Garden Project: West Side Garden

I worked in the garden for most of the past weekend except the time for house cleaning, grocery shopping and sending kids to Sunday Chinese school.  In another word, I used every bit of the time I can find!  When I went to bed on Sunday night with sore muscles, I also felt a big sense of accomplishment :)

Since we moved into the current house almost two years ago (time really flies!), my majority work has been concentrating on the backyard, opening the flower beds from the scratch.  Since the land we own has very limited garden space, I know I need to utilize every bit of space, including the stripes at the both sides of the house. 

Since the side area is visible to the street, I want to give those future flower beds a more formal look than the backyard.  About one month ago, we finally hired somebody to come in and installed the concrete border in the front yard and both sides of the house.

The result is nice, and the border does give an instant face lift to the yard.  Now it is up to me to play with those bordered areas. 

As every new flower bed in my garden, before I can actually enjoy the planting fun, grass needs to be removed, big rocks need to be dug out, new soils need to be brought in.  Since I really have not got much time since the border was installed, the progress has been rather slow.  

The past weekend I finally "nearly finised" the west side garden.

Here is how it looked like in August last year. This area is at the low point of the land, even grass can not survive here.  We often have to walk in the water puddles during the raining season.  It really has become an eye sore for us. 

Here is how it looked like after I "finished" planting this past Sunday.

This is the view looking from the backyard side. 

The rain gutter downspout and the rain barrel we installed last year is cutting this flower bed into two sections. Right now we just paved the area where rain barrel is located with gravels, and put two stepping stones there. I also planted one Persian shield plant against the wall, and put an Aloe container in front of it. I need to think more about how to use this area, maybe for container plannting so it doesn't look too bared comparing other sections of this flower bed.

This flower bed is located the west side of the house, and the neighbor's house blocks some of afternoon sun, so I consider it is a partial sun area.


West side garden left section

In the left section of this bed, three Hawaii Ti plants and Plumeria pudica were planted there even before this area was bordered.  I added three ground orchids which were lifted from other part of the garden during the near freeze days in December. One of the new begonia is also planted here. I also squeezed in a dragon wing begonia at the back and a Brunfelsia latifolia (aka 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow').  I need to keep Brunfelsia latifolia prunned to keep it compact.

West side garden right section

In the right section, Plumeria rubra was planted last year, and now the leaves all fell off, left only the bare branches in the ground. I will see if it will do well this year, if not, then maybe it needs to be moved ino a more sunny area.

In front of Plumeria rubra are five Amaryllis bulbs.  I bought these five bulbs last December, and they finished blooming at the end of December. I hope by putting them into the ground can bring second round of flowers this year, or at least rebloom next season. At the back of this section, I moved two Cordyline fruticosa 'Kiwi' from other part of the garden. In addition, another dragon wing begonia, one very young Mussaenda luteola (Mussaenda White Wing) from cuttings, and a Cuphea ignea (Cigar plant) were also squeezed in.

Have you noticed that I used "squeeze" twice already? Yes, in my tiny garden, space is at premium, so I am used to squeezing plants into the flower bed when they are still young. Only if they grow out of the allocated space, I move them into another location. I am sure I will do quite some "moving around" for the next a couple of months depending on how the plants perform in their location.

As I said earlier, this flower bed is just nearly finished, still have some work to be done.

Meanwhile, I will give you an update to one of my existing flower beds, located at the right side of the drive way in the front.

A view from last year June....  Notice the border is still the old black rubber border.

West frontyard bed June 2010

Although this bed looked lush in the summer, Pentas and ground orchids don't have the best look over the winter. I moved them into other areas. Five Euphorbia splendens (Crown of Thorns) replaced them in this area to give this bed a tidier look and bring some consistent color through the year.

At the curve side of this bed, I planted two kinds of matchstick bromeliads around the oak tree base, and hoping some day they can grow up to hug the tree trunk.  Overall, I think the new plants in this flower bed will be low maitenence, easy controlled, and yet still have the tropical look.   When African iris comes to blooming, all those white flowers instant add more life and color into this bed.

Before I finish my garden update,  I want to also show you where I will work on for the future projects, the front yard and the east side.   

