No More Grass Within the Fence!

While this blog almost turns into a monthly update, my garden did not cease its progress at all.

My long time readers might know that my garden contains no more than a perimeter of stripes around the house and backyard.  After we moved in two and half years ago, I slowly converted those stripes into the flower beds one at a time.

The last stripe of grass left is a narrow one along the lake, about 30 feet long and 5 feet wide.  Here is how this area looked like back in 2010 (the complete length of the stripe is not shown in the picture).  Except some containers I put there, nothing else.

Since this area is between the lake and the house, I don't want to grow anything big and wild to block the view.  Also this is a full sun area, I know I need some plants that are drought tolerant and sun loving.  Since it is close to the pool, I want this flower bed not making mess, and low maintenance, and of course, need to look pretty!

Lots of ideas were bouncing around in my head when I took the night garden walks under the moonlight in the backyard, and eventually I pictured a flower bed more like a rock garden, but not as many rocks as the typical rock gardens. 

Last December, two small Christmas palm trees were planted to match an existing one at the other end (now shown below).  I think Christmas palms are relatively fast grower in my area, and hope they can provide a little shade to the plants around them, and the human being walking by.  Yet, when they grow taller, they would not block the lake view.  The right bottom corner of the below picture also shows an existing bed that I opened about two years ago.

I forgot to take pictures to record every step of this project, but it has lasted on and off for over a month.  Between kids activities at the weekends, we have been using those pocket of the time to do little by little.  And often, I have been doing lots of digging and planting at night!

Since the real boulders in big size are really expensive in South Florida (easily goes to $300 - $500 each), we bought three artificial ones from local nursery.  They are more less natural looking, the second best I can get compared to the real rocks.

The below was after removing all the grasses, and three artificial rocks were positioned, and some plants were placed at the back half of the stripe.  The big bromeliad in the center is one of the pups of Aechmea blanchetiana 'Orangeade'from my own garden. When it is exposed to the full sun, it shows more intense orange color.

As matter of the fact, most of plants I used here came from my own garden, I only  bought some bush daisies (Euryops) and one full sun bromeliad (left to Aechmea blanchetiana).

After all the plants were placed, I used the black plastic garden edging to  divide the stripe into front and back two sections length wise. To create a more natural look, the edging was put in a wavy lines. Since the plan was to put the river stones in the front half of the bed to match the other part of the backyard, I put the pine bark mulches first to the back half of the bed, so the mulch won't make mess on the river stones.

Finally, last night I finished the whole project! 

Here is the whole view of this finished flower bed. I took this picture early this morning. I think it connected the existing bed at the right quite well.

At the far left end, I created a pathway to echo the other end, and open the view to the widest area of the water. I also bought a solar pagoda with candle.  I love its adding a little bit Asian touch into my garden, and it makes this view more peaceful. It also creates a pretty combo with flax lily and bush daisy.  Although I might have to move bush daisy behind the flax lily when it grows taller.   Bush daisy has been performing really well in my other full sun flower bed without much care, besides that, the cheerful yellow can add more color and life into this flower bed.  Three bush daisies are spread in this bed.

Here is the view looking the other end of this stripe. The very far end is the more matured Christmas Palm.

The following are the closer views of different sections of the bed. Agaves, bromeliads, bulbines, crown of thorn, variegated Devil's backbone (Euphorbia tithymaloides)and cactus are the major varieties I used.

Can you see the black circle in the stone area of the above picture?  That is a plastic pot I buried under there.  I will use it to plug in another pot for a  clean and quick planting.

The grass looking plants around the palm base in the above picture is the bulbine plants.  They will fill in pretty quickly once established. This is another favorite plant of mine. I wrote a post about this little sweet plant here.

Can you see my pot-in-pot usage in front of the above two boulders?  I can use this quickly switching in and out the seasonal flowers to give this bed a little bit of season changes.

The variegated Devil's backbone lost all leaves due to the move stress and a couple of cold nights after the move.  They should be able to recover soon.  Its variegated leaves and the zig-zag stems really add some interests into the garden.  Its leaf color even turns into  pink/reddish during the winter.  Another easy and nice looking full sun plant, also extremely easy to propagate!

This project is so far my most satisfied one, and it could also be my last biggest project!

From now on, I have no more land to open, and no more grass to remove! However, I am sure I will still be busy around the garden. After all, the gardening is all about changing, right?

Front Garden -- Finished!

...at least for now!

When we hired people coming to install the concrete border for us about one and half month ago, the workers did not follow the curve of the original front yard bed.  The result was that the bed got expanded by one foot length wise.  I have to say that I love this unexpected surprise.  In addition, I asked the extra grass area at the right to be included within the border.  

