Archive for the ‘swimming pool landscaping’ Category

A Fun Idea for Your Tropical Backyard Landscape – Castor Beans

Monday, April 18th, 2011

I discovered this one early on in my Backyard Resort journey.  Castor Bean looks great in a tropical backyard setting or tropical pool landscapeCastor Bean is absolutely beautiful, very easy to grow, and guaranteed to bring an exotic, almost jungle feel to just about any area of your tropical backyard or pool landscape.  It has huge, palmate leaves that can be over 2 feet across, with great color and shape.

This plant is just fun. You grow it from seed at the begining of the season.  I already hear the grumbles from you impatient types but, fear not, it grows incredibly fast,  faster than you can imagine if you baby it just a little. Believe it or not,  mine consistently grow well over 12 feet tall every year.  Feel better? 

Castors are very versatile.  You can grow it as a specimen plant, or in groups to create a spectacular tropical screen. I’ve found that castor beans  combine very well with bananas, cannas, gingers, and other tropical looking plants.

 

Palm, Castor bean, Yucca in tropical backyard landscape

Palm, Castor bean, Yucca in tropical backyard landscape

I’ve used at least 3 different varieties: green, grey, and red.   The greens get the biggest by far.  They grey’s have a really cool stalk color.  But for max effect, I suggest you  look to the bronze/red varieties such as Carmencita as they provide an even more dramatic effect with their deep bronze foliage.

Castor Beans are annuals in all but the warmest zones, but are almost guaranteed to reseed themselves, maybe more than you want!  Plant the seeds in the spring, in well-drained soil and in full sun.  To get the most out of castor beans in the shortest amount of time, baby them a little by enriching the soil with compost at planting time and providing plenty of water early in the growing cycle. This is a tough plant and, once established, requires very little maintenance.  The only real downside once established is that high winds can sometimes push them over a bit.  When that happens, I just straighten and brace them, and they go right back to being happy.  Very tough cookies.  Get the Backyard Resorts Ebook

Seeds or readily available on ebay or through online retailers.  Trust me, you’ll only need to buy seeds once as you can collect seeds from your own plants once you have some established, and there will be far more than you’ll ever need!

Fair warning, all parts, and especially the seeds, of this plant are poisonous if ingested. I’d leave Castor Beans out of your Backyard Resort mix if you have young children.

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Posted in Dallas Tropical Landscaping, Pool landscaping, swimming pool landscaping, Tropical and tropicalesque plants, Tropical Landscaping | 6 Comments »

Is My Palm Tree Dead?

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Is My Palm Tree Dead ?

In light of the last two terrible winters we’ve had here in the Dallas area, I did a recent article that questioned whether I should rethink which palm trees to use in areas like Dallas, where harsh winter temperatures over an extended period, while not frequent, can indeed happen.  The question that’s on a lot of people’s mind in this area, and I imagine many others, is “Is my palm tree dead?”.

You can drive through the neighborhoods here and see lots of palms, especially California Fan Palms and Mexican Fan Palms, that indeed look very bad.   The typically very resilient Sabal palms don’t look so great either.  Hell, even my big Windmill palms took a little damage this year, although they took it all in stride and are very much alive and well.   I won’t even talk about the terribly ill-adapted ones that people plant around here like Phoenix Palms that have no chance, even a normal winter.

But, are they dead or do they have a chance to make a terrific comeback?  Unfortunately, the best answer I can give is a uselessly non-committal maybe. Maybe they took a beating but will come back as the weather warms.   BUT, maybe they won’t.  What do I think?  I think a great many, especially the Mexican and California fan palms, will have succumbed to this last winters bitter cold temperatures and died, even big established ones like mine.  They are simply not built to handle such cold temps for such long periods.  I think most of the Sabal Palms will come back, and nearly all Windmill palms (if established) came through just fine.  But I don’t know, and all we can do is wait and watch.

Wait and watch … not a pleasant prospect I know.  There is one sure fire way to know if a palm is dead.  If it’s small enough, just give a sharp tug on the fronds that emerge from the cone.   If they pull free and come out, then your palm tree is dead, without a doubt and you can start the painful removal process.  If they hold firm, you still have a chance and will just have to be patient and see what happens.  No guarantees it’s alive, but it might be.   If, like me, you have fan palms that are too big for this little trick, then all you can do is keep looking for signs of green emerging from the cone.  I keep a small pair of field binoculars outside to help with the vigil.

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Be patient and see what happens as we warm up, and know that it could take a while for them to come back, even if they are alive.  I almost took out a big Mexican Fan Palm (in the ground for 15 years)  in July last year that I thought was dead, and just happened to notice the day before removal was schedule that new shoots were emerging.  A very happy discovery for me but, unfortunately, I don’t believe it made it through this past winter.  Last winter was likely just too much for an already stressed palm.  We shall see …….

Cheers

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Posted in Dallas Tropical Landscaping, Pool landscaping, swimming pool landscaping, Winter Hardy palms, Winter landscape maintenance and care | 43 Comments »

Rethinking Best Palm Trees for Handling Winter Weather

Friday, March 11th, 2011

Mexican Fan Palm in DallasLast year, at the beginning of my Backyard Resort season, I posted an article that talked about how bad the winter had been here in Dallas and the damage I had seen to my palm trees and other plants, mainly due to lots of snow staying on the ground for a long time.  Later I posted a followup article that talked about some lessons learned.  In this article, I freely admitted that I lost palms, bananas, and other things that I had kept for years and years  because I didn’t do the simple things that I preach to everyone else (i.e. mulch heavily going in to winter). I slacked off because the preceding four or five very mild winters had lulled me in to a false sense of security.  Shame on me for getting lazy!

