A Florida Wildflower Garden

Recently I had the joy of visiting a private garden in Plant City with my fellow Hillsborough County Master Gardeners. The owners have created a remarkably extensive wildflower garden in the area surrounding the house on their 8+ acres of open woodland. It was one of the most unique gardens I've ever had the pleasure of walking through.

Patches of golden yellow and bright lavender flowers from wild phlox and (Rudbekia) black-eyed Susans created flowing waves among the fields of grass.  

Winding pathways made from brick pavers and some of crushed shell meander through the front garden. Florida-Friendly foundational shrubbery like neatly trimmed Ilex Schilling contrast perfectly with lanky yellow native Rosinweed that blooms profusely in spring. Every space in between was a mix of Gaillardia, Narrow-leaf sunflowers, black-eyed Susans, Pentas, coonties, frost weed, gardenias, milkweed and many more. The huge, ancient live oaks with their broad, long limbs reaching into the blue sky act as strong architectural features around the perimeter. As the day progresses the shifting shade they provide creates a canopy of relief.

Relief the wildflowers don't need. They are quite happy to thrive beyond the oaks in the wide open heat and sunlight.

A pergola in the front garden is well placed along one of the pathways.

Every part of this garden was artfully designed by the owner. The butterly bench! Wow.

More Rudbekia along the side garden.

Butterflies everywhere.  This one, a permanent and perfectly hovering structure.

The back was an open field with wildflowers thickly planted in a huge bed and heavily mulched. Beyond the tended beds are self-seeded mounds of golden Rudbekia that draw your eye toward the horizon.

A mix of sun and shade is a blessing in any garden. In this one it seemed to be perfectly distributed. In truth, it was this wise gardener who used her sunlight and her shade to the best possible advantage. She put her signature on her land by installing the right plants in the right place and created an amazingly artful and beautifully designed one-of-a-kind garden.



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If you've just arrived to this page as a new gardening friend or perhaps missed the back story about how we moved from our home and garden of 30 years to the house next door you can catch up here... http://www.hoeandshovel.com/2014/07/a-new-journey-bitter-and-sweet.html

All material © 2007-2015 by Meems for Hoe and Shovel Gardening Blog. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

A Simple Bench

I find myself prefacing every new garden story I tell lately with "one of the first things I did in the new garden..." Truth is, I worked so fast and so steadily for an intense 10 weeks starting June 1. It seems like everything all together at once was "one of the first things I did in the new garden." lol

"Before" the seating area was added.

Truly though "one of the first things I did" was to create some cozy, homey spots in the garden. Seating is one of the simple ways to do it. I moved a lot of benches and chairs over to our new garden from the old one. If you are new to the story of how we moved next door you can read the back story here. 

The fire pit seating area in the new garden. It's like a big family room.

The old garden had several nooks and crannies for seating groups and places to rest or relax. This one? Not so much. Most of the chairs and seats were moved from the old garden to the new fire pit area positioned to surround the pit. It served as a holding area of sorts until I could spread out the seating to other parts of the garden.

"Before" the seating was added, but after the grass was covered with mulch.

In a future post I'll chronicle the new mulched pathways that links three large planting beds together to create a better flow. Once the grass was eliminated here a simple bench and rearranging the containers was all it needed to elevate the vignette from mediocre to cozy. 

I borrowed this bench from the fire pit holding area to give it a permanent new home. This location is around a corner so to speak and sits in the shade most of the morning and in the sun later in the day.

I used the same potted plants I had tucked in among the existing cordylines and palmettos in the large bed behind it. They came out farther now that the mulch broadened the space and they nestled up to the bench on each side to complete the scene. 

"After" photo 

You can see the difference a simple bench can make if you compare the first photo with this last photo. It altered this now cozy vignette from a sterile out of the way place to an alive mini-focal point. Easy peasy. 

I'm having fun making this garden a home. I hope you're enjoying your last days of summer. Meems

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All material © 2007-2014 by Meems for Hoe and Shovel Gardening Blog. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Summer Caladium Festival

'White Queen' ~ Back Garden
 

Steamy, hot Florida summers are the ideal environment for caladiums (Caladium x hortulanum). Actually, the warmer and muggier it gets, the better caladiums perform when widely used as an ornamental in the landscape. They are part of the Araceae family and originally from the Amazon basin of Brazil after all.

'White Queen' tucked into nooks and crannies of perennial pathway~~back garden

My summer garden comes alive with colorful caladium leaves to enhance existing planting beds.  Winding borders or clumping arrangements of caladiums, planted from bulbs, weave among aztec grass, flax lily, agapanthus, ferns, lilies, gingers, grasses, and liriope perennials.

'White Queen' on perimeter of Circle Garden

They are a simple plant with an oh-so-easy-to-love quality. Once the bulbs are planted the leaves rocket out of the warm earth within a couple of weeks. After they sprout they require no special attention in Florida's climate. If planted in container gardens attention to watering needs will keep them happy.

