Southern Coastal Home Landscape

May 17, 2011 by Rickb

We recently visited Stephen and Kristin Patagas, Landscape Architect and Designers home.

Patagus Florida Friendly Plants

Together they call their design company Hortus Oasis. Visit their website for a look at their extensive body of work.

Southern Coastal Home Landscaping Patagus Florida Friendly Plants

They have a new book, Southern Coastal Home Landscaping, you should check out if you have a home in Florida and enjoy your outdoor spaces and rooms. It is filled with great ideas and technique. The Table of Contents hints at what you will find but only hints as the images and illustrations and the clarity and depth of the ideas are a culmination of their life's work together making great outdoor spaces.

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The Patagus landscape features primarily drought tolerant plants in unirrigated areas and no lawn.

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Long time friend, Randy Knight joined us for the tour. Randy is the Director of Horticulture at The beautiful Polasek Sculpture Gardens and Museum in Winter Park that we will feature in an upcoming post.

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Low maintenance, drought tolerant containers were used to feature their collection of containers and artifacts from Bali, the place where they have drawn much of their inspiration for their design.

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The back yard is filled with raised beds of vegetables, a grape arbor featuring the Southern Home variety and butterfly garden plants.

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That’s the neighbors lawn you see in the backdrop of this turf free property.

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A look inside shows a designers talent and taste for collectables from around the world.

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They are very fond of using Succulents and Bulbine for low maintenance, long lived and drought tolerance.


Going for the Gold with Sedums

February 27, 2011 by Rick

Three chartreuse sedums you will find at these Home Depot Garden Centers this spring will offer you new choices to cover the ground and feature plants, garden ornaments and collectibles. The chartreuse color of these hardy succulents contrasts with many of the colors of the flowers, foliage and objects you have in the garden.

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Sedum Florida Friendly Gold is quickly becoming one of the most popular perennials for it’s striking color and wide range of use possibilities in the full sun and even in a setting where you get shifting or filtered shade all day.

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Sedum Florida Friendly Gold is also available in convenient 9 pack trays.

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Use them as a unifying ground cover in front of the garden border or along your home or garden fence border where you feature other showy plants. You can also use it to Shrink the Size of Your Lawn.

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Sedums and succulents are great combination planter components that can thrive on neglect.

 

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Sedum Fine Leaf Gold is a beautiful container plant that spreads and fills to make a solid carpet with an appealing texture.

 

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Sedum Ogon as a container plant that fills, contrasts and cascades in your containers. Extremely easy to grow and share.

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Durability and low maintenance are another reason to weave these low growers into your garden.

These sedums work well as pot toppers and SPILLERS in your container gardens.

 

 

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Design Your Florida Garden for Success

January 7, 2011 by Rick

 

Head over to Florida-Friendly Landscaping before you start your planning process. Use the web to gather images and data and to decide what appeals to you and what is easy to maintain. Determine what will thrive and grow into a planned mature landscape that is in scale with your home.

 

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The University of Florida’s Extension Service and their science based research are the source of the 9 Principles of Florida-Friendly Landscaping. It is helpful to us them and their trusted information and resources.

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The Water Management Districts of Florida provide most of the information you need to plan and implement a successful design. Micro Irrigation is something to consider and it will ensure success when properly installed, operated and maintained. Fortunately that is simple and straightforward.

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Search the web for more videos, blogs, Facebook pages for ideas and design help like this.

Learn the principles garden design and combine them with the 9 Principles of Florida-Friendly Landscaping

Try to get a big picture and then select plants and systems that are Florida Friendly.

Garden Coaches can also be a huge help and inspiration. They can save you many more dollars than you will spend on the trial and error method. You can also go to your Garden Center and get inspiration and prices so you have an idea of what is in season and popular for gardens now.

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Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Plant Selection Guide

December 11, 2010 by Rick

Hot off the press, the new Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Plant Selection Guide.

You will be very impressed with this downloadable publication that shows you in great detail how to design and implement a Florida Friendly Landscape. The experts at the University of Florida Extension Service have combined their talents and years of experience. The links are missing to the numbered EDIS publications for the critical proper planting of trees, turf and landscape plants so you will have to do some further searching on the Home Lawn and Landscape Section of the extensive EDIS Site to complete the implementation of your plan.

I consider this knowledge essential to professionals you may hire and a valuable resource for you to check the credibility of a contractor’s knowledge. Too often folks tend to trust a ‘yardman’ to select and properly install the Right Plant in the Right Place only to later find that the selection was inappropriate.

Bookmark these references and turn your garden into a functional Florida Friendly Landscape. Here are the 9 Principles of Florida Friendly Landscaping.

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9 Principles of Florida Friendly Landscapes

September 18, 2010 by Rick

Austin Outdoors has a classy video to help you learn and remember the University of Florida’s 9 principles. Once you have studied them a few times these principles begin to sink into your way of gardening design and the way you decorate and maintain your outdoor rooms and gardens.

 

We have more articles here to help your gardening success with the principles.

