Florida-Friendly Landscaping
Statute, F.S. 373.185 and the threat of F.S. 720.305 that homeowners face when their landscaping plans
are rejected by an HOA board
The Florida-Friendly landscaping statute F.S. 373.185, Click Here clearly states that you have the right to landscape your yard with Florida Friendly Plants. If you look at Florida Statute 720.3075 and go to 4a, you will see what appears to be more protection for the homeowner landscaping with native plants. Click Here
Please check below link for a thorough discussion about this law and the risks you take when going against your HOA, Click Here. And for a look at the Florida Friendly Landscaping Program offered by the University of Florida, Click Here.
In this link, Click Here, you will find many of your questions answered by Kathy Malone and others who work for the University of Florida IFAS.
Homeowner and condominium associations have restrictive covenants governing the aesthetic appearance of home landscapes. There is often a fine and all costs to you and those incurred by the association if you lose in court. You are at the mercy of an uninformed judge.
Your association should have a list of approved plants including many native species. It is unfortunate that the use of any native plant isn’t your right and that you may be limited to only a few species by your HOA.
Rules regarding the placement of plants, their heights and the amount of sod required can be frustrating when you are trying to be creative. Although, these may prevent an uninformed homeowner from just laying down artificial turf or mulch, “to conserve water.”
I have personally been frustrated over the years by the limit of shrub height, often based on the maximum height of the plant if not maintained, and the requirement that trees be under 35 feet tall. Try clippers dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry.
All of the non native shrubs commonly used will get at least twenty to fifty feet tall if not maintained. Think ficus, podocarpus, dwarf schefflera, areca palms and even the green island ficus groundcover. Just for your information, native live oak makes a nice hedge if clipped.
The limitations that I find acceptable include requiring hedges to be placed far enough onto your property that you can maintain them and not require your neighbor to as well. Tall hedges on the north side of your property may need to be kept below eight feet so that they don’t shade your neighbor’s property.
Safety issues include views to the street or sidewalk from the driveway. Plant roots may invade septic drain fields and may find their way into a home plumbing system and clog various drains. Keep Ficus species away from the house.
It is unnecessary to remove trees lining a road or walkway. Their roots can now be managed in various ways. Many “Tree Cities” have solved this problem.
The solution to many of the problems encountered by a hostile HOA is to create an administrative process where statutorily appointed and trained specialists settle disputes as to whether a landscape practice is Florida-friendly and safe.
Aesthetics should be decided by the homeowner only. A yard full of non native weeds, of course, is not acceptable. A wildflower meadow of native plants is acceptable, even when allowed to go to seed.
Individuals from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) faculty or extension agent, Water Management District and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) scientists would act as hearing officers for a small or no fee to the homeowner or HOA. Please see third link above for more detail.
This would take the financial burden off of homeowners and their communities when disputes arise and also encourage more creativity. Native landscapes are more beautiful than the tired look of the last forty years and are becoming widely accepted.
I am pleasantly surprised by the sincerely encouraging comments by the neighbors of my customers and feel that the time for native landscapes is now.
Wildlife Driven Design
Our native butterfly sage is buzzing with bees and swirling with butterflies. Four mockingbirds take turns feeding on the red berries and two brown thrashers sift through the leaf litter for insects; all within view from our patio.
Flowers and fruit are important for wildlife, yet insects and spiders are the main diet of young, growing birds and most adult birds. Many species of native insects eat the leaves, buds and seeds of our native plants while few have gotten past the chemical defenses of introduced exotics.
There are thousands of caterpillars and other insects and spiders hiding in most large native trees. During the nesting season it is important to have these trees to supply the insect food for our next generation of birds. Insects contain twice the protein of beef.
Exotic plants are sold as pest free. They arrived here from various countries without the insects that feed on them. If one of these foreign insects is accidentally imported, like the ficus white fly, it becomes a serious pest because it has arrived without any of its natural predators.
These insects are not fed upon by our birds either. Without seed eating insects, the thousands of seeds that many exotics produce have a good chance of spreading to other yards and natural areas when birds eat their berries and carry them off.
