More Work in the Front Yard

You can probably tell by now I didn't really have a "real" plan for my garden renovation. I will work in the front yard for a while, then move to the back, then back to the front again. I'm really good at starting something, then going to look for something I need and end up cleaning up the shed or start taking cuttings which I have to immediately plant (or at least within a couple of days).

A Comfortable Place to Sit

My next project was to create a comfortable place to sit in the front yard...a place where I could sit and read and listen to the waterfall in the pond and not be seen by passing cars. There was a place by the azalea island bed, but I had to get John to move a couple of azaleas back a few feet so I could have a little cubbyhole for my chairs. I purchased two adirondack chairs from a 75 year old man who lived across from my credit union. He advertised he would make them and paint them whatever color I wanted. I think they cost $75 each...and that included an ottoman. At the time, I didn't realize they should have been made of cedar, because he used pine (which was cheaper) and I threw them away a month ago because they had rotted...about three years later.

Anyway, I had John make me a frame out of pressure treated wood and I bought some 12 X 12 concrete pavers to make a platform for the chairs. I used to take my laptop out there and do some work and listen to the birds chirp. I put up a few bird feeders which attracted birds as well as squirrels. Here's a photo of my seating area:

Purple is my favorite color and I love this shade. I also like cobalt blue and red accents in the garden.

I got tired of fighting with the squirrels, and I now have a cat who is an excellent hunter, so I don't see very many birds or squirrels anymore. I think the birds have gotten the word about my killer cat. After I threw away the rotten adirondack chairs recently, I put up a new bird feeder I got for Christmas a couple of years ago. I haven't seen any birds in it yet, but it looks like the seeds are getting lower. I don't know if the seeds are just settling or what because I never see any birds and I can see the feeder from my living room window.

Next... a platform for a nice urn I purchased from Home Depot.

The Raised Flower Bed

My next project was creating a new bed around the big oak tree in the backyard. This area was really overgrown with fern. When I bought the house, I thought the fern looked nice. . . I didn't notice there was so much of it. Come to think of it, there probably wasn't as much because I didn't do anything to the yard the first four years I lived here. Here is a before picture:

I started pulling the fern around the big oak tree by hand and quickly developed carpel tunnel. The fern has very shallow roots, but there was so much of it, my wrists couldn't take it. My carpel tunnel was so bad, I couldn't type or even grip a pen to write! I was afraid I had done permanent damage. It took seven days for my wrists to recover!

I decided to hire the Stone brothers in my neighborhood to finish the job. The boys were great. They even came with a bee sting kit and told me, after they were finished, they got stung several times. They were only about 7 and 9 years old then. Now they're teenagers!

Here are before and afters of the raised bed around the big oak tree:

After the fern was gone, I again took John away from his master bath renovation to build me a raised bed around the tree. There were too many tree roots to try and dig around them. It took 60 bags of compost and top soil from Home Depot to fill it.

Raising the bed made a nice area for cascading sweet potato vine and Torenia (wishbone flower). The Torenia flowers year round in Central Florida and does not need fertilizer to flower. It is one of my favorite plants. The sweet potato vine actually produces sweet potatoes. I've never eaten one of them, but some friends who took cuttings said the sweet potatoes were not very good. I guess you have to plant them with the right kind of fertilizer to get the right taste. I don't know since I've never done any vegetable gardening. Try the link above to learn more.

The Pergola Project Part II

John bought the materials for the pergola and finished it in one weekend. I designed it so that it would create more privacy from the street. We put three sides on it with lattice panels and kept the front open. I put a swing in it that I had acquired from a friend who was going to throw it out. She didn't like it because she didn't have much shade in her yard. The canopy acted as a sail and the wind kept blowing it over. She didn't save the hardware and I told her John could put it together, so she gave it to me. John had bought the necessary hardware that very day and had it all put together that night. My friend came over and was surprised we had it together and in place in such a short time. It is so nice having someone who can fix things and build things we need around the house! The swing used to be located on the screened porch which John was transforming into the new master bath. So the pergola became the new perfect home for it.

