Have you heard of the term pique assiette? Becky is a master. Her masterpieces, garden, gardening skills and magical home were on display today.

Becky uses lots of the super tuff Sedum Florida Friendly Gold and succulents in her plantings and planters.

Above.  Our famous garden newspaper writer and blogger, Penny Carnathan, was busy with her camera snapping images of Becky’s Love Lies Bleeding.

pique assiette done so perfectly in so many places in Becky’s garden and home.

Queens Wreath on an arbor adorns their beautiful custom home.

We recently visited Stephen and Kristin Patagas, Landscape Architect and Designers home.

Together they call their design company Hortus Oasis. Visit their website for a look at their extensive body of work.

They have a new book, Southern Coastal Home Landscaping, you should check out if you have a home in Florida and enjoy your outdoor spaces and rooms. It is filled with great ideas and technique. The Table of Contents hints at what you will find but only hints as the images and illustrations and the clarity and depth of the ideas are a culmination of their life's work together making great outdoor spaces.

The Patagus landscape features primarily drought tolerant plants in unirrigated areas and no lawn.

Long time friend, Randy Knight joined us for the tour. Randy is the Director of Horticulture at The beautiful Polasek Sculpture Gardens and Museum in Winter Park that we will feature in an upcoming post.

Low maintenance, drought tolerant containers were used to feature their collection of containers and artifacts from Bali, the place where they have drawn much of their inspiration for their design.

The back yard is filled with raised beds of vegetables, a grape arbor featuring the Southern Home variety and butterfly garden plants.

That’s the neighbors lawn you see in the backdrop of this turf free property.

A look inside shows a designers talent and taste for collectables from around the world.

They are very fond of using Succulents and Bulbine for low maintenance, long lived and drought tolerance.

		Pacific Plug & Liner Combinations VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

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Three chartreuse sedums you will find at these Home Depot Garden Centers this spring will offer you new choices to cover the ground and feature plants, garden ornaments and collectibles. The chartreuse color of these hardy succulents contrasts with many of the colors of the flowers, foliage and objects you have in the garden.

Sedum Florida Friendly Gold is quickly becoming one of the most popular perennials for it’s striking color and wide range of use possibilities in the full sun and even in a setting where you get shifting or filtered shade all day.

Sedum Florida Friendly Gold is also available in convenient 9 pack trays.

Use them as a unifying ground cover in front of the garden border or along your home or garden fence border where you feature other showy plants. You can also use it to Shrink the Size of Your Lawn.

Sedums and succulents are great combination planter components that can thrive on neglect.

Sedum Fine Leaf Gold is a beautiful container plant that spreads and fills to make a solid carpet with an appealing texture.

Sedum Ogon as a container plant that fills, contrasts and cascades in your containers. Extremely easy to grow and share.

Durability and low maintenance are another reason to weave these low growers into your garden.

These sedums work well as pot toppers and SPILLERS in your container gardens.

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This week I visited The Discovery Garden at the Hillsborough County Extension Office

as the Master Gardeners did a spring cleanup and planting.

It should be ready for prime time Monday but call before you go or check the status on their web site.

They decided to employ the Pot-in-Pot method for their most colorful plantings of seasonal flowers.

In the Pot-in-Pot containers they have selected Voltage Yellow Osteospermum which is the first truly Florida Friendly Osteospermum. Voltage Yellow is available most of the year at your local Florida Home Depot Garden Centers. As a permanent border they planted Sedum Florida Friendly Gold which is becoming one of the most popular chartreuse groundcovers and combination container plants.

At the Discovery Garden you can see the 9 principles of Florida Friendly Landscaping in action and learn how they can help you design and maintain a home garden and landscape that is easy to maintain, beautiful and has a positive effect on the Florida environment.

There are many of these similar U of F Demonstration Gardens around the state and much of the funding comes from Florida Yards and Neighborhoods programs and the plants are usually all donated from growers like Riverview Flower Farm.

Rocky was captured that morning at the Discovery Garden and is ready for transplanting elsewhere.

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The Outdoor Room is one of the best shows on Television for garden design inspiration and the producers have scripted it with just enough drama and conflict in each episode to make it very entertaining. The episode, French Garden, is inspired by Patrick Blanc who invented the Vertical Garden concept. Vertical Garden images and Patrick Blanc images on Google will give you some ideas and possibly inspiration to think of how they might accent you home or garden spaces. I recently attended the Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition in Ft Lauderdale and found quite a selection of Living Wall options available. Here is a YouTube on How to make a Patrick Blanc style living wall and another YouTube from an Australian firm.

We have plans in the works for an affordable option for your patio or garden room. Keep up with us here and on Facebook for the details.

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