Keeping things watered in the summer here in central florida can be a real challenge...we wake up as early as we can to do our gardening to beat the summer heat! There has been a lack of rain lately here in central florida. I am in zone 9b and keeping things watered keeps me very busy!!! But despite trying to keep up with all this I can't seem to stop planting...right now I am planting coreopsis grandiflora 'sunfire'. HAPPY GARDENING =)

I just get my 3rd order of seeds delivered, have 3 more orders coming and going to place a order of native seeds next week

Well I have been busy mulching, mulching & mulching I have pretty much doing away with all of my grass now and have replaced it with planting beds & mulch. Still have tons of potted plants to get in the ground. I finally got in the backyard last night because I have been avoiding it the past year other than turning on the sprinklers. It is totally overgrown with weeds, yellow morning glory vines and coral vine. Pink cape honeysuckle and clerodendron bungei have taken over the back corner. It looks like I will probably end up hiring someone to come in and tear it all out for a clean slate.

I found some good yard guys , 2 of them for 30 dollars a hour and they are knowledgeable about plants and that helps.

Yep. That's the problem. I would probably have to mark the plants to be removed so they don't pull out the wrong stuff.

mine are very good about not pulling things that they do not know what it is. They work with the local Native Nursery so they are perfect for me.

I am slowly getting rid of the grass...half of the front yard garden is mulched mixed with natives and friendly's. I use a local tree company for the mulch (they deliver a dump truck load each time lol). they don't have any right now so this weekend i had to buy it YUCK!

Also, I would be worried about someone taking out your "keepers". Mark them for sure and also be there when they do it so you can watch them like a hawk

I have a tree guy 3 houses down and he will dump whenever he has a clean load. I told him I would take it if there was no trash in it. We also have a couple tree services that have their own site to dump on and offer it for free pick up (they even load it free) or deliver for a fee. Some of the plants are nice but can be invasive so I may offer them on Craigslist first for anyone who wants to some dig them up.

Ryan, you can often get free mulch (load it yourself) from the Forestry depot out on Hummingbird Rd. near the County Extension office. It's mostly clean oak mulch which is very nice. There's also excellent free compost available from the County landfill, again load it yourself. I wouldn't recommend their free mulch, it's got trash, plastic bag scraps and weed seeds in it.

I'm planting heliconias this week. Today's nice rain has helped to moisten up the spot where I want to put them, thankfully. This is the cultivar "Lady Di". This flower is pretty much spent, but the bracts are a beautiful deep red, and the petals are cream. I also have the orange/red ones growing randomly in a shady border under a big oak tree. Think I'm going to move some of them, too.

Elaine, thank you for the info on the mulch and compost! =) The place I've only used is Unique Tree Service...only because I used to volunteer at Selby Gardens and thats who they use. I will definitely check out your suggestions.

I have some heliconias underneath my jacaranda tree where they receive mostly shade. I like how easy they are to propagate... Since our winter was so mild last year the heliconias are full and thick like never before! hmmm maybe i'll dig some up tomorrow.

Update on the new Heliconias - I went on vacation for 10 days and they burst into bloom while I was away. Now I've planted them elsewhere, but I'm missing them where they were so going to go get more!


Great time to plant, when it's forecast to be cloudy and rainy for a few days.

I've got seedlings of my dwarf Poinciana - Caesalpinia pulcherrima - as well. Sometimes those dwarf cultivars make sterile seeds, but this one seems to make viable seeds.

Ryan, I keep wondering what my place would look like with mulch instead of grass! I'd much appreciate it if you posted a picture of your place (what you've done so far) without the grass. Do you have a home owners association and if so are they OK with it? I don't think I've ever seen a home without grass except in Az.

I don't have an HOA to worry about and a good part of my little front yard is mulch now. I still have a huge pile to spread out but I need more cardboard and cooler weather.

Florida revised a Senate bill in 2009 that protects all homeowners' rights to plant Florida Friendly Landscaping.

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/...
http://floridafriendlyplants.c...

You can go here http://floridafriendlyplants.c... or to your County Extension website to find the full definitions of "Florida Friendly" but getting rid of as much lawn as you can is pretty close to the top of the list. Everything you have to do to grow grass in Florida is expensive, work intensive and bad for the environment. I'd think you could drive around any non-deed restricted community and see yards with no lawn. I know you can here in Sarasota. You're also starting to see them in the deed-restricted ones as well, thank goodness!

My city tries to be pretty eco friendly. All of the residents have reclaimed water available if they want it and it's only an extra 8.00 per month for up to 25000 gallons which is more than enough when you don't have grass.

My city tries to be pretty eco friendly. All of the residents have reclaimed water available if they want it and it's only an extra 8.00 per month for up to 25000 gallons which is more than enough when you don't have tons of grass to water. I know grass is nice if you have little kids but there are some really natural looking and feeling artificial turfs available now and when you factor in the cost of water, fertilizer and labor, is probably more economical in the long term.

This is the only picture i have of the heliconia... I'll take some updated photos today of my mulched beds as well!

Jim, eventually i will have mulched my entire yard. It's only half way done right now and slowly working it in! I'll post photos later on today....My goal is to get rid of the grass COMPLETELY and to be certified as "florida friendly" yard =)

Here are a couple pics of the front of my front yard. You can see my mulch pile on the left. The potted plants are some extra seedlings and rooted cuttings of jatropha multifida and Chaya that I need to put on Freecycle.

The ground cover looking growth to the right bottom of the mulch pile(second photo) is actually the edible peanut farm that a squirrel was gracious to start a couple of years ago. It spreads a bit more each year. Last year I took the peanuts and just replanted them and now the patch has really taken off. When the weather cools off and the peanuts are ripe, I plan to relocate the patch to the back yard,

You are welcome to tour my garden (before I moved) -- we did away with grass completely & all was plants or mulch.
http://garden.org/ideas/view/S...

It was so much easier to care for also!!!!!!!