Tag: landscape

The Year I Began The Gardens

From a barren yard to gardens being dug, I’m learning to be a successful Florida gardener.

In 2016 my son and I bought a house in Florida near the east coast. It is a modest home with a small yard. At the time, on both sides we had natural habitats in uncleared lots.

Here’s a photo of the backyard that was posted on the listing, and then nearly 7 years later.

  • Florida house backyard
    House backyard in 2016
  • backyard 2023
    Our backyard, August 2023

Our house sits lengthwise with the garage at the front, so this “backyard” area in the photos is really on the southern side of the house.

This photo from 2018 shows the big banana trees and elephant ear plants in the back corner. Also the yard is mostly grass and not weeds. You can see the hibiscus planted near the house.

Our back corner of the yard looks a bit more open thanks to the numerous hurricanes that have come through since we moved in. The tall pine was taken down when a new house was built.

Florida backyard
Yard 2018
yard back corner
Yard 2023

In 2023 I decided to create some gardens and began digging up the grass. I’d been container gardening, but I’ve always believed that plants do better in the ground.

I bought a rototiller and had my son till up a patch of ground. I removed the grass and some pieces of cement that were buried and began to get the dirt ready for growing vegetables.

I have a Hot Frog tumbling composter which I’d been using for about a year to make compost.

Backyard before second garden
2023 -Changing from grass to garden area

When my watermelon, peppers, okra, pumpkin, and eggplant began growing so well, I expanded to another smaller garden next to the shed. Because it was June, and summer is tough for growing vegetables in Florida, I planted cucumbers (Suyo Long), one tomato plant, and more okra (the rest of the seeds from the packet).

This is also where I planted the blueberry bush I bought at the Farmer’s Market on a whim.

June Florida backyard garden
June garden extension

Gardening is an ongoing experiment. There is always something to do and / or see while walking through the garden. Each morning I pull weeds until the mosquitoes find me.

I’m keeping track of what grows well in this summer heat, and am already thinking about Fall planting.

More gardening stories here:

Fall Gardening is Underway

Here I have a photo of my Fall garden. It is hard to tell what is growing, and honestly not much in the way of food just yet. The seeds have all been planted except for Kale and dill. I will also grow more green beans along the way when I find space. (I’m already…

Pam's avatar by Pam

Around The Yard in Muggy May

May is here and it’s muggy in Florida. The AC is on day and night now. Even when it’s “cool” the humidity makes being outside less than fun. The worst is yet to come, but it has begun.

First, a Nice Surprise in The Garden

pink caladiums
The caladium is coming back!

As I was checking on my front garden, there it was…the caladium that had disappeared and was presumed dead. In fact both the pink and white leaved varieties were popping up through the dirt. They had both disappeared on me and I was mad that they died off so quickly. (See my post when they were first planted.) The impatiens which I planted at the same time are gone.

white leaves caladium
The white-leaf caladium is coming back

I’ve never grown caladiums but they look so nice against the green of the yard. Their big arrow-shaped leaves. Even though I watered them and they seemed to be growing well, they began to die. Or maybe they go into hibernation for the colder season. I need to look that up… hold on.

Okay…. They do go dormant so my caladiums were just doing what caladiums do. I never knew that! Although I have lived in Florida for many years, I just learned something new about my landscape.

Travel the Yard With Me

The garden beneath the oak was already there when we moved into our house a few years ago. It had become overrun with weeds, but now it contains my rubber tree which I propagated a while ago. I’ve discovered that rubber tree cuttings grow very well outdoors. Look at that sucker… isn’t it beautiful? I’m noticing that many big rubber trees are doing quite well in the landscape in my area. I’ve propagated a few more which I will plant sometime soon and write about them.

Rubber tree growing outside in my Florida yard
My newly propagated rubber plant is doing nicely

The orange flowering hibiscus was trimmed back at the end of April and now it is filling out nicely. Buds are forming, and it will be covered in blooms soon. I want to keep it trimmed away from the house so maybe it won’t get those nasty fuzzy whiteflies it had last year.

May hibiscus filling out with leaves and buds after a trim
Trimmed hibiscus is filling out

Hydrangea For the Yard

When I bought this little hydrangea plant it had some buds. They popped open with beautiful big flowers of blue and purple. Now the flowers have faded to that lovely shade of green I love to see on hydrangeas. (See more photos of the blooming timeline here.)