 

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Categories: 9 Principles of Florida Friendly Landscaping | Butterfly Garden | Design | Drip Irrigation | Environmental Awareness Education | Turf Substitute | U of F Cooperative Extension Service
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American Beautyberry

September 9, 2010 by Rick

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If you live near any wooded or open area, chances are you have volunteer Beautyberry seedlings that have sprouted in your garden periphery. It is one of the natives we recommend for your perennial and butterfly gardens on our Florida Friendly Plants website. Birds drop the seed everywhere so the chances of having them are high. If not, you can poke around in the woods or fence rows and find seedlings just about anywhere to transplant to your perennial border. Here is a link to all the images on the web to help you ID this wonderful native wildflower.

Eat the Weeds writer, Green Dean, has a website filled with information on what you can eat right from the wild. Check him out and bookmark him in case your fridge is looking a little bare or your feel like an eating adventure on your next trip to the forest.

Consider a large bed of Beautyberry to replace thirsty turf. The beautyberry will become a permanent garden plant that only requires an annual layer of oak leaves or other mulch to keep the bed more weed free and self maintaining. Cut the plants back hard in late winter and your garden chores will be reduced and the butterflies and birds will be stopping by for regular visits.

 

You can see Beautyberry on display at the University of Florida’s Teaching Garden in Plant City along with many other native, landscape plants and vegetable garden techniques. Here is the Florida publication on Beautyberry from Dr. Ed Gilman.

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Categories: 9 Principles of Florida Friendly Landscaping | 9 Principles of Florida Friendly Landscaping | Butterfly Garden | Butterfly Garden | Florida Friendly Landscape | Florida Friendly Landscape | Turf Substitute | Turf Substitute | Mulch | Mulch | Environmental Awareness Education | Environmental Awareness Education
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Purple Showers Mexican Petunia, The Sterile One

August 29, 2010 by Rick

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Purple Showers is becoming the most popular perennial in Florida for good reason. It is very Florida Friendly as it grows in wet or dry sites without irrigation, requires no fertilizer, has no pest problems and it attracts butterflies. Sulfur butterflies are a regular visitor to these plants. Purple Showers has double the number of chromosomes as the wild Mexican Petunia. Currently, sterile Purple Showers only comes in one color but Rosanna Freyre, Ph.D. of the University of Florida has figured out a way to breed other sterile forms and colors. In the coming years we will have more choices. Read the last paragraph of this article Breeding Brilliance.

Mexican Petunia with 1 day per week watering in full sun 3 yr old plant after 2010 Jan freeze in August

This is a three year old Purple Showers that receives one day a week watering under the Tampa rules and no fertilizer. It is growing in full sun in a median setting with bark and rock mulches covering plastic. The plant was damaged by the January freezes but recovered quickly. You can see that it is clump forming and many folks point this out as aggressive behavior but that can be a good thing if you are trying to replace turf with larger beds of carefree flowering plants. Want to remove them from and area? Three successive sprayings of roundup at four week intervals will kill the plants. This is the same recommendation for other plants that store a lot of energy in their roots like cattails. More information on Purple Showers. Floridagirl’s blog My Florida Backyard has her take on Mexican Petunias you will enjoy.

Mexican Petunia

Purple Showers are always available at your Florida Home Depot garden centers where you will find a great selection of dependable Florida Friendly plants at a great price that are guaranteed to grow or you get your money back.

 

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Right Plant, Right Place Makes Gardening Easy

August 15, 2010 by Rick

Austin Outdoor Florida introduces some principles that will save you time by getting it right the first time.

 

Meems has a great presentation on her blog showing Native and Florida-friendly plants working in harmony in her garden. Her use and discussion of Right Plant – Right Place will inspire you in your gardening efforts. For further reading on these topics and reducing the turf areas and their impacts start with reading these posts. 

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Florida Friendly Landscapes Add Beauty and Easy Care

July 31, 2010 by Rick

The first thing you notice is there is minimal turf to mow, water and fertilize. You need some turf for pets and children but putting all that energy into a lawn can be a waste of time and resources. Mulch is a big time and water saver. Put it on thick and enjoy a lush garden with few weeds. Check out Laura’s video and see if this is an appealing way to decorate your outdoor space.

 

Pot-in-Pot Landscaping has a place in many Florida gardens. Check out how easy it is to install and maintain the beauty in your garden with this technique.

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Rethinking the Lawn

July 26, 2010 by Rick

“Lawn out front, flowers in the back. It's the landscaping equivalent of a mullet haircut: Business in the front, party out back.

And it's headed the same way.

More homeowners are giving up on staid front-yard lawns and putting gardens front and center instead. Many choose native and Florida-friendly plants that, placed in the right spot, save time and money, water and fertilizer.

But not everyone's doing it just for the savings.”

Read the full article in this link

Penny Carnathan’s article in The Tampa Tribune Getaway on Sunday

 

Using Florida Friendly Plants as the article suggests has been a theme of ours for 28 years. Check out this post for a great plant that will add beauty and the savings discussed in the article.

 

Shrink the Size of Your Lawn Today!

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Another low growing drought tolerant Florida Friendly Plant that is a perennial is the Ornamental Sweet Potato. It is a spreader that covers a lot of mulched area and requires minimal care.

 

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Something to entertain you as you ponder the subject… Taking out the Grass is a Gas

 

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