamentals. If you have an irrigation system, find out how to do a "catch-can test" here to determine how long your zones need to run.

Finally, plant the Right Plant in the Right Place and save yourself some trouble from the start. Impatiens in sunny spots need water every day in the summer.My African iris and bulbine, on the other hand, never seem to need supplemental watering, and they bask in brutal sun all day.

Our front yard has a mix of full shade, part shade and full sun.
Plants are grouped according to their sun and water needs.

Swappin' and Sweatin' in Seminole Heights

2011-05-27T10:00:00.000-04:00

Last weekend my neighbor Virginia and I hosted our first Plant Swap. What a fun morning!

Virginia invited a few of her fellow Hillsborough County Master Gardeners and I invited a few friends and colleagues I have come to know through both Seminole Heights neighborhood activities and my work for the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. Each person was asked to bring 10 plants to the swap -- pots, divisions, cuttings, seeds, whatever they chose. All told we had a nice, manageable group of 11 swappers.

Surveying the treasures

At least, we thought it was manageable. But get a group of women together on any sort of "shopping spree" and you can only imagine what could happen! (At this point, I must say that there were two men at the swap too, and they held their own).

To keep utter chaos at bay, we decided to assign each person a number and then go one by one in choosing plants. We started with the number 1 for the first round, and then the number 11 for the second round, so everybody had a fair shot at grabbing the plants they most coveted.

Virginia describing her plant swap contributions

Before we got to the swapping, though, each of us took a couple of minutes to describe the plants we brought and their preferred growing conditions. This was a good thing, because we had so many plants, and this gave us a chance to plan our "shopping" strategy to prioritize what we wanted most.

To speed things up -- and keep us from passing out in the heat - we encouraged people to take two plants at a time. Even with this, it took a while to get all the plants parcelled out, but nearly everything found a new home.

The diversity of the plants on display was impressive -- from uncommon natives like Elliot's lovegrass and Elephant's Foot, a lovely wildflower -- to purple firespike, red salvia, African iris and blackberry lilies. Amazingly, there were few duplicates -- everybody brought a different assortment, thought we certainly didn't coordinate plant selections ahead of time.

Lots of lovely plants

I really tried hard not to let my impulsive nature take over, with only partial success. I focused primarily on small shade plants, since I have so much shade, and container plants, since my landscape is pretty much fully planted at this point. But I did somehow end up with an entire bin of native canna lilies -- which I think will work out fine if I plant them near my Ocala anise bushes, since both require more water than anything else in my garden. Because I live close to the Hillsborough River, I am blessed with the rich, fertile soil that cannas prefer.

My new cannas waiting to be planted

Plant Swaps are a wonderful way to add diversity to your landscape at no cost, and what gardener doesn't love a bargain? They also are a fun way to connect with other gardening fanatics and share ideas and knowledge. Virginia and I agreed we would definitely host another Swap, in the Fall when it is cooler. Some of the Swappers also suggested having themed Swaps -- all seeds, for example, or edibles, or Florida natives. The possibilities are endless. After all, there's always room for one more plant, isn't there?

Several beautiful little peacock gingers found a home under my oak tree

Invasion of the Arachnid Army

2011-05-11T10:21:00.000-04:00

In the past three weeks, my garden has been invaded by an entire battalion of itsy bitsy spiders! I am not exaggerating when I say that almost ALL my shrubs and trees, and even many of my container plants, are now decorated with elaborate spider webs inhabited by anywhere from one to several of these pint-sized arachnids.

A Web search (pun intended) reveals that these are basilica spiders, so named because their webs purportedly resemble arching cathedral domes, although I fail to see a strong resemblance. I've had these spiders in my garden before, but this Spring they have taken over!

The spiders are only about an inch long, including legs, with a lovely green, white and yellow filigree design on their abdomens. Apparently the females have the green stripe, while the males have more yellow on their abdomens. I read that this design is intended to mimic an open mouth with tongue and fangs, presumably to ward off predators.

Unlike other spiders, the webs of basilicas are three-dimensional in shape, and they form an absolute maze of threads and anchor lines all going in different directions. The references say they often are found in groups in contiguous webs, and I can attest to that. My larger plants, such as a gorgeous bird's nest anthurium, are draped in a multi-level basilica condominium complex. I counted 15 basilicas in the anthurium alone!

Maze of webs in anthurium

My husband and friends know that I have severe arachnophobia. I once jumped out of a moving car to get away from a spider (Very Large! Very Scary!) on the inside window frame. Fortunately the car was not moving all that fast.

But I have found that when I have a camera in front of my face, I lose my fear of spiders. With my little macro lens, I will even get right in THEIR face. Which is a good thing, because spiders really are cool creatures.

Basilica spider duet

They are also very beneficial, eating all sorts of bad insects like gnats, flies and mosquitoes. So, I have left my basilicas in peace, hoping that eventually the population will find some sort of equilibrium before the military takeover of my yard is complete.

Has anyone else experienced the Invasion of the Arachnid Army in their garden?

Is Your Yard An Award Winner?

2011-05-01T21:06:00.000-04:00

Last year Rick and I were thrilled to be named the Community Water-Wise Award winners for Tampa for our grass-free Bay-Friendly Landscape. The lovely stepping stone we received in recognition is proudly displayed right by our front door.

The program, sponsored by Tampa Bay Water, is now accepting nominations for the 2011 awards. I know many readers of this blog have landscapes that are worthy of consideration for this award, and I urge you to nominate your yard at http://tampabaywaterwise.org. Entries are coordinated and judged by local water conservation coordinators as well as experts in eco-friendly landscaping with the county extension offices. Residents of Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, and the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and New Port Richey receive awards. Judges actually conduct a site visit to your home to view your landscaping and water-saving features.

There were few entries last year. I told my husband we may have won the award because we were the only people who bothered to enter!

I know there is a huge and growing (pun intended) interest in Florida-Friendly gardening, so it doesn't make sense that so few enter this competition. The application itself is simple, and there is no embrassment if you don't win. In fact, you'll receive a helpful letter detailing how you could improve your landscape to make it a stronger contender next time around. And, like us, you may even win! We actually were invited to accept our award at a Tampa City Council meeting -- what fun!

We're still riding the coattails of our brief flirtation with gardening fame. The city's water conservation staff recently visited our yard again to film a promotion for this year's Water-Wise Awards. It gave me another chance to talk about our water-saving landscape and the difference it has made in our quality of life. That segment is now airing throughout May on the City's TV channel (Verizon Channel 15 or Bright House Channel 615) during a program called "Spotlight Tampa." The city folks were kind enough to send me the video clip, and I have posted it here.

Don't be shy! If you've created an attractive, water-conserving urban oasis, please enter the awards program. More entries lend credibility to the sustainable, low-impact gardening principles we follow, and show others that we're not just a bunch of weirdo bug- and bunny-huggers, but thoughtful, informed and dedicated gardeners who prefer an alternative to the cookie-cutter view of suburban landscapes that clever marketing by the lawn care industry tells us we should have -- a sterile vista dominated by heavily manicured, chemically treated and excessively irrigated grass.

