Non-native tree (Paulownia) that is invasive in the southeast. Those are capsules that contain hundreds of small seeds.

Caroline, I designed & started planting my garden beds to sustain pollinators--bees, butterflies & hummingbirds--in 2006. The beds are mature now as are the perennial plants that sustain them. I'm in southern New England so not even close to your Florida climate but I'll help to the extent I'm able. First off, visit your local library and check out a book titled 'The Well-Tended Perennial Garden' by Tracey Di Sabato-Aust. There's a wealth of terrific information in it as well as lists of plants and the USDA Zones where they thrive. Next, check out your local garden nurseries and ask questions. It's in their best interests to answer since they hope you'll buy plants from them. When I moved to this address I did a shade study--where did I have sun vs. shade and at what time of day. I started on June 21 (the summer solstice & longest day of the year) because where I am in southern New England, that determines what plants do well and where. Where you are your soil isn't slightly acidic sandy loam like mine. It's also part of gardening to understand your soil and work with it to allow plants to grow healthy and happy where you plant them. I've never lost a plant due to crappy soil but I worried about a few before they adjusted to my soil. I use NO chemicals. You'll decide for yourself if you do or don't. I can't buy a ripe cucumber from my local farm stand wondering if they've sprayed it with Round-Up. I use organic seaweed extract and organic fertilizer (worm poop) when it's needed but rarely do plants need anything if they're planted in healthy soil. Sorry to ramble so much but I hoped to keep you from wondering as I did when I first tackled gardening where I am. Best of luck to you.

Yes, I understand that the immediate intention for the play area is not to install a play set. But it's coming eventually and do you want the planting scheme to do dual duty by working now and also be ready for the future without any major alterations? Or do you want to subject yourself to the possibility of making a lot of changes when a play set is installed? A year is NOT a long time. As the play area develops, it is divided from the planting area with a bed line. The bed line is something to be figured out now, on the plan (as information about the play set/area becomes known.) The bed line divides places where people could possibly walk ("floors": lawn, low groundcover, mulch-only) from places where they couldn't ("walls" & "furniture": shrubs, perennials and tall groundcovers.) Trees ("ceilings") could be located in either areas Another possibility with the pitts is to cut them down and do a total rejuvenation -- where you control/shape their re-growth (which will happen very quickly since they already have developed root systems) -- and trim them so as NOT to reach way out into the yard. Let them grow as a much narrower hedge which is later trimmed into tree forms and reaches and screens above the fence. Based on some of the prior discussion, I'm going to speculate that one potential problem that could come up is not devoting enough depth to the planting beds (that are likely to surround most of the yard.) In general terms, this bed(s) ought to be allowed 6' depth as an average minimum. There are usually instances where it can easily be deeper, and possibly some instances where it can be shrunk to 4' when sacrifices must be made. Plants require space and trying to maintain a bed that is too skinny/shallow is not only difficult & more demanding of maintenance, but it doesn't look very good either. That's something to be mindful of.

WARNING That looks different: https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrXm_7cKxdbQkYAXXYPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByNWU4cGh1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=hippomane+mancinella&fr=yhs-avast-securebrowser&hspart=avast&hsimp=yhs-securebrowser Ends of fruits of tree asked about ARE like those of Vaccinium. Apparently ruling out one like obvious regional candidate farkle-berry was a mistake: https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrgEZh.LBdbEygAB34PxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByNWU4cGh1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=farkleberry&fr=yhs-avast-securebrowser&hspart=avast&hsimp=yhs-securebrowser