Weedin' The Worries Of The World Away

Teresa's note:  The following is an updated excerpt from my upcoming book on Florida-friendly landscaping. Look for it on Xulon Press, December 2015.

Weedin' The Worries Of The World Away

Okay, it’s hot and humid; I am cranky. One of the best ways to get rid of my crankiness is to pull weeds. Yes, I get thirsty and ache from pulling weeds out of my yard all day but when I pull weeds, I can contemplate all the horticultural mistakes in my world. I focus on grabbing them by the roots, ripping them out, and throwing them in the compost pile to make the neighborhood a better place to live in. It works for me.

The landscaping ills of the world are visible when I drive to and fro in my daily wanderings and have me shaking my head and wondering, “What are people thinking?” I can only do so much good on this little globe of animals, minerals and vegetables by myself and as the old adage “clean up your own backyard before you clean up someone else’s” works for advice, so weeding my own yard and airing my personal pet peeves may help some new homeowners before I can set out to help the world.

 

My first pet peeve is seeing landscapes with wilting, sunburned, tropical and common indoor plants located out in the Florida yard in the full sun. A burn-tinged foliage of Hawaiian ti or a miserable four-foot tall diffenbachia surrounded by lots of drooping impatiens without an irrigation system leads me to believe that either the landscape designer was a good, kind, decent snowbird-retiree who was misled into thinking they were creating a tropical paradise, or someone who is the inherent descendant of the Marquis de Sade who does not believe in anything living for more than three weeks. I know this is Florida ‒ most of the landscapes desired are drastically different from the Zone 5 through Zone 7 evergreen, snow-tolerant standards everyone has up North. But if new residents think they want Florida sunshine all winter long and beautiful evergreen southern ornamental shrubs and flowers, they need to think first about their yard’s ability to handle those plants before buying and installing; shade-loving tropical flora just can’t tolerate eight to ten hours of full sunlight a day.

Please take time to design your landscape with regard to the now everyday common “right plant, right place” mantra. Determine your sunlight and soil conditions as well as your size and maintenance requirements in selecting your plant palette; then, if you really desire a more professional landscape, make sure you consider dimension, texture, color, and fragrance in your final choices.

 

My second pet peeve relates to the first peeve. Someone is misleading these trusting souls into purchasing the wrong plants. The primary suspects are retailers in an entirely different line of business than horticulture. Would you buy a tugboat from your telephone company? How about buying medical insurance from a truck driver with a semi-load full of fiberglass insulation? Buying indoor houseplants or a blooming fuschia from a do-it-your-bad-self store or a grocery store that has a special sale going on out in the parking lot falls under that category of watching a fender bender in slow motion knowing you can’t do anything about it. Not only are the plants suffering, but also being out on the cement walkway or the asphalt parking lots for a week with the full sun beating down on them with inadequate water under those conditions decreases their chances of survival, even if you take them home and provide the best of care. By the end of a week, most of the plants are unfit for any landscape reality show or even dead. I understand the grocery store wants to make an impulse sale. I am an avid impulse buyer myself, especially of plants, but please buy your plants from a reputable garden center or nursery that can give proper instructions on what your plants needs are. Your landscape will be less expensive, will require less maintenance and have a better chance of thriving than dying.

Did I mention I was cranky? Let me pull a few more weeds.

My third pet peeve probably is the root of the problem of the first two ‘ills’, with developments and realtors who sell new homes without providing the home’s landscape list with plant names, maintenance details, and educational brochures on the importance of water conservation, ( which by the way, are available free of charge from any local utility or water management district). It is very unfair to the newest residents in our state to let them believe that it is okay to waste our diminishing water supply or to make the fresh homeowner work harder in their yard than they need to.

Let’s not even mention the unnecessary shock of their first water bill. The current state of potable water availability is finite and residents should know as they move into their new house what their watering days and guidelines are, how to set their new irrigation system, and how to take care of their new sod, flowers, ornamental shrubs and trees. The final contact person should not only congratulate the happy homeowner but also encourage the new residents to contact their local extension offices with any landscaping questions they may have. With more and more people moving into Florida, agencies and businesses encouraging growth and more economy, need to help preserve our diminishing precious resources (native soils, potable water) through education.

Providing water conservation education should not be a scary sale-blowing conversation more so than explaining new taxes or higher impact fees will be needed to provide alternative water sources to potential buyers.