Spring Keeps Coming!

2011-04-19T21:02:00.000-04:00

My garden is looking more beautiful each day, with showy blossoms making a steady appearance as Spring's glory continues to reveal daily surprises.

Gaillardia, or blanket flower, is one of my favorites. It just looks happy to be alive. It is a great favorite of our bees as well.

Blanket flower seems to be one of those troopers that just keeps on blooming, no matter how hot or dry it gets. It also makes beautiful cut flowers for a vase.

At the very top of the preference list for bees again this year are our little East Palatka holly trees. Last year Rick and I were greatly amused by the swarms of bees that descended on the hollies when their tiny, almost inconspicuous white blossoms appeared. Would it happen again this year? You bet! For two weeks, the hollies were humming with bees from sunrise to sunset. We were sad to see the blossoms fade and fall.

I spent one Sunday morning with my face buried in the trees, camera shoved as close I could get to the bees, trying to take their picture, but this is the best I could do.

I did, however, find a more sedentary insect to photograph on my Shoal Creek chaste tree. Can anyone tell me what this is? I thought it was a stinkbug but at first, but that's not right. Perhaps a member of the praying mantis family? It has a lovely red proboscis, as you can see, and matching red-tinged legs. Quite fetching, I think, though I am not sure if this is a "good" bug or a "bad" bug. That workshop is coming up NEXT month at my library!

I continue to be pleasantly surprised at how low-maintenance our grass-free landscape is. We don't even seem to have the weed problem we had last year when we first planted everything. Our chores now consist of blowing leaves off our pathways occasionally (back into the mulched beds, of course!) and watering when needed. I enjoy strolling around with pruners in hand giving everything a touch-up too.

Of course, I am adding greatly to my gardening workload by refusing to let well enough alone. Now that I have discovered I can actually grow things, I can't seem to stop! So, I am continuing to add plants where the yard seems sparse, and to embark on any number of new projects. Does this sound familiar?

One of my new projects is nearly complete -- my bathtub herb garden. The clawfoot tub was a a Christmas gift from my husband, purchased for a song through Craigslist. We sanded it, then Rick drilled additional drain holes in the bottom (that was not easy!) and I painted it a soothing seafoam green. Because hot weather was rapidly approaching, I went ahead and planted my herbs in it, after learning from the Master Gardeners that most herbs need a bit of time to establish before Florida's steamy summer sets in. But I still intend to stencil dragonflies on the tub, once my artistic muse returns from wherever it has temporaily fled.

Now I have my favorite fresh herbs for cooking, all in one convenient place. I planted two cilantro plants, because I use cilantro more than any other herb. I also have mint, which is wonderful in iced tea or in salads; parsley; basil; sage; thyme; chives; and in a corner by itself because it likes more heat and less water than the others, rosemary. So far, so good, though past experience tells me summer will take a toll on some of the daintier varieties.

I have one more gardening project in the works, and will talk about that one in another blog post.

What new or ongoing gardening projects are on your Spring to-do list?

The Plant Party Continues

2011-04-13T19:57:00.001-04:00

First, let me say this about the USF Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Fair: I showed remarkable restraint.

In fact, I kept thinking after I returned home on Saturday that I really hadn't bought very much and should certainly go back.

The Native Plant Society area is always packed --
lots of interest in our tough and tenacious native plants.

I am proud to say (and my husband was relieved to hear) that I actually came in UNDER the $100 allotment I allocated myself. In fact, I only spent $80. So, that means I am surely entitled to spent that extra $20 on some other garden-related item in the future, right?

Is there anything more beautiful than an orchid?

I prepared a list of what I needed, and I stuck to that list. Almost. There was that one epidendrum orchid (only $8 -- how could I resist?) and the adorable miniature succulents for my dish gardens. And one vendor had flax lily for sale at such a low price, just $2 a plant, that I grabbed three just to fill in my flax lily bed.

A sampling of adorable cacti and succulents,
perfect for dish gardens.

But otherwise, I stuck to the list. I bought two more muhly grasses from the native plant vendors, but couldn't find rouge plant or royal or cinnamon ferns, natives also on my list for my shady areas. I found two more of the Neoregilia "Orange Crush" bromeliads, so I now have a nice small bed of five. And I purchased a gorgeous big cast-iron plant -- another great addition to my shade beds. Also purchased some chenille plants, also on my list, which I use as a groundcover in the back yard. A few narrow-leaved sunflowers for the wildflower garden I have started (which also features ironweed, milkweed and blue-eyed grass), and my day was done.

Heck, I should get a booth next year and sell salvias.
They come up like weeds in my garden!

Then I had to plant them all, PLUS the 50 caladium bulbs that I ordered after reading Meems' Hoe and Shovel blog about her visit to the Caladium Nursery! Good thing our grass-free landscape really is proving to be low maintenance, because I don't have time for maintenance with all this planting I'm doing!

I thought there were even more vendors at this year's USF Sale than last year, and more buyers too! My friend Sue and I had to wait in a very long line on Saturday morning just to get in, but it was so worth it. We had fun in line talking to the other garden enthusiasts, most of us equipped with our handy-dandy rolling garden carts with which to haul around our booty. The sale itself was a plant lover's paradise, with everything from herbs to plumerias to exotic fruit trees. This is absolutely one of my favorite events of the year and, if you haven't ever been, put it on your April 2012 calendar now.

Now, I've got to get back to planting...

A Heckuva Plant Party

2011-04-04T21:28:00.001-04:00

I took a day off work Friday to drive down to Sarasota to attend my first Tropiflora Spring Plant Festival. Tropiflora is the independent nursery from which I've been mail ordering miniature plants for dish gardens and a few tillandsias (air plants).

Orchid lover's paradise!

OMG! This festival was to a plant lover what being locked in a Godiva chocolate shop overnight would be to a chocoholic. Tropiflora sells exotics and tropicals from all over the world. I had no idea how big the nursery is, or the tremendous variety of plants they offer. Plus, an additional two dozen or so vendors were there selling plants as well as garden art, garden supplies and even garden furniture.

The "Bargain Tents," where I picked up some
plants for my dish gardens for as little as $1

Orchids, ferns, bromeliads, succulents. It was fascinating just to browse the incredible assortment of plants.

Racks of bromeliads

This is a huge sale and very well-known in the Sarasota area, apparently, but it was all new and wonderful to me.

I knew I was in trouble when a nice lady leaving the sale gave me the large garden cart she had been using to haul her treasures to her car.

Actually, I managed to restrain myself. I am really trying to utilize more natives in my yard, so I kept the plant buying to a minimum because I am saving my money for the USF Plant Fair this weekend.