With more caterpillars, grasshoppers stinkbugs, and other insects eating your native plants you would think that they would be ripped to shreds and become ugly.
Yet, it is rare to notice up to ten percent damage to the leaves of a plant. Fear not, the damage is usually much less. The imported weevils from Asia are what you are noticing scalloping the edges of your plant leaves.
When planting for wildlife, consider plants that actually get a few “pests.” Oaks, maples, pines, Florida elm, sweetgum, gumbo limbo, wild tamarind and redbay are just a few trees that are loaded with insects and attract many birds seeking food for their young.
Song bird populations are declining at the rate of one percent a year and have already plummeted fifty percent since the 1960’s. This is because our lawns have replaced their natural habitat.
Good news is that the damage is reversible. We have over 40 million acres of lawn in the United States, or eight New Jerseys, that can be returned to forest.
Most of our natural areas are small islands. It is possible to connect these preserves to one another by planting the same species of plants in our yards as are found in the local preserves.
Now birds and other wildlife can move about and spread their genes to new populations, eliminating the problems caused by inbreeding.
Visit a local natural area and make a note of what grows there and decide which species you like. Buy some of these trees and plant them in your yard. Then later blend in native shrubs and wildflowers.
When you notice the birds using your yard, you will become hooked and never look back to the lawn you left behind.
Wildlife Corridors
Bridge The Gap Between Natural Areas With Wildlife Corridors
Imagine being a small bird with large (compared to you) falcons, and hawks trying to eat you. No wonder little birds look around nervously all the time and fly for cover at the slightest sound.
Wildlife corridors provide cover and a protected link between feeding sites and water. These corridors are narrow to extensive areas of dense cover. A mixture of native trees and shrubs works well by providing berries, nuts and seeds for food and thorns for protection.
Long stretches of man made clearings and bird feeders placed in the middle of the yard are giving our raptors an unfair advantage. Always place a birdbath or feeder near dense cover, and keep your cat indoors.
If you notice songbirds traveling along a canal or roadway, try planting a long line of shrubs several feet wide so the birds can hide and feed there.
If you are lucky enough to live next to a nature preserve, you may want to talk to your neighbors about planting a connection from the preserve to all of your yards.
Why separate yourselves from all of these cool birds and butterflies? Planned communities can do a lot with this idea. Plant cypress, red maple, pondapple and other wetland trees, shrubs and flowers and grasses around your lakes.
Plant a variety of upland species and butterfly attracting plants in the public areas. There will be less grass to mow and the kids will love to see the birds and butterflies while playing.
A fence planted with the native corky passion vine will attract many zebra longwing and gulf fritillary butterflies.
Redbay, wild lime and Chapman’s cassia will provide food for the caterpillars of the palamedes, giant swallowtail and several kinds of sulfur butterflies. Plant the wild lime away from people, it has nasty thorns. Birds love to nest in it though.
The local newspaper often has warnings about the large amounts of water, gas, fertilizer and chemicals that we use on our lawns and articles lamenting the loss of our wildlife to development.
Why not plant wildlife corridors through your yard and help solve several problems at once.
What Bird Is That
Our winter resident birds can be frustrating to identify. If you learn a few of the more distinct ones, you can make your neighbors think that you are a bird expert. The following descriptions are for the mature males. Immatures and females are more difficult.
I’ll start with the three mimics. The dark gray catbird repeats its phrases of other bird’s songs only once and has a “rahhr” call similar to a cats meow. These are here from October to May.
The light gray mockingbird repeats its phrases three or more times. It is a full time resident. The largest is the brown thrasher. This is often found on the ground flipping leaves while looking for insects and worms.
The brown thrasher repeats its phrases only once and is a rare, full time resident. You will need native trees and shrubs to provide the dead leaves that worms grow in for the thrasher to eat.
The fall migration starts in September with the” speee” call of the tiny, gray colored, blue-gray gnatcatcher. It is heard high in the branches of trees.