Getting my final pet peeve off my chest is just as rewarding as pulling that last wretched weed and looking at my weed-free garden. That is people who just don’t use their common sense. They ignore or don’t care about the watering guidelines, watering whenever they feel like it. They don’t understand how inefficient irrigating during daytime hours is or don’t realize that their landscaping problems are probably being aggravated by their watering abuse.
 

There I said it and whew, do I feel better. For me, feeling frustrated by irrigation irritation is worse than road rage. It is something that really doesn’t hold up logically when someone tries to rationalize watering during the hottest part of the day. How does that make sense? If a plant is languishing from dehydration, hand watering is the quickest and only permissible way to reduce their need.

For the most part, grass just doesn’t suffer from being watered only once a week. It’s the landscapes that are watered more than twice a week or for hours that see disease, excessive weeds, or their grass dying, even during the summer. It’s the overindulgent caretakers or willfully ignorant lawn maintenance companies that have caused their own lawn’s demise. Watering during the hours of 10am and 5pm with summer temperatures means you are losing over 75 percent of the water to evaporation. You are paying for water each month—whether your plants use it or not.

 

When I see my neighbors with their sprinklers running full blast, watering sidewalks and roads, I want to jump out of my car, put my hand up in the air, quickly flash my official water conservation badge, and shout: “TERESA WATKINS HERE, SWY! Stop watering your yard!” I want help save them the cost of the water, the foolish appearance of being duped into thinking that they are doing a good thing, while the silent future enemy of unavailable, potable water supply creeps up on them slowly. They will pay the price eventually. Will they be the loudest complainers of their $700 a month water bills with a future of ad valorem taxes raised to help pay the cost of alternative water methods? They better not be.

 

We need to educate everyone who lives in Florida that we can make the best use of our water resources now—and for the future, and still have a beautiful Florida-friendly landscape. There, my soul doesn’t feel as cranky anymore. Thank you for letting me vent. I think I will fix some lemonade, head on outside to sit, and enjoy my beautiful yard. I am not going to even look for more weeds. At least not until it’s cooler.

You may have noticed I haven't been blogging for nearly a year. Where have I been for the last ten months?  Well, my landscape design business has exploded, my radio show is going strong, and I  have published my first gardening book: A Gardener's Compendium: Gardening In A Twitter World In 140 Characters Or More, Volume 1 - Gardening In Life.

Whether she’s preparing for her gardening radio call-in show “In Your Backyard”, writing an article based on her “Gardening with Soul” philosophy, planning her next landscaping workshop, or contributing to a horticultural database, Teresa Watkins scours the digital world to make sure she has the most current information to share and to find bits of wisdom, wit, and/or whimsy to share with her audiences.  In the process, she has discovered quotes and facts are occasionally shared with incorrect attributions or out of context. This set Teresa on her quest to identify not only who said what but how, why, and when.  As Abraham Lincoln said, you can’t trust everything you read on the internet.

A Gardener’s Compendium: Gardening in a Twitter World In 140 Characters Or More, Volume 1 ~ Gardening with Life is a collection of garden facts, quotes, anecdotes and history categorized by context into themes and appropriate hashtags. The broad scope of this seven volume series and the painstaking efforts Teresa has made to ensure the accuracy of the content and its source will make A Gardener’s Compendium an invaluable resource for new gardeners, garden writers, bloggers, trivia fans, teachers, researchers, newsletters, social media enthusiasts, speakers, and anyone who desires to provide an interesting fact for presentations or is just looking for a source of like-minded inspiration.
 

Available now at www.she-consulting.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, local, Xulon Press and my website.

All the books you read are so many gardens where you stroll.

 — Blessèd Guerric d’Igny (c.1080-1157) Cistercian abbot

Liturgical Sermons: Volume1 and 2 

Introduction and Translation by Monks at Mount St Bernard Abbey.

#Belgium #library #literature

 

 

You can contact for signed copies and speaking events: Sustainable Horticultural Environments

 

 

 

 

Landscape Boom - Red White Blue!

 

Showcasing red, white, and blue vivid flowers in your landscape is a great way to accent your patriotism and a wonderful way to brighten up your neighborhood!  Finding our national colors with just the right seasonal bloom is very easy if you know what to look for.  You can display your flowers in mass planting beds, and around lighting, flagpoles and mailboxes.  For smaller apartments, and Fourth of July parties, you can decorate by your front door, on the patio, and on balconies with container gardens, and window boxes.

Setting up your mass bedding plants with patriotic colors, you will want to remember different heights and width.  Having a tiered effect of red, white and blue is extremely effective if your house is neutral or you have an evergreen hedge as a backdrop.  Coordinate your color palette by looking at your plants before you plant them.  Placing them in the desired location and standing in the road or in your neighbor’s yard to judge the potential impact is a good idea; before you do all the grunt work of installing them and then not getting the look you were ultimately desiring.

