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Tropical Plants

My New Place Before and After

josh_palm_crazy

11 years ago

Hi everybody. Long time no see. I finally have the garden at my new place in Waynesboro PA picture worthy. We moved in October 21st. Here's a bunch of before and after shots. It's still a work in progress and lacks the variety of previous years. Lots of pics. Here we go.

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Here's the front of the house. I'm hesitant to plant much out front because I had 2 bananas ripped out the day after I planted them.

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After

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Comments (14)

steiconi
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
amazing, that's just like yards in my neighborhood--right down to the chain link fence and stolen bananas!

Gorgeous!
kayjones
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
That is GORGEOUS! I have a HUGE front yard, but don't plant anything unusual there - thieves in the night are EVERY WHERE!
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Hey Lou! It's so funny you should just mention crossing the inferno strip! I just started playing in the inferno strip with some step stones like a couple hours ago deciding how I want it to look :). It's not really a huge deal to have a path. I'm on a tiny cul-de-sac with 4 other houses. Also, I always park both cars in the garage so everyone uses the driveway. I wouldn't put any plants with thorns or spikes that aren't set way back or potted. I have cactus in pots around baby trees to protect them from dogs. (No dogs will go the cactus btw.) Thorny roses would grab folk's clothes near a sidewalk. Those Maples sure aren't in any big ole hurry. I remember how pretty your maples were not too long ago. I'll bet they'll be spectacular one day. Maple leaves are great mulch for acid plants. The guy next door has a good sized Japanese garden with a water feature and it all in the front yard. I'll ask to take a picture of his gorgeous maple( a curvy Shantung that weeps a bit?). It also has a 8ft palm, a dwarf Pomegranate, and a lot of evergreen flowers and ground covers. It's really neat. He has privets 3/4 the way down for a hedge. You can see them in the last picture over to the left. Those privet are at least 10 ft from his house and lead to his back gate. If you squinsh your eyes really hard you can see his fig tree in front of them. It's small now but not for long! His inferno strip has a brick/step stone path and this very sad, half dead dwarf yaupon in it. Grass looks so crummy here it detracts from his garden. He's thinking about taking out the sod too. A few other houses in and around on other streets are getting in the act with a sidewalk garden. One house has Lirope(sp?) looks pretty nice. Another house has CMs that will look really good when they are bigger. The only other one I can remember has heavy mulch with amaryllis. You KNOW they recommend Trident Maples as sidewalk trees in Fort Worth right? LOL!
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Thank you all for your messages! rucnmom----omg is his voice annoying or what?! I didnt even realize he was in the pic lol. msrose---dh was against us replacing the carpet as our old one was in such nice good condition. but it was kelly green during the day, forest green at night and i couldn't handle it anymore. soooooo, to get me to keep quiet, he allowed me to order a new one. whoo hoo!! dgmarie----i thought of changing the curtains but i begged him about a year and 1/2 ago to let me buy them and they cost me $160 a window so i have to live with them at least another year. i have no where else I can use them and it would be wasteful to just get rid of them. *sighs* happyladi-----i had the table next to the sofa but it blocked the clock. i have to wait to ask DH to move the clock and the pics. for now i can live with it. :o) i was so excited to share all of this with you!!!
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The paint color on the lower half of the wall is just a very light lavender. The upper half is more purple. I actually mixed the lavender myself, by adding a little of the purple paint to some white paint. The fake tile (sheet vinyl) floor came from Linoleum City in Los Angeles. I looked and looked and looked for that vinyl and Linoleum City is the only place that sells it. I called a salesman there and asked about it. He said they had a unique contract with Tarkett (I think) to produce this product and he didn't think it was sold anywhere else in the country. Their number one client is Hollywood. Set-building people buy it by the roll to use on the sets. The sheet vinyl creates the look of early 20 Century hex tile floor in a jiffy. :) The light fixtures and medicine chest are reproductions. The light fixtures came from Rejunvenation Hardware and the medicine chest came from Van Dykes Restoration hardware. All these years of writing about old houses and I finally got to use some of the resources I've been writing about. Thanks for all the nice comments. Rose Here is a link that might be useful: linoleum city link
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Kristi, I hope you're still checking back here. I'm very interested in your tile. Is it more beige-ish, or gray-ish, or both? It's hard to tell from your photos. I'd like to do something similar in my smallish master bath. Would you say it's light in color? I'm afraid of making the bathroom too dark. Also, I really love the way you placed the tiles. It seems to be a herringbone pattern - am I right? I live in New Jersey, and I can't seem to find a store that carries Sarana tiles, but I'll keep looking.
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karyn1
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
You've done a great job with your new yard. Plant poaching is a problem here as well. There was even an article in the Washington Post a year or two ago about it. Most of my more desirable plants are behind an 8' privacy fence.
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
11 years ago
Two thumbs up! Are those wax Begonias - the short red plants in the back yard?
josh_palm_crazy
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks guys! The 2 bananas were just messed with not actually stolen. They ripped a leaf off of one and snapped one off and ripped it out of the ground. I planted some hardy cactus in the up rooted bananas place and moved the other one further back from the sidewalk. Some people in this po-dunk little town just don't appreciate something new and different.

purpleinopp - Just some regular old 62 cent each tuberous begonias for some color. Definitely need more colorful flowers in the front of the beds. I'm all tapped out at the moment though. :)

Jay

P.S. Here's some pics of the damage!
marguerite_gw Zone 9a
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Congratulations on some beautiful results for all that hard work. The before and after pics are very interesting. Will the plants be able to stay out in the winter or will you have to bring them all in?
lindenska
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I love the yard. There's someone in my town with bananas on their front yard, I wonder where they go come september as I do with all the palm trees too...

It's a shame some people are destructive like that.

But, do the bananas die in the fall?
Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The two legged monsters are everywhere! We are planning a move to Fallbrook CA where there are many avocado groves, and the local newspapers have a lot of articles about thieves taking the produce right out of the orchards!

Fences or gates don't stop them, but prickly pear does! I plan on huge prickly pear barriers around each of my orchard sections, and I also plan to enjoy the pads as vegetables, and the fruit too.

Sorry about your Banana disaster. Your yard looks great! Is that a potting shed?
hookilau
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
@ lindenska:

I live in NY and plan to put my bananas in the ground. I bought Musa Basjoo. This banana will not only fruit, but it's supposed to be cold hardy as well. Mine says it grows to 10' more or less.

I haven't quite decided how I'm going to proceed with mine as yet since I don't have a greenhouse. From what I've read, you could do one of 3 things, bring it in for the winter, cut down (it will regenerate again in the spring) or just leave it as is with some protection against the elements.

Since mine is still quite small (only about 2 feet tall) and has several pups, I plan to re-pot and give away most of 'em save one or 2 in hopes of getting fruit.

On bananas.org there's tons of info regarding growing nanners.
grullablue
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
BEAUTIFUL plantings!!!
ichoudhury
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Very Impressive!
Boca_Joe(zone 7b) southern Delaware
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
everyone,
here is a link to the photos of his place I took yesterday Aug 4, 2012- unbelievable guys!

Boca Joe

Here is a link that might be useful: Jay's Tropics
david883
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Great job! Looks amazing! I love cannas!
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
11 years ago
That's AMAZING! I absolutely love it! Great job!!!!!

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