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A few months ago, I read a post on Apartment Therapy about building a succulent planter using cinder blocks. We have an area in our back yard between the deck and a brick walkway where nothing will grow, except for weeds of course! I decided this would be the perfect thing to add interest to this area while keeping it low maintenance.

Succulent planter in my back yard
Another view of the succulent planter 
The planter wasn't too difficult to build. There are several sites online with directions on how to build this, but I found these directions to be the most helpful. I spent more time figuring out the design and arrangement of the blocks than I did building the planter. Fitting the chicken wire into the blocks that stick out was not an easy nor fun task. Be sure to wear heavy duty gloves when cutting and shaping the chicken wire. I used rebar to reinforce the wall and I used PVC in the bottom of these blocks (see image below) rather than nails as suggested in the directions linked above. 

PVC in cinder block to ensure the plant does not fall through
Don't forget to use the right soil mixture depending on what you plant. You can buy succulent potting mix, or just make it yourself. My friend Erin recommended using regular potting soil and adding Perlite and some sand from the garden (which in FL, we have plenty!) to make your own. That is the mixture I created and it has worked out well.

Lastly, I have to mention that I was thrilled to see a cinder block succulent planter featured at EPCOT's Flower and Garden Festival this year. To see something that I have in my backyard featured at the Flower and Garden Festival, well, that is a pretty big compliment! Below is a picture of the succulent planter at EPCOT.

Succulent planter at EPCOT
The best part about this project is that you can customize the planter to meet your needs and make it as big or as small as you want. Now that my planter is built, I am continuously on the lookout for new succulents with different shapes and colors to add to my garden. Yes, I am hooked on succulents!

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A few friends recently asked me about my rain barrel, so I figured I should revive the old gardening blog. Although you can purchase a rain barrel online or at a store, I suggest searching for an event in your community where you can buy one at a discounted price. A couple of years ago, I attended a local event called Greenfest and bought a Systern Rain Barrel for only $58.

We first placed the rain barrel in a location where a good amount of rain ran off of the house. This was not very effective. Once we had gutters installed on the back of our house, we connected the rain barrel to the gutter with a rain barrel gutter diverter. This diverts the water to the rain barrel until it is full. Once the rain barrel is full, the water is diverted out of the gutter. This made collecting rain water much more efficient. Well, at least in the rainy months!



A few other suggestions: Raise the rain barrel so you can place a bucket or watering can underneath. We built a simple stand using concrete blocks. Raising the barrel also allows gravity to help you to collect the water. I originally had the rain barrel on the ground and tried using the hose that came with the systern to water plants. This method was very frustrating since it took a long time to get the water to come out.

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Yes, the azaleas are beautiful, as are many of the other spring blooms. However, there is one spring bloom that stands above all the rest - the Tabebuia (tab-eh-BOO-yuh) tree. Jeff and I call these trees "Tabs" for short. The past few weeks, the tree canopy in our neighborhood has been glowing with the pink and yellow blooms from this tree. We don't get fall color here in FL, but the Tabebuia trees give us plenty of color in the spring! I took a few pictures of tabs in our neighborhood (below). The above photo was taken at nearby Leu Gardens.

The flowers littering the grass are almost as pretty as the tree itself! There are some areas that are completely covered by these blooms.

In the photo below, you can see the blooms from the yellow tab followed by the blooms from the pink tab in the background. Unfortunately, we had some very windy weather before I could get out to take a picture of the pink tab. The wind blew off most of its flowers.

I may have to talk to a landscape architect that I know to see if a Tabebuia tree will fit into our landscape plan! I would love to have one in our yard.

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Jeff and I recently attended the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival. This festival is a great way to celebrate spring and see beautiful colors and arrangements. Each year when I attend this festival, I get great ideas for new plants to try in my garden. This festival is also a great educational opportunity since there are guest speakers and presentations on a variety of garden related topics.

One of the most interesting things we saw at this year's festival is the Eco Wall (pictured below). The Eco Wall is a vertical garden with irrigation tubing that runs throughout the wall. The Eco Wall Web site has pictures of Eco Walls in interior spaces in addition to exterior spaces. This wall is visually stunning. I would love to have an Eco Wall in our backyard or in my office!
















Something else that caught our eye at the festival is the different shapes and sizes of vegetable gardens. I currently grow a few vegetables in containers. We keep talking about eventually building a raised vegetable garden in the backyard to grow more vegetables. We like the look of this vegetable garden (below) since it is not the typical rectangular or square garden.



One other pleasant surprise at this year's festival was discovering a retail booth that sells handmade, natural soap. The company is called Rinse. What I really like about their soaps is that they are not strong and overpowering. They have a lot of unique blends and scents with natural ingredients. I bought a bar of the tea tree and mint soap and it is lovely!

Here are a couple more pictures from the Flower and Garden Festival - a few of the many topiaries featured during the festival.



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Spring is finally here! I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and the extra hour of sunlight today and spend some time in the garden. I spent over four hours pruning and trimming. I was happy to discover that only a handful of our plants died from the freezing temperatures.


I recently learned that you should clean your pruning shears after you prune each plant or tree to prevent the spread of diseases. I dipped my tools in a bleach/water solution and then rinsed them with water before moving on to the next plant. Some suggest to clean your shears after every cut, but I just cleaned them after pruning each type of plant.

After seeing so much brown in our garden, it was nice to see new growth on plants. Here are a few signs of spring that I discovered in our yard today:

Our Drake Elm trees have new growth.


Our Camellia should bloom any day now.


Our lime tree is finally starting to produce fruit!


If you don't have spring weather yet, I hope that it arrives soon so you can start enjoying your garden again.

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