After the Useless Rocks are Moved

Some of you must be thinking there has to be more to that place than just a Useless Pile of Rocks. There is. Let's go on a brief little tour.

Here we are at the foot of the stairs that lead to the front door. These formal entry stairs were the very last thing built on this house. The front side of the house was a major source of useless rocks as the ground was prepped for planting.















An old Balinese lantern acts as focal point in this entry path. The main plants being used for structure in this garden are Dracaena fragrans 'Warneckei', Zamia floridana, Agave attenuata, Beaucarnea recurvata and Bird of Paradise. There is also Zephyranthes grandiflora planted in front of the Agaves.

The upper level has Asparagus fern as a ground cover on a steep slope that continues down to the base of the Balinese lantern. The lower level has a dwarf variegated Rhoeo as a ground cover. They gotta have some color you know. The hedge line at the top along the chain link fence is Dwarf Poinciana, Caesalpinia pulcherrima. It is not in bloom at the moment but is the orange flowered form. Orange and purple. Shocking! Something to match the Bird of Paradise flowers.















It may not look to lush now, but trust me, when the ground covers fill in and the plants put on a little more heft it will be plenty. I was aiming for a simpler less cluttered look for the main entry. I do clutter around the corner.















Taking a left we follow a path that goes under the stairs to a downstairs service door and the second half of the front yard. On the right behind the Agave is common Red Ginger. It will grow to eight feet tall and reach the bottom of the landing above, screening the next part of the garden from view until you move out from under the stairs.















This is Tropical Clutter. Behind the Travellers Palm fronds you can see the height of the more established older portion of the landscape. The shorter foreground plant in this bed is Justicia brandegeana 'Red Pinecone'.

The newly seeded Centipede lawn is just beginning to turn green with Annual Rye grass. This gives instant lawn while the slower Centipede gets established. The Rye also acts as cheap distracting larger bird food for the voracious doves to prevent them from eating all the smaller expensive Centipede seed.
















All the useless rocks ended up down there. This is taken from the first floor back deck of the main house that is the same level as the front entry. This deck is above the second story roofline of the cottage below on the left.

All those rocks from way up top went way down there.