I am a Gardener.

Looking back and creating new beginnings. I wrote the following article 24 years ago before I became a landscape designer. As I start a new edition of my newsletter, “In Your Backyard” I wanted you to know my thoughts as I started my first gardening efforts.

“I am a gardener. You can ask my family, my neighbors, my friends and fellow employees, my constant companion, Sheila, a wheaten Scottie, and even my three cats, Pitter, Dribbles, and Kitten, a 17-lb Siamese. They will all tell you, "Oh, yes, Teresa is a gardener". Well, the cats will just purr. I garden from within. My innermost feelings tell me what and where to plant. My gardens show what a complicated human being I am. They are always in transition, constantly changing. Looking for hours through gardening magazines or watching tv, I see gardens that set my passions afire.

Unfortunately, I have a tough time hearing the word "no" or "you can't grow that here." That is why I have a variety of garden beds. You can meander through flowers and shrubs, walking on flagstone pathways and alleés that keep the gardens separated. I have garden beds with color themes. Others have unique qualities like fragrances, specific flower types, and sun requirements like a shade garden. There are redbud trees, roses, Italian and Arizona cypresses, wisteria blooming on an arbor, bird sanctuary, rock walls, two goldfish ponds, and a gazing ball circle for the fairies to romp in during a full moon. There are esplanades to theme gardens, such as a cottage garden, a rose garden, and a rickety wooden twig gate leading to a hidden allée that I call "Crape Myrtle Lane".

My children, when they were younger, would call my landscape the "Ooh Aah" gardens. After dinner, we had a ritual after dinner to walk through the different avenues and point out Mother Nature. As you begin your stroll, you might see a royal purple tibouchina in full bloom and say "ooh". Then as you turn a blind corner, you espy a birdhouse. Holding my children up to peek inside quietly, you see a mother bird inside waiting patiently to hatch her eggs. The feathered creature is so close, it takes your breath away, and you say "aah". Mind you, she is, also, feeling relieved as you leave to continue in your adventures. As you walk through your yard, it is your persona that you are revealing because gardens define the individual. Are you a formal person who likes symmetrical tiers of shrubs and straight lines or are you a free spirit, who adores forest bathing and strolling through flowering shrubs and picking wildflowers?

Every garden is unique with a multitude of decisions with your site conditions, and selections of themes and plants. Finding your garden theme is as easy as seeing what brings a smile to your face. Try it the next time you walk through yours' or a friends' garden. What kind of personality does the garden have? Does it have a vitality that emanates even when you are not there? Does it make you feel peaceful or energetic? Does it bring a smile to your face? Are the shrubs maintenance-simple, (no plant is maintenance-free) that only bloom once a year or do they have multicolored blossoms that require frequent deadheading? Are the plants aligned in straight rows or rambling, scattered here and there, where the birds and squirrels planted them? Are the colors exciting or are they monotones that soothe the spirit? When you find what you would like to have in your garden, then you can start planning and designing.

Finding what brings peace and joy to your heart is important after an exhausting day at work, or just living in our intense world. Walking through your garden at the end of the day can rejuvenate you. I wonder if God, Allah, Jehovah, Shiva, Gaia or whatever Supreme Being you have come to know, looks down on the Garden that He or She created with all the different varieties of life and "oohs and aahs "? It is a curious thought, but I think so.

Gardens revitalize your spirit. They can be a harbor for silent reflection or a gymnasium blast of energy to enrich your life. Gardening can be whatever you need it to be for your spirit. And a rejuvenated spirit is good for your Soul.”

First published October 2000 on Icangarden.com website.

Sustainable Horticultural Environments wins Best of Houzz Service Award 2024

Sustainable Horticultural Environments wins Best of Houzz Service Award nine years in a row.

Creating A Beachview Octopus Garden

Sea World ride display gardens., Orlando Florida.

