Before the Freeze:

Record cold temperatures are heading to Central Florida and your plants are at risk for damage and possibly death, but you can help them battle the freeze. Cover your plants with fabric like material and by doing it properly you can help them to survive.

For example, the proper way to cover a Robellini palm is to pony tail the fronds and to tie them in the middle with twine. It is important with palms that if you cannot cover the whole plant, make sure you at least cover the center area where the new growth comes from.

At this stage, you can now wrap them with your fabric material. The thicker you can make it, the better provided that it is not so thick that it breaks the fronds. Small plants can be covered with cardboard boxes with a brick or weight placed on top of the box so the wind doesn't blow it into the neighbor's yard.

Most vegetables should be covered. ALL TROPICAL plants must be covered in this freeze or they may be in danger of dying this freeze. Tropical plants in pots that are around the pool patio area should be brought into the house.

I consider this freeze to be so cold that I recommend you don't put them in the garage because it will be cold in there as well. Bring them into the house with the heat.

All tropical fruit trees should be covered and citruses under than 6 feet in height should be covered as well.

Also, if you have a favorite plant a trashcan act as a temporary green house, just make sure it is secure with the ground to take advantage of ground heat. Also, don't leave the can on the plant during the day because that trashcan can become an oven and will fry your plant.

After the Freeze:

After the freeze when it warms up to the 60's you can remove the blankets, fold them neatly and place them in card board boxes so that they are ready for the next freeze.

Now as you survey the damage, you may see some brown from the freeze, but even if they are brown, do not cut them back. This brown layer of leaves can actually protect the stems in future freezes. It is okay to leave the injured growth on until we clear the cold season.

I like the idea in every garden, of adding a few or even several plants that are not that common. By doing this, you simply make a garden more interesting.

The bright orange coned flower of an unusual Cycad (top left,) the orange flower of a Fire Cracker(bottom right,) or red leaf of the Castor Bean (bottom left,) are all contrasting colors and leaf shapes that are dramatic additions to any garden.

When you see something unusual in the nursery that is attractive, think about finding a spot for it but remember to get all the details, so you know how big it is going to grow. Also, do your research to know its watering and fertilizing requirements.

So many people are attracted to tropical plants, I happen to be one of those people. They are bold, showy and very dramatic in every landscape. There is only one teeny tiny problem... they can potentially die in the winter.

Before you purchase any topical plants, make sure you understand that in a moderate to cold winter, they will need to be covered every night when it goes into the 30's. Different species have different temperatures in which they are damaged. Sometimes just the tips of the plant can be damaged and other times, the entire plant can be killed.

This past winter, many Robellini palms that were not covered were killed from the severe cold temperatures.

So before you spend $200 on a plant make sure you understand the commitment of covering them on every single cold night.

Now if I haven't discouraged you from going the tropical plant route, or even if I have, here are some great landscapes I saw in South Beach which utilize tropicals.

The placement of any tree is a very important step for yours and the trees future. So many times as a landscape designer I am out and about and I will see beautiful trees that are planted years ago and I often say to myself, "Boy, I wish they would have planted this oak tree 10 feet to the left."

We have to really understand that when we plant a tree, it can easily be there for 60 to 100 years or more. Once we plant with that thought in mind, we can spend more time visualizing the tree as a large specimen and really come up with the perfect spot.

The other day I was driving through a neighborhood and I saw a home where it seems they were trying to create a wild native looking tree cluster. What they did, is take six nine foot oak trees, all the same size, and staggered them in this Island. Now these trees cost over two hundred dollars each plus labor and all of that money was used to create a grouping that doesn't work and junks up the yard.

The reason is all the trees are the same size so it is not artistic visually, they're going to grow all together very, very tight, the grass won't grow under them because it will be too dense and the foliage density could create fungal issues. In a few years the homeowner will have to remove five of the six trees and again have to spend money to improve their house.

Of all of the various plants in my yard, it is probably the fruit trees that bring me the most joy. You can say that I am in my fruit tree phase of gardening.

