The Box: Day 11

The Box is growing right along! We had a long hard downpour on Saturday but it didnt seem to hurt the little sprouts outside. 

Day 11 proves the corn, beans, and cucumber are going to be the most vigorous growers. As they have not slowed a bit since germination. I was disappointed that a good number of bush beans never germinated. Not sure if the birds got to them but I don't think so. Anyway I sowed a half dozen new bean seeds this weekend. I don't remember the herbs taking so long to grow up.

Before and After: Container Gardening

I finally planted something in the porch container. I think it looks very pretty! I used cordyline, coleus, sweet potato, and living stone daisy.

The Box Day 7

This morning before work I noticed that the watermelon had germinated. So did the cucumbers under the trellis. Many of the herbs still have not germinated and I'm worried I made a rookie mistake and planted them too deep. I was a bit distracted when i planted them. I'm going to go look at the seed packets to see when they were supposed to germinate.

UPDATE: the smaller plants (herbs) all take 10-14 to germinate. The larger vegetable-bearing plants only take 4-6 days (all according to the seed packets). So, I think it will all be okay. :)

Gutter and Rain Chain

Next week, we're going to have rain gutters installed. I'm super excited because the gutters will keep a deluge of summer rain off the newly planted vegetation. It will also prevent deep trenches from forming where the rain pounds the ground. I picked up a cute copper rain chain from Tuesday Morning and we've already asked the gutter guy to install it instead of the 6th downspout. Not sure where it will be placed yet...I'm gong to have to do a walk-around later today.

The Box Day 6

This morning we have three new germinations to report! The pole beans under the trellis all sprouted. So did the corn and sunflowers shown below. 

 The sunflower is shown above and the corn stalks are below. I did one sunflower per square foot and either 2 or 4 corns (I can't remember). 

The Box: Day 3

It's been three days since I sowed the summer veggie garden seeds. I found a few arugula and marigold seedlings today. I have a feeling they germinated first because they are only buried a quarter inch beneath the soil. Woohoo!

Landscape Redesign Day 24 "The Box"

I sowed the seeds today! I feel like, in a way, this poject has just been reset to "Day 1" since the countdown to harvest just began. I'm pretty late getting some of these seeds into the ground, but then again, THE BOX was only filled with soil a few days ago.

I'm using a method called "square foot gardening" and I'm super excited to see how it works here on the south yard during the summer (here in Florida's zone 9b/10).

The Box is 4 x 25 ft., made from untreated cedar, and has a mix of manure and organic soil. We have a drip irrigation system with a rain sensor. I used GrowVeg.com's garden design software to lay out the veggies,
and I bought four cedar trellises for the cucumbers and pole beans.

I used a stapler, string, and a yard stick to draw and create my grid. I will likely have to redo this each season, but that's fine with me. I'm so glad the software had a "square foot" mode. I simply added a 25 x 4 box to the software, then I dragged each plant to the box. The software automatically adds a number to each plant so that I knew how many seeds to sow in each square foot.

Some smaller plants can have up to 16 seeds per square (radish, green onion). Some medium size plants will require their own square (cilantro, pepper, broccoli). Some large plants (watermelon) require multiple squares.

At the west end of The Box, I installed 4 cedar trellises so that the cucumber and pole beans can grow vertically instead of horizontally. The trellis is a big space saver. It will also allow more airflow and will keep the plant off the ground and away from bugs/soil disease.


The software has a "Plant List" module which is pretty cool. It prints a list of all the seeds I had to purchase. This way, I can double-click on any plant and see which brand/cultivar I used. I can also add notes...like "bolted too fast" or "needs more room next time" or "fruit was too small".


The neighbors are adding a hedge along the south side of the Box.

I'm super happy about today's progress and this important milestone in our project. I'm also happy that I was able to rise above the negativity of our lovely neighbors. After all, without them The Box wouldn't even have a name. It would just be called a "raised veggie garden" and how boring is that?!

Plant list is below:
Arugula, basil, bush beans, Pole beans, broccoli, cilantro, corn, cucumber, dill, lavender, lemon balm, mint, green onion, parsley, peppers, radish, rosemary, sage, sunflower, thyme, watermelon.

Whisper Creek Farm at JW Marriott in Orlando

Last week, I attended a convention in Orlando at the JW Marriott. For the duration of the convention, my colleagues and I had more than a few opportunities to stare out the balcony of our beautiful suite and we kept admiring the veggie garden. Before I left the property, I took a quick tour of the garden. Since I'm in the midst of building my own organic raised bed, I wanted to seek out inspiration and a few tips. This would be a DREAM GARDEN for me. If I had the property, I would build this in a heartbeat.

From what I understand, the restaurant serves all their meals from this garden.

drip irrigation conserves water

a tomato tower


two rain chains collect water from the roof


Well done "My Yard Farm"!

Landscape Project- Day 20

The yard is looking so good! The sod has been in for a while and is beginning to mend together. I think this poor little key lime tree needs to be straightened out though :) Also shown below are pineapple, aloe, green island ficus, and two queen palms.