The angel wing begonia in its new home

But I couldn't resist a huge, gorgeous potted angel wing begonia with delicate white flowers, and a trio of eyecatching compact bromeliads called Neoregilia 'Orange Crush" -- with striking green striped foliage with a vivid flame-red center. Red is the primary color in my front yard landscape, and I knew these would provide a nice splash of color underneath my very shady oak tree. I checked with the bromeliad experts (Tropiflora had very knowledgeable staff and volunteers stationed in each plant tent ) and sure enough, this brom is supposed to hold its color in shade and stay fairly compact with minimal spreading. That is important to me because Rick and I removed about 100 bromeliads from our yard during the Great Landscape Makeover last year to reduce pockets of standing water that could harbor mosquito larvae. Those 100 bromeliads came from just two plants I put in the yard about 12 years ago! Naturally, my husband reminded me of this when I returned home with the three adorable little Orange Crush broms.

Who could resist these showy little bromeliads?

I also bought a few miniature plants for my dish garden, and some new tillandsias to replace the ones the squirrels ate after Rick and I created an elaborate framework of fishing line and eye hooks to artistically place them along the trunk of our majestic oak tree in the front yard. The very next day the tillandsias were gone. Not scattered on the ground around the tree, but gone! disappeared! and the fishing line severed. A wildlife biologist friend told me placing those tillandsias on that oak was like giving those tree rats a meal at a 4-star French bistro.

I've learned my lesson. My new tiilandsias are going to be anchored to driftwood and suspended from the side of our detached shed, where the squirrels can't get them. Theoretically.

Even though I really don't need many more plants in my landscape, the Tropiflora excursion reminded me of how inspiring and just plan fun it can be to spend a day with beautiful plants and like-minded plant lovers. I'm already getting excited about the USF Plant Sale -- my wish list is ready!

Who else is going to the USF Fest?

Something Old, Something New

2011-03-15T15:19:00.001-04:00

This Spring, our first with our completely new landscape, is teaching me that plants I thought were "goners" were really just hibernating over the winter.

Among the plants that I thought had kicked the bucket were my St. Bernard's lilies, an ornamental grasslike clumping plant with delicate little white flowers that gracefully sway with in the breeze. The plants died back severely over the winter, and I was resigned to having to replace them when, lo and behold, they sprang back to life almost overnight! They are now lush, full and flowering again. I love how carefree they are and how great they look planted in a mass.

I recently read on Rick Brown's Florida Friendly Plant website (www. floridafriendlyplants.com) that I should actually cut the St. Bernard's lilies back to the ground every other year. Duh! I guess I need to do a little bit more homework before prematurely writing obits for any more of my plants.

Speaking of homework, I pledged to myself that I would NOT make any more impulse plant purchases once we finished our landscape makeover. After all, it was my impulsive nature that caused all my gardening problems to begin with! Now that I understand and truly appreciate the "right plant, right place" mantra, I swore I would never again buy a strange plant I didn't know anything about just because it was pretty.

Oops. I ignored my own advice.

But, in this case, I think I may have stumbled on a winner.

I intended to buy only a few more bulbine to fill in my bulbine bed during a recent trip to my local independent nursery. Really, I did.

But this lovely fernlike plant with lacelike red blossoms caught my eye. And when the nursery owner told me the plant was extremely hardy and drought-tolerant, I was hopelessly infatuated. I had to buy one.

The nursery owner told me the name and it sounded to me like "Arkillia." Upon returning home and hopping on the Internet, (what did we do before Google?) I finally matched the name with the plant. It's achillea, the Latin name for yarrow plants, and my particular hybrid is called Achillea 'Paprika.'

Apparently common yarrow can be invasive in parts of the country, but the hybrids get high marks for their low-maintenance and vivid, long-lasting blooms.

I planted my Achillea in a container and placed it on my deck in full sun, where it is very happy. I recently dead-headed the spent blooms and more are forming. Looks like it will continue to put on a show. Do any of you have experience with this plant? The nursery told me they would be getting a hybrid with yellow flowers shortly, maybe the one I found online called "Coronation Gold?"

I'd like to find more of the 'Paprika' and plant it in a mixed bed with coneflowers or orange cosmos. I'm a sucker for a pretty face -- though I promise next time I'll do my research before I buy!

What plants have you bought on impulse (come on, admit it, I know you have!) that turned out to be faithful friends? And what impulse buys turned out to be just plain old mistakes?

An Unexpected Gift

2011-03-09T07:24:00.002-05:00

While surveying my butterfly garden last weekend to assess where I will place the new plants I hope to buy at the upcoming USF Spring Plant Sale (April 2-3, mark your calendars!), I noticed my remaining milkweed -- which had been rapidly growing after winter -- was looking decidely shorter. Peering at the plants, I was surprised to see a plump monarch caterpillar munching away on the leaves. Then, three more on another milkweed!

I assume that these are the progeny of a monarch that overwintered in Mexico, though it seems a bit early for the migrants to have reached Florida. Have any of you had monarchs in your garden yet?

Checking today, all the caterpillars have crawled off to make their jeweled green chrysalis cases (I haven't found them yet, but I'll keep looking), and all my milkweed has been completely stripped. Sigh. As a flower-lover, I hate seeing the naked stubs, but I love being able to provide for the butterflies even more. Looks like I'll be shopping for milkweed plants too, since I'll be getting more monarchs before these plants recover.

Hopefully, I'll have some plants flower long enough to bear seeds so I can harvest those for a sustainable supply.

I noticed that my passionvine is just now starting to recover from the winter. Fritillary food in the making!

Spring's Early Arrival

2011-02-27T18:50:00.018-05:00

Just as winter arrived early this year, so apparently has Spring. It began to creep into my yard about two weeks ago, and now it is revving up a little more each day. I have never been so excited to see a new growing season because this is our first after completing our Bay-Friendly Landscape Makeover. Plants which have now been in the ground close to a year should be well established, and ready to rock n' roll!

Every day I wander around the yard for a few minutes to see what's growing and blooming. I do a little weeding and pruning, and Rick blows the still-falling leaves from our pathways back to the mulched beds, but those are the only yard chores we have. The grass-free landscape is indeed proving to be as low-maintenance as we hoped. Now time spent in my yard is a delightul choice, rather than mandatory drudgery.

Flax lilies and bulbine

Bulbine bloom

My trusty bulbines made it through winter with flying colors -- and now they ARE flying their colors! I have both the yellow and the orange bulbines and they are exploding with blooms. I am totally in love with this plant and recommend it constantly to friends.

Hot on their heels were my native viburnums, Big Walter (Walter's viburnum) and the Little Walters (dwarf "Mrs. Schiller's" variety). All are draped in their dainty, lacy white flowers. What a spectacular show!

Big Walter (Walter's Viburnum)

Little Walter, our Dwarf Walter's (Mrs. Schiller's) Viburnum

My Shoal Creek Chaste tree, a deciduous shrub that spent all winter completely leafless, already has begun popping out leaves. In fact, it is producing leaves a full month earlier than last year when I planted it.

