June 2023 

Instant Landscapes 

By Teresa Watkins 

Creating
a Beach-view Octopus Garden

There is a great Beatles
song, 'Octopus's Garden' that suggests a perfect theme for your
summer beach gardening scene.  What better way to bring the ocean
into your own backyard ⸺ whether you live in Miami, Florida or
Miami, Oklahoma ⸺ than to have a landscape that whisks
you down under the sea to Neptune's tidal garden when your eyes behold it, and
you don't even need to worry about the salt spray or getting sunburned.

 On
a previous visit to the Discovery Gardens at the UF/IFAS Lake County
Extension Discovery Gardens, I was thrilled to see an Ocean Reef Children's
garden. The three bedding plants used to inspire the school children?s
imaginations got my creative energies whirling and I thought,What a great
theme!

To
start, if you live by the seashore or close to the ocean, you need to know what
plants will thrive in an alkaline, salt water location. A great resource for
selecting salt-tolerant plants is by a local Florida beach city nursery, Rockledge Gardens.

But
how does that help a land-locked sea dog gardener like you? If you don't have a
beautiful beachfront landscape yet you yearn to lie on a beach towel and catch
the rays in your own underwater paradise, put a conch shell to your ear and
read on.

Here
are some suggestions to help you create your own Octopus's Garden. I've
selected a variety of flowers, shrubbery, trees, and groundcovers guided by
Poseidon and maritime-sounding common names to invoke our undersea theme. How
many do you recognize? Remember to make sure the sunlight, soil, zone
hardiness, and moisture conditions are right for your own backyard before
buying and installing any of these plants.

Flowers
and Shrubs

Anemones, Anemone
coronaria, also known as windflowers, are members of the buttercup
family. But the sea anemones (get it?) are creatures whose brightly colored
shapes and cluster of tentacles outwardly resemble terrestrial flowers. In
your beach garden, anemones are flowering bulbs that will bloom in the spring
and summer and like sunny areas in northern climes and partial shade in the
South.  Shrimp plants, Justicia brandegeana is a good choice.
Put a few of these lovely butterfly and hummingbird-attracting flowers close to
your Bar-bee. Bright yellow, greyish-green, or red flowers, these plants love
the sun and are pest resistant.

To
read the entire article at Teresa?s Horticultural Coaching: https://bit.ly/3IrXJaJ