I'm so excited about the rasied bed. The landscaper added a drip irrigation system, and a mix of organic top soil and cow manure. I hope this will be a winning combination for our little garden. There's also a queen palm and silver buttonwood in this photo. In the back (left) you can see my 6 ft tall miracle fruit bush...which handled the move much better than anticipated.

The lula avocado tree is not doing that great. It was leaf stripped about a week after the move. The landscaper gave it a 60% chance of survival. This weekend I plan on closely inspecting it. If there are tiny green signs of life sprouting from the branches, then we're good.


The front yard looks great too. We got liriope, bromiliads, podocarpus, and so much more!

Day 6 - End of Day

At the end of Day 6 (Tuesday) the yard looked nice. Here's the area where the 25 x 5 raised cedar veggie bed will go. The avocado is off in the distance.


The avocado tree looks like it did not handle the transplant very well. This was first planted at the old house back in 2008. We'll check back in a few days to see how it holds up. Read more about the Lula avocado here and here.

Day 5 - Monday

Today, (Monday, Day 5) was a great day! We started off with a 7:15am meeting with the landscape company and then I was off to work. When I came home, the yard had irrigation trenches all over and much progrss had been made!

Allow me to back up. On Day 3 (Saturday) I had a visit from the neighbors about how big our trees might get in 20 years. In 20 years, the branches might hang over into their yard and drop fruit onto their grass. Chuck's compromise this morning was to move the trees over a few feet and make everybody happy. I happily agreed.

We did a quick tour of the vegetation that we're stealing from the 24th Lane house, then we headed back to discuss the timeline. By Day 7 (this coming Wed), Chuck believes he will be done with the irrigation and will then begin moving the transplants. I need to ask what he anticipates happening on Thursday and Friday (Day 8-9).

I've been inspecting their progress pretty thoroughly each evening and I think they have done pretty good so far. I'm actually very pleased with our contractor and designer selection.

The lula avocado actually has little baby fruits on it right now. Unfortunately, I anticipate they will drop once the tree is uprooted and moved over here from the other house.

Day 3 - Friday

So on Saturday (yesterday) we got a visit from our neighbors about our landscape renovation. They want us to modify our plan to suit their needs. I'm honestly pretty furious about their nitpicking but I think I'm willing to compromise a bit to keep neighbor relations. They are concerned that the lychee tree that Joey got me will get too big down the road. They said in the future the leaves and nuts will fall onto their yard. Nuts??? They wonder why a designer would put a tree like that so close to their property line. They also said they don't want to have to duck under branches while in their riding mower.

Through the grapevine I heard they asked the foreman to move two 8 year old palms in our yard. They denied saying that at first, but then conceded it was brought up.

How do they know about our landscape plan you ask? Well of course on Friday, they marched over here to ask the on site foreman and the landscape designer. I was at work so I didn't realize this until yesterday.

So tomorrow before work I will meet with the foreman to discuss these issues and any others.

Day 2 of the Landscape Renovation

So much has been happening! Trees have been transplanted, shrubs have been removed. Nothing new has been brought in yet. The trash pile is getting huge though.

New House, New Landscape

How exciting! A few months ago, we moved into a new house. We are finally getting the landscape redone and I'm beside myself!

It is a foreclosure so the property had been somewhat neglected...the pool was built on top of the irrigation system, the well was improperly abandoned, and a fair portion of the vegetation has diseases.

We're thrilled that a talented local landscape designer provided us with a plan that suites our needs perfectly. We plan on resodding, moving trees/shrubs to appropriate places, installing a raised veggie bed, getting new vegetation and edibles, installing landscape lighting, and two gas tiki torches! Oh, and we're getting an outdoor kitchen!


Here's (above) the new south side. We already installed the fence and Tinsel loves having her own private pee-pee spot.

Here's the north side (above). We're getting a 25ft x 5 ft raised bed for veggies, a few citrus trees and the avocado tree I grew from seed. We are actually having several items moved from the old house: avocado tree, staghorn fern, blueberry bushes, miracle fruit bush, lemongrass bushes, lychee tree, and brugmansia. I'll be so happy to have all my favorite plants moved to the new house. I miss them. I just wish I could bring the royal poinciana (no room).

Here's the backyard rendering (above). The beauty of this plan is that both John's wishes and my wishes have been granted. He is getting two gas powered tiki torches at the bottom of the stairs!

Here's the new pool view. Pretty much all the vegetation in this pic is new. The current vegetation is pretty, but it was planted in the wrong place.

II can't wait to turn a large pot into a water fountain. This is the firepit area so we'll add benches and chairs here too.

This plan has evolved a bit since this drawing was delivered, but it's not too different. I think the whole project will take about 21 days. Glad they are doing all this excavation now, while the rest of the street is ripped up due to drainage work.

Here's John's new outdoor kitchen. Boy is he excited...

John has taken the lead with this part of the renovation. He found a killer deal on the same granite that's used in the rest of the house, so that's already been purchased. He added the glass block which will be illuminated from the back. He already got an ice maker and wine fridge. He already had electric ran and he's chosen the finish (stucco to match the existing porch walls). What will we name this little retreat...?