My patio pink lemon tree is covered in fragrant blossoms. I like to sit by it and just inhale the magical perfume.

Majestic Beauty hawthorne tree

And I am eagerly awaiting the first pink blossoms opening on my Yedda ("Majestic Beauty") hawthorne, an unusual tree-form Indian hawthorne that all my neighbors admire.

Our native beautyberry is shooting out new green growth at a rapid pace as well.

I can't wait to get home every day and see what is sprouting.

Perfect temperatures, bluebird skies, growing plants everywhere. It's the best time of year!

What are your favorite gardening signs of spring?

View of our back yard

Winter Garden Amusements

2011-01-26T12:13:00.001-05:00

The second unseasonably cold winter in a row is testing the patience of every gardener I know, and getting us all to think about COLD-HARDY as well as drought-hardy plants for our Florida yards. Our Bay-Friendly landscape is holding up very well so far and the winter is giving us a great opportunity to see which plants do well in near- or below-freezing temperatures, and which don't. This will help us make some modifications this Spring so that we truly have an all-weather landscape that doesn't require major replanting each year. After all, reducing the amount of time we spend on lawn maintenance was a major motivation for our landscape makeover.

Not quite in time for Christmas, but this cactus beauty a friend
gave me last year is putting on a January show.

I can truly say that the foundational plants in our landscape -- the small trees, shrubs and groundcovers -- are sailing through the cold, with the exception of the firebush and the wild coffee in the back yard. The firebush, especially, has been really whacked by the cold but there are still green branches at the base of the plant so I know it will bounce back. The wild coffee has plenty of green left so it will recover too. The other backyard natives -- the coonties, anise shrubs and muhly grass -- are totally unphased, as we expected. I can't say enough about the non-native, but Florida-tough bulbine, flax lilies and liriope. "Winter? What winter?" appears to be their attitude. The bulbine just keeps blooming.

Not one single plant in my front yard has been more than slightly singed by the cold. Rick and I attribute this to our mighty, much-loved live oak, whose canopy provides a natural insulating blanket over almost the entire front yard. Big trees are an incredible garden asset in so many ways.

The butterfly bed in our side yard has taken the biggest hit. The full-sun exposure that is so beneficial to it in the warm months has left it very vulnerable to the cold. The pentas, salvias, cat's whiskers, mistflowers and milkweed are downright crunchy. Some will come back -- salvia could survive the apocalypse, I think -- and some will need replacing. That's OK -- I love puttering in the butterfly garden anyway.

Until the danger of frost has passed, and I can get started pruning and tidying, I am satisfying my green urges with gardening on a micro-scale: making little dish gardens for my friends out of tea cups, toothbrush holders, ramekins, bowls and other household items. I saw these at a craft market and immediately thought, "I can do that!" Apparently lots of other people had this same thought, because there is a wealth of information about this on the Internet. I bought a diamond bit for our electric drill to drill drain holes in the ceramics, started experimenting and -- voila! -- it works.

I scour thrift shops for the ceramic items (cheap, cheap,cheap and lots of fun) and then buy miniature plants to plant in them once I have drilled the drain holes. A friend recommended a wonderful exotic nursery in Bradenton called Tropiflora (http://www.tropiflora.com/) that actually carries dwarf, miniature and terrarium plants. I order online and they ship right to my home. The plants arrive in perfect condition, all wrapped in damp newspaper. You can also buy small container plants at Lowe's and Home Depot too, but Tropiflora has some really unusual goodies. I love giving my little planters to friends as a thank you for their friendship and support.

I must give props to my husband Rick who remains incredibly tolerant of my gardening madness, and helps me with my winter garden amusements, holding the ceramics for me while I drill and even spelling me when my hands get cramped. I guess he's thinking that anything that distracts me from another, more expensive hobby of mine -- shoe shopping -- is a good thing!

A Grateful Gardener

2010-12-22T20:56:00.005-05:00

Christmastime always makes me think of the many blessings in my life. This year, especially, I am grateful for the many friends and colleagues who have helped make my landscape makeover a reality. Gardeners are by nature a generous bunch, and I feel so thankful for the help and encouragement I've received from these special people.

Pam, a retired Extension educator who is now sharing her knowledge and passion for plants as a wonderful gardening coach, gave me two of my three rain barrels from her personal "stock." A good friend, Sue, gave me the third.

Carlos, a colleague, gave me some baby coontie plants that he grew himself, along with a chickasaw plum seedling, all of which are thriving in my yard. I had no idea Carlos was such a gardener until he read about my yard makeover and offered me the plants. His own yard follows Florida-Friendly landscaping principles and looks great!

Kelli gave me a starter supply of spiderwort and tons of moral support. She is another colleague whose gardening prowess was unknown to me until I started on the yard transformation. Now she and I share garden gossip all the time. Her yard, too, is a colorful mix of native and Florida-friendly plants -- with a little bit of turf too, that looks terrific.

Vicki, a longtime gardener and Neem Tree farmer, sent me some neem oil as a "varmint deterrent" when I told her about the possum with the Midnight Munchies who dug up my beloved bed of bulbine. I sprayed the neem mixture all around the bed and it seems to have worked, because I haven't seen any ripped-up bulbine since. Vicki, a sucker for butterflies, has also been known to make emergency deliveries of milkweed to help feed the insatiable monarch caterpillars, who are literally non-stop, milkweed-devouring machines.

Master Gardener Virginia Overstreet gives gardening workshops at my local Seminole Heights Branch Library. Not only is she an incredible resource on all aspects of gardening, she also brings free plants harvested from her own yard to her workshops to give away. The blackberry lilies, crinum lilies and lady slippers in my yard are all gifts from Virginia's garden. She has inspired me to grow a few plants of my own from seed to "pass forward."

When Rick and I embarked on our Bay-Friendly Landscape makeover, I knew it would be an adventure, and it definitely has been that! What I didn't realize is that I joined a continually expanding community of people who are committed to making their own little corner of the world both beautiful and sustainable. I now know that when you create a garden, you plant more than flowers and shrubs. You sow the seeds of friendship. Merry Christmas, everyone, and best wishes for a green New Year!

The Glorious Colors of Fall

2010-11-15T14:45:00.001-05:00

Is there any more rewarding season for a Florida gardener than Fall?

Our natural Christmas tree, the East Palatka holly!

Sure, Spring is the season for birth and renewal, but to me Fall is just as worthy of rejoicing -- for the welcome reprieve it provides after our interminable, energy-sapping summers; for the shorter days that force us to slow our hectic pace just a little; and for the rich cornucopia of color that nature brings to this wonderful time of transition.

Cosmos, one of my favorite flowers

This is the first Fall with our new, bay-friendly yard and what a treat it has been! Our East Palatka holly trees are bursting with red berries, just in time for the holidays. The beautyberry in the front yard is laden with clusters of purple. Our muhly grass is showing off its feathery pink plumes. And many of our butterfly plants are still blooming, including the firebush, hummingbird mint, porterweed, pentas, narrow-leaved sunflowers and the lovely, delicate orange cosmos.

