Back Yard Porch Side Garden - Work in Progress

Back Yard Porch "Side Garden"

After transplanting the Boleros from the front yard to the back yard's "side garden", I decided to stick with the tropical plant theme, and have added a few new plants. I also found some wooden edging that we put down today. This is still a work in progress. Some of the plants are still in their containers waiting to be planted, and I still have to re-mulch. It's coming along nicely, so I decided to take some pictures to show its progress.



Petra Croton, Euphorbia, and Trinette


I planted 2 Petra Crotons which are very pretty and colorful. They are also drought tolerant. This is a picture before the edging.








After edging (kind of bad lighting for a picture with all the tree shadows). I also added 5 Euphorbia, also known as Crown of Thorns around the tree which bloom red flowers in the summer. The last picture shows 2 Shefflera "Trinette" plants, which compliment the 2 Crotons, are very tropical, and are easy care plants....or so they say! If you look closely, you can see my Pineapple plant sitting in a pot on the table on the porch too!

Fruit and Flowers

Oranges from Orange Tree


We have an orange and a grapefruit tree. Our fruit has a great taste, it just has a lot of seeds, so it's better to be used for juice. Here are some pictures of some oranges that I picked and cut this weekend.

Hibiscus Flowers
This is the first bloom of the Spring. I'm happy to announce, my hibiscus has bloomed. The red flowers are so pretty when the entire bush is full.

Pineapple Plant

Pineapple Plant


I've decided to plant a pineapple plant using the top of a pineapple. I have removed the top, and now I'm letting it dry out for a few days before planting. To remove the top simply twist off. Remove any remaining fruit that is attached to the bottom, and some of the leaves on the bottom so there is about a 1 inch stem to plant. My pineapple top already had roots, as shown in the 3rd picture. I will plant it in an 8 inch pot, and will post updates as it grows!

Weeds

This weekend, I decided to complete the dreadful deed of weeding. We have bahiagrass which is dormant in the Winter months, but comes back very well in the late Spring, early Summer. So, during the winter, there isn't a need to mow the lawn, because the grass doesn't grow. However those pesty weeds decided to take over. Instead of just mowing them down, and give them a greater chance of re-seeding from the cuttings; I dug them up. I pulled what I could, and used a shovel to make sure I was getting the roots of the others that were too hard to pull with my hands. I filled 3 black garbage bags with weeds! Although it was a dreadful task, I'm glad it was done. Hopefully I prevented the weeds from regerminating.

I also planted a croton petra this weekend, I'll take pictures soon and post.

Southwest Florida's Water Shortage

The water management district has declared an extreme water shortage for several counties including Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located. They are enforcing the one day per week irrigation restriction that was enacted May of 2006. In addition, people who have automatic sprinkler systems will no longer be able to use them. They are allowing hand watering only. We do not have a sprinkler system, so this will not affect us. However, I am going to try to be more water-conscience, and pick plants that are drought resistant, so they can withstand no water for long periods of time.

I'm hoping we can start a rain water collection system, for when it does start to rain, that we will be able to use to irrigate our landscape in the future.

Cordyline Bolero

I just transplanted 3 bolero plants from my front yard to my back yard. I've never transplanted this type of plant, so I'm hoping it does ok.


Transplant 1


Transplant 2



Transplant 3






This bolero is almost dead, I'm hoping it comes back from the freeze.


I just trimmed the dead leaves from the freeze on this bolero. The same thing happened last year, and it came back just fine. I'll track it's progress here.

Birds of Paradise

Birds of Paradise
I just trimmed these March 2009. They grow very fast. It seems to be pretty hardy. They aren't my favorite plants, but they were here before we moved in, and have probably been here for years.
I may plant some annuals in between the plants to give it some more curb appeal.

Hibiscus

Hibiscus
Potted front porch plant . It has yellow flowers, I planted this about 8 months ago, and it seems to be doing well.

This is a big red flower hibiscus in my front yard. Last summer it looked great, and produced a ton of red flowers. This picture shows the damage it took from the freeze. The right side of the plant has discolored leaves, and the left side was completely bare, but new leaves are starting to grow back.

This is a hibiscus in the back yard, it also has red flowers. It didn't get as damaged in the freeze as the previous front yard hibsicus.

Bougainvellias

Bougainvelia:
I planted this bougainvelia with bright pink flowers April 2008, it has been doing ok, but was hurt by the freeze this past Winter. It has some new green, and some pink flowers, so I'm hoping it makes a full recovery.

This one was also damaged from the freeze, but it is slowly showing signs that it is coming back.

I'm not sure why, but this bougainvellia survived the freeze, and has pretty purple flowers on it right now. I need to tie it to the fence, so it has something to grab onto. Right now, it is getting heavy and leaning away from the fence.

Bougainvillea Plants
I have 6 bougainvillea plants in the front of my yard in the area bordering huge palm trees. I planted these June 2008. They are completely bare right now, I'm not sure if they are going to come back. They took a hard hit from the freeze.

Spring is here!

This is our 2nd Spring in our house, but the first that I've really paid attention to my plants. A year and a half ago, we bought our first house, and I knew nothing about gardening. Fast forward to today, I know a lot more now, but am still learning new things. I'm hoping to plant some new things this Spring, and decided to start a blog to document my progress.

I took pictures of all of the plants that I'm going to be tracking in this blog. I just transplanted a few of these, so hopefully they last throughout the next year!