It's Xeriscape, Not Zero-Scape!

It happens all the time. We tell people we have NO grass in our landscape, and their response is astonishment, followed by the inevitable question: "What do you have, one of those gravel yards?"


"No," we patiently answer, "we have plants. There are other plants besides grass, you know. Flowers, shrubs, trees, groundcovers."


The concept is called Xeriscaping, from the Latin word  for "dry" because of the focus on water-thrifty plants plants that thrive in Florida's heat -- a surprisingly long list, actually, but one that doesn't include St. Augustine, the most popular and coveted variety of turfgrass.


It is not Zero-scape, though I often hear it mispronounced that way.

Our backyard before the Extreme Yard Makeover

That same area of our backyard after the makeover

I knew, theoretically, about our society's obsession with manicured green lawns. But I didn't fully realize how deeply rooted (pun intended ) that obsession was until we kicked the lawn addiction ourselves.


The obsession seems to be most intense in deed-restricted neighborhoods, where HOA boards often view grass as the only landscape option. Who hasn't read about some poor hapless schmuck who was fined, or even taken to court, by his or her HOA for failure to maintain that lush green carpet of grass?


When I met my husband, he lived in a deed-restricted community in New Port Richey. Those of you who regularly read this blog will know that Rick is not exactly Mr. Greenjeans. "Despise" is not too strong a word to describe his view of yard work. Now, I'm still not sure why he moved into a deed-restricted community at all, but of course it resulted in numerous nastygrams from the HOA about the brown patches in his lawn, and even a personal visit from board emissaries. Once he received a letter for leaving four pieces of grapefruit from his backyard tree on the ground. When he received a letter threatening to place a lien on his house if he didn't comply with the lawn edicts, he gave in and hired a professional lawn care company to dump fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides on the lawn just to get the HOA off his back. Does this sound familiar to anyone?


At any rate, Rick moved into my house when we married. Seminole Heights is the polar opposite of a deed-restricted community, and we can safely flaunt our grass-free landscape with full impunity. Hopefully the happiest day of Rick's life was our wedding day. I suspect the second happiest was the day he gave away the lawn mower for good.


Even those of you who do live in neighborhoods with covenants and deed restrictions need not abandon hope of creating a Florida Yard. State law now forbids HOAs from preventing homeowners from implementing Florida-Friendly Landscapes following the principles taught by the Cooperative Extension Service. This fact sheet provides a simple summary of the law. Read the actual law here.


Now, that doesn't mean your community no longer has any say in your landscape.  You may very well still have to keep some grass -- usually around 30% coverage, and often including those small strips between sidewalks and streets. Rain barrels and compost bins may need to be kept in the backyard out of view. And rock and gravel landscapes are a definite no-go.  The first step in the process of working with your HOA is to read your covenants and restrictions with regard to landscaping standards, so you know what is expected.


Most importantly, you still need to get your board's approval before you begin. They may not have the slightest idea what a Florida-Friendly Landscape is. They may not know about the state law allowing FFL. Your mission is to be a Florida Yard ambassador, not a Florida Yard warrior. Don't go in with guns blazing, assuming they will say no to what you propose. Give them a chance, do your homework, and be patient. 


I can guarantee your Board's biggest fear is that your landscape will wind up as a barren wasteland of rocks and weeds, with a few shrubs scattered haphazardly around. Remember that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sketch out the design changes you want to make, and cut out photos of the plants you want to use and glue or tape them on your simple landscape plan.   


Below is a video featuring Gardening Coach and Be Floridian partner Pam Brown of Pampered Gardeners, who lives in a deed-restricted community herself. Pam has gradually, over a period of a few years, convinced her HOA to allow her to remove ALL the grass in her front yard except for that small sidewalk strip. I think you'll agree that her yard enhances property values in her neighborhood.


How'd she do this? Watch the video and see. Her advice may give you the confidence and determination to convince your own HOA board that Xeriscape is NOT zero-scape.

Trending Now: Florida-ness!

Call me delusional, but I really believe that people are beginning to understand that designing a yard adapted to Florida's fickle climate and sensitive environment makes sense.

We like to sit on our front porch and admire our beautiful Bay-Friendly Landscape 

The sheer numbers of friends and neighbors who have toured my own Bay-Friendly Landscape in the last two years indicate a growing interest in moving beyond that boring old monoculture of St. Augustine grass toward diverse and hardy landscapes that embrace our "Florida-ness." No matter where we hailed from originally, we are all Floridians now, and things are different here. Let the plastic pink yard flamingos run free!

I love my flamingo yard art!

I've also noticed, sadly, that interest in transforming landscapes often is followed by a dejected "I just don't know where to begin" resignation that often results in total inertia. 


I've been thinking lately about how to bridge this gap between desire and action, and offer these simple steps for all you landscape procrastinators:

• Take small bites. Tackle one area at a time. Of course, I didn't do this, but I was also prepared to dedicate every weekend for three months to remaking our entire yard. I realize most people can't do that -- and wouldn't want to if they could! Just start by removing one area of turf grass and replacing it with a groundcover, or carving out a nice bed for butterfly plants. My guess is that you'll like it so much you'll want to do more.

• Get a plan. Do some homework before you go to the nursery and start buying those oh-so-pretty plants you've never seen before that are calling your name. Think about what type of soil you have, whether you have sun or shade, how much watering you want to do, and whether you are willing to constantly replace tender tropicals every time we get a winter freeze.  Then select plants that share similar sun, soil and water needs -- a concept called "Right Plant, Right Place." Look for plants that meet your needs on www.floridata.com or www.floridayards.org. 

• Put it on paper. You don't have to be an artist, but it is very helpful to sketch out your landscape beds on paper. Note what plants you want in that area, and how far apart to plant them based on their mature height and width. You can even cut out photos of plants you like (the Internet is a gardener's delight) and group them so you can visualize how they'll look together. If you really think you are completely hopeless at this (I was!), hire a landscape designer or gardening coach. My husband and I did, and we never regretted it. Their fees are more reasonable than you might think, and they will almost always SAVE you money over the long run.  Check out the Be Floridian campaign's landscape design partners at http://www.befloridian.org/partners for designers and gardening coaches who specialize in landscapes for True Floridians.

Signs throughout the Bette Walker Discovery Garden describe important
 elements of Florida-Friendly Landscapes

• Beg, borrow and steal. Gardening is one area where all are condoned. Tour a lot of landscapes and take pictures of elements you like (color combos, planting beds, mulches) and then incorporate those great ideas into your own projects. I highly recommend visiting the Bette Walker Discovery Garden at the Hillsborough County Extension Office to see examples of all nine of the Florida-Friendly Landscaping principles in action.  Ask for seeds, cuttings or transplants of plants you like from friends' yards. Gardeners live to spread the love! 

• Attend workshops on Florida-Friendly gardening. Each county extension office offers these, and Master Gardeners trained by Extension experts give a variety of gardening workshops and clinics at libraries and other community venues. In my neighborhood, Master Gardeners give evening workshops on a different topic each month at my branch library. They are short, free and packed with information. If you can spare a Saturday, please attend the "Maintaining Your Florida Yard" workshop co-sponsored by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and Pinellas County Extension on March 24 at Weedon Island Preserve in St. Petersburg.

Recognize these guys?
They're giving out good advice at the Discovery Garden.

Alright then, no more excuses! It's almost Spring -- time to get moving on making your yard a little more "Floridian." Please let me know if any of these tips are helpful, and how your landscape makeovers are coming along. YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Nature's Calendar on a Fast Track

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

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!

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

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

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?