Even the patio pink lemon tree on our deck is full of blossoms that smell heavenly every time I walk past.

Beautyberry, a Florida native

This burst of color and fragrance is accompanied by a temporary farewell to some of my favorites -- plants that are deciduous or otherwise go dormant during the winter. My beloved chaste tree with its upright purple blossoms is now nearly as naked as when we bought it last March. Pretty soon it will look like Charlie Brown's pathetic, spindly Christmas tree!

The chickasaw plum seedling, which is now about two feet high, is also beginning to lose its leaves after more than tripling in size over the summer.

And the beautiful lady slippers and butterfly wings are gradually disappearing from view completely, prompting me to stick a few plant labels in the ground where they are hiding so I remember where they are.

All of these will return next Spring, to surprise us with a new infusion of color and texture. But for now, we are still content to gaze at our glorious Fall Foliage as we sit on our deck and enjoy our beautiful, bay-friendly landscape.

A hummingbird moth feeding on a penta. Several of these fascinating moths visited our butterfly garden at dusk early this fall. They look just like miniature hummingbirds!

The Final Piece: Composting

2010-10-04T15:50:00.002-04:00

Although we all know a garden is never really finished, Rick and I have now completed the final major component of our Bay-Friendly Landscape -- the addition of a compost bin. Now we no longer have to throw our leftover kitchen scraps in the trash -- we are turning them into rich garden compost for my herb and butterfly gardens!

I took one of the Composting workshops offered by the Extension Service recently, and received a free compost bin as well as a thermometer to keep tabs on the temperature of the compost. The workshop was excellent -- I didn't really know much about composting and it definitely allayed my concerns about smells and sanitation. I learned that if your compost bin smells, you are doing something wrong! I also learned that many, many more materials can be composted than I realized, such as dryer lint, coffee filters, shredded newspaper, egg shells, peanut shells, finger- and toenail clippings, even human and pet hair. Imagine my joy at finding a use for all the cat hair around our house!

You cannot compost pet waste, or meats, fats or oils. That's what generates odors, as well as unwanted critters (such as rats).

The ecological impact of composting is significant. According to the US. Environmental Protection Agency, yard waste and food scraps together comprise nearly one-quarter of the municipal waste stream. Rick and I have long felt guilty about throwing away vegetable and fruit scraps. Now I just toss them in a compost container on my kitchen counter and then into the bin concealed alongside our detached shed.

Grass clippings make great, nitrogen-rich compost. But of course we have no grass, so we may need to add blood meal to boost our compost pile's nitrogen content. (You can actually buy blood meal in garden centers.) So far, the pruning and deadheading in our yard has generated quite a bit of yard waste - and I must confess to pilfering some of my neighbor's grass clippings, just to give my compost pile a good starter dose of "green." I don't think the "browns" will be a problem, especially now that autumn is bringing the annual bonanza of falling leaves to our yard.

We are keeping our compost moist, and turning it every few weeks to keep it aerated. I'll let you know how it goes. This is new to us, so we expect to make a few mistakes. But I can tell you that our compost pile certainly doesn't stink. In fact, it smells sort of earthy -- which I'm thinking is how it should smell.

Our Own Personal Nature Documentary!

2010-08-25T11:18:00.037-04:00

The newest addition to our front yard is our brand-new "Florida-Friendly Yard" sign. That's right -- we are now an official Certified Florida Yard! The certifications are done through the IFAS Florida Yards & Neighborhoods Program, and practically every county in Florida now has an FYN program based out of its Extension Office. I've included a link to the yard recognition program so that you can check to see if your yard qualifies. It's a wonderful way to advertise eco-friendly landscapes.

More good news: Rick and I were recently notified that we won the 2010 Community Water-Wise Award for residential landscapes in the city of Tampa. This award program, sponsored by Tampa Bay Water and the IFAS FY&N Program, recognizes water-thrifty landscapes in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. There are separate categories for homes, businesses, industry and government, and site judging is done by a team of water conservation experts from area utilities and extension offices. This program usually only receives a handful of entries for each community, so please enter your home next year if you have a water-conserving landscape, rain-harvesting devices like rain barrels or cisterns, or low-flow irrigation systems like drip hoses or micro-jets. The deadline is June 30 of each year.

We haven't yet received our Water-Wise Award: a beautiful engraved stepping stone. When we do, you can bet I'll post a photo!

Our female Black-and-Yellow Argiope

OK, awards and recognition are great -- can't deny that -- but our biggest reward continues to be our beautiful yard itself, and the many amazing wild creatures it supports. Rick and I aren't sure whether we truly have more wildlife than before, or we're just noticing more critters because we spend so much more time in our yard now, just enjoying it. We prefer to think the new, more diverse landscape is attracting more wildlife. We now have all the essentials -- food, water and places to hide or nest -- and it is paying off. Our yard is like a living nature documentary! I'm even beginning to get over my fear of spiders, thanks in part to this beautiful black-and-yellow argiope who spun her web underneath an eave on our back deck. What a gorgeous creature!

Passionvine bloom

Gulf fritillary sipping verbena

More Gulf fritillaries have visited our yard than ever before -- in fact, we've never had as many. Early in the summer we were treated to their acrobatic courtship flights, followed by the appearance of dozens of orange caterpillars on our passionvine. The caterpillars completely stripped our passionvine of all leaves in a few weeks, and we have since brought in two more pots solely to feed caterpillars. I'm still seeing a few fritillaries flitting about, but their mating frenzy has abated considerably and the passionvine growing along our deck railing is starting to recover.

Monarch caterpillars in a tug-of-war
over a milkweed leaf

Now we are watching a late-summer batch of monarch butterflies emerging from their gold-rimmed chrysalis cases. Just two weeks ago, we counted 15 of the beautiful little cases, hidden among the shadowbox panels of our fence or dangling from a leaf or branch. The newly emerged adults are gorgeous -- wet-winged and vividly colored and quite unsteady at first in their new bodies. Once they've stretched and dried their wings in the sunlight, and have made a few short test flights, off they go - inevitably to return a week or two later to sip nectar from our flowers and lay eggs on our milkweed plants. The caterpillars that will hatch shortly from these eggs are likely to produce the final adult monarchs of the year, and we are rooting for at least or two of these monarchs to make the winter migration to Mexico. We read that it is only the last generation of monarchs each year that survives long enough to migrate, winter over in a semi-hibernation in Mexico and return in the Spring to begin the cycle anew.

Rick keeps looking at the monarchs and wondering how they even know to go to Mexico in the first place, since none of them have ever been before. Do they follow a magnetic field? Are they born with this knowledge imbedded in their genetic code? Even scientists don't know how the monarchs make their amazing journey. We're just glad they have found our yard, so we can share their incredible odyssey.

