Phase two of my Garden begins.

After picture

Before picture

For the last two years I been working on my back yard garden and I kind of ignored the front. The house needed a paint job badly so I figured I wait until the house was painted.

In the past I painted the house myself, so I been thinking about it for the last two year and finally decided that I am getting too old for that kind of a job, so a couple of weeks ago I hired a crew to do it.
After many promises that they would be very careful with my plants and that the job would only take a week, I hired these guys that came highly recommended. We made a deal that the job would be done the week we were on vacation. When I returned from Colorado I found the job half done and all my plants around the house were all trample or painted on. (So much for taking care of the plants)

The front yard garden is going to be a long, a very long project. For now I am putting some drought tolerant plants around the house. I planted Lantanas, Mexican heather, Golden Shrimp, Red Fountain grass and Red Star Cordyline. The Ti Plants and Thryallis were in the front of the house, they took a beating from the painters but they will come back.

I also transplanted the Fireball Bromeliads from another part of the garden and planted them around the Palm tree. This area is very difficult to grow anything and it gets plenty of sun (the more sun the more red they get)

The Crown of Thorns have been in the front yard for a long time, they take the heat and sun very well and they flower year around.

This side of the front yard would have to wait. My neighbor also hired the same painters to do his house. I live in a zero lot home where your neighbor’s home comes up to your property line (This Florida idea is to put more homes in small lots)

Lantanas

The long term plan for the front garden, is to turn it into an English/Tropical combination; I envision a small white picket fence with lots of perennials, some local favorites, less grass and a different tree at the center. Now I have a black olive tree that is too big for the property and it takes away from the garden.