If only I could have gone shopping with you at the nursery. Nothing I like better than spending other people's money on plants. I was just down there a week ago Friday (Sanford). That nursery looks huge. I bet it is chock full of great plants.

Most people are not gardeners and that is why their neighborhoods are full of lawn mower dudes with hedge trimmers and square bushes. If your goal is "is low maintenance, colorful and okay being in shade", then you need to shift your thinking away from what other people do.

Your north facing house shade is also not really dense or deep shade and will be non existent in the summer.

Let me ponder this a bit. It's pouring rain here again today and see if I can salvage some of what you bought. All I really want to keep at this point is Anti Ti and the Crotons.

@Christopher C Nc the plants are returnable as long as they aren't planted so nothing lost except my time. I do want to grab new things prior to Saturday if possible so my house isn't a mess for Easter

Lucky you. It has been raining all day and my attempt to go outside was short lived. Thought one. We are not landscaping for Easter. We are landscaping for long term value and low maintenance. You can tart things up for Easter and the maybe two years it will take to fill in with annuals like petunias.

For you I have made the landscaper's extra special hen scratch drawing. One letter equals one plant. The azaleas are going back. Trade them in for Xanadu Philodendron. It takes some green to make your colors pop.

Lay this out with what you have. Take pictures. Or lay this out with your computer graphic animating thing. Adjust quantities as needed compared to what you already have. Once planted and mulched your job will be to keep the beds weeded and to leave the plants unmolested.

@Christopher C Nc - I looked up each of the plants you suggested - was curious since I’m on west coast so know little of tropicals. My reaction is Wow! What a show stopper combo! I love the Xanadu Philodendron with it’s textured cut leaves. I never thought about needing the green to make the colors pop but I got the visual of that immediately when I read that - especially necessary against @Nicole W blue house.

What bulbs will grow well where you live? What will come back year after year and bloom but NOT create a "hedge". After all, since you wanted the hedge removed, why create another one?

Another idea you might consider is adding large square pavers with a space for a low growing ground cover to grow between them and invest in some decorative pots to set atop each of the pavers..

@KW These are not my suggested plants. There were a few I suggested in my first design way up higher on the thread. I tried to use the plants Nicole was offering as much as possible. She deserves some credit for the color combo.

Bulbs that will grow there are Amaryllis, Zepharanthes, Agapanthus, Rhodophiala, Crinum and Lycoris.

Yes, Nicole does indeed deserve a lot of credit for her ambitious undertaking of this project! I’ve been following this thread and lost track of who suggested which plants along with other random design suggestions from many. @Nicole W I hope you‘ll post an after picture along with your original hedge picture once your project is completed!

@Christopher C Nc I was at the beach all day today so just catching up.. I'm going to make a list and hopefully head over to Lukas on Tuesday I'll arrange the ones I have currently and take some pics tomorrow I appreciate everyone's input and your awesome sketch!

Here is the mapped out front. Spacing will be 3 feet from the house so pushed forward a bit. Should I swap all the durantas and Loropetulum for the bigger sizes? What should the spacing be on the aztec grass?

Walkway

view of bed from inside

Much better than the hedge rows. Minor spacing adjustment needed in the left bed. Remember these plants are going to grow significantly larger so space for the full size.

Move the far left loropetalum to the left of the sprinkler head. Nudge the croton to the right so it is more centered on the wall section. Move the two front duranta towards the center of the bed. Step Anti Ti 2' away from the column.

Now I must leave you and go charge people for my services.

Found the them 🥳

Those philodendrons have the coolest looking leaves! Love the added texture to your colors

Grabbed the bigger Durantas

I'm in south FL (I think zone 10), we just DIY'd all our landscaping. We also ripped out overgrown shrubs and were left with huge empty beds. Posting this pic I have right now I honestly don't know what the names are of anything but a nursery should know, just to give you some ideas. I just picked what I liked and asked a few questions about each while there. We tried not to plant in rows. Everything is growing in super fast. I can take some updated pics later, we have since landscaped that side as well

.

Beautiful colors! I’m so envious -cruising around a nursery- heaven! - it‘s a wet & rainy day here in PNW

@itsourcasa love yours!

Here's a link to a reliable source on plant sizes.

http://www.learn2grow.com/search-plants-for/q=duranta-mini

Here in Israel we have a variety described as "mini golden" and nurseries tell you it won',t get taller than 1-1.5 metres. Well, I've seen this mini duranta shooting to 3 metres, and they're as wide as they're tall.

They grow so fast it's a waste of money buying bigger plants.

Seems to me your plants are too close to one another AND to the house. Please check mature sizes on reliable sites and proceed from there.

ETA: just disregard the lower figure in "mature height". If duranta is capable of reaching 6 metres, trust it to do so. Ask me how I know :)

@Nicole W thank you and keep in mind, I agree with @wintercat_gw, plants grow FAST here! Make sure to space them out enough, I didn't want to because I liked the look of them closer together but I went with the advice of others to space them out. This is when we planted this area just 3 months ago. That pic above was last week.

@itsourcasa it filled in really nicely. The flowers you have in the front are they annuals? I love them!

@Nicole W yes they are sunpatiens, they bring in a lot of color!