I have a huge variety of citrus as well as an array of exotic varieties. Now the exotic varieties are more challenging, because they have the potential to die in the winter. These varieties will need some sort of frost protection each and every winter. There are commercial fabrics, sometimes referred to as frost blankets which serve this purpose. One layer of frost blanket can raise the temperature five to seven degrees. On super cold nights, I have used as many as four layers with great results.

I have equipped each of my trees with an individual water emitter at the base. When it is not raining, they are watered twice a week and this way, there is a continual active growth.

I fertilize with fruit tree fertilizer, Epsom salt, Black Kow cow manure, and Key Plex. Occasionally, if they ever get any low sucker branches, I trim them off even with the trunk, which encourages a nice full head.

There is an ornamental grass that I am beginning to use a lot in my landscapes, it is called Lemon grass.

From a distance, lemon grass looks similar to Pampas grass except the leaves are greener and a little but wider. The good news with the Lemon grass is that the leaves do not cut you like a Pampas grass.

The other good news is that you can make Lemon grass tea. If you are interested, you can whip up some cool Asian dishes and you'll have Lemon grass in the back yard to add to the mix.

I use it in the landscape as a background or corner plant. In front of them I will often plant a Red Pentas to attract butterflies and in front of the Red Pentas, I will often plant the low ground cover called blue daze or a yellow flowering drought tolerant plant called Yellow Bulbine. With these choices you are guaranteed to have butterflies!

Right now is when you should be planting your vegetable garden. Most of the nurseries should have a variety of plants and they are usually available in four inch pots. One of the methods that I like to use is:

Grow at least three different varieties of the same plant if you have enough room. For example, with tomatoes you can grow a Better Boy, Celebrity, and the smaller and sweeter Cherry Tomato.

You see, sometimes some varieties, some years, decide not to perform well. This way, you have three varieties and a higher chance of having bushels of tomatoes. You can use the same concept with peppers.

Also, there is nothing wrong with adding your favorite herbs along the parameter of your vegetable garden. If you are not going to have a vegetable garden, a large pot with a variety of herbs looks terrific in a sunny spot on the patio.

Xeriscaping: The State vs. Home Owners Associations

If you are not aware, there is a new Florida state law that allows you to landscape your yard with Xeriscape plants and allows you to replace your St. Augustine grass with a drought tolerant grass or plant ground cover plant. The great thing is, you as the owner of your own property now have the law on your side and this new law overrides your home owner association rules for landscaping.

For more on that story look here.

Good Xeriscape plants that I love are Perennial Peanut ground cover, orange and yellow Bulbine, Ilex, India Hawthorne, Crown of Thorns, Agave, Fejoa, Anise, and all Junipers. All of these plants can be used in mass groupings and this way you can still have a creative, well designed landscape which tolerates the heat and is unusually low maintenance.

As a side not, all of the plants mentioned above are available from Sims landscaping, (352) 383-3303.

As it gets hotter and hotter and our daily temperatures tend to staying the 90's the lawns and the plants become stressed out. One of the things that many homeowners never do, but should do on a regular basis, is check and double check their sprinkler systems.

In most sprinkler heads, there is a little filter that is there to filter out grains of sand, debris, and even clumps of algae that can grow in the pipes. You need to learn how to open these sprinkler heads, find the filter and wash it out. This will give you maximum use and full pressure of your water supply.

In shrub beds, as the shrubs become more mature, they tend to block a lot of the water flow. To fix the problem, you can raise the existing head or exchange for the fancier elongated style within the shrub beds.

Don't Buy Cut Roses For Mom, Plant Some For Her!

My Mother in law has a strong passion for roses. So we planted the pink and red "knockouts" in front of her window and she tells me every week how much she is enjoying them. Her TV room looks out upon these roses, so she enjoys them not only when she is outside but also when she is inside.

