Landscaping the Homestead

The Banana Area. A Banana tree, two Heliconias, four Heathers, a Bamboo Something, a Pineapple, an Avocado(!), a Pandora vine lurking in the corner, and somewhere in there a very slow growing Hydrangea. The pineapple will have to be moved as it gets larger which looks to be pretty soon. The hydrangea hasn't grown all that much, but they can get pretty big too. The banana is doing great, generating one of those huge leaves about every 5 days or so!

	The Northeast Corner. This area next to the garage never had anything growing in it except weeds. Still have some of those, but now there are also a few other things. Four Bush Daisies (two older, two younger), six Fishnet Coleus, and a Pandora vine that's growing like crazy. Recently I had to add an extension to the fence to keep up with it!

The Front Entrance Area. The area under the flag used to have a Queen Palm in it, but it went belly up a couple of years ago. Tried a few things in there but the key was three Lakeview Jasmines, six heathers and an Azalea (I think). On the other side of the walkway are five Indian Hawthornes, three more Lakeview Jasmines, two more heathers, and the tall bush, an Oleander, shown here after a heavy trimming. That was a gift from Joan, Linda and Sandy. Grows like gangbusters! Barely visible in the back are five Pentas. They have been blooming continuously for about 4 months now. What fantastic plants!

The Walkway (north side). Still a little work to do in this area. Turned out to be a little tougher than I thought. Originally I wanted a walkway from the side garage door through the gate and toward the back yard to help mitigate the beating down the grass problem. Well, it expanded to include a walkway all the way to the lanai. An enclosure for the pool pump mechanicals is lurking in the not too distant future. Not seen in this shot are the Persian Shields (they live behind the pump) that have been somewhat of a problem. Something else should probably be in there. Still working in this area, and probaby will be for some time. It's not very attractive yet.

The Southeast Corner. Still a lot of work to do in this area, but it's definitely in progress. The picture here was taken on 21-Aug-2007 which is just a little over a week ago from when this is being written. In this shot are a number of plants, good and bad. There is (barely visible on the left) the Crepe Myrtle that I severely cut back about two weeks ago. Its growth since then has been just amazing! As it was and as it is. I'm going to try to keep this as a bush about three to four feet high. Hopefully now it will get enough sun to bloom since I hacked the crap out of the plant behind it. It was about 12-15 feet tall before the trimming began, making the entire area very shady. The trimming continues and I hope I can keep this one at about 5-6 feet tall. Still don't know what it is, but it's a nice one! The monster on the right is a White Bird of Paradise. It's huge and I'm not inclined to make it any smaller. Recently (29-Aug-2007) added a Tapioca Plant in this area. What the heck is that? Apparently tapioca is made from its roots. Who knew?