April droughts don't bring May flowers

I’m so happy, we are finally getting some rain. When it rains frequently, I get a little depressed. But we need it so badly right now, I’ll just get some inside chores done today.

I have some things that I’d like to get listed on Ebay Sunday, so I need a reason to be stuck inside today.

This time of year makes me want to get outside. When the Florida heat really sets in, I’ll still want to be out in it, just at the beach or the lake. But when it’s in the low 80’s, I want to plant things. Unfortunately, I don’t have an irrigation system, and we haven’t had rain in months, so I have been a little discouraged. I’m concentrating on fertilizing, weeding, and maintaining what I have. This year, I’ve decided to just start at the front door and work my way out into the rest of the yard.


It took me a while to come to this more balanced viewpoint. When I moved to the lake, I thought I could manage 3 acres on my own, right away. I took on projects that would have required a full-time landscaping crew. To make matters worse, the hurricanes of 2004 proved that the property drained right into the house. Three feet of water in the living room showed us the site plan needed major revisions.

In 2005, my dad used a bulldozer for a week and re-graded the property. It was 2 feet too low in places, the front porch was one of those. To divert the water away from the house, and into the lake, we had to build a retaining wall. I say we, but it ended up being me. The wall is over 75 feet long, and 3 feet high. Every stone was put in place by yours truly.

On the site plan, my house looked like a little dot. I should have kept that in mind when I designed the beds. See, the wall obscured the entire front of our house. From the street, you can only see the front of the wall, which is at ground level. I didn’t want our house to look like a roof sticking out of grass, so I planned a cottage garden that would make the wall look like it was planned. The circular driveway is right beside that bed.

On paper, it was pretty. In my mind, it was beautiful. So, full of hope, I went to the nursery to buy plants to fill it. I envisioned Lantana and Jasmine along the wall, because it would fill in and cascade down the side. I already had some, so I just divided and planted what I had. I had some herbs that I also divided. I still had a lot of bed to fill, so I went to the nursery and bought flats of annuals. I filled my trunk and backseat with flowers. I was so excited to get home and put them in. I had a basic plan in my head, and I started to place the flowers.

When I’m in the garden, I don’t really think much, I just lose myself in the feel of the dirt and the smell of the flowers, occasionally getting completely distracted by a passing butterfly. I came back to my senses when I realized that I had planted every flower I brought home. Why did it look so empty? I bought flats and flats of flowers, did I bring them all home?

It was at this point, that I realized the wall I built was 75 feet, but the front of the house already had a wall across the porch, so the flower bed is a little over 100 feet wide. When you factor in that it’s 12 feet deep, that’s over 1200 square feet of plants. If I put in plants that cover a square foot, I need 1200 plants. At a dollar a plant, I was in way over my head.

That year, I finished off with wildflower seed mixes. It looked silly for a while, but the cosmos finally really packed a big punch at the end of the summer. When the annuals died off, it really looked bad, and since there had been grass there before, weeding was a constant problem. Pulling the grass in the flowerbed was especially disturbing, since I couldn’t get it to grow anywhere else on the three acre property. It was like hair in a bald man’s ears.

Each year since then, I have added a few more perennials when I plant the wild flower seeds. Someday I don’t think I’ll have to plant the seeds, because I have a lot of volunteers already. The existing lantana and jasmine are filling in nicely, and the smell of the jasmine actually gets a little overwhelming on warm evenings. My mom and dad gave me a volunteer crepe myrtle from their house, and friends and neighbors have been generous with extras from their yards too.

With the focus of the yard being this one bed, I had to let other projects go. I haven’t even had time for my vegetable garden, although this winter the flower bed did have onions in it, and there are cherry tomatoes growing among the vinca right now.

I’ve finally got it under control enough that I feel I can take on one more project. My dear sweet hubby wants grass. I feel that grass is not an environmentally sound option, but I can add fertilizer and water to one small part of the yard to keep the peace in the family. I do admit that it would be nice to have a small lawn for the kids to play on. But, if we could get a summer rainy season, it would make the job easier.

Come on clouds, you can do it.