Monarch laying eggs on our milkweed

Where It All Came From

2010-07-21T12:09:00.002-04:00

As promised, here is a list of where we acquired everything for our landscape makeover fro all who have asked:

Landscape Design

Plant-Wise Landscapes (Lisa Strange)
www.palmwisenursery.com

In our opinion, hiring a professional landscape designer with experience in Florida-Friendly Landscaping is the single most important investment you can make. Like so many of you who have contacted me, Rick and I wanted to do the right thing with our landscape but we just weren't sure how to go about it. Lisa's knowledge and eye for design gave us a landscape we can be truly proud to show off, as well as one that benefits the environment.

Mulch, Shell, Pea Gravel and Weed Mat

Cypress Creek Landscape Supply in North Tampa
http://www.meetuatthecreek.com/

Plants

Native Plants, Trees and Shrubs
Tree-Mart (Tampa)
Twigs n' Leaves Native Nursery (St. Petersburg)
Wilcox Nursery (Largo)

Non-Native, Florida-Friendly Plants, Trees and Shrubs

The Home Depot (North Florida Avenue, Tampa)
Kerby's Nursery (Seffner)
Manny's By The Bay (W. Hillsborough Ave.,Tampa)
Tree-Mart (Tampa)

Wholesale Nurseries (can only purchase from these if you are working with a landscaper or landscape designer who has an account with them)

Myers Wholesale Nursery (Thonotosassa)
Robert's Wholesale Nursery (Seffner)

Edging
Lowe's

As you can see, we spread our money around! I tried to spend money on businesses within my own neighborhood (such as Manny's) as much as possible, but I also had to roam far and wide to find some of the plants in our design. I love plants and I especially love shopping for plants, so I looked at the search as a botanical treasure hunt

Common plants like liriope and African iris are available at every mainstream nursery. This year, I was pleased to see bulbine and Flax lily also widely available at these general nurseries, and pleasantly surprised to find a few native coonties at my neighborhood Home Depot. But, in general, I had to go to nurseries specializing in native plants to get those trees, shrubs and groundcovers. Maybe that will change if more of us ask our local Big Box nurseries to carry beautiful natives like beautyberry and muhly grass.

I'm going to continue with this blog, so I can keep you updated on our landscape as it matures. I'll also be honest about any problems or special challenges we encounter as time goes on. And I'll report on the success of our yard over time as a wildlife habitat.

Please don't hesitate to ask questions about what we did or how we did it. We love sharing our experiences, and we hope that you too will share your yard makeover adventures with us.

The Front Yard Finale!

2010-06-17T14:37:00.008-04:00

After laboring for 2 1/2 months on our back yard makeover, we completed the entire front yard in just 3 weeks! This whirlwind pace wasn't a result of any superhuman effort on our part, but simply because the front yard is much smaller and had only a few tree roots to slow us down. You cannot imagine the relief we felt when we began planting and our shovels actually went down into the soil WITH NO RESISTANCE. Let me tell you , I was practically dancing. In fact, I was so energized by this unexpected miracle that I singlehandedly planted nearly every plant in the front yard in one day. We laid them out according to Lisa's design, and I went to it like a possessed Ms. Greenjeans. The rapidly rising heat and humidity certainly provided extra motivation for me to finish quickly.

Rick was not idle. While I planted, he measured our pathways and auxiliary parking area and installed edging, shell and pea gravel. We have discovered during this project that we each have unique skills. My talents are better suited to planting and overall design/aesthetic decisions. He excels at math, measuring and putting things together. Together we make a successful home improvement team.

Unlike our back yard, the front has only one pathway and we chose pea gravel for that to make it less visible. It intersects with a large auxiliary parking area covered with washed shell which gives us a parking space for visitors, further prevents any rain runoff from leaving our property, and buffers our planted beds from the dust and dirt of the road.

The rest of the yard is a combination of native and non-native plants, with many shrubs that will eventually grow large enough to really take up some space. Lisa put several plants with reddish foliage or berries in our front yard to complement the brick red trim on our bungalow. That's another benefit of having a landscape designer -- I never would have thought to color-coordinate my home and yard!

Following is a list of the plants we used. I have noted plants I am especially impressed with or think are especially attractive with a "Love It!" remark.

Among the native plants in our front yard are:

1. Oakleaf hydrangea (Love It!)
2. Beautyberry (Love It!)
3. Simpson's Stopper
4. Dwarf Walter's Viburnum (known as Mrs. Schiller's Delight)
5. Blue Stem Palmetto

The non-native plants include:

1. Variegated Fragrant Ginger
2. Meyers' Liriope ( this is a really pretty, dense liriope developed by Rick Meyers, who owns the oldest nursery in Hillsborough County. Love it!)
3. St. Bernard's Lily (Love it!)
4. Red Cordyline
5. Holly Fern
6. Red Fountain Grass
7. Coleus
8, Yedda hawthorne (This a somehwat unusual tree form of Indian Hawthorne that has very showy pink blossoms in the spring. Love it!)

Many people have asked us where we bought our plants, shell and other materials. In my next blog entry, I'll provide a complete list of the nurseries and landscape supply businesses we used. We really spread our money around among a variety of different businesses and feel proud that we did our part to stimulate the local economy!

We're on TV!

2010-05-25T09:41:00.008-04:00

We were pleased to host Leigh Spann of Channel 8 for a yard tour last week. The segment will air Wednesday, May 26 twice between 5-7 a.m. and maybe again during the 5:30 p.m. slot (for those who aren't early birds).

Leigh and her cameraman were at our house for about an hour, interviewing me, Rick and our landscape designer, Lisa Strange. We love showing off our beautiful Bay-Friendly Backyard and hope that the publicity will inspire others to "Do Something Different" with their landscape.

In other yard makeover news, we actually finished our front yard landscape last weekend, after two very long days of work in the heat. Still, compared with the backyard, which took about 10 weekends of labor, the front yard was like a downhill sled ride! Start to finish, including edging the borders and pathways, creating an auxiliary parking area of shell, cleaning up and trimming our existing hedge, and planting and mulching some 50 new plants, we were done in just two weekends! Now if we can just get some rain....

Stay tuned for photos and a video tour of the front yard. In the meantime, we are taking a much-needed break and going on vacation for a week starting this Friday. Whew -- we need to go fishing!

Introducing our new Bay-Friendly Backyard!

2010-05-17T14:48:00.000-04:00

Drum roll please... Yes, we are done with the backyard, after nearly three months of hard work. Was it worth it? Oh yeah! Look at the photos and tell us what you think.

In trying to adequately describe the new backyard, two words come to mind: interesting and peaceful. The diversity of plants, with their varied textures, scents and colors, makes our yard so much more interesting. We enjoy just looking at everything. And the shady walkways surrounded by these gorgeous plants give us such a feeling of peace. Rick and I have been sitting in the yard every night and just admiring it. I told him last night that this is the first time in my home ownership memory that I have ever been able to look at my landscape and not see it as just a list of chores waiting to be done -- you know, weeding, edging and mowing. This yard enhances our quality of life, instead of interfering with it.