There is a great Beatles song, 'Octopus's Garden' that suggests a perfect theme for your summer beach gardening scene.  What better way to bring the ocean into your own backyard ⸺ whether you live in Miami, Florida or Miami, Oklahoma ⸺ than to have a landscape that whisks you down under the sea to Neptune’s tidal garden when your eyes behold it, and you don’t even need to worry about the salt spray or getting sunburned.

 On a previous visit to the Discovery Gardens at the UF/IFAS Lake County Extension Discovery Gardens, I was thrilled to see an ‘Ocean Reef’ Children’s garden. The three bedding plants used to inspire the school children’s imaginations got my creative energies whirling and I thought, “What a great theme!” 

To start, if you live by the seashore or close to the ocean, you need to know what plants will thrive in an alkaline, salt water location. A great resource for selecting salt-tolerant plants is by a local Florida beach city nursery, Rockledge Gardens.

But how does that help a land-locked sea dog gardener like you? If you don’t have a beautiful beachfront landscape yet you yearn to lie on a beach towel and catch the rays in your own underwater paradise, put a conch shell to your ear and read on.

Here are some suggestions to help you create your own “Octopus’s Garden.” I’ve selected a variety of flowers, shrubbery, trees, and groundcovers guided by Poseidon and maritime-sounding common names to invoke our undersea theme. How many do you recognize? Remember to make sure the sunlight, soil, zone hardiness, and moisture conditions are right for your own backyard before buying and installing any of these plants.

Flowers and Shrubs

Anemones, Anemone coronaria, also known as windflowers, are members of the buttercup family. But the sea anemones (get it?) are creatures whose brightly colored shapes and cluster of tentacles outwardly resemble terrestrial flowers. In your beach garden, anemones are flowering bulbs that will bloom in the spring and summer and like sunny areas in northern climes and partial shade in the South.  Shrimp plants, Justicia brandegeana is a good choice. Put a few of these lovely butterfly and hummingbird-attracting flowers close to your Bar-bee. Bright yellow, greyish-green, or red flowers, these plants love the sun and are pest resistant.

Shrimp plant, Justicia brandegeana

 If you have lots of shade, you can use Coral bells, Heuchera spp.,  Coralbush, Jatropha multifida, or Coral bean, Erythrina herbacea for Zones 7 through 9. Coralberry, Symphoricarpos orbiculatus, can be used in cooler climates up through Zone 3, all of which are common names that smack delightfully of Poseidon’s reefs.  If you want to conjure images of being underwater, plant the Celosia argentea, var. cristata, a member of the amaranth family which is reminiscent of brain coral which boasts great colors and is very effective in tidal waves of mass plantings across your ocean, I mean your garden bed. Vines that continue the coral theme include coral vine, Antigonon leptopus, and the popular, fragrant coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens.

 This Pencil cactus, looks just like the Bamboo coral under the sea.  

Large ornamental shrubs can be used such as the Sea Grape, Coccoloba uvifera. It is a natural for the beach look, where it loves sandy soils and salt air. Other large shrubs include beach elder, Iva imbricate, Sea lavender, and Sea rosemary, Argusia gnaphalodes.

 Shells are a given in an oceanfront garden, so how about the Shell Flower, Moluccella laevis? It’s also known as Bells of Ireland and Molucca Balm because it was originally thought to be a native of the Molucca Islands. These lovely, chartreuse, biennial flowers love the sun or partial shade and thrive in Florida up through Zone 4.  Another shell that should be on your “beach” is the Shell ginger, Alpina zerumbet. Growing beautifully in shade, the  tropical variegated foliage with large, colorful flowers, is hardy into Zone 8 and must be allowed to survive two winters to blossom.

Shell ginger, Alpinia zerambut.

Crotons, Codiaeum variegatum, look divine in your garden and can remind you of colorful, exotic, underwater grasses, and sea urchins. Varieties like Mammy, Gold Dust, Johanna Coppinger, Dreadlock, Piecrust, and Banana Leaf. Check crotons out and see which one transports you underwater.