Here are before and after pictures of the pergola:

People ask me all the time how do I keep the weeds from growing back. The best thing is to put down weed fabric and mulch over that. It also helps if the area does not get watered by the irrigation system. Of course, weeds will sprout in the mulch, so I do have to pull weeds from time to time. But it is not that bad if I do a little every morning as I stroll through the garden with my cup of coffee. I usually only weed this area about once a month.

The Pergola Project Part I

I asked my fiance if he would build me a pergola where our nuptials would take place. It would provide more privacy in the backyard from anyone who might be walking down the sidewalk. The kids in the neighborhood tend to ride their skateboards down the section where the ceremony would take place, and a barrier would be great to minimize such distractions. At the time I made my request, my fiance was building an addition on the house. He was turning the screen porch outside the master bedroom into a new master bathroom. Here are some before and after pictures:

This is my fiance, John, doing the block work for the new master bathroom.

John finished the bathroom the morning of the wedding. He was painting the bathroom door that morning! Here is the finished bathroom.

John, my fiance, did all the plumbing, electrical, block work, foundation work. He hired his brother-in-law, John Heizman of John's Custom Woodworking, to build and install the cabinets, tub surround, wall niche above the tub, and crown molding. Check out John's website at the link.

The Fountain

The next thing I did was purchase a 4 tier fountain from a place on 436 ... close to the 17-92 intersection. I can't remember the name of it. Anyway, the fountain weighed 500 pounds and I had to have it professionally delivered and installed. There is an area in the backyard that was a tangled mess of fern, vines and 6 foot tall shell ginger. I created a path by mowing through the fern and then pulling the stubs out by the roots. This was the best method for me. I got the fountain installed, put a bench across from it and created my meditation spot. Then I decided to pull out the rest of the fern and plant a bed there. I've tried several things, but ended up with the plants posted in my June 22 post "Pond Plants and Shade Plants." Here is a before picture of that area:

I had to pull a lot of fern to get to this:

This is a wonderful place to just sit and think:

Our Little Park

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. My husband and I went on a much needed vacation ... just a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas, but no phones or internet, so we were forced to relax. Yahoo! Since returning, I have gotten several calls to do photo montages. My website is really working for me. If you search for slideshow Orlando or photo montage Orlando or my latest client told me she searched for "photos to DVD" and found me. Yahoo again!

After my fiance, John, gave me the go ahead to start working on the garden for the wedding, I started working full time in the garden. I decided I wanted the entire front and back yards to look like Leu Gardens, with winding paths and "rooms" throughout. I haven't been good at creating theme rooms; it has been a challenge figuring out what will live in my mostly shade garden. I want more color than shades of green...impatiens are great but not 1/2 acre of them!

After we got rid of the grass, the weeds took over in no time. I did not have time to get all the flower beds installed before the wedding, so I had to focus on a couple of flower beds and cover the large grassless areas with weed fabric then cover that with mulch. We should have bought stock in weed fabric that year! It ended up looking very nice. With all the tree coverage the leaves covered the mulch in a matter of days. It looked much like a state park as you can see.

Pond Plants and Shade Plants

I thought you might like to know what I planted around the pond (see pictures from previous posts). The palm in the middle is a date palm. They will reproduce pups, so be aware of this. They can be difficult to remove without hurting the pond liner and waterfall container. The yellow plant is Apinia (variegated shell ginger), the tall pink plant is Hawaiian Ti (also known as Three Sisters), several bromeliads, and Spathiphylum (Peace Lily). Inside the pond is Siberian Iris and water lily. I planted aloe vera on the backside of the waterfall which spreads and makes a great plant to share with friends. And a few annual marigolds and impatiens add color. Although I love their bright color, I stopped planting marigolds because I have so much space to fill in my 1/2 acre yard, I am tired of having to replace annuals. These days, I'm trying to fill most of my yard with colorful perennials that can handle shade.

