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?

More Day Lilies Blooming and a Long Over-due Project

Two more daylilies are blooming in the garden.  They were planted at the end of last October as bare root fans, which I ordered from smokeysdaylilygardens.com.

PANDORAS BOX   

(Evergreen, early-mid, rebloomer, 4" flower, 19" scape height, white/cream, Ruffled, fragrant, recurved)

CHORUS LINE 

(Evergreen, early, rebloomer, 3.5" flower, 20" scape height, pink/rose, Ruffled, extended bloomer, very fragrant)

I wish these daylilies can thrive in my garden for many years coming!

Now here is an over-due update of a loooong over-due garden project.  (Can you hear the word "procrastination" whispering in the air?)

In August 2010 August, we started building a path on the west side of house and back yard to replace a muddy grass area.  You can see how it looked then here.  It was just a path with grasses removed, and layered with weed block clothes, plus the pea sized gravels.

Later, we added the step stones (you can see the picture in this post). We were then looking for bigger sized stones to lay on the top of pea gravels to level with stepping stones to finish the job, but never got time to do so.

During the recent Christmas holidays, DH and I had a couple of weeks off the work.  We finally found a local landscape place had the river stones for sale,  just what we were looking for!  After dumping 40+ bags of river stones, now the path finally had a finished look.

This is the portion of the path at the west side of the house, looking towards the South (backyard).

Now looking from the back yard towards the North (front of the house) of the same path.

Zooming out more in the same direction (towards North).  The majority part of the path shown in the picture now is in the backyard, west flower bed.

Now turn around to look the other direction (towards further south, lake side) of the west side. The portion with four stepping stones were just created this past Christmas by removing the grass there.  Now the whole west side along the house includes only flower beds and stone path, no grass at all. 

I am really enjoying the soothing and tranquil feeling of this new river stone path gives.


On the east side of the back yard, there was a short path leading to the fence door going out of the backyard.  Since I often need to hauling the soil to the back yard for planting, and river stone path won't be easy for a pulling card to go through, we turned this pathway to a brick paved path.  Now I can easily transport the soil using my little pulling cart.


Although it is not a perfect job, we were proud to have this path paved all by ourselves considering this was our first time ever to try this.

With the above project finished, now within the fence, we only have last strip of grasses left, which is along the lake side (see below).

Two small Christmas palms were added last December.  Between two palms, the small tree in the container is "Michelia champaca", which should produce very fragrant yellow flowers. Now I have already put it under the ground outside of the fence  since the above picture was taken, and I cannot wait for it bloom for the first time!

Removing this last piece of grasses, and converting it to another planting area is in progress, I will post it once it is finished. One hint, this area will be involving some rocks.

Last, let me use this full opened hot pink gerbera daisy wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day!

My Garden: Two Years Later

I cannot believe today is already the last day of August!  With the new beginning of a school year, excessive heat, humidity and abundant mosquitos, the time I spent in the garden has been cut to the minimum recently.  Luckily, the frequent rain has been keeping my garden alive, or should I say, converting my garden into a jungle.

I am also very overdue to write my garden anniversary report.  After all, recording garden progress was the main reason that I started this blog from the first place.  By the The end of June, my garden turned to two years old!

Let me give you a tour to my garden.  Don’t worry, that won’t take long since I only have a tiny garden.  If you are interested to see how I started my garden, you can find the beginning here and one year report here.

My garden space basically is limited to the strip around my house.  Let’s start from the front yard.

Front yard was the only space that had established landscape before we moved in. After we added decorative concrete border to the flower beds and side yard, we did a front garden make over.  You can find the detail of this makeover here.

This is how it looked when it was just finished in March.

Since then, I have been adding more plants, such as bromeliads, society garlics, and some of original plants had to be moved since the Sun changed the direction in the summer, and those plants were being scorched.  Here is how it looks now.

Now move to the right (west) side of the house.  Looking toward the back yard from the front… The caladiums have started fading away.  (Note to myself:  Need to move the caladiums to a more shaded area.)