Looking for still more flowers and shrubs appropriate for your Octopus’s garden? Try the daisy sea oxeye, Borrichia frutescens, the sea holly, Eryngium alpinum, the tropical lobster claw, Heliconia bihai, or the pearl lanceleaf, Anthurium scandens.  

 If you are fortunate to have an island bay [translation: water garden] in your backyard, make sure you have eel grass, Vallisneria neotropicalis, native in most parts of the United States, but can also be found at aquarium stores.

Large ornamental shrubs can be used such as the Sea Grape, Coccoloba uvifera. It is a natural for the beach look, where it loves sandy soils and salt air. Other large shrubs include beach elder, Iva imbricate, Sea lavender, and Sea rosemary, Argusia gnaphalodes.

Looking for still more flowers and shrubs appropriate for your Octopus’s garden? Try the daisy sea oxeye, Borrichia frutescens, the sea holly, Eryngium alpinum, the tropical lobster claw, Heliconia bihai, or the pearl lanceleaf, Anthurium scandens.  

 If you are fortunate to have an island bay [translation: water garden] in your backyard, make sure you have eel grass, Vallisneria neotropicalis, native in most parts of the United States, but can also be found at aquarium stores.

 Succulents and cacti can be an incredible choice for your backyard beach if you select carefully your locations. Starfish Cactus, or Starfish Plant, Stapelia gigantea, has an incredible stellar flower that reminds your guests of a starfish. Its’ long stems remind you of a real green octopus. All the Stapelia species would work in a marine theme.

Check out these sea-worthy inclusions for your ocean bed:

·   Agave americana

·   Aptenia sp.

·   Beschorneria yuccoides

·   Crassula obvata

·   Dudleya caespitosa

·   Dyckia sp. “Burgandy Ice"

·   Euphorbia lacteal

·   Euphorbia trigona 

·   Haworthia attentuata

·   Orbea ciliata

To cover bare patches of sand with suitable groundcovers, look for beach morning glory, Ipomoea pes-caprae, ‘Blue Pacific’ shore junipers, Juniperus conferta, (which gets double botanical points for having a real ocean in its’ name). Sea oats, Uniola paniculata, if they are available in your area — is a plant that will evoke windy seaside dune breezes in your Octopus garden. Sea oats are an endangered species and are federally protected, so never take them out of the wild and always buy them from a reputable native plant nursery!  Blackbeard’s ghost will haunt you forever if you do!

Trees

Spreading canopies of shade in your oceanfront landscape can include such ocean-themed habitants as crabapples, Pyrus coronaria, and crabwood, Ateramnus lucidus. The blue beech, Carpinus caroliniana, a member of the birch family, also known as American hornbeam and musclewood, is another good tree to remind us of idyllic ‘beech’ views. Blue beeches are handsome, deciduous trees with gray bark and blue green leaves. Native from Texas and Florida up through Maine.

 What’s a beachfront without palm trees? And what’s an Octopus garden without pirates?  A perfect choice is a Buccaneer palm tree, Pseudophoenix sargentii,  which can be a container palm for those zones above 9 and 10.  Clustering fishtail palm, Caryota mitis, also works well in the Octopus’s garden.  

You can use your shady areas for a nice tropical beach garden by using Rattlesnake plants, Calathea lancifolia, which has incredible markings on it, and the Cast Iron Apidistra, Aspidistra elatior, that suggests types of underwater grass.

Rattlesnake plant, Calathea lancifolia

Cast Iron Plant, Apidistra elatior

 If you have a deck or patio, wrap round poles together with thick rope to represent a pier.  Plant around the base of the poles or add a container of nautical-themed plants. Accessories will help expand and unite your ‘under the sea’ theme: lighthouses, sea shells, sand pails, shovels, umbrellas, parrots, skull and crossbones flags, Union Jack flags, model ships, marine flags, tiki torches, assorted crabs, fishing nets, fishes, and lobsters, seahorses, bamboo fencing, oars, aft and stern portions of a rowboat, round plastic life preservers, flip-flop sandals, rafts, mermaid statues, treasure chest, skeletons, cement sand castles.  Look for these items at your local craft stores, statuary businesses and catalogs, party supply stores, and boating centers.

