South Park and The Garden

Ever since we moved into our house in South Florida we've been trying to make the yard special; another room of the house. We had a landscaper redo some of our yard shortly after we moved-in about eight years ago. But much of what was planted didn't suite the location or perhaps we didn't water enough. My husband is big on environmental issues and doesn't like to water often. He has since spent a lot of hours reading and learning about native yards. I thought he could just go ahead and landscape our yard himself, but he thought it best to find a landscaper who works with native plantings. He was right, and after much searching we found someone who put in the time and lots of effort to get our yard just as we had envisioned. Well, actually not as we had envisioned because it turned out much better than either of us thought it could! Below is how our wildflower garden looked when it first went in. I was happy!

 

But it has grown more than I imagined it could!

On the south side, which used to be totally plain and unused lawn, is where our landscaper created a surprize with lots of native plantings. I had mentioned that I would like to some day have a veggie/herb garden so she created this fabulous space where we can gradually add our little garden and in the meantime the native plants will grow without all the water that most landscape plants require.

My first experiment with the herb/veggie garden is doing pretty well. It looks like next week we should have our first green pepper and perhaps if I wait a little longer, first red pepper! And we are finding new uses for fresh basil .... our latest favorite is as a topping for baked potatoes with a little olive oil and pepper.

Thanks to Jane our landscaper! (Indian Trail Native Nursery)