In the beginnning..........

I moved into my house in July of 1999, after living in condominiums all of my adult life and with very, very little gardening experience. The yard was a blank slate. My lot had one tree that was of any size, a Live Oak I'm guessing to be about 12 years old at the time, and it was in the back.

I began pouring over every bit of information I could get my hands on. I referenced books, magazines, TV shows, websites, family and friends. There was one consistent piece of advice for getting started: Begin with a plan. If you have a plan, you will save time and money.

Plan? Yeah, right. I can be detailed oriented at times but that side of my brain did not work when thinking about my landscape. There were too many unknown variables and too much that was out of my control. I could not map out a plan when I didn't know what would grow, how fast it would grow, what plants were available at what price, what kind of winter we would have in a few months....and on and on and on. I had a long list of excuses.

I did have one initial priority and that was to plant some trees. First of all, I love trees; the established vegetation was what attracted me to my neighborhood in the first place. Secondly, while I love my little house, it is ugly. I envisioned big, green trees with gnarly trunks that would hide the front of my house. I reasoned that trees, especially the ones in my budget, would take years to grow to any significant size so the sooner I got them in the ground, the sooner I could pull into my driveway without thinking about my lack of street appeal.

I research and researched trees. I compared fast growers to slow growers, and also took into consideration their wind tolerance since I do live in Florida and we do get tropical storms. I then went tree shopping. Based on research and availability, I settled on a Live Oak (the state tree of my native state of Georgia and very hearty in this area), two red maples (somewhat fast growers) and a Palatka Holly (also a reasonably fast grower and happy in my zone). Since I didn't have access to a pickup truck, I loaded them into my BMW and drove across town with several feet of tree tops sticking out of my car window.

I got home, got a glass of wine so I could think, and planned the placement of the trees to maximize growing space and coverage of my ugly house. You've likely heard the saying, "Don't plant a $100 tree in a $10 hole". Well I erred on the side of caution; I planted $20 trees in million dollar holes. I remember my new neighbor commenting on my impressive holes, as I am sure she was quietly laughing to herself.

As time went on, I learned that new trees need to be staked or else they grow sideways. I experimented with a number of different devices designed for this purpose. Most garden stores carry an assortment and you can make your own. I think they all required constant readjustments.

Nine years later, they are all doing quite nicely. In hind sight, I would allow for a little more room for my Live Oak and Holly since I have to frequently prune the limbs away from my house. I have since learned that Maple trees, or the roots of maple trees, are shallow and can cause problems if they are too near your driveway. This has not been a problem yet, but something that could surface in the future. All in all, it wasn't too bad of a job for a rookie.