 Finding these plants may take a little work, but if you know what you’re looking for, get in your little yellow submarine, haul out your plant catalogs, search the Internet and with a little effort, create a treasure map and mark an X where you think you will find your plants. I’m sure you’ll be rewarded for having a little imagination and digging some treasures in your own backyard, no matter where you live. 

If you enjoy eating fruit, your whimsical seashore can include Key limes to reference obvious geographical locations such as Key West, Key Largo and the rest of the Florida Keys, and navel oranges – all right, navel oranges are a stretch, but they succeed in two ways:  1), what do you see at the beach? Right…navels, plenty of bellybuttons, 2) is that you can’t have an ocean garden without the presence of a maritime navy – ergo, naval orange. Hey! You have to work with me here – I’m being creative.        

Speaking of being creativel, even the busy or uninspired gardening enthusiast can have an Octopus’s garden. Just stick a broken boat plank sign up in your front yard with “crabgrass” on the sign to explain why you have such fitting weeds. If you really have a sense of humor, just wait ‘till Chapman’s Skeletongrass Gymnopogon chapmanianus, finds its way to your pseudo-seaside retreat and display it with pride next to a nautical treasure chest filled with gold doubloons and Mardi Gras beads.   

Designing your maritime flower, shrub, and tree placement depends on your height, depth, and color preferences. It’s your Octopus’s garden – don’t be afraid to have contrasting colors, sizes, and leaf textures. Set out your choices in their nursery pots and move them around until you are satisfied. Don’t hesitate to stand back and look at your design from every angle, including an upper story floor or neighbor’s yard if you can.

Sea World, Orlando, FL.

 Accessories

If you live in zones 3 through 7 and you can’t have a year-round tropical paradise, you could display your coastal plants in nautical containers that will help contribute to the ambiance of your oceanscape. Containers for beachfront yards can include various red, white, or blue plastic containers with thick hemp cord handles. Make sure you have good drainage. You can integrate oversized conch shell planters or employ unused rowboats -- either real or unused children’s toys -- to beach on your sandy berms. Plant your ornamental shrubs, flowers, and even your trees and palms in them.

An important part of a seaside design is the use of driftwood. Using driftwood as a planter, art piece, statuary, or as edging, definitely “wood” be a great use of organic materials.

Driftwood, Wikicommon.

 Create a post with different directional signs pointing to your favorite botanical gardens or island resorts.  Attach a seagull to the top of the sign post or hang a parrot swinging from your tree.

Photograph by Danielle Aquiline https://www.entouriste.com/relaxing-in-key-west/zachary-beach-signs-key-west/

 Plant labels can highlight the jewels of your sea garden and provide humor in setting the stage for a summer of fun. Place your labels with the common names on paper resembling torn flags under your plant selections so that the writing is easily legible from a few feet away. Making the mailman, milkman, pedestrians and neighbors laugh as they pass your house will earn you buccaneer points.

 Octopus's Garden

(Lennon/McCartney)

Abbey Road (1969)

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden in the shade

He'd let us in, knows where we've been

In his octopus' garden in the shade.

 I'd ask my friends to come and see

An octopus' garden with me

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden in the shade.

We would be warm below the storm

In our little hideaway beneath the waves

Resting our head on the sea bed

In an octopus' garden near a cave.

We would sing and dance around

because we know we can't be found

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden in the shade.

We would shout and swim about

The coral that lies beneath the waves

(Lies beneath the ocean waves)

Oh what joy for every girl and boy

Knowing they're happy and they're safe

(Happy and they're safe).

