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Florida Gardening

Biggest mistake Pt 2

14 years ago

What's your biggest non-plant mistake?

For example, I just discovered I let my soaker hose get completely squished between 2 banana trees. It's so smushed the water won't go thru. I didn't have to use the hose during the rainy season so "oops!" No I can't get it out with out cutting something; the hose, the tree, my wrists....

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Comments (6)

gardencpa
14 years ago
This is going to sound stupid but I wish I would have would have flipped my house plan (when I still could) so the garage was on the north side of the house. I didn't want to pay the few hundred dollars to flip the plan but when I look at the garden layout, it would have made more sense to have all the water heater, etc. on the north side and not waste the south end where things grow so much better!
garyfla_gw
14 years ago
Hi
Almost everything I've done !!lol. Most regretable has been repair to the shadehouse .Wish I'd replaced the entire side attached to the florida room with glass. Then the entire interior could have been viewed inside the house. Another was to have elevated the ceiling and put in a gable . Two more feet would have made a huge difference with hanging baskets and of course a sloped gable rather than flat neans a heck of a lot less leaves would collect on it.. Oh well maybe we'll get another hurricane and I'll get another shot?? lol
There are several others involving the irrigation system
(bad planning) gary
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imagardener2
14 years ago
gardencpa said:
This is going to sound stupid but I wish I would have would have flipped my house plan (when I still could) so the garage was on the north side of the house. I didn't want to pay the few hundred dollars to flip the plan but when I look at the garden layout, it would have made more sense to have all the water heater, etc. on the north side and not waste the south end where things grow so much better!

When we are in the market for a new home (we have moved too many times) the #1 amenity we specify is that the living area, usually the rear of the home, faces south so we have sunlight visible all day long. VERY important to us. Since Florida homes usually have a lanai the sun doesn't come into the living space and heat it up in the summer.

This gives me a sunny backyard to plant in also and usually a northfacing front yard. Funny thing about Florida is that a northfacing yard gets plenty of sun. Like all day long. So no shade plants for me.

Takes us a loooong time to find a house to buy but we did.

My biggest non-plant mistake: not testing our irrigation water. Caused half of the antique roses purchased from hither and yon to perish. I kept thinking it was the horrible hot summer. Not. Now they aren't getting irrigated with salty iron-saturated water the ones that survived are putting out new growth.

I encourage gardeners to test their water. It's free through your local extension office.

Denise
sharbear50
14 years ago
My biggest mistake was not having a large tree brought in for shade when we built 3 1/2 years ago. Our back yard has a western exposure and is really hot in the summer. I do like the sunsets though. We did luckily have the well water tested and drilled deep enough so we don't have the rust/salt problem.
Sharon
natives_and_veggies
14 years ago
putting our pool in our neighbors yard. Well, not quite, but almost. It's far too close to the fence. An extra couple of feet would have really been much nicer.
junglegal
14 years ago
Putting timber bamboo (oldhamii)in my front yard 5 yrs ago. Now that it's maturing, the leaf litter has all my neighbors hating me. It will cost me close to a grand to have it removed to keep the peace.

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