In Florida, one billion gallons of water is used every day just to water St. Augustine grass. It was that eye-opening statistic that started us on this landscape makeover back in February. I am so proud that we decided to buck the norm and Do Something Different! We can now say we are truly practicing what we preach, in our own little way and in our own little world.

Our urban wild critters seem to enjoy the transformed yard too. We have seen our resident black racer on a regular basis, and the backyard birds are coming in a steady stream to our feeder and birdbath. The supply of "customers" to our butterfly garden is increasing every day, and last weekend we spotted our first swallowtails.

Of course, we still have the front yard to make over, and Lisa has given us another beautiful landscape plan for that. But for just a few days, I think Rick and I have earned the chance to sit back, drink a cool beverage, and admire the results of our labors.

Dare We Say It? We're Almost Done!

2010-05-04T19:59:00.003-04:00

We have completed all the planting in the backyard -- more than 120 individual plants. I singlehandedly planted 34 shrubs and groundcovers in one day a week ago and am very glad I got that task completed before the humidity descended on us last weekend. It seems like our gorgeous Spring has fast-forwarded straight to August!

We put in a very productive weekend despite the heat. I planted the last of the new plants, and finished mulching the beds with pine bark, while Rick completed installation of the edging. The FINAL task, occurring this week, is bringing in washed shell for our pathways. Then we will truly be done with the backyard, and ready to move to the front.

Many of the plants have been in their new homes for more than a month now, and they seem to be settling in and expanding. The lovely bulbine plants are spreading already and blooming constantly, attracting a steady supply of bees to the delicate orange and yellow blossoms. And the little shade-loving iris that I transplanted from the backyard to the side of the house are also producing gorgeous flowers -- white blossoms with blue centers. I have been having a great time getting up close and personal with them with my macro lens on my camera.

We already have butterfly customers in the butterfly garden, and this morning I counted three monarch caterpillars munching away on the plants. Spotted our first Gulf fritillary too.

Saturday morning, we enjoyed watching a sleek black racer and a beautiful glass lizard checking out our plant beds. We've uncovered several glass lizards hiding in the leaf litter during our yard makeover. These fascinating animals are legless like snakes, but have a lizardlike head and really are considered lizards. They are called "glass" lizards because their tails break off if grabbed by a predator, so they can escape. The tail will eventually regrow.

Rick and I are so pleased with the way the yard looks. In trying to find the best word to describe our new yard, I keep coming back to "interesting." Our landscape is so much more interesting with the incredible variety of plants we have now. And it is truly becoming the peaceful oasis we hoped it would be, so peaceful that even the "Foreman," our cat Belle, has been napping on the job.

It's Starting to Shape Up

2010-04-19T20:34:00.000-04:00

We now have two complete sections of our backyard planted, mulched and finished with border edging. We can really see how beautiful our completed landscape will be. Sunday's steady rains made our plants very happy. It also replenished our ran barrels, which were nearly empty.

We still need a few more coontie, and a bunch of giant liriope (which we are using as an inexpensive, easy-care groundcover) but all other backyard plants have been purchased. We still need to plant the 12 anise bushes that will border our wood fence, and we still need to install a few more muhly grasses. The roots continue to make planting very slow going, but now we have the end in sight -- at least for the backyard. Our front yard is much smaller and does not have so many tree roots so it should be a breeze compared to this!

I also have my butterfly garden planted alond the side of our back deck, and the milkweed just hosted the first monarch of the season! I'm still looking for purple coneflower and few other butterfly plants but the bed looks colorful and, hopefully, enticing to the "winged wonders."

By the way, Rick says that anytime a product is touted as "EZ to Install," it actually means just the opposite. Such is the case with this snap-together edging we bought. We need 150 feet of edging just for the backyard so we purchased this product because it didn't cost a fortune. The picture on the product wrapper shows a tiny little woman putting the edging together without even breaking a sweat. Hah! Rick had to dig a trench (through roots, of course) just to get the stuff installed at an even depth, then snap it together ( usually multiple times before he could keep it in place), then pound it into the ground with a rubber mallet. Nothing ever seems to be as easy as we hope, but it does look good and it will definitely keep our mulch from floating out of the beds into the walkways.

Speaking of mulch, we tried to get melaleuca mulch because we loved the idea of finding a positive use for a highly invasive plant, but the nearest supplier of any bulk quantities was in Ft. Myers, and the delivery charge was a bit excessive. I guess this is because there really isn't that much melaleuca in the Tampa Bay area -- though there is gobs of it further south, from Lee County into the Everglades. So we settled on medium-size pine bark mulch as a nice-looking, fairly durable and reasonably priced alternative. There is now a small "Mulch Mountain" in our front yard that we are gradually whittling away.

One member of our family, our cat Belle, is extremely interested in our yard makeover and feels that it is her duty to supervise our progress. Belle stays right with us as we work, hiding amid the muhly grass, and napping in the newly installed mulch. She seems completely fascinated by the yard transformation.

Can anyone spare some Advil?

2010-04-05T20:41:00.001-04:00

I have a feeling that the next time my husband hears me say "Hey, I have a great idea," he's going to leave skid marks on the floor trying to run for cover.

We got the landscape plan for our backyard and went on a plant-buying spending spree last weekend. We purchased all three of the trees in the design (two East Palatka hollies and one weeping yaupon holly), along with three coonties, and about a dozen each of muhly grass, flax lily and bulbine, a hardy little clumping groundcover with dainty orange and yellow blossoms.

Matilda, our truck, was completely full. But, when we got home and laid out all the plants where they are supposed to go according to the design, it was somewhat disheartening. They barely made a dent in our now bare desert of a backyard!

On top of that, it is taking a lot longer to plant everything than we anticipated. Not only do we have to slice openings in the weed mat fabric that we laid over our entire backyard, we also have to cut through a never-ending supply of roots. It seems like we can't stick our shovels more than two inches in the ground without encountering a root that has to be bypassed or cut in order to plant. It took nearly one hour to plant each of the three trees. Some of the smaller, 1-gallon plants are taking 15 minutes or more apiece. We put in about 17 hours on the yard from Good Friday through Easter Sunday. At this rate, we'll be retired by the time we finish the entire yard!

Despite the discouragement, we have planted enough to see how beautiful our new landscape will eventually be. Even with only about 20% of the backyard plants installed, we can now visualize the finished design of meandering pathways surrounded by densely clustered groundcovers, flower-filled shrubs and our small native holly trees. We will get it done, and then we will enjoy a nice long sit on our soon-to-be purchased garden bench near the bird feeders.

We are now Grass-Free!

2010-03-29T19:38:00.030-04:00

We were reaching for the Advil after this past weekend, which included some serious earth-moving and plant relocation. But we are proud and happy to report that our yard is now GRASS-FREE! In fact, it is pretty much void of all vegetation, having scraped the grass and weeds away with our new best friend, the MT52 Mini-Bobcat.