We would be so happy you and me

No one there to tell us what to do

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden with you.

“Creating a Beach-view Octopus Garden” updated from originally published August 13, 2006 

Florida’s most popular garden expert and landscape designer, Teresa Watkins answers your gardening questions on Better Lawns and Gardens. Listen every Saturdays from 7am - 9am EST on WFLA- Orlando and on Audioboom podcast 24/7. https://bit.ly/3c1f5x7

Planting a Succulent Strawberry Jar

Need ideas for your “gathering dust” strawberry pots?

Thrillers

Cereus, Night Blooming, Echinopsis pachanoi

White Snake Plant, Sansevieria “Bantel’s Sensation¨

Pencil Cactus, Euphorbia tirucalli)

African Milk Tree, Euphorbia trigona

Mexican Fence Post Cactus Pachycereus marginatus

Fillers

Hens and Chicks, Echeveria elegans

Peacock Echeveria, Echeveria desmetiana

Hercules Echeveria, Echeveria hercules

Brown Rose, Echeveria ´Brown Rose

Any of the succulents in my Family Handyman articles.

Spillers

Angelina Stonecrop, Sedum rupestre 'Angelina'

Portulaca and Purslane

Baby Burro’s Tail, Sedum ´Burrito´

Burro´s Tail, Sedum morganianum

For more information: Guide to Growing Succulents, Family Handyman, April 2023 12 Types of Succulents To Plant, Family Handyman, April 2023

#gardening #containergardens #containers #pots #planting #strawberryjars #succulents #cacti #cactus #droughttolerant #dry #heat #Southwestern #Mexican

Sustainable Horticultural Environments wins Best of Houzz 2023 Customer Service Award

Sustainable Horticultural Environments of Orlando

Awarded Best of Houzz 2023

The annual people’s choice award recognizes professionals among the Houzz community who stand out in both talent and customer service

Orlando, Orange County, February 15, 2023 – Sustainable Horticultural Environments, Orlando, FL has won a “Best of Houzz” award for Customer Service on Houzz®, the leading platform for home remodeling and design, including the all-in-one software solution for industry professionals. The landscape design company owned by Teresa Watkins was chosen by the millions of homeowners that comprise the Houzz community from among more than 3 million active home building, remodeling, and design industry professionals.

Best of Houzz awards are given annually, in three categories: Design, Customer Service and Photography. Design awards honor professionals whose work was the most popular among the Houzz community. Customer Service honors are based on several factors, including a pro's overall rating on Houzz and client reviews submitted in 2022. Architecture and interior design photographers whose images were most popular are recognized with the Photography award.

“Best of Houzz 2023” badges appear on winners’ profiles as a sign of their commitment to excellence. These badges help the more than 65 million homeowners and home design enthusiasts on Houzz to identify popular and top-rated home professionals for their projects.

“Who designed your landscape?” “SHE did!” Sustainable Horticultural Environments

"We are thrilled to highlight incredibly talented and customer-driven pros from the Houzz community through the Best of Houzz awards," said Liza Hausman, vice president of Industry Marketing for Houzz. "At Houzz, we strive to support professionals from building their brands and attracting clients, to managing their business efficiently and profitably, and collaborating with clients. The Best of Houzz awards provide a distinctive mark of credibility for homeowners looking for pros on Houzz. We congratulate all the winners for everything they’ve accomplished in 2022 and look forward to seeing their work and positive reviews in the year ahead."

You can see more of Sustainable Horticultural Environments’s work on Houzz.

About Teresa Watkins

Teresa Watkins, landscape designer, horticulturist, author, and radio personality, designed the landscape for the first certified "green home" in Florida. Teresa taught Florida-friendly principles for the University of Florida in Lake, Orange, and Seminole County Extension and was instrumental in developing the Florida Water Star water conservation and certification program. With a background of working with cities, counties, and other government agencies, Teresa consults on environmental issues with custom builders, commercial properties, and residential homeowners. Her landscape company, Sustainable Horticultural Environments, designs unique, beautiful, and award-wining sustainable landscapes.

