There Were No Fences

Ashe magnolia 2 Native azaleas 2 Native flame azaleas As a transplant from Wisconsin (albeit 35 years ago), I came to Florida with the notion that new plantings were made in the spring.  After all, "April showers bring May flowers" - I learned that as a child and it was deeply ingrained in my gardening psyche.  It works in the Upper Midwest where I spent all of my early life, but it doesn't work here in Florida. As a gardener, one must learn and adapt to where one lives. Spring is actually the very worst time to plant here. There really are no "April showers"; none in May either.  These are often the two driest months of the year. It is not uncommon to see no appreciable rainfall over this two-month period and to make it worse, it often has temperatures near 90° F.  What is spring in Wisconsin is the most brutal time to plant here in Florida.  The soils are dry, the temperatures are hot and what little moisture exists in the soil is rapidly lost each day by evap

  I've been taking my time with this project. Perhaps it's because it's the last significant one in my landscape, I have been savoring it a bit longer than the others; perhaps it's simply because it is not as ecologically significant as the others. The scrub is, in all honesty, really just for me. I love the plants of Florida's most-xeric areas and this gives me the opportunity to add them to my landscape. My scrub is tiny in size; much smaller than I would prefer, but it is the only place left where it could work. The sunlight here is good and the natural drainage is sufficient. I have amended that drainage by raising the elevation and adding sand. Right now, all of that seems to be working in its favor; the scrub is taking shape and all of my plant additions are doing well.   The area is too small for trees and shrubs, but I have added most of what I wanted in the front yard. They have doubled in size since I first added them over 3 years ago now - silk bay ( Pers