Preparing For Irene - Is Your Backyard Ready?

UPDATE: 8/30/11 Irene didn't give Florida a bit of trouble. Unfortunately flooding, winds, dune destruction, and at least 18 died from the hurricane's damage.

UPDATE:  2pm Monday - Looks like Irene may be heading to northeast towards Charleston now. Hopefully we'll still get some of the beneficial rainfall.   

Irene, the first hurricane of the 2011 is heading our way. She is expected to skirt Central Florida's east coast Friday and while only a category one storm now and possibly increase to a category two on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale, we will still get a lot of winds and rain.  Is your yard and home ready?

What should you do in your yard to prepare for a hurricane:

• Remove any dead branches, fronds, or limbs from trees and palms that could possibly break.
• Check yard and remove any patio furniture and toys that could become wind projectiles.
• Turn off irrigation now so that your landscape is not saturated by the time the storm arrives.
• Check gutters to remove any debris that will clog or backup.

Check your hurricane supply list and make sure you have everything necessary to be comfortable if power goes out.in your area.  Remember the power companies do know when power is out in an area and will have extra crews ready to get your electricity back on. Never let children or pets outside to walk around when electrical lines are down.  If your electricity is out, you can use your grill outside to make coffee or meals. Never use a charcoal grill indoors due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Irene is our first guest and this will be a good test for Florida to prepare for a normal hurricane season of three to seven tropical storms and named hurricanes.  Florida receives most of necessary rainfall during the hurricane season so we do need the heavy rainstorms. 

Old Landscaping Trends of the 20th Century and New Solutions For 2011

The lack of hurricanes and tropical storms in 2010 means springtime drought conditions for the Southeast. Out West and in the North floods have inundated many regions. The coldest winter in decades to hit the United States will also see an increase in dead lawns throughout communities across the country. How will this affect homeowners, commercial properties, and HOA’s in 2011?  It means that there will be more widespread and tighter enforcement of water restrictions. It means that in the spring, there will be an inundation of landscaping companies making recommendations to thousands of clients on how they should replace their dead landscapes. It will be either the client’s decision of opting for the same expensive bad practices and wrong plant material or a prime opportunity to renovate correctly and sustainably with lower monthly fees and bills. It’s important for homeowners to be as savvy as they can on the newest and best landscape and irrigation trends. How did we know that what was offered as options and upgraded landscape packages that we thought we wanted were really bad for our wallets, our lifestyles, and our environment. Who knew?

Here are some of the old and “still used” practices that are not environmentally sound along with smart, water-conserving, and sustainable solutions for the 21st century.

Passé: Municipal plant lists and planting ordinances that create cookie cutter designs for communities. DRI’s suggesting HOA covenants that require unrealistic and environmentally unhealthy landscape maintenance.

Smart and sustainable: City and county planning departments should have an experienced horticulturist on staff that can review, provide recommendations and oversight on ordinances, regional biodiversity, and appropriate plant selections in landscaping plans when approving DRI’s and homebuilding permits.

Passé: Drought-tolerant plants.

Smart and sustainable: If you use excessive fertilizer and routine pesticide treatments, your plants will need more water. All plants – natives and non-natives – grown in proper site conditions and maintained with best management practices are drought-tolerant for short periods (two to three weeks). Determine proper soil conditions - xeric, mesic, or hydric - and select appropriate plants that thrive in those conditions. Design landscapes that, after establishment, will survive on normal rainfall using supplemental irrigation only during drought periods. Then maintain yard and common areas with best management practices to ensure the health of the landscape and to avoid pest problems. For more information see SJRWMD's FAQ’s.

Passé: HOA covenants mandating one specific turf creating monocultures that are prime targets of pests and diseases.

Smart and sustainable: HOA covenants that help residents conserve water and lower maintenance bills. HOA's could be proactive by having an environmental committee of homeowners that will work with local county extensions to become knowledgeable about biodiversity, native plants, and latest best management practices for their community. This committee could help oversee the common area landscaping contracts to ensure BMP’s are being used to reduce the amount of fertilizing and chemical spraying that increases TMDL’s of nutrients and stormwater pollution in their lakes and ponds. Having plant species biodiversity, including different types of turf, in residential communities will create healthier landscapes.

Passé: New homes with instant landscapes that have large expanses of turf, undersized garden beds crammed with large amounts of colorful annuals, oversized shrubs, and mandatory trees to provide instant shade. Builders, developers, and realtors love to sell the homeowner on a great landscape. While the landscape may look good for the first six months, it will start to grow exponentially during the next season. In two to five years, homeowners will be forced to spend a lot of money to maintain non-existent turf, deal with security issues from overgrown shrubs against windows and doors, and pay high maintenance bills. These landscapes will require frequent plant and turf replacement, constant pruning, excessive fertilization, and routine chemical treatments to reduce the pest and disease problems that will come from having been installed incorrectly to begin with. HOA’s sending out warnings to improve their covenant-mandated incorrect landscapes to already frustrated residents only exacerbates tensions, and the need for more water consumption, more stormwater runoff issues.

Smart and sustainable: Landscapes that are designed with appropriate plants that take into consideration the plant’s mature size. Finding out how big the plant will eventually grow, then giving them the proper amount of ground space so that their roots do not have to compete with other vegetation for sunlight, nutrition and water requirements. Maintenance and water needs are reduced, and the need for replacement minimized. With these practices, HOA’s covenants would help maintain more natural and healthier communities that increase the value of the homes.

Passé: Plants pruned routinely. Mowing and maintenance pruning are quick ways to spread weeds, insects, and diseases unintentionally throughout a region. One landscape company maintaining several communities with unsterile equipment and improper practices can escalate a minor pest problem into major epidemic. Homeowners end up having to continually prune landscape plants and trees because of wrong selection and placement by the builder. (This issue does not refer to higher maintenance topiaries or hobbies such as bonsai gardening.)

Smart and sustainable: Landscape plants should not have to be pruned constantly. If there is a need or desire for a five foot tall hedge, select a plant that will only grow five feet tall at maturity. Planting a 40' tall crape myrtle and hatracking it each year to 6' feet tall is the wrong plant in the wrong place. Install a crape myrtle that will only get to be 6' - 8' tall. Hire landscape companies that have employees that have horticulture industry certification and will only use best management practices.  

Passé: Foundation plantings too close to houses so that the plant's rootball and irrigation system keeps foundation wet. Gutter downspouts directed straight down to foundation.

Smart and sustainable: Keep flowers and shrubs at least half of the eventual mature circumference of the plant away from the foundation. Keep gutter downspouts and irrigation emitters at least two feet out and directed away from foundation. This will allow foundations to stay dry, preventing moisture and mildew from damaging home. Proper plant and gutter location will also extend the life of termiticide treatments and prevent wet conditions that attract termites.

Passé: Waiting till a new home is built to decide on landscape and irrigation. Ignoring or assuming the irrigation system is adequate. the builder or homebuyer doesn’t have enough money left in their budget to pay for an efficient irrigation system. Another common practice is putting in cookie cutter designs with inappropriate cheap plants to get C.O. approval. Ultimately, the landscape demands a lot of maintenance and the irrigation system is inefficient, making monthly water bills and maintenance expensive.

Smart and sustainable: Water consumption should be one of the most important decisions homebuilders, HOA’s, and buyers should make. It is the one aspect of living in a community that affects not only utility and tax bills, but also the environment of the watershed(s) in their entire region and state. Planning for a beautiful low-maintenance landscape with an efficient irrigation system when there is money in the budget will help keep both the builder and the buyer from having expensive replacement costs, high monthly water bills, and maintenance fees.

Passé: Installing a cheap irrigation system designed with same high volume zones for turf and garden beds. Portions of landscape turf dies from competing weeds and never getting enough water while the rest of the yard gets over-watered and also gets weeds. Homeowner mistakenly thinks they bought an  irrigation system adequate to maintain their beautiful landscape, but have excessive water bills not realizing their installed irrigation system is only 25 to 47% efficient.

Smart and sustainable: Separate high-volume zones for turf and low-volume zones for garden beds. Matching head precipitation. Sprinklers in low-lying areas have check valves. No high volume irrigation in areas less than 4 feet wide.. Efficient irrigation should be encouraged under building codes. For more information see Florida Water Star prerequisites for efficient irrigation criteria. The prerequisites for an efficient irrigation system would work in yards across the country.

Passé: Gated communities that are entirely walled for security that block wildlife from migration but every pizza delivery person, mail man, delivery driver, and cable guy has security code to get in.

Smart and sustainable: Communities keep their entry gates for security but are designed responsibly with natural living fences that will provide wildlife corridors with other communities throughout the state for migrating species. Designing increased native habitat vegetation on the outside boundaries of yards will allow for nesting, food sources, and migration. HOA’s educating residents on the benefits of wildlife corridors in sustaining our environment.

While some of these practices seem like they would increase costs, that’s a short-sighted misperception. When you consider the costs of landscape replacements, extremely high water bills, and the cost of treating our stormwater for public water supply, my question is why aren’t we demanding these solutions? With proper site condition assessments, there will be proper plant selections. With proper amounts of plants, shrubs and trees, there will be less need for paying for routine chemical applications. With proper installment of efficient irrigation, there will be healthier, less weedy landscapes that need less water and less maintenance, resulting in lower water bills.

With best management practices in place, there will be less cost needed to clean surface water, reducing the need to increase taxes. Solutions are out there and backed by university research. All we need now is the building and landscaping industry to have a paradigm shift into the 21st century and educate their consumers. Homeowners and new home buyers can precipitate this paradigm shift by demanding these solutions.  Solutions that will benefit wildlife, reduce unnecessary water use, prevent more pollution of our surface water, and more time and opportunity to enjoy the aesthetics of our wonderful world.

Copyright 2011 Teresa Watkins

My Top Ten Plant Picks For 2011 - A to Z

With the beginning of a new year, I love to turn over a new leaf and showcase some great flowers, shrubs and trees for 2011 that will do wonderfully here in Florida. I've found some new species and varieties of classics that will have heads turning to find out exactly what is that plant growing in your backyard. While most of these plants won't be cheap or found in your DIY nurseries, you will be able to find them online or at smart nurseries like Apenberry's Nursery in Orlando for a reasonable price. Ask your favorite nursery to order them for you. Click on the photos to view them closer.

1. Sweet Almond Bush, Aloysia virgata. Zone 9 - 11. Very fragrant shrub or small understory tree that can reach 8' to 10' tall and 5' to 6' wide. Attractive to butterflies. Locate near walkways and patios to enjoy the almond scented bush. Grows fast, needs moist soils, full sun or partial sun, neutral pH. Hardy to low 20's.
2. 'Cascade Falls' Bald Cypress, Taxodium distochum 'Cascade Falls'
   Zones 5 - 10. If you have lakefront shorelines but don't want to block the views, this dwarfed cypress tree has lovely cascading branches that will make a good groundcover or a small conifer pyramid for a horizontal effect. Stake the tree when it reaches the height you want and let branches weep. Reaching only 8' and 5' wide, this fast grower will be perfect in compacted soils, Japanese gardens, water gardens, ancient prehistoric themes, or give a Northwest look to your landscape. This cypress needs moist** to wet soils, even growing in water, 6.8 - 7.7 pH, and full or partial sun. Moderately salt tolerant. Soft foliage is beautiful in the fall and winter as it turns orange-brown. They have small cones. In wet conditions, 'Cascade Falls' will have cypress knees. Attracts butterflies and birds. Native.
3. Dyckia 'Burgandy Ice,' Zone 9-11. This deep-red succulent species likes full sun and is one of the most cold-tolerant of the bromeliads. Genus was named for renowned Austrian botanist, Prince Josef Maria Franz Anton Hubert Ignatz (von Salm-Dyck), late 18th century succulent expert. Very low maintenance. Attracts hummingbirds. and butterflies. Hardy to 20 degrees. Grows to 12 inches wide, 12 inches tall. Full sun, handles any pH, but likes soils dry to moist. 'Burgandy Ice's spiny foliage makes a grand architectural statement in garden containers and along walkways. Attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.
4. Sedum rupestre 'Angelina' Zone 9 - 11. Bright chartreuse succulent that is a great groundcover. Perfect to add color and depth to a hanging basket or clay container. Sandy soil, any pH, full sun, minimum watering if no rainfall.
5. Icee Blue® Yellow-Wood, Podacarpus elongatus 'Monmal.' I bought this beautiful blue podacarpus at Apenberry's after I saw it at Leu Gardens. A slow pyramidal grower that likes moist soils, full sun or partial shade, this tree if allowed to attain full height, will reach 15-25 ft. tall by 15-25 ft. wide. With occasional pruning, this evergreen (everblue?) is perfect for hedges, privacy screening for pools, or a specimen tree, yet grows slow enough to be the crowning touch for large containers. Pest-free. In the nine months that I've had mine, it hasn't needed any maintenance. This beautiful tree is available through Monrovia.
6. Yellow Butterfly Pea Vine, Callaeum macropterus(formerly Mascagnia macroptera). Zones 8 - 10. Fast grower. Great for trellises, arbors, fences, and containers. Climbs to 12 feet tall with repeat blooms spring, summer, and fall. Yellow orchid-like flowers that have large green seed pods that look like butterflies. Full sun, dry to moist soil, any pH. Can be pruned in early spring to 2 feet tall to rejuvenate. Photo by Top Tropicals. Looks great as two columns on either side of fence gates.

7. Marlberry 'Chirimen,' Ardisia japonica 'Chirimen.' This is a wonderful groundcover for shade that spreads very slowly. Moderate to fast grower, 5" to 6" tall spreading out to 5' wide. Small pinkish flowers that provide red berries in winter. Needs moist soils. Photo by Monrovia.
8. Blueberries, Vaccinium spp. Zones 6 - 10. Blueberries are one of the featured edible plants at the ReVision House 2011. They need full sun, acidic soils, and depending on cultivar and maintenance can reach 4' to 6' high. The best time to plant blueberries is between December and late February. They make great hedges. Attracts birds. Vaccinium virgatum is a native Florida blueberry.
9. Orange Scepter Butterfly Bush,Buddleia 'Orange Sceptre.' Zones 7 - 10. Beautiful orange flowers that bloom spring and summer. Reaches 8' tall by 5' wide. Deer resistant. Needs full sun, moist soils, not fussy about pH. Foliage is velvety and shrub gets woody without pruning. Photo by Plant Delights.
10. Bangkok Yellow Rain Lily, Zephyranthes 'Bangkok Yellow'. Florida showers bring rain lily flowers. Zones 7 - 10. If you would like flowers that remind you of crocuses, rain lilies are it! These wonderful flowers make great groundcovers or add delight to your garden bed. Pest free, easily naturalizes, and blooms after late summer rain storms. All rain lilies are easy to grow and make great passalong plants! Photo by Plant Delights.

These are great plants that will add color, are easy to maintain, and will infuse your landscape with life. Check them out and see which one will look great in your backyard! I hope you have a healthy and Happy New Year!

** - Caveat: Watering requirements are after establishment.