I’m a laidback guy and my attitude at the time can be summed up as “Hey, this is a 30 year event here in this part of the country (Dallas), unlikely to happen again, and I’ll not make the mistake of being unprepared again.  Just part of it, not worth losing sleep over …”. Going in to this winter, I did all the right things to get ready.  All is good in the world, right?    Well, guess what?  This winter was again terrible, worse than last!  Only this time, it wasn’t snow …  it was unbelievably cold temperatures for very extended periods!  Like nothing I have ever seen here in North Dallas.

Now, I don’t know what got badly damaged or what I lost for sure yet. The good news is that doing the basic preparation helped.  I can already tell that my bananas are fine.  It looks like my big sago palm is fine too, although I can really do little to protect it. My windmill palms are fine although, for the first time ever, I can see some superficial cold damage.

Questioning Mexican and California Fan Palms and Cold Weather …

The big question marks are the California Fan Palms and a big Mexican Fan Palm (30+ ft).   I lost one big California fan last winter.  I believed that I had also lost the big Mexican fan palm as it was showing no sign of growth as late as June, but it showed new shoots around August!  Deep sigh of relief.   I had lost a whole season, but it wasn’t a goner.  Now, I’m not so sure  …..  Can it have survived two horribly damaging winters, back to back?

So, now I find myself rethinking California and Mexican fan palms.  I absolutely love the way they look in my backyard resort and had them for many years with no big problems.   But, looking at the last two winters, I have to ask are they worth the risk and hassle?  Or, should we stick with things like Sabal Palms and windmill palms, which are more winter hardy, for our tropical foundation?

On one hand, our Backyard Resort is supposed to be a stress-free zone, right?   Losing big tropical foundation plants like this is painful, stressful, and expensive, especially if they’ve been there a while and are key parts of your backyard landscape.  On the other hand, unusually cold winters occasionally are a fact of life and really should be a known and accepted risk for us Backyard Resort’ers.   What to do ….

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I’ll admit, I’m torn.  Am I having a knee-jerk reaction, or are California and Mexican palms in this area like the rich old man’s young trophy wife …. Just when he thinks he’s got everything perfect, she breaks his heart and costs him a bundle of cash … ?

In any event, I will be updating the Backyard Resorts ebook to at least more forcefully warn about the risks with both California and Mexican fan palms in Dallas and other areas that absolutely can get those tough winter years, and highlight the other options.

Ah well, it is getting very close to Backyard Resort season 2011.  Enough deep thought for now …

Time to enjoy my tropical backyard resortCheers …

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Posted in Dallas Tropical Landscaping, General Backyard Resorts Stuff, Pool landscaping, swimming pool landscaping, Tropical Landscaping, Winter Hardy palms | 3 Comments »

Lets Talk Swimming Pool Landscaping

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

tropicalpool1Landscaping around your pool … “cement pond” to tropical oasis

So, you have a swimming pool in your backyard. You’ve have had it for years, or maybe its brand spanking new.  When you first decided to put in that pool, you had visions of laidback fun days with your family or friends, some good Jimmy Buffet music or maybe some fun Reggae, and, yea, one of those fruity drinks with an umbrella.  Maybe a nice hammock out there to enjoy summer evenings too.  Ahh, the good life.

Did you get all that?  Or, did the new wear off pretty fast, leaving you with just something else to take care of?  Do you hang out with family and friends at your pool, or does it rarely get used?  Are you really getting that enjoyment you envisioned?

RELAX … here a sure way to make that original vision real.  Creative landscaping around a pool can turn that “cement pond” (and yes, I admit it, I’m a fan of granny from the Beverly Hillbillys) into an exotic, tropical oasis, and you can have a lot of fun doing it.  Take a step back and envision your pool surrounded by palm trees, maybe a clump of banana plants with those huge exotic leaves, and brightly colored flowering tropical plants everywhere. And, what the heck, let’s put one of those cool Tiki statues out there too.  Get the picture?  Landscaping around a pool can turn that “cement pond” is now your favorite room in the house, your laidback, relaxing tropical oasis.

Get the Backyard Resorts EbookNow, if you’re new to Backyard Resorts, you may be looking out the window at a temperature below freezing thinking I can’t do that.   Think again …     There’s a real good chance you can.  That’s what backyard resorts and www.tropicalyard.com are all about.   Windmill palms and other varieties are completely hardy at temperatures well below freezing.  Bananas, well anyone can grow and create a tropical pool setting with bananas.  All those tropical flowering plants like hibiscus, mandavilla, and bougainvilla …. yep, you can use those too.  And let’s throw in an Brugmansia, with flowers about a foot high that put out the most eerily pleasant scent, but only at night.  Let’s get a little taste of Hawaii with some Plumeria too.  Get the picture??

Interested?  Think your friends would be impressed? Think you and your family would enjoy your pool more?   Trust me, you’ll get the Wow factor, and you will get the enjoyment.  Tropical landscaping around a pool, to me, is just the way it should be.  There is no other answer.  So, get creative, get educated,  and create that tropical pool oasis …. your Backyard Resort.

umbrelladrink

Cheers …

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Posted in Pool landscaping, swimming pool landscaping, Tropical and tropicalesque plants, Tropical Landscaping | 1 Comment »