We rented the Bobcat on Saturday, and Rick did a masterful job of scraping away our grass and leveling out our yard to prevent water from pooling in our entryway. Masterful except for the little boo-boo of cutting our Verizon fiber optic cable, thereby killing our TV, Internet and telephone service. In all fairness, the cable was only buried about 4 inches deep. Still I couldn't resist the opportunity to remind my husband (a Risk and Safety Manager) of the admonition to "Call Before You Dig."

The very nice Verizon repair technician who repaired our cable Sunday afternoon said that those little accidents happen all the time, and we weren't even charged for the repair!

Rick became quite proficient in using the mini-Bobcat, as you can see from the video clip I attached to this post, and it only took about half a day to completely scrape and level our yard. Several neighbors stopped by to observe. I think the men were jealous of Rick and his Bobcat.

Our yard is completely naked now (one neighbor described it as "Armageddon") but we are now almost ready to begin planting new plants in our backyard. I expect to have the design for our backyard landscape this week. All we have to do then is to roll out ground-covering weed mat, spray paint where our walkways will be and then begin buying and installing plants! We have 15 cubic yards of mulch being delivered on Wednesday and it will have to go in our front yard. The pile will be there for several weeks while we plant, so we feel very fortunate to live in a neighborhood where people will tolerate a temporary Mulch Mountain in someone's yard. I did manage to transplant lots of African iris from the front and back yards to either side of the house,and Mother Nature was kind enough to water them well on Sunday.

Speaking of water, our other major accomplishment this weekend was in finishing our rain barrels and completing our gutter installation. I spray painted the barrels and we had the gutter installer cut and angle the downspouts so they empty directly into our rain barrels. Sunday's downpours were a test drive and they worked beautifully. In fact, our rain barrels filled up and overflowed, just like they are supposed to do. I will use the barrels to supply water to my transplants this week and, soon, to our new landscape plants. It was a good weekend!

Now THIS is some serious Spring Cleaning!

2010-03-18T12:29:00.000-04:00

My faithful 11-year-old Tacoma, Matilda, has been getting a workout! She has now carried three loads of old plants from our yard to Tampa's yard waste facility. The haul includes philodendrons, Boston ferns and one entire load of bromeliads. I loved the bromeliads, and they are great shade plants, but their ability to hold standing water also makes them major mosquito nurseries. For the last few years, Rick and I have found it nearly impossible to enjoy sitting on our deck because of the little blood-suckers, so we're hoping our new landscape will be much less "itchy." Solving our drainage issues with guttering, downspouts and rain barrels should help keep the skeeters at bay too.

Our landscape designer, Plant-Wise Landscapes (http://www.palmwisenursery.com/), is nearly done with our new plan. Can't wait to see it!!

We do know what one of our new plants will be -- a native fiddlewood tree. Since we had to remove the golden dewdrop that was planted too close to our shed, we asked Lisa to suggest another small tree we could plant to serve as a "scouting station" for the many birds that visit our backyard feeders. We noticed over the years that the first stop many of our backyard birds made was to the dewdrop. They'd perch there to check out the feeder and, if it looked safe, then fly to the feeder to eat. Often, they'd return to the dewdrop to eat their seeds. So, we needed another small tree for the birds, and Lisa suggested a fiddlewood. Plus this tree produces both berries and nectar, so the tree itself will be a food source for our urban wildlife.

There Has To Be A Plan

2010-03-10T20:06:00.000-05:00

OK, so before I get too far into this, I have a small confession to make. We have hired a professional landscape designer to come up with a blueprint for our new landscape. No, we aren't rich. We have a small yard so the cost was actually reasonable, and we need help. Lots of it. I have all the design sense of a blind cave shrimp and my husband would frankly rather have his fingernails removed without anesthesia than do any yard work to begin with, so there you have it.

Here is what our front and back yard looked like last summer, before the Nuclear Winter of 2010. We had weed-infested St. Augustine grass barely hanging on because we refused to use Weed n' Feed, and a lot of pretty plants -- HAD being the operative word, since they died this winter. But they weren't planted with any theme or scheme, and most were planted in the wrong places (shade-loving plants in the sun, etc). Invasive Boston Fern gobbled up one side of our yard and I was constantly beating back invasive Mexican petunia on the other. The golden dewdrop I planted one foot from our backyard shed as a tiny seedling got a lot bigger and taller than I anticipated, and had to lean to the right at nearly a 90-degree angle to grow. I also planted gorgeous native Walter's Viburnum shrubs along our driveway, again without really researching their mature size. The two viburnums grew so big and so close to the driveway edge that we have trouble even opening our car doors to get in or out. Now you see why we need a professional.

The designer we chose is very familiar with Florida-Friendly landscapes. She didn't flinch when we told her we wanted NO grass in our new 'do. Neither did our neighbors here in wonderful, tolerant South Seminole Heights, an urban neighborhood of old homes and eclectic homeowners near downtown Tampa. I also liked the designer's holistic approach. After visiting our property twice, she's made recommendations for guttering to solve our water flow problems, with the gutters tying into rain barrels. She's also talked us into a second gate for our new privacy fence so we could move our kayaks to the unused side of our yard where we can actually get at them much more easily than their previous home behind the shed. Duh! Sometimes it just takes a fresh eye to point out the obvious.

So we will have a wonderful, professional design soon. But we're determined to install it ourselves. In the meantime, we are under orders to remove virtually everything currently growing in our yard. Whew -- it's a lot of work.

Welcome to the Bay-Friendly Landscaping Blog!

2010-03-08T11:14:00.000-05:00

Greetings Fellow Gardeners!

My name is Nanette O'Hara. As the Public Outreach Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, I am always promoting eco-friendly landscaping that helps reduce stormwater runoff into Tampa Bay. I've tried on my own to incorporate "bay-friendly" landscape principles in my own yard, those taught by the excellent Florida Yards & Neighborhoods Program coordinated by the IFAS Extension Service. But I never quite achieved the look or the environmental benefits I hoped for. And our existing landscape was still requiring much more attention than my husband and I want to devote to yard work!

This winter, like so many of you, I lost a substantial portion of my landscape to freeze damage. Sure, I knew most of it would come back eventually, but I'm not that patient! Plus, I realized there would never be a better time to dive into a total yard makeover than this Spring. I would need to buy a whole lot of new landscape plants anyway, so why not buy the RIGHT plants for the RIGHT place?

It was much easier to talk my husband, Rick, into this than I anticipated. We decided right away that our new landscape would have NO grass, so I merely dangled in front of him the lure of never mowing again (We are both avid fisherfolk, thus the fishing metaphors, and we would much rather be fishing than mowing and edging the lawn.) His eyes lit up at the prospect of "No Mowing, Mo' Fishing" and I knew I had reeled him in.

Then it just made sense, given what I do for a living, to share this yard makeover experience. Through this blog, I hope to learn from you, laugh with you, and maybe inspire you to follow my lead and give "Bay-Friendly Landscaping" a try yourself.