Here is a picture of this same area from last June.  Notice we have changed the exterior color and the front door color since then.  I am not a big fan of a pink house :) 

This front bed was the only area in this house that had some mature landscape before we moved in.   On this flower bed, from the back to the front, three palm trees, Crape Jasmine bush in the middle, Ixora bushes, crotons, sago palm with Acalypha reptans (Dwarf Chenille) as ground cover underneath.  Between the crotons and sago palm, there were something similar to Split Leafed Philodendron but much smaller, only 1 to 2 feet tall.  I used to see the names somewhere, but could not remember it now.  Two colors of stones were separated by the black border, with the dark red stones inside and the lighter color outside.

After the border was installed, I did the west side garden first, and I knew this front garden area would be the next one that I want to put my hands on.  Thanks for the day light saving time, I was able to find more time after work to start working on this front bed before the spring break. Last week was kids' spring break, and I took two days off.  Except for the two visits to some local historical places with family, we used most of the time to finish the front yard.

With all these activities, I cut the blogging time completely for the last five days. I am glad that today I can come here to have a garden update.

While I love to experiment different plants in the backyard for different seasons, I want the front yard to have a more "designed" look, low maintenence, and yet still provides enough interests and colors throughout all seasons.

The grasses were removed, weed-block sheets were laid on before husband carried white marble chips on the outer half of this bed.

Here is the finish look of the front garden.

Two out of three big boulders were moved outward to match the wider bed and make them more standing out.  Two ground orchids, two agaves and various bromeliads were planted against red stones or white marble chips to show the colors and stay low maintenance.

For the new area at the right corner, I have been picturing a welcome pot with plants trailing down for a while in my mind. Finally we found the welcome pot at a local store, and I planted Aptenia cordifolia 'Red Apple' into it. Since Aptenia cordifolia 'Red Apple' has been established in another container for a while, so that trailing effect was immediately achieved. More bromeliads and one crown of thorns were spreaded around the pot.

Most of "new" plants in this bed were moved from other areas of my garden except for the following three: Aechmea 'Mend', one unknown bromeliad, and one crown of thorn with large flowers.

Aechmea 'Mend'

Oh, I also found this cast iron blue bird stake in a store over the weekend, perfect for this corner too!

I probably will plant more bromeliads or other plants with foliage interests into the white stone area of this bed, but for now I consider this bed is "finished".  Since the day we finished it, I could not help walking around it again and again, feeling proud of this new design of my garden area.  I am sure you all felt the same thing when those pictures that have stayed in your mind for a while are finally becoming true!

I think by now, our neighbours should have known the lady living in this house love gardening since they have seen me working on this front bed to move the plants around almost every night for quite a while now :)

Spring is here, YAY!   Now I can play more plants in the back yard...

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 :)

A Busy Gardener's Garden

For those who are the regular readers of my blog, you might have noticed that I have not posted anything for more than two weeks now.  The weather has been wonderful for the garden in the past month, only this gardener has not got much time to work in the garden with numerous kids' activities and busy working schedule.

Of course, that did not stop me visiting my favorite local nursery and bringing two new begonias.  I don't know what are their names, but I think they are Rhizomatous Begonias.  Anybody recognize them, please let me know the names.

This one is said that can grow in the sun.  I planted it in a new partial sun flower bed.  I will write more about this new flower bed later.

This one requires shade, and as always, I struggled to find a shady place in my garden, so it is still in the container.  Even without the flowers, I love the texture of its hairy foliage.


After being attacked by some sort of insects last year,   this Orange Marmalade Crossandra was pulled off from the container (at least I thought I did).  I was surprised and happy to see its glossy green leaves emerging from the soil.  Now it opened its orange flowers again.  Together with purple petunia and white frost diamond, they made a beautiful container combination.

Another orchid has been reblooming for me after I owned it for two years.

Indian blanket flowers (Gaillardia pulchella) have been blooming without any special care from this gardener.  Can you believe all these flowers are coming from only three plants that were started from seeds last year?

African Iris and crown of thorns are another combination that doesn't require much of care once establised.

I noticed the flower buds from this Neomarica Caerulea 'Regina' (Giant Apostle's Iris) ten days ago and was looking forward to seeing its flowers in person for the very first time.  Two days ago, I finally managed to come home in the daylight, only found the flowers are already gone!  Since the plant is still quite young, I don't know when I can see they rebloom.

At least this bromeliad bloom is not easy to miss, it will be quite a while from it starts showing red to finishing the blooming.

Amazon Lily has also finished blooming.  Its beauty is so impressive!

Meanwhile, Ground orchids just started their long blooming period.  In my garden, It did not stop blooming until temperature dropped down to 40s and 30s.

For me, one of fun to grow a garden is to see the plants take turns to show their beauties, either through the flowers or the foliage.  Each stage is unique for each plant.  Even with a new garden as young as mine, I have been amazed with the cycle of the plants life.

I do believe Spring has arrived to my part of the garden.  I am itchy to put my hands into the soil, at least more than what the time has permitted me.

Happy Gardening, my friends!