The potted plant was recently removed from it’s pot and put into my front garden. I’ve had to water it every day and still it tends to droop. It never gets direct sun, but I am unsure of how well it will do during the very hot Florida summer. Look at those green flowers! Never deadhead hydrangeas. Wait and watch how the flowers fade to new colors and eventually they should dry up on the stem. They are interesting when the blooms have faded too.

hydrangea
My blue hydrangea flowers have turned green

In the woods next too my house the white-flowering Elderberry bush / tree is looking wonderful. These flowers will become berries soon. I’ve read that this is a poisonous plant but mostly it grows in swampy areas and not in the yard. The land slopes down around my yard and this Elderberry grows in that uncleared lot. I don’t pick the berries, but some people do and make jam, wine, and pies. Taking chances eating wild stuff is not my style. I would definitely need more information.

Elderberry flowers
White Elderberry flowers

This magnolia tree is growing in the front yard of a house I pass on my morning walks. I have always loved magnolias. As I pass this house I can smell the aroma of the blooms. It’s got me thinking …. maybe a magnolia tree needs to live in my yard.

Flowering magnolia
Flowering magnolia tree

The little palm tree pictured below is a new addition to my yard. It was growing next to the house near the walkway to the door. That location was ridiculous. It never got full sun, and if it had grown tall, it would have blocked the walkway to the front door.

So we dug it up and put it out in the yard where the croton planter used to be. When my crotons froze, and my son chopped up the stump it sat on, it became clear that something needed to be done.

I believe this is a Pygmy Date Palm and many houses in the neighborhood have them growing in their landscape. I’m hoping this one will grow nicely now that it’s out in the sun where palm trees should be (although I’ve read that this one can take shade). Once it grows taller it will be nice. A baby tree is growing out of the base.

palm tree
Little palm tree moved to a better location

My son and I began a new garden bed along the front of the house. When I lived in New Hampshire I always put down newspapers to block the weeds and grass before adding dirt. I’m doing that here, but I’m not sure how well it will work with these Florida weeds and tough grass. I plan to write all about it on another post. Plants won’t go in until next Fall.

new garden
Getting the ground ready for a new garden

I hope you are having a good May wherever you live. In the northeast, May was a time for dealing with black flies but it also meant that vegetable planting time was just around the corner.

Found Some Bananas Growing in the Backyard

I only venture outdoors for about five minutes at a time these days because of the heat, but I do go out to get photos and check the vegetable garden.

Although the banana trees in the back corner of the yard were frozen this winter, they have come back and grown very tall.  In fact, one of them recently put off a shoot of bananas!

banana tree height
Height of tree and bunch of fruit – I am 5’5″ and can’t come close to reaching it. (That’s me in blue LOL)

I’ve had banana trees bear fruit before, but the bananas were never very good. Maybe we didn’t wait long enough to pick them. The only bananas I know about are the ones sitting on the grocery store end caps. So maybe it’s time to learn about those wild bunches of bananas.

How to Grow and Harvest Bananas – I Just Learned This!

All those little bumps along the stem above the bulb on the end (photo below) will become bananas!  This plant is just getting started.  The Dole video below mentions waiting 12-13 weeks after the bananas begin to grow before harvesting.  They cut theirs while they are green.

As the bananas fill in along that stem, they will get heavy (60 plus pounds!) and some trees need propping up. I don’t think I will be able to do that.  This tree, and other little ones around it, are in the bushes next to my yard and not in a “garden” area.  This bunch of bananas is on a tree that must be 15 feet tall (photo above).  Since I took this photo, the branch has elongated so more bananas can form along the stem.

bananas on tree
Bananas on the tree

First, I want to say that I did not plant those banana trees. The house behind mine has a big garden area and they do have banana plants in their yard.  I’m guessing that the banana trees now growing on this side of their fence came from their yard. I have no idea what type of banana trees they are.

The University of Florida Gardening Solutions page says that because of sandy soil bananas need to be fertilized. No one has fertilized “my” banana trees.

Something I have learned is that once a tree produces bananas it is done. It will not produce any more. That is why bananas have off-shoots, or baby banana trees growing near the large one. The little ones will grow and do the same thing as the “mother” tree.

Growing Bananas Videos

In my search for growing bananas information I came across a couple of cool videos. The first one is nearly 30 minutes long and the grower is growing (and eating) “ice cream” bananas.

He makes a mistake by cutting of the 60 pound bunch of bananas thinking he can hold it in one hand – and drops it! Then, according to the comments below the video, he hangs the bunch the wrong way – I don’t know about that. Some viewers also left comments that cutting down the main tree is not necessary.

In the second video, which is about the Dole company and how they grow bananas, all the workers do is chop the leaves off the main plant and leave them on the ground to provide nutrients. They do not cut down the whole tree.

Dole company video – which I found to be interesting.