Front yard

There are one narrow stripe between the new border and the original rock garden edge.  The grass needs to be removed, and put more rocks on.  The border also contained more lawn area at the corner, so more plants are needed there.

At the east side, all the bushes against the wall will eventually be removed, so lots of planting opportunites in this bed.

East side

I am excited about all these projects, but don't know when I can get to them, so stay tuned :)

Garden Bloggers Blooming Day - December 2010

Talking about the cold weather and its impacts to the garden seems a trend on Florida blogs these days, thanks to our unusual December freeze or near freeze days these two weeks.

Last week, I was on a business trip in Phoenix when the first cold front hit the Florida.  Since I lived in south Florida, and the forecast showed the lowest would only go around 37 Fahrenheit, I did not worry too much.  I did bring all my orchids indoors though, and dug one clump for each color of my ground orchids from ground, and potted them up so that they can stay in the the garage.  The rest of the ground orchids were left in the ground.  I just could not take any chance on those beautiful ground orchids since they are supposed to be frost tender.   Parents also watered the plants during those coldest days for me to keep the overall health of the plants.

When I came home last Friday, I was happy that my garden looked fine, except for some cold tender plants, such as coleus, sweet potato leaves, and pentas had leave damage.  That was fine with me, coleus was about finished anyway, and sweet potato leaves will bounce back in no time once the weather warms up.  I also found that my Tropical Lilac's (Cornutia grandifolia) leaves were fried to crispy and fell off even with only two near freeze days.  I guess it was called "Tropical" for reasons.

Early this week, the temperature went down around 32 degree Fahrenheit, I covered the Agaves, tender bromeliads, ground orchids that are still in the ground, and the Tropical Lilac with old sheets.  I am happy that they seem have pulled through just fine, and the weather will warm up the rest of the week.

As a token of small celebration, I decided to join Garden Bloggers Blooming Day, hosted by May Dreams Gardens, for the very first time.

This coleus is planted under an Angel's Trumpet tree and next to the house wall.  Seems the protection of the tree and the warmth reflected from the wall did help this one survive.  The leave has more red than it had in the warm weather.

This Cigar Plant (Cuphea melvillea) also shows more red color in the cold weather.

My all time favorite in the garden, dragon wing begonias.  It is tougher than it looks, and the cold weather did not do any damages to it.

Another Dragon Wing Begonia...  Even when it is not flowering, I love its foliage.

This hawaii Ti is supposed to be cold-tender plant, but since it is planted against the house wall, and behind the Plumeria pudica bush, the leaves were untouched, and is still showing beautiful bright pink foliage.

The red salvia is perfect Christmas color, don't you think?

I noticed this pentas showing different shade of pink on the flower pentals, not sure if it is because of the cold weather, or the age of the flowers. 

This is my newest ground orchid, purchased two weeks before the last week's cold front.  I left it in its container, so that it can be brought indoor easily for protection.  Now I have four colors of ground orchids.  I can foresee this collection will grow more in the future.

Indian Blanket flowers don't seem mind the cold weather at all.  They brighten my Agave garden corner so beautifully.

Kalanchoe is the cold weather bloomer.  I had three colors last year, deep pink, light pink double, and golden yellow double.  This year, I couldn't find the pink double anywhere.  I wonder if the pink double turned to yellow double somehow.

The geranium is another cold weather bloomer returned from last year.

This is my first year to grow Dianthus, and they are quite happy to grow in the ground.  I did not do any covering for them in the cold weather, and they proved themselves as such little tough plants.

The red-orange flowers from Bolivian Sunset Gloxinia (Gloxinia sylvatica) are giving the welcome warmth to the winter garden and this gardener too.

My roses are obviously enjoying this cold weather.  They hardly bloomed during the summer, and now they came back to life, with bigger flowers.

Snapdragon loves the cold weather too!

Impatiens looked quite comfortable tucked in the container.   I love to have some bright color in the container, especially in the winter.

Hope you enjoyed my first GBBD post.  For me, it is nice to have a record for the plants survived our first two rounds of cold weather.  Although I hope the rest of the winter (or should I say the up-coming winter?) will be mild, I know I have to be prepared, and enjoy what I have now.