It has been difficult finding colorful plants for a shady yard that can take the Florida heat and our extreme dry and extreme wet seasons. I have made plenty of mistakes. For instance, I used to read gardening magazines and online articles about great plants for shade gardens. Two that are constantly mentioned are Astilbe and Hostas. Well, these plants can't take the Florida heat. I have tried several times in different locations, even in my most shady area, and they won't do much. They come back every year but they are so puny, it's embarrassing. So I decided the only gardening books I should read are books and magazines dedicated to Florida gardening. It has been a challenge to find anything just about Florida. I believe it is because we can garden year round in Florida so no one has time to write about it. The best source I have found is Florida Gardening magazine and the books that are recommended in it. This magazine also publishes all the Florida plant shows, etc. for the next three months. Florida Gardening magazine was a great find for me and I highly recommend it.

Here are photos of the shadiest spot in my garden. I have planted many houseplants in it as they do very well. Coleus tends to freeze, but covering them during the freeze can protect them.

Here are links to websites I use that are great resources for researching plants and their care in the Florida area: Zebra, Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily), Anthurium, several types of Calathea: Peacock Ginger, Triostar, and others I don't know the name of, Caladium and Bird's Nest Fern.

Ponds & Skeeters

I have heard some people say a pond sounds nice, but they won't get one because it will attract mosquitoes. I have news for those people. Mosquitoes will not breed in moving water; therefore, if you get a pond with moving water (with a waterfall or a fountain), you have no excuse for not getting that pond. Unless, of course, it is just an excuse for something you don't want anyway. If that is the case, it's time to find another excuse.

In my neighborhood, we have so much shade from all the trees, that most of my neighbors and I have lots of bromeliads. As I mentioned before, bromeliads hydrate by catching water in their centers. This poses a problem because mosquitoes will lay eggs in the bromeliad centers. We have a LOT of mosquitoes in my neighborhood as a result.

There are three things I do to combat this problem:

1. I flush out the bromeliads with water after a rain;

2. I used to call the City to have them spray for mosquitoes; however, it was difficult to get them to come out when I really needed it (like before a party). The City mosquito exterminator told me about the Burgess Fogger which is the same solution they use only milder. I found a propane fogger at a garage sale for $25 (I love garage sales!), but you can purchase one at a home improvement store for $80 or more. I purchase refills of the Burgess Fogger solution online and it works great! I use the one with pyrethrin and I highly recommend using a respirator when fogging! Whenever we are having company over or we plan to be outside for a while, we fog the yard (excluding the pond because it could kill the fish). This stuff really works! It lasts at least 24 hours, if not longer, unless it rains, of course;

3. Another remedy I read about in my Florida Gardening magazine is to put a small piece of Mosquito Dunk in each bromeliad cup. Mosquito Dunks can be purchased at Lowe's or Home Depot and contain Bacillus thuringiensis (BTi) which kills them but will not harm the plant. I plan to try this in the near future, so I will keep you posted if I feel it works.

If you have problems with mosquitoes, be sure and check your property after every rain and dump any standing water. Mosquitoes will breed in standing water caught in a leaf, in a tree, a pot -- they don't need a lot of water to lay their eggs. It only takes 4-5 days for mosquito larvae to become an irritating, blood-sucking adult! Be sure and empty those bird baths every 3-4 days, too!

I will close this entry with a September 2006 photo of the pond when the bromeliads are blooming.

Phase II - The Pond

The next thing I did was refinance my house. The housing market was booming so I was able to take some equity out of the house to put back into the garden. So I had a pond built. I hired Horizon Outdoor Projects out of Kissimmee to do the job. They talked me into getting their largest pond; however, they couldn't talk me out of putting it in the front yard. We spent a lot of time in our back yard, so I wanted something in the front yard to give us a reason to spend time there and to have a great view from my living room picture window.

