Lawns can be an integral part of our landscape, but they also take a lot of time and energy to maintain to a degree of acceptability. Some of us want a turf that is drought tolerant, requires less labor and has low fertilizer requirements. ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Lawn
While using common names for plants makes things easy, scientific jargon is more accurate. So, let’s call the nice garden flower in today’s article Melampodium instead of butter daisy. No… I think that butter daisy rolls off the ... READ MORE
Category: Home Landscapes
Sometimes the backbone-less residents of compost piles are strange and unnerving. However, many invertebrates that work and live in our compost bins are necessary and beneficial to the bottom-line of well-done compost. Besides things ... READ MORE
Category: Home Landscapes
The first thing that you may ask is are there really palms native to Europe? Then, can this palm from a non-tropical area live in Florida? Well, the answer is “yes” to both! The European fan palm (Chamaerops humilis) is native ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
When a native plant moves its way into the mainstream nursery trade, that says a lot about how ornamental and successful it can be in your landscape. The popular cocoplum is a native of South Florida that is a common hedge plant in the ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
As our office is near a new development, a great deal of landscape plants are being installed. One that I noticed which is being planted here, as well as elsewhere in the County, is the Japanese blueberry tree. It is originally from ... READ MORE
Category: Home Landscapes
Some plants receive common names concerning how well they succeed in the garden. One plant that deserves its name is the Aspidistra or “Cast Iron Plant”. Hardy and shade-loving, the cast-iron plant makes a great groundcover that ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
The Lily of the Nile, also known as Agapanthus, is a beautiful flowering bulb found on occasion in landscapes and garden centers in our area. The seasonal globe of flowers in shades of blue, purple and white catch the eye and make a great ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
Almost everyone is familiar with coleus – it was one of the first plants that I grew as a child. The coleus has colorful foliage in shades of green, red, pink, yellow, red and maroon. The leaf shape is also very variable as is the ... READ MORE
Category: Home Landscapes
Landscape shrubs that have been identified as dwarf are a boon to low-maintenance yards as they are easier to keep within bounds, “Dwarf” can be a relative term in relation to what a normal growing plant would look like. Take for example ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes