Landscaping 400 N 3rd Restoration of A Southern Belle

Before we moved, our family lived in a victorian home.  These are some of our adventures restoring a Southern Belle…

Landscaping 400 N 3rd

Written by: Jim Green

So the exterior landscaping work on the house has finally started and it seems that the more we do, the more we see that there is to do. You polish one area, and, all of a sudden, the others don’t seem to look as good! We started the project in the spring with the cleaning out of all the existing beds and defining the new beds with the flexible plastic edging. It took days to get everything cleaned out. The beds were overrun with bindweed, a nasty plant down here that takes over and spreads like crazy, killing existing plants and almost impossible to remove, once established. Thousands of thorns and deep located tuber roots also make the original plant hard to find and remove.

It took two full weekends just to clean out the beds and trim up the large tree in front of the house. When Nina decided she wanted to trim up the tree, I got exited. You see, that called for new tool that I didn’t have. Not only did I need a chainsaw, but I needed the chainsaw’s much more dangerous, little cousin…The chainsaw on the end of a 8 foot pole! I ended up purchasing the Poulon 10″ chainsaw pole saw for only $99.00. Every man likes tools, especially those that are potentially fatal, saw slinging, motorized, power in your hands types. Nothing like holding a chainsaw 8 feet over your head, cutting off large limbs, knowing that any miscut would throw the chainsaw right down on top of me. The saw worked great. We really put it through its paces. After trimming up the tree and cutting the limbs down to size, Jeff took the pole saw and cut down the old Azaleas. The Azaleas were a little soft, and after a couple hours of cutting, the bush shreds were caught in the saw and caused the saw to throw the chain. A very dangerous situation, but luckily easy to fix. After a quick removal of the cover plate, and removing debris, the saw was back in business. By the end of the day we had a brush pile 15-20 feet wide and 6 feet high. I’d call that a success.

Next, it was on to the fun part of planting. We took off in Rover and loaded up at Lowes. We came back with a truckful, floor to ceiling, with Lingustrum, Buttonwoods, Lorepetelum, Varigated Arbicola, Lavander, Impatiens, Hibiscus, Geraniums, Lillies, and bordergrass. The soil here in east-central north florida is mostly sand, acidic, and doesn’t hold water. Knowing that simply planting the plants would eventually end up in their death, we decided to take a more technical approach. We used a combination soil moisture sensor and pH meter to determine the soil conditions. Using the information we received from the sensor, we decided to add a pH balancing product to increase the pH of the soil to something more neutral. In addition, we mixed in water smart soil with the local soil to provide better soil moisture content around the new plants. It is important to take these conditions into account when planting as each type of plant requires a variation on water, nutrients, sun, and pH. In our area, northern Florida, a lot of tropical plants are sold to homeowners. They look great, but stores don’t always regionalize their plants enough. North florida is actually just below the sub-tropic area. While Florida is all one state, plants that grow well in Miami, don’t necessarily grow well up here near Jacksonville. We were sure to pick plants that matched our area, cold winter requirements, soil, and local conditions. Anything sold at your local growers should be ok, and companies like Lowe’s have tags identifying all the important information you need to know, attached to each plant. One final note on the tags…..take a look at where they are written. Some tags state the plant requires “Full Sun”, more than 6 hours a day. However, full sun in Florida is different than full sun in North Carolina, or New York, etc., due to the distance from the equator. If you are unsure, as a local grower. Also, Lowe’s offers a 1 year guarantee on all their plants. This is great if you are just learning to care for your landscaping.

We had measured the flower beds and purchased plants accordingly, but after laying out the initial round of plants, we realized we had only filled 1/3 of the space we needed to cover. Two more trips to Lowe’s later and we had enough to fill in the entire front planting area. We spaced out the plants, in their pots to get a look at the layout before planting. We raked the new soil into the top layer of the beds, and also added it to the holes we dug for the new plants. During the initial few weeks we watered the plants morning and night, avoiding the heat of the day. After that we let nature take over, and only fertilized the plants once a month. We purchased the new Miracle Grow Liquifeed system as an attachment for our water hose. The system came with general plant fertilizer and flower booster. The results were excellent and immediate, providing for fast growth and filling in of the plants. So far the plants have lasted all summer and we just completed our “end of summer clean out” of all the beds. We will trim the bushes to keep them the shapes we want, but they will eventually grow to fill in the entire front beds, covering the area below the porch, up to 4-6 feet high. We’re looking forward to seeing the bushes full grown. Until then….lots of fertilizing, weeding, pruning. The next project in the yard will be to put down mulch, soaker hoses, and new grass. Stay tuned as that should happen in a couple weeks!