How Does Your Garden Grow?

The landscaping around our new home is lovely. ("What?!", you say?  A "new" home??? It's a long story and you really don't want to know...trust me! 😂) Suffice it to say that the Mister and I became disillusioned with the community where we had chosen to settle.  We were finding that in our travels the extra 5 +/- hours of  driving to get in/out of Florida to be tedious. And, we wanted a house with some property. We were drawn to the home by the scrub oaks and palms, providing dappled shade in the hot Florida sunshine, and having plenty of sunny, grassy areas in established pastures. 

The previous owners were gifted in creating a few amazing garden areas with unique touches. I think their gardens called to me. I never felt a need to dig into the dirt at our Babcock Ranch home...but here, I'm itching to get out there and trim, weed, remove and replace plants!

Here are a few shots of the garden areas when we acquired the property: 

Limestone boulder, decorative cordyline in background, grasses and ??

Leaf shape concrete bird bath made my previous owners

Inviting walkway around the pool cage

Concrete plantar in a metal stand, settled on a rustic bench

Cordyline in a pot near the pool

Northern Florida winter wasn't especially kind to some of the plants in our garden. We had a few nights below 32 degrees. The cordyline and ferns were hit especially hard. The sword ferns received a trim and they are bouncing back...all over the place. The colorful cordylines are just beginning to show the promise of new shoots. I'm thrilled because their color is very striking. 

As spring has been creeping up on us, We have been adding new greenery throughout our yard. 

The Mister & I have begun to clear out the understory at the front of our property, near the road. It's an area with scrub oaks and pines and a few small trees underneath. 

The view to the road. Oaks and pines, and smilax vine that I'm slowly weeding out. The picture shows three newly planted azaleas that will provide us with bright blooms in future springs.

...and two Corgis who love running and exploring our almost 6 acres!

This is "Elizabeth" (in honor of the Mister's mother).  She is one of 6 or 7 camellias we have planted 

Leopard lily that survived the winter

Butcher's Bloom Plasticus climbing an old pitchfork in the garden.

I felt the pitchfork begged for a vine, but didn't want something that would 

take over the pitchfork and bury it under leaves and flowers. This vine was acquired at Hobby Lobby. 

It is an "always-green", and will last years without changing!

The bench along the path behind the pool begged for a flower basket