It is a corner property and years ago on the corner, I added a stunning multi headed topiary. In front of the topiary, I created a small rock stream with a type of rock called jack rock, that is about twice the size of a large avocado. Yesterday for Mothers Day, my son and I decided that we need to spruce this spot up a little more and plant even more roses.

I decided on a hardy every blooming short compact small flowered variety called "drift rose." I did clusters of peach on the left of the rock and clusters of red on the right of the rock. In other areas we added some perennials to bloom later in the summer.

I hope that you'll consider some drift roses in your yard. They are some of the hardiest varieties and the bloom up a storm. I have added pink and white ones in front of some hollies in my yard, and I added some peach ones to my center driveway area.

One of my favorite traits of this rose is that it tends to stay compact and it has a very beautiful foliage. They come in pink, white, peach, pink and red. For people in Central Florida, you can get these at Simms Landscape and the Garden Rebel Nursery at (352)383-3303.

In Florida, one of the most common issues with landscaping is overplanting. The picture to the left is a good example of what I see. This is solely because we get them when they are small and we plant them too close together.

When you live in an area that is warm and plants grow quickly, the most important thing in the landscape, is to really carefully, select varieties that are going to be lower maintenance in the long run.

Sometimes people will say, "well Garden Rebel the reason I planted them like that is because I like a very lush look." Well, I like a lush look too, but there is a difference between an organized lush look, and a jungle mess.

One of the ways to achieve your goal is to remember as a general rule, tall ones in the back, medium ones in the center and lower one in the front. This tiered look or stadium style arrangement, gives each and every plant the ability to reach its full potential.

In my yard, I especially prefer a resort style look, but I am very careful to purposely and artistically place each and every plant. The rhythm and flow is really pretty. I'm very happy with this style. One of the things that I do before I plant any new plants, in any specific spot, is I try to visualize the plant at its full grown maturity. This simple technique is key for long term success.

The biggest question I get right now is in regard to the lawn. If your lawn looks bad, it is suppose to look bad this time of year. We are just coming off one of the coldest winters in three decades. So it may take even longer before it even begins to look respectable.

If you have weeds in the lawn I would apply a weed and feed for your specific variety of glass. This should be done as soon as possible. If you don't have any weeds, now is the time to apply a high quality fertilizer such as Bayer Advanced, make sure you water it in well. As a supplement to your granular feeding you can alternate these two Garden Rebel spring tonics.

Spring Lawn Tonic #1:

To a 20 gallon hose end sprayer;fill ½ with beer (any cheep canned beer will do) and the other ½ with lemon ammonia. Leave room for three table spoons of Murphy's oil soap.

Shake it real well and you will be able to cover 1500 sq ft. with that mixture. Two weeks later you will apply this tonic.

Spring Lawn Tonic #2:

To a 20 gallon hose end sprayer; add one golf ball (to agitate the mixture) then add 1 cup of mild dish detergent, 1 cup of non-sweet mouthwash, 1 cup of lemon ammonia, ½ cup of beer and quarter cup of Epsom salt.

Shake the mixture and apply to lawn, this also covers 1500 sq. ft.

You can continue this every two weeks throughout the entire Spring.

Chinch Bugs are one of the most serious pests to St. Augustine lawns. They are known for proliferating into mega numbers. To prevent their population from expanding, it is best to control them early, in the spring. I hope you have better luck with this solution, as it can get very expensive to keep replacing a lawn.

Garden Rebel Chinch Bug Tonic
20 gallon hose-end sprayer:

1. 1 cup Murphy's Oil Soap
2. 1 cup of neem (Neem is a natural insecticide. You may need to order off the internet.)
3. 1 cup of vegetable oil
4. 1 cup of rubbing alcohol

Add to hose end sprayer and shake ingredients vigorously. Should cover around 1500 Sq. feet. Make sure you apply the tonic before 8am.

Spring is just around the corner. Right now, you should be checking the quality of your plants. The following outline is what you should be examining.

1. Shape
2. Fullness
3. Height
4. Overall Health

It is also time to check your equipment and do some trimming. Below are some other things to consider.

