Christmas comes early

My Christmas present to myself arrived today and I'm none too super happy. Timber Press was running a big sale and I just couldn't resist all the juicy titles. So now my garden library is graced by these new tomes:

• Bromeliads for the Contemporary Garden


• Encyclopedia of Exotic Plants for Temperate Climates


• Gardens by Design


• Hardy Bamboos: Taming the Dragon


• Hot Plants for Cool Climates

Acid lovers unite!

My soil test results are in. My overall pH is 5.3, which is slightly on the acid side of neutral (7.0). This is good news for the bahiagrass, azaleas and camellias in my yard, since they're all acid lovers.

Speaking of camellias, my Camellia sasanqua is blooming right now. I don't know exactly what variety it is (maybe 'Jean May'?) since I inherited the bush when I bought the house.

In fact, at first I thought the bush was just some annoying ligustrum. Then one day it started putting out these beautiful, pale pink blooms. Good thing I didn't cut it down!

This is exactly why experts recommend that new homeowners not undertake any massive gardening projects within the first year of owning a house. Instead, just try to observe the yard and see what you've got to work with. You can also gain a thorough understanding of the amount of sun exposure that different parts of your yard receive. It's amazing how much sun exposure can shift with the seasons.

Case in point: the bed that I'm redoing was mostly shaded during the summer, but now that the sun is lower in the horizon, the bed is getting several additional hours of sunlight each day. It's a good thing I didn't plant those variegated gingers yet--they'd be getting sunburned if I had.

Sweet blooms

One of my new crinums is blooming! I wish I could somehow capture the wonderful fragrance so that the photo could be scratch and sniff. It reminds me a bit of a cross between and orange blossom and jasmine. Absolutely wonderful.

Red Wind

Here's another hot plant that was featured on the National Gardening Association's regional electronic newsletter. It's called 'Red Wind' Japanese Hakone Grass, or Hakonechloa macra 'Beni-Kaze'.

This striking ornamental grass is favored for it foliage, which develops reddish tips, especially as fall approaches. It grows in Zones 5-9, reaching 24"-36" in both height and width.

It apparently looks striking cascading down a bank, since it has a slight weeping habit. I don't have any banks that need a cascade, but I'd still consider adding this beauty to my landscape!

For more information, visit Klehm's Song Sparrow Farms.

Soil testing

In the interest of following through with what most Extension folks recommend, I'm finally getting my soil tested. Here is what the sample looked like before I bagged it up and dropped it off at the soils lab. The idea is that you take several samples from around the yard, mix them up in a bucket, and then spread out a few cups worth on newspaper or a brown shopping bag to dry. Then you package the soil and drop it off at the soil lab. You can either select to learn the pH and lime requirement, or you can go whole-hog and get the soil fertility tested. The latter test provides pH and lime requirements and also reveals the presence or absence of other nutrients--phosphorous, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. I should get my results back within two weeks.

For more information about soil testing in Florida, visit the Soils Lab Web site or contact your county Extension office.

Sorry about the funny color in the photo. My personal camera has been acting up recently.

Cross Creek

As part of my Master Gardener training, our class visited Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' home at Cross Creek. The first picture shows the group standing in the vegetable garden, which is located pretty close to the house. Jacque, an Alachua county Master Gardener, volunteers her time to maintain the garden. When we visited, the garden was planted with cool-season crops like turnips, collards, carrots, mustard, lettuce and kale.

We also wandered the grounds and looked at the many citrus trees on the property. This image shows freeze damage. Wendy Wilber, Extension agent for Alachua County, explained that the sap in the tree stops flowing when temperature drop to freezing on cold nights. In the morning, the sun will begin to heat up one side of the branch and thus thaw the sap. The back side of the branch remains frozen, and the resulting pressure causes the bark to split open on the shady side of the branch.

We also saw citrus rust mites on many of the oranges. Wendy said these only cause cosmetic problems and don't affect the flavor of the fruit, so it's usually not necessary for homeowners to treat the problem.

For more photos from the Cross Creek trip, visit the Gardening in a Minute Flickr site.