Here is a photo of the pond being built.

And here is the finished product with landscaping by Donna (me).

Mulch makes all the difference. Here is the pond after mulch.

Phase I - The Garden Renovation

The first thing I did after John, my fiance/husband proposed and said "Go ahead and get the garden in shape for the wedding," was get rid of the grass. My neighbors constantly complain about having to rake the leaves dropped by the hundreds of live oaks on our properties. I decided to embrace the leaves and get rid of all my grass. The grass wasn't in good shape to begin with, but renting a tiller to dig it up was difficult. I guess we had more grass than we thought. However, getting rid of the grass helped my allergies substantially. For that reason alone, I highly recommend getting rid of your grass, not to mention your watering requirements are drastically reduced and the leaves make great mulch. Phase II was getting a pond installed. This is the view from my living room window before the pond installation.

First Things First

The next project in the garden was planting bromeliads someone in my outdoor club, Wilderness Trekkers, gave me. The first year they all bloomed in September. The second year most bloomed in September and a few in October. The third year, a few also bloomed in November. I am hoping that in coming years, more will bloom in October and November since the blooms only last about a week or two. Here are photos of the bromeliad garden in full bloom the first year.
These type of bromeliads are beautiful when they are in bloom, the only problem is the blooms last only two to three weeks. The parent plant does produce many more pups than other bromeliads whose blooms last much longer. I think I prefer blooms that last longer. However, these bromeliads make great plants to share with friends since they multiply so fast.

TIP: Bromeliads are epiphytes which is a plant that grows on another plant for support only. It is not parasitic meaning it does not derive nourishment from the host plant. Bromeliads derive nourishment from the air and hydrate by catching water in their centers. The roots that they possess are to help them attach themselves for support only. Soil is not needed; however, the plant will use it only to keep upright so it can catch water in its center.

In the Beginning . . .

The first two photos below were published in the realtor listing in 2001. You can see why I fell in love with it.

The whole neighborhood is treed like this and most of my neighbors have beautiful gardens. I'm sure they were happy when I finally started working on my garden.

After 4 years of neglect, the fern had practically taken over. It completely grew over a stone path in the backyard. The photo below shows the overgrown path.

The fern was so thick, I thought it was easier to just mow the path and pull the fern roots later. The next picture shows it after I mowed and planted my first purchased plants: Alabama Sunset coleus. These coleus do great in my very shady garden.

How I Got Started Gardening

Well this is my first blog ever, and my first post for my gardening blog. I'm new to this so bear with me.

In the past, most of my gardening had been limited to houseplants. One year I planted a very small flower bed in the front of my duplex. Only one year. I discovered annuals don't last (or at least they don't come back the next year) and I gave up on gardening after that.

After my divorce, I found what I call my 'forever' house. I could live in this house the rest of my life. It has hundreds of trees, a side garage with a long driveway, the closets are huge, the rooms are the perfect size, and it has a screened porch and swing in the backyard. I fell in love and thanks to a great realtor, Jim Umstead, I was able to get in it. It was a close call, but he made sure all the fixes from the inspection report were done and negotiated the closing costs (on closing day) so I could get into the house. He also found financing that worked for me. He was amazing!

I digress.

Anyway, I didn't do much gardening the first four years. I was not making enough money to afford that luxury. I started gardening about a year before my husband moved in. My paltry legal assistant salary didn't go very far, therefore progress was slow going. When my husband proposed, he said go ahead and get the garden in shape for the wedding. I was in heaven!

I had a LOT of work to do! The garden had a good foundation -- hundreds of live oaks, a few cherry laurels and camphor trees (Camphophenique is made from these trees) and the previous owner planted hundreds of azaleas with Boston fern and impatiens as under dressing. My mail carrier calls our neighborhood Impatien Lane. However, it really got out-of-shape with four years of neglect.

To be continued . . . I'll post some photos when I figure out how.