* If you do your own mowing, now is the time to sharpen your mower blades.
* Change the oil on your mower and clean the bottom and top of the deck.
* Sharpen tools and or by new ones so you will be ready for the trimming season.
* If you have a good wheelbarrow, I find that when trimming, you can just drop the clippings into a wheel barrow, and this is much more efficient.
* Thin Trees
* Time to trim the Crepe Myrtles back. But remember, don't commit Crepe Murder! Cut back the dead seads and little more, that's it.
* Organize your priorities for getting the yard in shape. I would consider starting in the front first, then the back, then the sides.

These are the things you consider as we enter springtime in Central Florida!

Right now is the time to plant your vegetable seedlings, but the trick is to know where to plant them and how to prepare the soil for their future and for your future salads. So, do not plant the seeds outside yet because when they germinate one cold morning could wipe them out even if you cover them.

The trick with vegetable seeds is to start them first in a plastic nursery tray. Fill the tray with a good, well drained, packaged soil. Keep it moist and not soggy wet. When distributing the seeds, sprinkle them as evenly as you can over the entire top of the tray. Minimally, cover them with your soil mix by holding your hands together with soil and slowly allowing it to barley cover the seed. Distribute any thicker clumps of soil to even it out and water very lightly holding your hand over the water, so as to not create erosion.

Place the tray in the sun where it receives early morning sunlight but also afternoon shade. If temperatures even dip into the low 40s, bring the trays into the house for the night. Most seeds will germinate in 7-14 days, some even less than that. Once the seeds are up a few inches, you can separate them with a Popsicle stick and either place them into little pots or directly into your garden, assuming all danger of frost is over.

This has been one of the hardest winters in decades. I expect there will be a lot of landscapes that are devastated from the chill. It is important that you do not jump the gun and trim too soon. If you trim now and then get new growth, then the new growth becomes susceptible to future freezes.

One of the questions I get most often is this,

"If a plant is already brown should I still cover it in future freezes?"

The answer is, yes. The reason is, at this stage, it is all about protecting the stems and the trunk of the plant.

If there is something good to come from the freeze, that would be the ability to identify microclimates in your yard. Look around your yard now and see if there are particular planting beds, areas under trees, or spots where the grass is greener. If this exists, these could be warmer microclimates and make note for the future because these will be great spots for planting tropicals.

The lawn should be very brown right now, and a lot of the dead grass clippings could build up and help create a thick layer of thatch. To help reduce it and have it decompose quickly, this tonic will be of great value.

Garden Rebel Thatch Reducer Tonic:
To a 20 gallon hose-end sprayer add

1.1 cup of Murphy's oil soap
2.1 cup ammonia
3.1 cup regular cola
4.1cup beer

Shake sprayer, turn on the hose and this will cover 1,500 square feet.

So many yards have deteriorated over the last several months and the worse it looks the less work it seems that people will do simply because of discouragement. Look at it this way, it is a brand new year and we can literally start with a brand new canvas.

One of the reasons so many people are overwhelmed is because they try to cope with too large of an area at one time. If you break the landscape down to sections or phases and just concentrate on one phase at a time, the sun will begin to shine again...so to speak.
For example, let us say that in the front yard you have a large foundation bed, in addition, there are two very large free form islands in the lawn. It would be best to just deal with the foundation bed first, because even on a small to medium sized home, this could mean dozens of new plants and each variety needs to be thought out carefully, so that the design will have longevity.

Once phase one is planted, you can now switch gears and concentrate all of your efforts on phase two, which are the island. Stand back at the street edge and look at these islands and try to make the following decisions. Do I want a tree in the island? Is a fruit shade or flowering tree best? Do I want flowering shrubs and if you, how big should I allow them to become. For example if they are two big they may hide the other plants behind them.

You most likely will need some ground cover so you need to decide what type and style you want. Clumping or spreading, greenery or flowery? The rule is spend a little more time thinking things out in the beginning and it will save you time energy and money in the end.