I first came to this forum in 1998 when I had just moved back to Orlando. I had gardened in several other states (altered states?!? LOL) but Florida can be a real challenge and I had no idea what to plant. I received some great advice here and I'm happy to share it. Drive around your area until you see a yard you love, even if it's way more extravagant than your own yard. Take a picture or two. Take them to a local nursery (NOT one of the big box stores) and ask them how you can get a similar look for your yard. Tell your nursery people the info on sun/soil/water that fits your yard. They will help you set up a plan.

There are just so many individual plant choices that it's hard to answer the "what to plant" type question; it's easier to answer the "how do I get it to look like this" kind of questions.

If you get pictures of a yard you like, post them here too for more specific advice.

Hope that helps a little,
Kate

Now is not a great time to be starting a new full sun garden. You might consider spending the next few months making your soil as good a possible. Laying out cardboard, newspaper and covering with some bulk delivered garden mix if you can get it. Then maybe planting sweet potato to help improve the soil, and give you something to look at.

While all that is happening, drive around, visit garden centers, botanical gardens, and pick yourself out ONE super fantastic plant that you would want to be your specimen plant. Picking just one super awesome plant makes the starting a little less overwhelming and can make it easier to get ideas and suggestions for filling in the rest of the bed. Then you can plant your specimen plant in early fall.

Oh, and have you decided what the long term color of your house is going to be?

~dianne

What was the landscaping book you read?

And what cardinal direction is the front yard? (I.e. morning sun or afternoon sun?)

Are you thinking more formal (I see those trimmed bushes in the front of the house), or more casual? Florida native or zeriscaping an option?

Do you like lots of flowers, or colorful foliage? Reclaimed water?

I'm looking at that site and it seems tiny to me. I have acres gardened. I only wish I had that small spot to plant - I wouldn't have the backache I do now if I did. That's one of the reasons I plan on moving to Florida - to downsize. I can't offer much info on plants to select since I'll be learning about that myself soon. But, the best advise I can offer is to look at the perspective before you do anything. What is your style? How do you envision your property and it's curb appeal? How much time are you willing to spend caring for your garden? To the actual plantings: How high do you want the plants to be? Do you want them to be staggered - small to tall or taller in the center and smaller at the edges, etc. You should also consider safety considerations; such as, if the plants are large they may block you vision inside and outside the house. You don't want to come home to find a stranger hiding behind the other side of the planting. My forte is creating garden rooms, and one of the things that's more important than anything else, is perspective. It's the same exact way an artist sizes up an area before painting. So before you even consider plants consider what you want to achieve.

Just from looking at the site, and the style and color of your house, if it were me, I'd plant nasturtium seeds which are a little higher than a ground cover. The whole bed would be a sea of something like Carribean Cocktail nasturiums, or Cherries Jubilee nasturtiums, or a pale yellow nasturtium. Nasturtiums will thrive in your climate since they are native to South America; they will take practically no care, and the soil and site you describe is exactly the conditions they like. And, if you decide you want something different later all you have to do is run a rake over the bed to get rid of them. At least they'll keep the bed free of weeds until you have a proper plan sketched out.
I once did that with an area while I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. It looked so beautiful I almost kept them - a chore for me since they are an annual in my area. But, for 2 seasons they looked beautiful. Portulaca is another, very colorful groud cover that would work well with your conditions, though they are more common in arid conditions. They work well for me here as an annual. You might also want to tie the planting into your house even more by attaching a flat backed wrought iron planter to your house (nothing large) with the same plant you use in the bed (such as nasturtiums or portulaca) to bring it even more together. A large Italian style clay pot with a plant of your choice on either side of your entrance would be nice too. Anyway, these are a few of my ideas.