Oh, NICE area - I see it flooded with Pentas, perhaps ALL pastels or all hard colors - butterflies will love you. Whatever you decide to plant, come and post pictures.

I do not know why, perhaps it is the sunlight, perhaps it is the color of the border, or the sandy nature of the soil, or the dead wood... or all of those combined, but my first impression when I saw the area was "Arizona Desert with cacti and succulents!"

Having said that, after looking up Vera Wood, I don't really see a bunch of succulents going well with that tree, so ignore me.

I am no expert but heres a thought... Take ur bricks and lay them down. Dig them into ur soil. Make sure u get a weed protecter, we all know about the weeds in fl. Then for your border around the pavers try mexican heather, it stays low to the ground with light purple flowers and green ground cover. Butterfly bushes are wonderful for this spot as poster number 1 said. U can also check out cardboard plants, they grow to a medium hight for buahes, aormaby a gardenia tree for smell. I see ur door is close by. Firrecracker bush is pretty too. It would throw some red in there. Im not saying use all these plants together but thoes I think would look nice in that area. Thinkabout layen the pavers down it would look so much better.
Pepper

Hi Regine,

You are so lucky to have so much space to play with! Nice area with a lot of sun, too! If it were me, I would join all the islands together with a nice, curving, broad pattern and then fill it up with masses of beautiful things! Cardboard and mulch would make this a pretty easy job.

Anna

I agree with Anna. It would be beautiful.

I appreciate the advice. The picture that you see is not of my house but my neighbor's and the island with the Monstera Philodenron is on their property. I am allergic to that plant, anytime I prune what is on our property, I break out in a rash from the sap so I would rather not go near it.
I took kayjones advice and planted pentas and put in some iris and lillies just because I had some, but I like the idea of mexican heather for a border. I got some cardboard boxes and used them under the mulch. My six year old grandaughter painted the stand for the ladybug bowling ball and I think it looks cute. I will be adding more plants now that you have given me some ideas. Thank you for helping me out.

Regina