You will see several flitting from branch to branch and ocassionaly one will come down to check you out. An oak tree is a good place to look. As a bonus, they are found with warblers and other small birds during migration. Most warblers are only five inches long.
A few, like the black-throated blue warbler, stay the winter. This is a beautiful bird that catches your attention with its black face, white belly and blue wings and back.
Look for the yellow spot at the base of the tail and you have identified the yellow-rumped warbler. It likes the berries of wax myrtles. The bird creeping over branches like a nuthatch is the yellow-throated warbler. It has a bright yellow throat and chest, black cheeks and a gray back.
The black mask across the face, both above and below the eye, and an olive back and yellow belly make the common yellowthroat easy to distinguish. Another creeping warbler is the black-and-white warbler. Beautiful clean lines of black and white set this bird apart. All four are common during the winter months.
Small flocks of birds lighting in the grass with tails that bob constantly are the palm warblers. It is dull brown overall with a little yellow under the tail and a brown cap on its head. Remember the constant tail bobbing. These are also seen in trees and is very common. Just say palm warbler and you will be right most of the time.
Of course this is just a start. Once you learn some of the common birds you will have something to compare other birds to and be more likely to notice the rarer and more interesting ones.
Cover and food for these birds is provided by many native plants. Plants in fruit during the migration season include oaks, wild coffee, beauty berry, dahoon holly, marlberry, snowberry, Spanish stopper, hackberry, firebush, lignum vitae, and bahama strongbark.
Many wildflowers including red salvia, native plumbago, dune sunflower, horsemint and bluecurles provide seeds for small birds. Insects that are eaten by birds also eat the seeds.
Stop and enjoy the seasonal changes in our beautiful South Florida fall; the weather is delicious and the rest of the country is shivering.
Water Restrictions
Water Restrictions? Bring Em On!
I am actually looking forward to a quiet, brown summer. I will sorely miss the baaroooommmmm, zzzzzzzzzzzz, aarrrooooooooooo sounds of green lawn madness. Don’t forget the maddening tick-tick-tick-tick-tick of the sprinklers.
All of this fanatical effort to produce a green, weed free lawn has resulted in millions of acres of lost wildlife habitat, severed toes and fingers, air and noise pollution, chemicals in our ground water and little time to actually relax in our yards without having to mow or being driven indoors by our neighbor’s noisy lawnmower.
I recently visited a friend on Sewall’s Point in Martin County who had left the natural coastal hammock vegetation on his property and zero lawn.
Quiet, birds, clean air and interesting plants everywhere with lots of shade. Even the back deck was built around tall black ironwood trees. As I drove away toward a newer, totally cleared and sodded portion of the island I was assaulted by the din of power machines.
The streets were lined with a gauntlet of trucks, trailers, cars etc. and there was no shade. It’s too bad that the original paradise, oak, hickory, pine and other native trees were replaced with sod. But why not do the reverse?
Start with trees placed to shade the south and west side of the house and create a forested effect elsewhere. Then fill the corners of the yard, view of the neigbor’s clothes line, and road with shrubs.
These plants will shade out the grass and weeds while providing dead leaves as free mulch. There is very little maintenance and now you can plant small-more labor intensive areas with wildflowers for your butterfly garden.
What will happen to all of the people working in our yards? There will always be some quiet snip, snipping, a little weeding and of course someone to clean out the birdhouses at the end of the nesting season.
I suggest the book “American Green” by Ted Steinberg. He covers the history of the lawn and after you finish the book you will view yours with a less loving eye. Also, read “Bringing Nature Home” by Douglass Tallamy.
Don’t forget to supply your birds with a small tube that drips or has a mist attachment hung over the birdbath. Connect this to a timer set for one hour each day and you will help your little friends get through this drought.
Watching Birds
Don’t Drive Off The Road While Watching Birds.
In September, 2007 the first bald eagle flew 70 feet above us. Small groups of warblers and painted buntings were slipping through the trees and brush.
September 22 I watched with excitement as the first hummingbird flew like a warning shot over my head. I would have missed it if not for the ridiculous computer game-like chattering that preceded his appearance.