Sustainable Horticultural Environments logo.

About Houzz

Houzz is the leading platform for home remodeling and design, providing an all-in-one software solution for industry professionals and tools for homeowners to update their homes from start to finish. Using Houzz, people can find ideas and inspiration, hire professionals, and shop for products. Houzz Pro (houzz.com/pro) provides home industry professionals with a business management and marketing SaaS solution that helps them to win projects, collaborate with clients and teams, and run their business efficiently and profitably. The Houzz community is made up of millions of homeowners, home design enthusiasts and home improvement professionals around the world. Houzz is available on the web and as a top-rated mobile app. For more information, visit houzz.com. Houzz is a registered trademark of Houzz Inc. worldwide.

Sometimes Even Natives Can Be the Wrong Plants In The Wrong Place.

One of the benefits of using natives is that they should be low-maintenance and have no need of pruning. Coonties, Zamia pumila, are the only cycad native to North America and a host plant for the Atala butterfly. I love to design with coontie for their architectural foliage, usually as specimen focus or as a natural border between properties. Coonties spread easily from seed and can make a 3' - 5' hedge border to provide a natural Florida landscape. Coonties do not need trimming.

Despite being installed in the right FFL conditions, this Channel 13 segment shows the coonties in the City of Lake Mary Municipality are planted in the wrong location. The unmaintained cycad hedge has grown too tall and blocks the view of bicyclists and pedestrians crossing the intersection. Instead of reducing the amount of coonties to regain visibility, the hedge was sheared on all sides, creating an ugly hedge that now will become high maintenance and need shearing every few months.

A better solution would have been to keep the coonties along the pathway but reduce the amount of coonties, especially closer to the road with a more suitable, low-maintenance, shorter, FFL plants, like dwarf Walter's Viburnum, African iris, Beach sunflowers, Black-eyed Susans, Gazanias, Salvias, or Dotted Horsemint, dwarf buddleia, Drift roses, or a mixture of FFL plants to create a butterfly garden.

Reminder: There is no such thing as a "no-maintenance" landscapes. FFL landscapes reduce the amount of routine maintenance needed. All plants, natives and non-native, are considered Florida-friendly.

https://www.mynews13.com/.../traffic-inbox-improving...

Start of a New Year - 2023

Landscape Malpractice: Hurricane Pruning Palms - Even certified arborists don't do it correctly!

Another example of landscape malpractice. This extreme defoliating practice is called hurricane pruning. No responsible certified arbor company will prune palm trees this way. Palms are not trees and need all their palm fronds to be able to photosynthesize. While still not recommended, it wouldn't be as problematic, if these palm trees were fertilized regularly, but palm trees in commercial settings are not usually fertilized after their installation. Palms rarely need their green fronds removed. Tree companies who cut palms like this are not following best management practices. For more information on palm best management practices from the University of Florida.

Orchid Garden Pool Landscape Design

I never expected to design an orchid garden pool landscape. But then I visited a new landscape design client. I quickly realized that just past their front door was a gorgeous swimming pool. How do you landscape a front entrance that’s a pool lanai?

Most swimming pools in Florida are surrounded by garden beds with tropical plants on the inside of their screened enclosures. But this pool lanai was surrounded by four bare walls.

Deciding on a design theme was easy when I found out my client was an orchid lover. I decided that I wanted to display an orchid garden on the tiled walls. But how to connect them together and take care of them properly and without a lot of maintenance? That part would be a challenge.

Read about my Orchid Garden Pool Landscape here: https://bit.ly/3w264yu

Can You Use Ice Cubes to Water Orchids?

1.    Yes, you can use ice cubes to water your orchids!  University of Georgia and The Ohio State University research says there is no reason you can’t. https://bit.ly/34tIvDD