'White Queen'

'White Queen' is an old-time favorite of mine that likes partially sunny conditions. Its large white face with deep magenta veins blends just as well with evergreens as with annual coleus.

'White Queen' tucked into nooks and crannies of perennial pathway~~back garden

I tuck them into as many nooks and crannies as possible. They add an exotic touch to the garden and provide a layer of lushness to the understory of the grand oak trees.

'Red Flash' to left of pathway leading under back garden arbor~~ 'Miss Muffett' on right covering the ground underneath a gardenia shrub

Caladiums perform as a substitute for flowers especially in my shade gardens. Isn't it great to find plants with pizzazz that do well in shady spots. Bright red, chartreuse, white, pink, and even bronze and almost black are just a few of the colors incorporated into a multitude of arrangements on the faces of heart-shaped foliage. An array of  flecks, speckles, veins, and blotches appear in varying formations depending on the cultivar.

A mix of *reds*~~ 'Red Flash in foreground/ 'Freida Hemple' in background~~ behind chairs.

Well-draining, organic soil is preferred by caladiums to thrive, but they will also grow in sandy soil. An organic soil will hold the moisture they require while a sandy soil will need to be monitored more closely for sufficient irrigation.

'Red flash' and 'Miss Muffett' in foreground and 'Torchy' and 'Red Flash' in back ground.

Florida receives an average of over 50 inches of rain a year.  Caladiums are quite happy about this statistic since the majority of our rain falls during the summer. It's also a good thing for the rest of the garden, too, following our customary dry spring season.

'Red Flash' and 'Miss Muffett' add color underneath the Sweet Almond bush/Ligustrum/Gardenia bush

Since the greatest percentage of my garden is turf-free, caladiums are a fitting blend with Florida-Friendly ornamentals and native plants I've used as alternatives to grass.

'Red Flash' in low bowl in front garden with mixed whites in ground

I decide what to plant and where to plant according to each variety's height, sun requirements, and color. There are endless combinations and possibilities with caladiums.

Check the website at Classic Caladiums for an extensive supply and assortment of caladiums available both for sun and shade conditions.

'Peppermint'

My summer garden is a festival of leafy color with caladiums as the stars of the dramatic show!
Which caladiums are shining brightly in your garden this summer?
Happy gardening, Meems
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You may also like:
Caladiums:: Not Just For Shade Anymore
Not Too Late To Plant Caladiums
Lawn Removal

***My most recent Troy-Bilt article written for 'The Dirt' newsletter is out. Click here to read "Caladiums Add Spectacular Color to Any Garden".

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Naturalistic Minus Chaotic

The term naturalistic is being thrown around a great deal these days with regards to a specific style of gardening. My interpretation may be a little different than a gardener with lots of acreage or one with open meadows. A genuine naturalistic garden carved out of a woodland or lakeside would be a dream come true. At the same time I think a naturalistic style garden can be achieved even in the smallest settings.

I submit that to achieve a naturalistic 'feel' in a residential neighborhood it takes a great deal of planning and even orchestration. Which might not make sense at first. Can the words 'design' and 'naturalistic' be used simultaneously to describe this style of garden?

The mere mention of the word 'naturalistic' in reference to residential landscaping often conjures up visions of a messy and confusing mix of plantlife that has no sense of order. A disorderly roadside or mixed woodsy appearance might come to mind.

While I've seen attempts at naturalistic Florida gardens that fit this portrayal I lean towards the opinion that this is one of the overarching misconceptions of this type of gardening.

For a home gardener living in a residential neighborhood it's key to create a sense of cohesiveness to the eye even in a naturalistic setting.

For me, getting away from neatly trimmed hedgerows and massive amounts of well-manicured lawn was the starting point. It is the elimination of these elements that inspired my attempts at a more relaxed atmosphere in my garden. But then what?

As decisions were made to remove more and more of the lawn, achieving a more naturalistic environment has been done incrementally. Being that I'm a DIY gardener it's been necessary to take out sections of the turf slowly. Each time the digging begins a well thought-out plan for what will replace it is already in view.

I want to attract more wildlife and do my bit for the eco-system by adhering to our Florida-Friendly principles in my residential garden but I'm not a fan of chaos or confusion.

So what then is meant by naturalistic in this instance? What I've tried to do in my garden is mimic the way things appear in nature. But that doesn't mean letting anything and everything grow wildly. With artful placement of correct plant choices the goal is that each area flows into the next.

Is this a style of gardening you are also trying to achieve? What is your idea of naturalistic? What is your garden style and how have you gotten there?

Up next: Tips on Designing a More Naturalistic Garden and I'll give you my perspective on blending natives into the garden with an appealing result.

Update: Follow up post with tips is a click away here.