In Jo's Yard - 10 Killing the Grass

May 25 and June 7 Green Isle Gardens herbicides the entire yard.  If I had known enough and been able to have all the preparation done in the first six months of owning the house, they probably could have picked up the squares of sod.  The workers mark the property lines with orange.  The herbicide is applied professionally so that it only affects my yard.  The blue coloring marks where they’ve been – the grass never looked better!  Now, I wait.  

                                       Blue coloring marks where herbicide has been applied

In Jo's Yard - 9 Keeping My Neighbors Informed

Green Isle Gardens has contacted the appropriate authorities to come mark the yard, so that disaster can be averted when they come to plant!   One person comes to mark WATER and one person comes to mark everything else – electric, cable, and so on. 

I decide to take the advice from someone on the garden tour – I will email my neighbors to let them know what is happening.  While I would like to get more people to consider a Native Landscape, I am hoping at least to avoid having any complaints filed against me.  I write to my neighbors:

Dear friends and neighbors,

I’m writing to give you some news about what will be happening in my yard, so you won’t be surprised.  I am converting my landscape to 100% Florida Native Plants.  I hired a professional landscape designer and the plan was approved by The Villages a little while ago [http://www.districtgov.org/departments/Community-Standards/community-standards.aspx ] . 

I have contracted with Green Isle Gardens to remove the grass and install the plants.  [ http://www.greenislegardens.com/ ]

Weather permitting Green Isle Gardens will herbicide the grass one day this week.  The herbicide is dry after about 30 minutes and can be walked on in a couple of hours after application, however, I recommend that you keep your pets away.  It will take about 3 weeks for the grass to die.  So I apologize now for the way it will look, but IT WILL GET BETTER.

Week 4, Green Isle Gardens will begin installing the new trees, shrubs and flowers.  We are doing this in two parts – (1) installing trees/shrubs/flowers in the front yard and installing all the ground cover plants in entire yard and (2) probably around late October-November, installing remainder of the trees/shrubs/flowers along the sides and in the back. 

In the meantime – if anyone would like to take away the plants I currently have (provided by The Villages with the house), you are welcome to them.  Just let me know ahead of time, and you can come dig them up anytime before Green Isle Gardens takes them away in June.   

I've got the nice tree in my front yard (ever-green), a nice holly bush near my garage and around the lamp post

• 12 - Indian Hawthorn, white flowers
•  6 - landscaper thought it was a kind of Viburnum - can grow into nice hedge, white flowers
•  8 - Loropetalum - pink flowers    

Thank you for understanding while my yard is in transition. 

    Water and Utilities are marked in my yard in preparation for converting my yard to native plants

In Jo's Yard - 8 Drone Photo "BEFORE"

A chapter member has a drone.  I asked if he would come take “before photos” of my yard.  It was fascinating to see how that worked and just a few days later, the photos were in my email.  This yard does not look interesting to me.  I am excited for what is to come!  

In Jo's Yard - 7 Working with Green Isle Gardens

April 20, Kirsten Sharp-Ortega from Green Isle Gardens (http://www.greenislegardens.com/about-us.html) stops by and we walk around the yard discussing the plan from Grounded Solutions.  I’ve cut out a number of plants that Amanda included, after I hear about the amount of space or care they will need.  For instance, I live in the Village of Pine Hills, so I was hoping to have some pine trees.  While a small slash pine tree looks so endearing when it’s young, and may be considered a slow-grower, it grows quite tall and really should be about 30 feet from any buildings.  I didn’t want to think about having to remove it down the line.  I also wanted to have room for small plants to fill in, and to maybe add something later – say if I were to win a plant raffle at an FNPS meeting.  I want to watch my garden grow and evolve -  I don’t want a “finished product” from day 1.  Emails were exchanged to tweak the layout and the plant list.  A plan in forming.  

While I would like to avoid chemicals, removing the sod is just too expensive compared to spraying the herbicide to kill the grass.  I am on Green Isle Garden’s calendar for the end of May to kill all of the grass by spraying with herbicide.  We will plant the front half of the yard in June or July (depending on weather) and the back half will be covered in pine straw to prevent weeds or grass from popping up.  Then, in September or October, we will plant the rest of the yard.  This will give my checking account a little break.  

                             A young pine tree – very attractive – but it won’t stay like this for long.  

In Jo's Yard - 6 Getting ARC Approval

It is March 2018 when Grounded Solutions (www.groundedsol.com) provides the final designs by email as PDF attachments.  Amanda, the designer, notes “I've done my best to keep the design clean, yet natural, for a true habitat experience for birds, butterflies and other pollinators. Seasonal color will be abundant while also being constrained to a more architectural shape of the shrubs and grasses.” 

Now I need to get approval from The Villages’ ARC (Architectural Review Committee).  In Maryland, I lived in a townhouse community for almost 30 years, and was on the Board there.  The community intermittently had an ARC.  There were plenty of rules about public appearance, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept.  I was fortunate to have input from Steve Turnipseed, president of The Villages Chapter of FNPS. 

I dutifully went to the website to find the proper requirements and application form: https://www.districtgov.org/       I clicked on the COMMITTEES tab and chose Architectural Review Committee from the drop down menu.  The left hand side showed FORMS AND PUBLICATIONS.  The bottom of that page showed ARC Application Process -> oops, that’s just a flow chart.  Architectural Review Committee (ARC) Application Form -> AHA!  That’s the ticket!  It’s remarkably short (It has since been revised Oct 2018 to include a CHECKLIST). 

I submit my request to ARC on March 25 and inform them in the email that I plan to attend the April 4 meeting, when they review my request.  On April 3, I make a call to be sure that I will be on the next day’s review schedule.  I am informed that my request was referred to “the Developer” because my Village (Pine Hills) is new and does not yet have a representative on the ARC.  So I call the Developer to find out if I can meet with him.  I get an appointment for Thursday, April 5.  When I sit down with him and give him my address, he immediately replies – Oh I think I approved that already, and asks an AA to look for a copy.  Voila!  The approval expires Oct 31, 2018.  That works for me. 

Now to contact Green Isle Gardens, A Florida Native Plant Nursery (WEBSITE: http://www.greenislegardens.com/           VIDEO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZvdbo6NQMs)


                                                    My Stamp of Approval