Hey y'all, how's it going with you? I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!
So in my last post we talked about some basic pruning & trimming practices to get your palms & trees ready for hurricane season. Well, in this post let's chat about the landscape as a whole. Hopefully this will help guide you with some basic design criteria for creating a landscape that can not only withstand tropical storms & small category level hurricanes but also deal with our harsh environment. Though I seriously hope no one believes there would be much landscape still standing after a category 4, 5 or 6 hurricane, trust me. 😂 But with that said, grab a refreshment, find a comfy place to relax and let's get into it!
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| August 24th 1992 Hurricane Andrew ravaged Miami-Dade county as a category 5. This is our house & what was left of our not only our landscape a few weeks after but also our neigborhood. |
"RIGHT PLANT, RIGHT PLACE"
A fantastic mantra to remember & a great place to start, but what does that mean exactly? Well it's a simple saying with a potentially huge impact....basically when you are thinking about what to plant make sure you are planting it in a place that not only meets the plants growing requirements but it's also a place where it can grow to it's full potential without becoming a problem. How tall and wide will the plant get, is it invasive, is it susceptible to pests, how fast or slow does the plant grow, does it grow in full sun or will it need some shade, are there special soil requirements, what shade tree is the best for my yard, how much water does it need, is the plant salt & wind tolerant and is it a high maintenance or low maintenance plant? Are you planting under powerlines, are there water and/or sewer pipes in the ground where your tree is supposed to be planted, will the roots crack my pool or foundation of my house, will the roots lift my driveway or sidewalk over time, is going to be a problem for my neighbor or is this planter/space too small for these plants, etc. With questions like these, they will help you find answers ensuring your final placement is successful.
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| One of our modern tropical landscape designs |
In our industry, I see this quite often, where some so-called "landscaper" sold a home owner on a palm or tree or shrubbery and installed it in a location that it either out grew the space in no time & became a problem and/or the plant died because it didn't have what it needed to survive and/or it has invasive root systems which end up causing issues to the driveway, sidewalk or fence over time. I've even seen large canopy trees and large palms installed directly under power & cable lines...dat's a no-no if ya don't know-know. Though most often I see a landscape that was beautiful when it was first installed but the maintenance person didn't know how to take care of it and/or the maintenance crews just 'mow/blow & go' while the landscape gets hacked apart. I'm sure you're thinking so what do these issues have to do with hurricanes? Well if a landscape is unhealthy either by poor maintenance and/or have trees/palms planted in the wrong areas or both; there's a greater likely hood of potential damage happening to your property when tropical storms & hurricanes come along. Unfortunately those plants will topple over way easier than ones with healthy root systems. For example, the tree with a shallow root system that was planted in the wrong place gets blown over and takes out your fence, your patio screen and lands in the neighbor's pool kind of thing. Plus now you will have to pay for someone to some remove all the fallen soldiers...aaaannd deal with your neighbor...See where I'm going with this 😉
Right plant, right place, right properly trained landscaper
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| FPL's (Florida Power & Light) recommendation |
"CALL BEFORE YOU DIG"
For those who are not familiar with what this is, we have a fantastic service here in Florida called "Sunshine 811" or "Call Before You Dig"...& it's free not just for us in the trade but home owners too!
This goes hand in hand with 'right plant, right place'. It provides you with a layout as to where your property's utility lines are. Basically, you call Sunshine 811, give them your information, then the municipalities in your area are sent the notice they need to come mark where their utility lines run. So for example, you hired a licensed fence contractor to install a new fence. You call Sunshine 811 & the municipalities in your area might be Comcast or ATT for phone & cable, your city for sewer and water, FPL for power and maybe Teco for gas. They show up, install colored flags (blue for water, etc) and spray paint the same color on the ground/grass/road the location of the lines and the direction where they run on your property. Now you know where your underground lines are....easy peasy!
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| Here you can see that FPL (power always in red) and Comcast (cable always in orange) are marked from the street showing the underground wires buried along the property's perimeter. |
"DO YOUR HOMEWORK"
Finding the right plants for your landscape is key. It doesn't have to be complicated or overwhelming but by doing a little research on your part will certainly help you achieve the landscape of your dreams. Some suggestions to start with are: the internet (gardening websites, YouTube, etc), visit some of your local plant nurseries (stay away from the big box stores) ask questions & look at plants in person, visit and/or email botanical gardens close to where you live (talk to the guides), join a garden club or go to one of their monthly meetings (a great place to pick other gardeners brains), reach out to your local university's horticultural extension office (ours is the University of Florida...Go Gators!), even your state, county and/or city should have what's called an 'urban forestry department' that will have plant recommendations for where you live. Even some utility companies will have some kind of literature suggesting plant materials. No one wants to loose power during a storm due to someone's ginormous ficus tree falling and taking out the whole neighborhood's power lines with it...don't be that person. Healthy plants planted in the right spot can not only weather tropical storms and most low grade hurricanes but also some of the harshest weather our area experiences.
Especially if you choose wisely my friends! 😉
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| One of our client's had a challenge as to the amount of sun, wind & salt their landscape gets year round. We installed short hedges as wind breaks to help the smaller plants thrive. |
And let's dig into the last one 😂
"WHAT TYPE OF PLANTS GROW IN MY AREA"
Now those of you who know me by now, y'all know what I'm going to say here, am I right!?
Start with researching what native flora grows in your area. The plants that are considered "native" have weathered the test of time in our harsh arid yet subtropical climates. Now don't get me wrong, your landscape does not have to be all native plants, you can certainly add other tropical plants in with natives to achieve the look you want. But native plants are the perfect landscape plants here in South Florida to survive our constant barrage of tropical storms & hurricanes. Start with some of your wish list design elements...for example you want some trees to provide your home some shade & help reduce your power bill. Look at willow bustic, black ironwood, green or silver buttonwoods, calophyllum, magnolia 'silver mist' or satin leaf. Or you would like a privacy screening between you & your neighbor. Look at simpson's stopper, myrtle-on-the-river, myrsine, viburnum obovatum 'Mrs. Schillings delight', cocoplum, coffee, Jamaican caper or wax myrtle. Or you would like some accent palms in the front of your house, look at cluster palms like MacArthur palms, cabada palms, or solitary palms like hurricane palms, Alexander palm, Madagascar cliff date palm, sabal palm, saw palmetto, licuala palm or cocothrinax varieties.
There is a wonderful website that has a deep data base of native plants & a bio on the plants growth habits aaaannndd all you have to do is input your zip code & it will list all of the natives that should grow well in your area. How cool is that!!?!
Data bases like this are a huge help in doing your homework in finding the right plant for the right place.
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| One of our most amazing client's has been probably the best steward of their land that I know of here in South Florida...I'm sure there are others but, let me just say, people like this are rare. They made sure all of the existing plants stay healthy while introducing new native species to create a diverse set of plants in this native ecosystem. People who care about preserving our ancient ecosystems & the native flora species (of course the animals as well) make a massive impact on these ecosystems vitality to our planet's survival. AKA our survival 😏 So make yourself this kind of person even donating your time to saving our native ecosystems is a huge help! |
Thank you so much for sticking around! I truly appreciate you, because if you are here then you are interested and you care & I love you for that!!! 💚 So in the next post we will go deeper into some of the plants (not just natives) that go hardcore for South Florida and that specifically do very well not only in hurricanes but our harsh conditions.
Until then, best wishes and happy gardening!
Sheri
xoxo
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