Fire Pits Add Cozy Heat to Florida Evenings

A professionally designed landscape for your home will incorporate hardscaping elements such as natural stone, pavers, walls, or stone paths and beds. This aspect of design offsets the soft organic plants and flowing edges of trees so that the eye moves pleasingly through the composition.

Seamless hardscape design in Florida is also of paramount importance when pools, hot tubs, and decorative water features are integrated into the landscape plan. These additions should never look like a sloppy afterthought or the whole design suffers. Outdoor living can be taken to the next level by having a professional landscape designer build a fire pit and enhance its appearance with stone or brick.

As the temperatures fall during our mild Florida winter, the appeal of sitting around a bonfire becomes stronger. The options available for fueling the fire pit make it possible to build a wood burning fire, or simply hit a switch and enjoy the convenience of gas powered flames. There is also the possibility of popping a grate on top when you would like to grill food right over the fire pit!

A fire pit can be the focal point of your entire patio design - contact a landscaper to discuss your ideas for a warm, inviting fire pit built permanently by our licensed, insured professionals. Then surround it with comfortable seating of your choice, either custom made of a similar hardscape material or other outdoor furniture, and invite your guests outside to enjoy a beautiful star-filled Florida night around the fire.

🦚Article by Connie Helena, author of The Green Orchid 🦚

What is a serenity garden?

A serenity garden is a space that is specially designated in your home or business landscape to be a place of contemplation, peace, and solace. It is often a hidden area or courtyard with plants, hardscaping, and water features such as a fountain or waterfall. Serenity gardens are sometimes located at an entry point or between two separate sections of a structure. It is a beautiful way to divide and unite interior and exterior space at the same time.

Serenity gardens can also incorporate elements of zen gardens such as arches and feng shui. The principle purpose of a serenity garden is to instill calm, enhance relaxation, and encourage meditation. For some people this garden has a memorial or religious theme. For others it is the place to escape and get away from it all.

A serenity garden should be placed away from ringing telephones, car pollution, and other distractions and unpleasantries. There should be a comfortable sitting area such as a bench that receives equal parts sun and shade, or whichever your individual preference. Perhaps a rocking chair would suit you as you let your stress fade away.

Nature is an obvious element of a serenity garden: besides personally preferred plants, consider a bird feeder or house, or a koi pond. Wind chimes or a rhythmic bamboo water spout add a gentle, soothing sound effect. Statues can be placed in ideal locations for inspiration and reflection. Stones and boulders are a reminder of the solid, eternal state of the universe.

🦚Article by Connie Helena, author of The Green Orchid 🦚

American Beautyberry is a Florida Jewel

The American Beautyberry (callicarpa americana) lives up to its name: it is an outstanding shrub of the verbena family that loves northeast Florida so much it grows wild or cultivated with equal ease. Also known simply as beautyberry or French mulberry, this native plant is known for its characteristically eye-catching clusters of purple berries in the summer and fall months.

American Beautyberry responds well to transplanting and will propagate from seed or soft-wood cuttings in soil. Birds are known to eat the berries when there is not much else to eat in the colder months, but it is not their first choice for food. This is good thing so that the beautiful berries remain in the garden. Beautyberry leaves are a known food source for some caterpillars so they make a welcome addition to the a butterfly garden.

Currently in the Palm Coast, Ormond Beach, and St. Augustine area of Florida our beautyberry bushes are just getting their leaves back after a cold season. Soon we will have the tiny lavender flowers that will lead to the lovely magenta berries. Landscapers welcomes your questions regarding hardy species such as American beautyberry for Flagler, St. Johns, and Volusia landscape design - and of course we are also topmost experts when it comes to more sensitive and exotic varieties of plants.

🦚Article by Connie Helena, author of The Green Orchid 🦚

Flower of July: Crape or Crepe, This Myrtle Tree is Florida Friendly

Hello summer and beautiful, colorful crape myrtle trees! One of the first signs of warmer weather in these parts of northeastern Florida is the blossoming of our many crape myrtle trees that, being deciduous, may have died back over the winter and were trimmed and pruned to perfection by a landscaper.

Crape (or crepe - either spelling is fine) myrtle trees are fast growing and retain their blooms for what seems like forever, as long as 120 days to be exact. They come in gorgeous shades of white, purple, pink, and red. Lagerstroemia indica is a rewarding addition to your Florida landscape design.  It is very versatile and can be used in a variety of plantings.

Crape myrtles like a lot of water but they will tolerate dry soils also. They are affordable trees that come in endless choices of types and sizes. Although pruning the trees back is common practice, it is also possible to let them grow to their full size which can be quite large.  You cannot miss the crape myrtle trees in bloom all over North Florida this time of year.

Landscaping pros will gladly incorporate the lovely, hardy crape myrtle tree or shrub into your landscaping plan for your home in Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach, Palm Coast, and the surrounding areas of Florida.  We also design, install, and maintain luxury landscaping in St. Augustine.

Although the crape myrtle is native to India, it is still considered Florida Friendly.  It is drought tolerant and welcoming to pollinators such as bees and butterflies. To see more photographs of this beautiful tree, go to the National Arboretum Crapemyrtle Page.

🦚Article by Connie Helena, author of The Green Orchid 🦚

Florida Friendly Plant: Lantana

Common lantana (lantana camara), also known as shrub verbena, is a lovely summer and fall flowering plant that tends to pop up in the natural landscape on occasion. In the tropical areas where lantana is native, it is evergreen but here in northeast Florida it will die back during frost only to rise again beautifully when spring comes. Lantana is a favorite among butterflies and the less rain the better as more flowers form with drought conditions. Lantana will grow in sun or part shade and will tolerate many different types of soil including poor ones.

If you are lucky enough to have one of the pink/orange lantana bushes grow naturally in your yard, you may like to keep it as part of your xeriscape design. Because of new state laws and views, Florida Friendly landscaping is enjoying a new prominence and lantana is a nice addition to this particular landscape style. In frost-free climates such as Hawaii, lantana is such a hardy grower that it is consider invasive.

🦚Article by Connie Helena, author of The Green Orchid 🦚

What is the easiest lawn to maintain in Florida?

"Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises." - Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Here in the northern coastal region of the Sunshine State you see a few main types of turf for commercial and residential lawns: Bahia, Zoysia, Bermuda, or St. Augustine. There are too many pros and cons to count for each variety, but there is an easy answer to the question posed: What is the easiest lawn or grass to maintain in Florida?

The answer is: One that is maintained by a professional.

Having a beautiful, healthy lawn is a challenge in Florida any time of the year. It is advisable to have a landscape expert install and maintain your lawn and irrigation system for the best possible outcome, month after month and year after year. Landscaping pros offer truly full service when it comes to creating and caring for a beautiful Florida landscape. 

🦚Article by Connie Helena, author of The Green Orchid 🦚