The same bed looking toward the front of the house.  From this picture, you also can see the small flowerbed in the front that circles an oak tree.  Four of my Vanda orchids are hanging on this tree.

Continue walking inside the fence of this side yard toward the back yard…

I opened this side flower bed last year.  Wow, how everything has been out growing!  I already did lots of trimming, but it still looks like a jungle.

Ground orchids are almost hidden under the Angel's Trumpet tree.

Angel’s Trumpet has been blooming on and off for the whole year.  I am not very satisfied with its shape though.  Maybe I can start another one since striking a cutting of it is super easy, and they really grow VERY FAST!  At least in my climate.

Now we are almost in the back yard.  From here, you can see how the side yard and the back yard are connected.  The path is a paved gravel path with step stones.  I still need to put more big stones on the path to level the step stones, a project that has been postponed for almost one year. 

The following are the sections of the west flowerbed of the backyard, also my biggest flowerbed.  I will show you the broad view of this flower bed later.

White Angel's trumpet is also flowering...

Can you tell why I said the weather has been turning my garden into a jungle?  Zinnias have been growing to almost 5 feet tall, blocking the flowers in the back of the bed.  I think they almost passed their peak time, and I need to remove them soon.

Here is the broad view of this flower bed.   If you compare it to the one year report post, you can find out that I have widened this flower bed to remove the remaining grass strip.

The other flower bed in the above picture that is perpendicular to the west bed has also been widened since last year.  This flower bed is parallel to the “lake” of my back yard.  The papaya trees outside of the fence were planted one and half years ago starting from little seedlings given by my friend.  Now all trees are bearing the fruits.

Different sections of this flower bed…

The bromeliads around the Christmas palm tree have been setting the pups.  I want them eventually climbing up the tree.

Again, the zinnias are too tall to fall over the flower bed.

Now here is the east (left) side of my backyard.  Still looking at the “lake”…

I already opened one corner of this side in the first year.  This is close-up view of the corner:

Then I started to remove the rest of the strip of this side in April.  The idea was using this bed partially as the vegetable garden.  My frequent readers might remember I did mention that I had a Veggie garden project in progress.  You might have been wondering why I never gave any update about that project.  Well, that was because the plan of having a partial vegetable garden failed miserably.  The Chinese Yard long beans I planted were attacked by the aphids, and died before they could produce the beans.  The string-less beans I started from seeds were also developed some decease that made the leaves looking rusty.  The eggplants seedlings could not grow bigger at all for some reason.  The only things I had some sort of harvest were tomatoes (already removed, you can see the cages in the pictures), hyacinth beans, herbs and some Chinese leave veggies. 

I think the wet and hot weather might be the one to blame, and even I already amended the soil with compost and horse manure, I think the soil might still not be ideal for the vegetables. Of course, the major reason of my failure will be the lack of experience of this gardener.   Now I even don’t know if I have the courage to try again.  Maybe fall is the good season to try?  At least I know I can always use it as the regular flower bed.

The other end of this flower bed close to the back yard has already been used to grow flowers: Gardenias, Jasmines, Rain lilies, wishbones….

Now we have finished touring the backyard.  Let's walk back to the front yard via the east (left) side of the house. 

The east side only had the bushes that builder put there.  Here is a picture of it right after the concrete border was installed in March.

Since then I have been removing the bushes one by one to open it as a new flower bed.  Here is a sneak preview of the unfinished bed:

Now I don’t know how I removed all those bushes in this hot summer.  Not counting the sweat and the mosquito bites!   I just know I am determined to remove two or three at a time before the garbage collecting days, so that the bushes could be disposed.  There still are the last five bushes to be removed at the far end, and the plants are not matured yet.  Will give another update about this bed after I finish it.

Okay, now we have come back to the front garden to conclude my garden tour.  Did I tell you that it won’t take long?  You can see I have almost opened all space I can find for my garden.  Wonder what I can show you in next year’s anniversary report…Things will be changed for sure.  That is part of the gardening fun after all!!!

I am looking forward to the cool season...  and wish I can have more time for my garden.

Happy Gardening, friends!

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...