Spacing isn't exact but I like it so far. I think I grabbed one too many Durantas. I still need to till and rake out this bed. I plan on renting the tiller on Friday and then I can start planting. Grass is scheduled to be delivered next week super excited

See how big those duranta and loropetalum got in just one week at the nursery. It is looking very good. Take the Aztec Grass all the way around the palm. I would rather have another xanadu than another duranta.

Make the lawn/bed edge a straight line/gentle curve. No undulations across the front

It's planting day 🥳 Bed prep has just about killed me but I'm in way too deep now. Hope everyone is having an awesome weekend.

I see a long soak in tub with nice glass of wine in your future!

I'll be cutting down the last of the grasses tomorrow. Spring is back. For now.

Following

Sorry I haven’t been keeping up with your progress here, and i hope it’s not too late for these suggestions:

Because weed seeds grow 24/7/365 in FL, a thick bed of mulch is your friend. So plants should be installed very high to keep the crown above the 6”+ mulch.

And where the bed meets the grass, dig a 9”+ trench to fill with mulch (use the dirt to help raise plants). This helps keep the grasses from spreading into the beds, as all the grasses grow on runners in FL (also 24/7/365!).

ulisdone that has to be the worst advice I have ever read on this forum. You are basically suggesting to set the plants on top of the ground and pile six inches of mulch around the root balls in fast draining Florida sand because weeds. Nicole, don't do that. The plants need to be planted in the soil, not high, not low, just right with the container soil level even with the dirt level.

Christopher, I have spent decades gardening in central Florida, and to reduce labor I absolutely recommend the high planting system.

Because of the intense sun and frequent rain, just about all seeds sprout and grow all year around. So mulch needs to be thick - a bag covers about the size of the bag.

A mulch that thick needs to be kept well away from the trunk/ stem of any plant and can also cause a ponding of water at the plant.

Most of central FL is underlayed by a layer of what is called hardpan. The sandy soil does not drain in the rainy season. If you dig a hole it fills with water and in the really wet years, the water table is just about at grade level. The native soils flood all the time, and there is really no top soil or humus layer.

It is a completely different gardening world from the rest of the USA.

So yes, people often plant high. I have seen professionals installing large trees by just setting the BOTTOM of the container‘s dirt on grade and mounding dirt to cover. It is way more successful in keeping the trunk flare aerated than planting level in the anaerobic soil and further smothering with mulch.

And summer is hot and humid, the sun is just about unbearable, to say nothing of the fire ants, so it’s best to try to minimize the hours spent every week toiling with the weeds.

But the OP may have a different situation in her community, with an environment full of chemical sprays to kill all the weeds and bugs that move about. Lets hope not...

ulisdone I grew up in Florida. I have a degree in horticulture from U of F. My entire family still lives and gardens there. The entire state is not built on low lying swamp land.

Plot twist I was able to plant the walkway but the front landscape bed is a monster roots everywhere, the till basically did nothing for it. I ordered an auger tool for my drill to help drill and it came today hoping to finish out this week. I'm planting according to the plant instructions btw I don't think i've ever seen a high planting system

"monster roots everywhere" I need to see that to believe it.

I wouldn’t stress about the roots. Providing the shrubs weren’t a type likely to sprout from the roots (see discussion above) you can just leave the old roots in situ and plants through them. If they’re the same type of roots as in picture 6 they’ll eventually rot away.

I can't dig without hitting a root so it's taking me forever. I've only planted 4 on that side 21 to go ughh. I'll take a picture for you guys when I go out there. I'm planting between meetings.

I didn't plant anything today but this is whats in so far. To say I am over this is an understatement 🤣

Here is the walkway

I'm not sure if I told you but we decided to DIY the backyard/sideyard sod too. SEVILLE has been backorded for awhile and they called last week and said it would be in on Wed so that's where the focus has been prepping for SOD.

If taking on too much was a person it would be me.

What was it, $5000 for the front bed makeover? That over it yet?

Looking at all the neighbor's boxed hedges in the background you are going to be so good with all this because you are not going to have to be out there in the heat with all the mosquitoes shearing your bushes into boxes. The neighbors will be stopping by and asking how you did it in due time.

@Christopher C Nc you're right I'm not 5K over it yet haha.

@Christopher C Nc my monster

Roots and I know you are going to say they aren't monsters haha but they are everywhere

Palm tree roots. Get a file and sharpen the edge of the shovel.

4 plants left to get in the ground 🥳

Excellent before and after presentation. You have officially unboxed the neighborhood.

@Nicole W - very nice job of transforming both your home’s curb appeal and entry. Love your new front door - the red colors in your plantings really add to that pop of color!

Thank you @KW I plan on adding some planters and decor out there soon.

Except for Anti-Ti and the Xanadu, in about three years you can trim the other shrubs into hedges. Instead of boxes, the loropetalum and duranta would prefer being orbs.

It hasn't rained in months the day I finish planting we have a storm 😭😭😭 I hope they don't drown

@Nicole W here too my plants are loving the rain (finally)! They need lots of water when first planted so you're good. We planted our walkway the day before/morning of a tropical storm last year and they are thriving lol.

A good rain isn’t just what they want. But don’t be lulled into thinking newly planted things don't need watering just because it’s rained. Check the moisture in the soil.