 

Colorful and patriotic clay, plastic, and ceramic, containers with decorative accoutrements such as ribbons, gold stars or flags, are an easy way to get into the independent spirit if it’s temporary, or if you only have a small area or location to work with.  Use a good potting soil and make sure if you are using window boxes that you allow for good drainage away from house walls.

Here are my flag-waving suggestions for red, white, and blue annuals and perennials with their height designations for placement in your garden bed or container.  As always — please check online, with local nursery or extension office for sun and moisture requirements before purchasing and combine plants only if they have similar needs.

Tall (t – use in back), medium (m – use in middle), and low (l- use as groundcover) or h (hanging).

Red Flowers:

•Begonia, wax (l, m)

•Begonia, tuberous(l, m)

•Cardinal flowers (t)

•Celosia  (m)

•Dianthus (m)

•Gerbera daisies (l)

•Geranium (l, m)

•Gomphrena (m)

•Impatiens (l)

•Kalanchoe (l)

•Lantana (m, h)

•Lobelia (m)

•Pentas (m, t)

•Pentstemon (m,t)

•Phlox (l)

•Porterweed (t)

•Roses (see suggestions below)

•Salvia (m, t)

•Vinca (m)

•Verbena (l,m, h)

•Zinnias (l,m) 

 

White Flowers:

•Begonia, tuberous (l, m)

•Begonia, wax (l, m)

•Catwhiskers (t)

•Chrysanthemums (l, m)

•Cosmos (l, m)

•Dianthus (l)

•Geraniums (l, m)

•Impatiens (l)

•Lantana (l, h)

•Lisianthus, (m, t)

•Marigolds, French (l, m)

•Moonflowers (vine)

•Morning glories (vine)

•Nemesia (l)

•Nicotiana (m, t)

•Osteospernum (m) •Pentas (m,t)

•Phlox (l)

•Philippine violets (t)

•Roses (see suggestions below)

•Zinnias (l, m)  

 

Blue Flowers:

•Agapanthus (t)

•Ageratum (l)

•Ajuga (l - shade)

•Asters (m)

•Blue Daze (l, h)

•Blue flax (l, m)

•Centaura (m)

•Exacum (l)

•Lisianthus (m, t)

•Morning glories (vine) •Nemesia (l,)

•Salvia, blue (m, t)

•Scabiosa  (m)

•Stokes Asters (m)

•Torenia (l)

•Porterweed (t)

•Philipine Violets (t)

•Plumbago  (t)

•Russian Sage (t)

•Verbena (l, h)

•Veronica Speedwell (m)Additional

 

 

Summer Flowers for northern zones 4 – 7     

•Alyssum (l)

•Chrysanthemums (l, m)

•Delphiniums (t)

•Forget-me-nots (m) •Hollyhocks (t)

•Nicotiana (t)

•Pansies (l)

•Petunias (l, h)

•Poppy (m, t)

•Snapdragons (l, m, t)

•Statice (m, t)

•Stock (m, t)
 

Patriotic Roses:

 Over 35 cultivars named America or have American in their name, these are my favorites:

•America, large-flowered climber, orange-pink, fragrant

•American Beauty: climber, strong fragrance, deep pink, the national flower symbol of United States

•America, Climber, coral pink, strong fragrance

•Fourth of July, 1999 All American selection, climber, red flowers striped with white, apple-fragrance

•Memorial Day, 2004 All American selection, hybrid tea, dark pink, strong damask fragrance

•Americana, hybrid, strong fragrance, medium red

•Miss All-American Beauty, hybrid, pink, fragrant

•Mr. Lincoln, deep red, hybrid tea, long-stemmed rose, fragrant

•John F. Kennedy, white, hybrid tea, strong fragrance

•Veteran’s Honor, hybrid tea, dark red, raspberry fragrance

•American Pride, hybrid tea, large-flowered, dark red, strong fragrance

•Patriot, large flowered hybrid, dark red, mildly fragrant

•Peace, pink-yellow, hybrid tea, mild fragrance

•United States, pernetiana, yellow, rare

 

Have a great Fourth of July!  

 

Pretty in Pink - Pentas and Caladiums

Great summer and fall combination. For full and partial sun areas, especially in parking lots with hot asphalt.  Would like to see more caladiums planted among the pentas.  Great for butterfly gardens, too. 

 

Pentas and caladiums take the heat.

#gardenchat