Two coopers hawks stopped by as if to say “we’re back, got any doves for us to eat?” A bold, red-tailed hawk harassed the wood ducks in the pond next door; how exciting it would have been to see him catch one.
This is the time of year to walk around your yard with head up and eyes and ears tuned in to the slightest movement or sound. Start your identification skills with the common blue-gray gnatcatcher.
This small bird of 4.5inches has a cute sweee sound and will hang around you if you make a pish, pish. pish sound. The orchard oriole is greenish-yellow with gray wings containing two white bars. At seven inches long it is two inches larger than the similar warblers.
You may see one slowly eating the fruit of your strangler fig. The mature male is black on top and has a red underside.
The first cold snap in October is when you must go outside early in the morning and watch as dozens of migrating birds pass through our yards. Drive about a half hour west of John Pennekamp Park to Curry Hammock State Park in the middle Keys.
Climb the observation tower and hang out with one of the college students researching raptors and you will learn to identify many kinds of hawks, eagles, peregrine falcons and other birds. You will become a raptor expert by the end of the day and your kids will remember this time with you forever.
Try not to hyperventilate and drive off of the road as you begin to notice the raptors around you. I nearly did this one year as a peregrine falcon flew next to me while I drove west, just east of congress ave. on Lantana rd.
Of the dozen cars in my group, no one noticed this majestic bird flying right next to all of us. He then veered off to the left toward a strip mall and shot behind the buildings at full speed.
You could tell where he was by the panicked pigeons exploding upward from behind the buildings. Pigeon bowling pins!
How often do you see flocks of starlings zigzaging through the sky? Look a little closer and you may notice a merlin, sharpshin or coopers hawk trying to separate and then pick one off.
Watch that red tailed hawk and he may suddenly dive almost straight down from 500 feet. Pull over and see if you can witness a kill. My wife, noticed a bald eagle one year as it flew over a supermarket parking lot while stealing a fish from an osprey. Again, no one else noticed.
One of the most exciting moments I have had watching birds was in a restaurant in West Palm Beach that was six stories up. I glanced out the picture window at some vultures gliding by when one of them looked up at a peregrine falcon and dove straight down with the falcon just behind.
The peregrine must have been having fun because nobody eats a vulture. No one at the table noticed and they acted like I was crazy when I pointed and said “look at that peregrine falcon.”
You may embarrass yourself occasionally, but it is worth it to be tuned in to surrounding wildlife. Stopped at a light? just look around and you may witness a coopers hawk pick off a dove or a Kestrel chasing sparrows or starlings
A Walk Around The Yard
Many different species of birds are migrating through our yards in November. A walk around the front acre of our 2.5- acre property from 8:30am to 9:00am revealed many birds and butterflies.
The painted bunting feeder had one male in it and was later joined by several females. A house wren was squawking from inside of the firebush while a hummingbird fed outside on its tubular flowers.
A cicada buzzed while being chased by a blue jay and the chips of various wood warblers could be heard up in the oaks. Further along… two catbirds and another hummingbird scolded me for interrupting their breakfasts.
While checking out the scores of insects on the flowering pineland privet, an annoyed house wren, dining on these insects, gave me his two cents worth.
Now, and in the evening, is a good time to watch for coopers, red shouldered and red tailed hawks patrolling for prey.
I have noticed that even the unwelcome green Cuban knight anole is becoming prey for some of these hawks. Here is a non-native lizard that eats other lizards, frogs and little birds only to be eaten by larger birds; fair is fair.
Butterflies included: the monarch, zebra longwing, Julia, queen, ruddy daggerwing, soldier, cassius blue, several orange sulpher species, and gulf fritillary. Standing in one spot, I could count 18 butterflies of various species, and it got better as the temperature warmed up.
Plants producing fruit or nuts included: beautyberry, wild coffee, marlberry, coontie, oaks, Spanish stopper, rouge plant, white stopper, and strangler fig.
A birdbath with a drip tube attached and a mister is just what these birds need now that the rains have stopped. In fact, water is becoming the most important item in the yard.