Getting ready

I figured that before I install the new plants, I should probably prepare the bed properly. I didn't want to spend a lot of time making the bed pretty, only to be plagued by recurring weeds down the road. I opted for a general application of Round-Up to get rid of the stuff already growing in the bed.

I discovered this great contraption at the store--you pour the concentrate into the sprayer, attach it to the garden hose, set the dial appropriately, and away you go. No measuring, no fuss.

Wouldn't you know it--thirty minutes after I sprayed, the heavens opened up and rained on my efforts. I think the Round-Up had time to dry before it rained, so I'm hoping that it's effectiveness won't be compromised. I'm not sure that it will sufficiently kill all of the invasive elephant ears since they also have underground tubers or the woody, viney weed that's in most of my beds.

The good thing about the rain is that it drove away the mosquitoes and I was able to install the edging with a minimum donation of blood. Once the Round-Up has settled in, I'll mix in some Black Cow with the existing sand, er, soil. Then I'll remove my plants from their waiting zone and install them in the bed.

Here are the pictured plants, from left to right:
Philippine violet
Crinum procerum 'Splendens'
Loropetalum chinense 'Ruby'
Hibiscus acetosela 'Haight Ashbury'
Alpinia zerumbet 'Variegata'
Strelitzia spp.
(The bird of paradise is the one with the tall, broad leaves in the rear. I'm not sure if I have the orange or white type.)
Hamelia patens 'Compacta'
(You can just see the orange-red flowers peeking through if you look at a larger photo.)

Blank canvas

So here's the bed I'm going to re-do. You can see my tentative bedline marked out in orange spray paint. The bed used to consist solely of a row of ligustrums that did nothing but grow like crazy and obscure the windows. Also, the crape myrtle always seemed stranded out in front of the shrubs.

I finally got tired of pruning the ligustrums and ripped them out. I passed them along to a friend who lives out in the country and was looking for some larger shrubs that could act as screens. So far, they seem to be settling in nicely at his house, despite the fact that I didn't do any preliminary root pruning before digging up the shrubs.

I'm planning to add new plants that will give a range of texture and color. I'm going to put shorter plants in front of the windows so that I'm not constantly pruning, and then add a few taller plants for height between the window areas. I can hardly wait to see how it all turns out!

Holy Bat Plant!

The environmental horticulture student club is selling bat plants as a Halloween fundraiser. How could I resist this crazy looking plant? For one, it has the oddball look that I love. And two, it has one of favorite color combos--purple and green.

The club advisor says they'll work well as a house plant. I'm hoping to plant mine outside in a new bed I'm laying out. I figure if I baby it then maybe it will make it through the North Florida winters. I'll be sure to take post pictures once my own bat plant arrives.

I'm also in love with this pineapple lily (Eucomis comosa 'Oakhurst') that was featured in the National Gardening Association's regional gardening news email update. For more information, visit the Terra Nova Nurseries site.

Why a bold garden?

So what triggered me to start a gardening blog? I have long been fascinated with lush, tropical gardens and the layers upon layers of bold texture, color, and foliage you find within them. Chalk it up to a childhood in Florida. When I became a homeowner 10 years ago, I had dreams of converting my backyard into such an oasis.

Then reality set in. I was just one person. How could I single-handedly transform my standard suburban yard into such a paradise?

I just finished reading an advance copy of "Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners" by the late Christopher Lloyd and friends. The book will be released in December 2007 by Timber Press. Lloyd is well known in the gardening world for ripping out the roses at his mother's English country estate and installing in their place what has come to be known as the exotic garden. This same look is what I crave in my own yard, and I'm finally feeling the bug to take a whack at it again.

So, I figured why not document my own yard's transition from blah to bold using the medium that's known for pushing the limits--the Internet. Who knows--maybe there are others of you out there who are attempting the same!

The title for the blog is taken from a quote in the book. Mary Keen wrote:

"When Christo sacked his mother's roses years ago and replaced them with bananas and other weird and un-English plants, I loved it. It made me laugh out loud to see the dahlias bouncing about with the cannas and bananas."