Wow,your yard has potential to become a great tropical oasis! Keep us posted!
-Hunter

Anyone have a name of a stone that resembles crushed coral down the the florida keys? I'm thinking of a 1-2 foot wide line of stone on each side of the boardwalk.

So long as I keep my first two windmills alive this winter I want to get an earlier start next year and get bigger palms to line the boardwalk.

Wow! The ideas for that yard are flowing in my head! You really have so much potential! I would definitely add some cannas, elephant ears, and bananas to the area by the lake. Lots of large potted palms and other beautiful tropicals like hibiscus (hardy and tropical), plumerias, philodendrons, yuccas (hardy and tropical), bamboo (some should be hardy) and tons of others would look so nice!
I cant wait to see what you do! Keep us updated!
=Alex

Everything is looking great so far. What are your plans for protecting the palms this winter, and how long do you have until your first frost? When your palms survive this winter, what type of palms are you wanting more trachys?

I've been researching palms and was planning on windmills along the boardwalk, but i've also been looking at mule palms... just don't know if i can find a good price/size I'm comfortable with.

AS for protection, I am planning on boxing them up and putting a flood light or two inside with a thermocube as a trigger.

My other issue is keeping the weeds down under the deck/dock and then all the garbage that grows along the pond.

I've had some red cannas last year and this year that I got from a customer of mine and those keep multiplying, but the japanese beetles ate the heck out of them this year.... gotta fix that, but I love those too. Otherwise I'm in research phase for now. I prefer low maintenance stuff for now (i know.... wintering palms in michigan isn't exactly low maintenance....)

I have to save some money though to do all the rest....

Wheelman-
Looks Awesome! Where are you? I'm in Livonia.

Really looks great. I'm glad you scaled back a bit on your initial palm purchase. You'll get great experience winterizing these smaller windmills and can add a few more over the years. And if for some reason they don't survive this winter, it won't be as harsh of a financial loss. And as someone pointed out in that earlier thread, you'll get more personal satisfaction watching them grow to the size you were going to buy.

Beautiful area.
It will be interesting to see what all you come up with(-:

Andyandy, I'm in Hudsonville, west of Grand Rapids. I'm hoping the lake will keep us somewhat warm over the winter. My only major concern is you obviously see the field in my back yard... in the winter time it's a wind tunnel through there, so I am going to have to make sure the palms are well protected. I haven't looked very hard, but I think come this fall a thread discussion on proper winterizing techniques would be nice to see.

That was honestly my first thought when I saw your pics : wide open spaces = wind. Often wind can be more damaging to palms for it's dessicating effect that just cold. I'd look into winterizing ideas now, so you have everything you need before the actual time comes.

I am impressed . I glad to see others like to experiment. I live in West Allis and had an Edith Bogus get about 12ft before it died 2 years ago. Still had a Southern dogwood thriving bloomed well last spring. Like to know where you got your magnolia tree?