What a great way to start a relaxing Sunday. Take a walk with your family and enjoy the beauty within your own back yard. The more grass you replace with natives, the more interesting your walks will become.
Varmints
Not so welcome wildlife”Varmints”can fit into our local environment
Foxes. raccoons, opossum, and bobcat may take some getting used to and are certainly not cuddly, yet perform beneficial services like rodent control. These animals are nocturnal and are rarely seen.
My fearless, ferocious 12 pound Jack Russel terrier will attack anything close to her size. Recently the resident gray fox has stood up to her resulting in the two snarling at, and circling each other.
I called West Seitz with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and asked if foxes can hurt or kill small dogs. Fortunately, foxes are as harmful to a dog as a cat would be.
Big dogs kill foxes, although a small dog may get hurt. So keep an eye on the pooch especially in the early morning and evening. Don’t feed any of these four wild creatures and keep garbage, dog food and other attractants secure.
Our local gray fox, which can be found in town too, is the only canine in the U.S. that can climb trees. This makes it fairly good at squirrel control. It has red on the sides and its gray back has a black line down the center.
It needs dense brush to hide in and hollow tree stumps to nest. The gray fox controls mice, rats, some rabbits and squirrels, lizards and frogs. It will also eat fish, fruit and insects.
I am grateful to our local fox for keeping rats and squirrels from eating the saw palmetto and other seeds that I have planted in my native plant nursery. In fact, you can buy bottled fox urine to spray in areas that you don’t want squirrels to go. Just don’t spill any on yourself or you’ll be sleeping in a tent that night.
The less abundant red fox which is native to North America, but not South Florida, was introduced from North Florida. It has black with a white tip on the end of the tail. It will also eat sea turtle eggs and is not welcome here.
Chickens are eaten by all four animals yet be aware that a stray cat will also kill poultry and may even have rabies. Foxes very rarely get rabies and opossum almost never.
Raccoons are not to be trusted and never try to handle or get too close to a sick, sluggish, or, of course, aggressive wild animal.
Years ago, the bobcat in our 300 plus acre neighborhood unfortunately wore out its welcome by eating too many chickens, geese and, including mine, ducks.
I understand how infuriating it can be to have your chickens eaten by wild animals, yet with some extra fencing and lots of patience it is possible to strike a truce with even the most pesky varmints around.
We now have coyotes which are doing a pretty good job of controlling rabbits, squirrels, iguanas and other wildlife that tend to over reproduce.
They kill livestock, cats and dogs though. It has been shown that coyotes are actually good for bird populations because they drive off the feral cats that eat ninety percent of fledgling birds. I keep my dog close when they are in the neighborhood.
Listen for their yips when a firetruck screams by. It is different than the howling and barking of dogs. Also, your dog will respond to their yips more aggressively.
You may not like some of these creatures, but it may be worth waiting and giving them a chance to fit in before hiring a trapper to get rid of them.
Valuable Native Weeds
Valuable Native Weeds That Attract Wildlife
It is too bad that some of our native wildflowers are called weeds; these plants can remain mixed with your lawn or replace it entirely to benefit wildlife.
The two most colorful weeds that can take foot traffic and need mowing only once every few weeks include the powder puff mimosa, and fogfruit. Both can replace lawn entirely if you wish.
Powder puff has feathery leaves that close when touched, a pink flower and it doesn’t climb. It is just three inches tall, is very drought tolerant and is the larval food of the little yellow butterfly.
Fogfruit, or creeping Charlie, is low also, and has small leaves with round heads of white and pink flowers on a short stalk. This is a larval food for the white peacock and phaon crescent butterflies.
Lay down mulch after killing the grass and sprig one or both of these plants every square foot for a colorful, low maintenance groundcover. Water them only to establish and during extreme drought if needed.
Several other plants can remain in your lawn and will tolerate mowing. The corky passionvine is the larval food for three butterflies including the zebra-longwing, Julia and gulf fritillary.
Southern pencilflower has small yellow flowers and is the larval food for the barred yellow sulfur butterfy. The several species of cudweed should stay on the sidelines where they won’t get stepped on. They have silvery foliage and flowers which the American lady butterfly will lay her eggs on.