Potential Problems With Growing Bananas

A healthy banana tree can add interest to the yard, but when they turn brown, or begin to die and fall over, not so much.

Plant in an area where there is space for more “baby” plants to spring up. None of those banana trees in my photo were planted. They sprung up on their own.

The hurricanes – we’ve had two major ones come through within the two years I’ve lived in this house – the wind shredded the leaves of the trees to bits.

Then we had some very cold nights over the past winter which turned the trees brown.

Yet, here we are with very tall, lovely trees less than a year later, and one is growing bananas already. The trees bounce back quickly in this hot, tropical climate, but they can die way down.

dead brown leaves plants after freeze
The same tree in winter this past year

Make Your Home More Inviting by Adding Perennials

rhododendron red buds
Red Budding Blooms on Rhododendron

Adding long lasting perennial shrubs to the yard is a great investment to your property. When I had my taxes done this year I was told to keep receipts of any improvements I made to the yard, including landscape plantings and other upgrades. Since I have a yard that needs a lot of help, I like the idea that I can claim at least some of my hard work on my taxes next year as a home improvement.

Have you ever looked at houses you pass while driving and thought how much the look could be improved by adding some nice looking perennials? I realize that not everyone is a gardener but it’s a shame people don’t care to make the outside of their house look lovely. It’s the first thing everyone sees and plantings make a home more inviting, in my opinion.  Hire someone to do it if you don’t want to.

Adding colorful perennials to the yard takes money and work, but the lasting appeal far outweighs the initial investment. Comparison shop for deals on your favorite flowering shrubs and buy something that needs little to no care once it’s planted (unless you like to fuss over roses!).

I love hydrangeas because they are fuss-free for the most part, but another plant to consider is the Rhododendron. The large version comes in a variety of flower colors and this red one (pictured) is my favorite. They like some shade, but this is a very hardy plant that will grow large. The smaller version, which looks more like an azalea to me, is also easy to grow and gets an abundance of flowers.  The only issue I’ve had with this one is that something ate the leaves – deer maybe?

Buying perennials in Fall will save you money, and over the winter they will have the chance to settle in and get ready to bloom in spring or summer the following year.   Adding just a few flowering perennials to the yard will make a big difference and will continue to enhance your landscape for years to come.

A Garden to Play In

tulips and forsythia
A Garden to Play In

When we bought our northern home after moving to New Hampshire from Florida, I had the opportunity to learn a lot while tending my new garden. No more jasmine, crepe myrtles and camelias, I now had to learn about what grows in the north. Fortunately my yard was full of beauty. We moved into the house in May and already the forsythia and tulips were mostly gone by, but the following year I saw the full splendor of what we had in the yard. (My photo here.)

During that next summer (unexpectedly, my last one living there) I added to the plants and learned what many of them were.  The tulips and daffodils were planted in the asparagus garden and yes, I enjoyed fresh asparagus throughout the summer.  I added a bird bath and some feeders and enjoyed seeing the same types of northern birds I had grown up with come to eat.

That yard was a healthy combination of plants and wildlife.  Continue reading “A Garden to Play In”

Planning a Garden Landscape That Includes Hydrangeas

Most people love to see a variety of color in a flower garden.  Along with the mix of sizes and shapes of shrubbery, getting colors to pop and draw the eye to a visual treat is most important.

This is not easy to do and you must know a bit about every type of flower being grown. Flower garden landscape design is very interesting.

(All photos on this page are courtesy of Pixabay.)

Cottage garden landscape with blooming flowers of all colors and sizes

Monarda, or Bee Balm, plants have tall, brightly colored flowers that attract bees.

monarda bee balm flower bright pink red

Hydrangeas can stand alone and be wonderful, but imagine them as the focal point in a diverse garden setting. 

When planting a tiered garden, with taller shrubs in the back, let hydrangeas be the mid-level plant (buy a type that doesn’t get super tall), with short annuals or perennials in front. 

garden path flowering landscape shrubs
Beautiful garden path

A word of caution about Monarda – it spreads, so if you don’t want it growing all over, plant it in a big pot to keep the roots contained.

tall flowering monarda bush with bright pink flowers
This Monarda was growing in my yard in New England

I also like the idea of adding interesting grasses beneath the hydrangea, but be careful you don’t disturb the roots and remember that the more you plant the more water the plants will drink.

Cosmos

Dainty, waving cosmos flowers are a wonderful addition to any garden. Their pink and white colors would offset a blue hydrangea nicely.

It will depend on where you live as to what you can plant. I now live in Florida so my one hydrangea plant grows beneath a large shrub near other tropical plantings.

Florida hydrangea garden perennial Spring
Hydrangea growing in my Florida yard