Spring's Early Arrival

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.