During the winter you will see many Virginia peppergrass plants in your lawn. This is the larval food for the great southern white butterfly which can become very numerous some years, yet does no harm. The young foliage is tasty in salads, adding a sharp mustard flavor similar to arugula.
Grasses are the larval food for various skipper butterflies. Try some of our ornamentals like fakahatchee, love grass, native foxtail, little bluestem, lopsided indiangrass, or broom sedge. These are too tall to be used in pathways though.
Basket grass and witchgrass love shade and grow as a three inch tall mat. They can be used in pathways. Even silky aster makes a nice grass replacement and has little yellow flowers on a foot tall stalk. This should go on the edge and not be walked on.
You may enjoy the book, Florida Butterfly Caterpillars And Their Host Plants by Marc Minno, Jerry Butler and Donald Hall-University Press of Florida. There are lots of pictures and lists of hosts in an easy format.
You will be surprised by the numbers of butterflies and birds that will make a home in your yard as you increase the diversity of plants. Even “weeds” in your lawn are important food sources.
Don’t forget that birds, like the wood warblers, migrate to South America in the fall. The October cold front will send them south in a hurry, so get out your binoculars and be ready for a great show as they stop and feed in your yard.
The hummingbirds arrive in mid September and the buntings follow soon after. Some of these two will stay the winter.
With plenty of seeds forming on your native lawn, the birds will have plenty to eat whether it is the seeds themselves, the insects that feed on the seeds or the spiders that feed on the insects.
Unwelcome Wildlife
Not all wildlife is welcome in our yards
Native green tree frogs, green anoles, southern toads and southern leopard frogs are rarely seen anymore.
When was the last time that you saw one? In the last twenty years I have noticed that nearly all of these creatures have been displaced by introduced exotic lizards and bufo toads.
The introduced brown anole will compete for food with our native green anole and also mate with it, thus destroying the green anoles’ genetic identity.
Now, from Cuba, comes the 19 inch, bright green knight anole which eats native and exotic frogs, toads, lizards, nestling birds, and anything else that will fit into its gaping mouth.
There are 33 introduced snakes and lizards in Florida that are established. More are on the way as they make the step from pets to pests upon escaping or being released into the wilds.
Of these introductions there are a few that cause great alarm and should be removed from the environment without delay.
The green iguana eats flowers, fruit and vegetation and has the potential to leave your yard in tatters with little food remaining for birds. In Cape Coral Florida, African Nile monitor lizards are common.
They grow to eight feet long and will eat sea turtle eggs and all manner of wildlife including your dog or cat. The common boa which reaches 13 feet in length is established in Dade County. The female gives birth to 15-40 young a year.
Now think hard about letting your kids outside knowing that a 26 foot long, 200 pound Burmese python might be about. This is a serious problem in Dade, Monroe and Collier counties where thousands of these monsters can be found near water and in trees.
In Everglades National Park, alligators, deer, bobcat, wading birds, fish and other animals have been found in the stomachs of captured pythons. I do worry when I go out in the yard at night. Each female lays around 46 eggs per clutch.
Although not a threat to people or pets, the two foot long brown basilisk lizard is fast and eats lizards, snakes, birds and fish. Each female can lay over 100 eggs per year.
It is found near canals and can even run on water which gives it the name, “Jesus Christ Lizard”. It reminds me of the small lizards in the scary opening scene of “Jurassic Park” when I see these creatures skulking about in some of our natural areas.
I consider them to be a menace to small birds like the warblers and dispose of any invasive creatures that I find in my yard.
These include Bufo toads, knight anoles, iguanas and the brown anoles. I am sorry to sound so intolerant, but if we are going to welcome our native species of wildlife into our yards, we will need to protect them from the result of our lack of regulation of exotic pets.
Fortunately the cold snaps of the last couple of years have done great harm to the populations of many of these pests.
The good news is that with the hawks eating the smaller exotic lizards, the native Carolina anoles are coming down from the tree tops and are now seen often in my yard.