Gardening: Well-landscaped yard no easy task

In Southwest Florida, most homeowners seem to fall into one of four landscape categories.

Some folks moved into a new home with no landscaping except some turf. Others, like our family, purchased a much-used house with a yard full of overgrown, old, uncared-for shrubbery and trees.

Some of the luckier homeowners bought new homes with minimal landscaping that will serve as a suitable basis. The real fortunate families, of which there are very few, moved into homes surrounded by beautiful, tastefully placed, luxurious landscaping.
So, most of the rest of us have monumental, expensive tasks to perform, if we ever aspire to have a beautiful yard.

In times past, most new Southwest Florida homes came with a Queen palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana), a small bottle brush tree (Callistemon viminalis), and sometimes a citrus tree of some sort. In the older yards, these trees are now mature, and if they were cultivated properly, are now very stately in appearance.

The bottle brush tree makes a pleasing specimen tree in the Florida landscape. I’ve seen many with hanging pots of tropical ferns and a few orchids. The hanging plants may be protected from the blazing sun by the tree’s massive limbs and leaf cover.
Properly tended citrus trees are pleasing to the eye, taste buds, and nose, especially during their blossoming and fruiting seasons.

Citrus trees range in size from the 25-foot-tall grapefruit down to the bush-sized kumquat.

Landscaping artists will tell us to plant palms in odd numbers, with three or more being the ideal.

Palms range in height from 18 inches to more than a hundred feet. There are many varieties suitable for our climate.

There are several fine books available at bookstores and libraries. My Florida landscape bible is “Florida Landscape Plants” by John V. Hopkins and Thomas J. Sheehan. I also have “The Trees of Florida — A Reference and Field Guide,” by Gil Nelson, and “Florida, My Eden,” by Frederic B. Stresau.

These books are all well-illustrated and fascinating reading for the hobbyist or professional horticulturist. They are readily available from Internet booksellers.

Careful planning is of utmost essence when dealing with landscaping. It is a fact of life down here that you spend your first year planting trees, and the rest of your life cutting them back to keep them in bounds. We have close to a year-round growing season, and you must keep in mind that the tiny tree in a 1-gallon pot may be capable of growing to a 50-foot behemoth within a decade or so.

Trees and shrubs must be planted the proper distance from buildings, septic systems and roadways. The shade provided by large trees must be taken into consideration, as well as their cultural requirements.

Residents should be aware that Florida is in the tropical hurricane and foul weather zone. There are many species of trees and palms that are beautiful, hardy, and as a result, do very nicely in Southwest Florida.

However, some of these species weather tropical storms very poorly, and are susceptible to severe storm damage. These species include: older laurel oak, queen palm, jacaranda, poinciana, Australian pine, slash pine, melaleuca, orchid tree, gumbo limbo, bischofia, acacia, tabebuia species, cassia, ficus, mimosa and avocado.

So, buy or check out some books and read up on landscaping. Sharpen that pencil and make some plans. Sharpen your shovel, too. There’s lots of work to be done.
http://www.news-press.com/article/20081220/LIFESTYLES/81219063/1005/ACC