There Were No Fences

A living landscape is more than the individual plants. I believe it must also include the other elements one would find in nature - things like decaying wood with all of its lichens, mosses, and fungi.  That is why I am always on the look out for interesting pieces of wood when I am out in nature exploring and if that place is not a protected area, I may bring home something like the piece above that I have added to my new wildflower garden. Adding structure is much more than adding something aesthetic. It can serve a number of important functions. For one, it provides a platform for many of the plants and non-plants, like lichens, that are too-often overlooked in a landscape. When I ponder the value of landscape diversity, I always take into account the "little ones" - because increasing their diversity as well seems important to me. I've had this piece of old heart-of-pine now for nearly a decade. In this time, it has continued to support a diverse flora of mosse...

Few of us have the luxury of living with a wetland in our home landscape. Developers purposely build in uplands and use fill to make sure that the lots they  build on are elevated enough to protect the new homes from flooding. That makes sense. Across this nation and, I suspect, most others we end up residing in landscapes too well drained to support wetland plants.  Many of us accept that situation and the result is that we deprive ourselves of some outstanding plants that require lots of moisture. I have created wetlands in my landscapes now for a great many decades, however, and it is not difficult to do. I have posted to this blog previously about creating a small wetland using a large landscape pot, but such an arrangement limits the number and diversity of plants I can add. I would need at least a half dozen such pots to include the pollinator plants my landscape plan calls for. A simpler approach is the one I've just finished here in my new home in Holiday.  ...

I have learned pretty much everything I know about plants and gardening from "staring" at my garden. It hasn't really come from the many books I've read over the years or from my near-decade-long stint as a Botany professor. It has come from watching my plants. My first three books written for the University of Florida Press arose from my firsthand experiences with plants. I've found it impossible otherwise. Books can give us a head start on what we might expect, but they can't compensate for experience. Plants in a landscape do not always conform to what is expected of them. My first wife used to routinely chastise me for going outside to "stare at my garden."  It was her way to telling me that I was wasting time that could have been spent doing something more productive. She was wrong. My daily forays into my garden is what tells me what is working and what is not. When people tell me that they do not have a "green thumb", what they...

My key lime is starting to flower In the past few days, my new key lime has started to flower. I've been anticipating this day ever since I planted it. In my former home, my tree produced large numbers of fruit and I relish them.  To me, having fresh key limes is one of the best things about living here in Florida. The tree will serve as a larval host plant for any giant swallowtails that might eventually make an appearance, but to be truthful this plant is here for me first and foremost. Like so many flowering plants, my tree will need to be pollinated by bees to produce fruit and I remain anxious about whether any will visit.  To date, I have seen honeybees only twice in my landscape and only for very brief times. I have yet to see one now that the flowers have opened on my lime and I have watched for them periodically over the last few days since these flowers have fully opened. None of the native bees are visible either and it may well be that I do not get limes this ...

After 4 months, I've taken this crapemyrtle ( Laegerstromia indica ) down to the level I've planned for I've just now planted a spiny hackberry ( Celtis pallida / C. ehrenbergiana ) immediately behind it. Because it is so spiny, I have placed it at the back corner of my property where I won't routinely walk into it by accident. I've been slowly taking down the crapemyrtle ( Laegerstromia indica ) that was in the southeast corner of my new yard ever since I moved here four months ago. It had obviously spent its life being brutalized by former residents and it was in terrible shape. I simply put it out of its misery. For some reason, many feel that topping a tree, like this crapemyrtle, makes it bloom heavier. It most certainly doesn't and it weakens its overall health at the same time. Plants sense up from down and recognize where their main leaders are. By doing so, they put most of their growth into the tips of their stems and roots. Ha...