School entrance - making the world a nicer place

[NOT A TA]

Some people donate money to good causes, some people give their time at hospitals or other places, some coach a team, I landscape places where no one else will. I noticed there was interest in a couple threads here where people had planted or donated to public places so I figured I'd share this project I'm just finishing, if there's interest I'll start a new thread for each new project as I do them.. I've been a plant guy 50+ years with lots of experience & education so I grow all the plant material from seed, cuttings etc. and try to spend as little money as possible. I stick to easy to grow plant materials that require minimal or no real care and ones that won't require irrigation once established (in this area) because there typically isn't any irrigation where I plant.

This project is the rear entrance to the biggest high school in the area and happens to be near my home. While the front entrance to the school looks OK the rear looked horrible. It appeared that the contractor who did the landscaping just never installed any plants or anything where they should have. I'm fairly certain the plans for the school would have only been approved with landscaping at the rear  entrance but unlike electrical, structural, plumbing etc. which gets inspected as a project is completed, landscaping doesn't. So this is a way the general contractor can increase the profit margin. I was a landscape designer in a former life and saw this happen on projects where I did design work, appeared before zoning boards etc. to ensure city approval only to go to the site years later and find the things I'd put in landscape designs and proposals were never completed. So this rear entrance doesn't really surprise me.

All of the school buses use this entrance plus a couple hundred students who get dropped off or are walkers as well as all the people who attend adult education at night. There was a road through the property that was just cut off when the school was built in the early 2000's. There really should have been a turnaround installed outside the school gate (which may have been in the designs) but that wasn't done so the road just leads to a fence. Aside from the school gate there's also a gate to an access road that leads to a potable water supply tank/chemical area. Neither the county school board or the city services people will maintain the area outside their gates, and the street department won't maintain the road. So Vigilante Landscaping & Maintenance steps in!

I started this project early last fall before I was a member here and had planned on doing the project a couple years prior so I'd been growing plant materials specifically for this area. There's no irrigation in either planting bed and probably never will be any. The area the utility pole is in has just "sugar" sand really for soil. The area along the chain link fence has a little better soil but certainly not appropriate "top soil" you'd want to plant in.

So here's a few before pics of the school gate area, pole island, and access road entrance for water supply area. The workers needing to use the access road wouldn't close the gate & lock it because rain water would form a deep puddle outside the gate and sit there for days so they'd have to walk in a deep puddle to open the gate. The access road had become a place for people to go at night because there's no lights so they'd go there to party, do drugs etc. and neighbors were calling the police so often they stropped showing up. One of the first things I did was to dig a drainage ditch so no more puddle, informed water employees, asked them to lock gate,  and now the gate gets closed & locked. Problem solved.

 

[redant]

Good luck on the project. It's really hard to get much to grow on conditions like that. I have a long strip across the strip from me that's like that and I have become the caretaker of it. While many palms will survive the growth rate is super slow.  Things that will work there are live oaks, slash pines, royal Poinciana trees, foxtails, some phoenix palms, possibly coconuts, Sunshine Palm, Montgomery Palm and Adonidia merrillii.    

[hbernstein]

Don't forget the nearly unkillable state tree; Cabbage Palm . Add some Slash Pine and you are well on your way to attracting migratory birds. Underplant with Saw Palmetto to protect the pines and discourage loitering. Voila, a simplified Florida landscape.

[NOT A TA]

32 minutes ago, redant said:

Good luck on the project. It's really hard to get much to grow on conditions like that. I have a long strip across the strip from me that's like that and I have become the caretaker of it. While many palms will survive the growth rate is super slow.  Things that will work there are live oaks, slash pines, royal Poinciana trees, foxtails, some phoenix palms, possibly coconuts, Sunshine Palm, Montgomery Palm and Adonidia merrillii.    

Thanks for the tips! Most of my previous experience was up North in zone 5 so it's a whole different world here in 10B. To make it more of a challenge I moved into a neighborhood where I'm one of very few adults with English as a first language and it's my only language! So even though neighbors involved in landscape maintenance can give me things to make new plants from they don't even know the common names never mind Latin or info on growing requirements. I've learned more of the names on this forum in the past 6 months than I did the previous 14 years since I bought a home here and admittedly I'm not fond of memorizing. When I ran a nursery I couldn't (didn't want to try) to remember all the names of all the plants we sold so I had charts and lists. hahaha  I studied a lot of the common plants here and their habitats but didn't know many names common or Latin. So I've been experimenting for years putting plants under extreme conditions to see what lives.

Here's some of the experimental plants a few years ago next to some car paint testing which was actually why the pic was taken. Full sun in the middle of my back yard while I was trying to kill all the "lawn" by drought.

[NOT A TA]

40 minutes ago, hbernstein said:

Don't forget the nearly unkillable state tree; Cabbage Palm . Add some Slash Pine and you are well on your way to attracting migratory birds. Underplant with Saw Palmetto to protect the pines and discourage loitering. Voila, a simplified Florida landscape.

There are about a half dozen mature Sabal palmettos behind the fence I'm planting in front of. When I'm no longer able to occasionally weed the plantings I have no doubt they'll take over the area. Up until I started planting the areas would get mowed/weed whacked once or twice a year to keep the weeds down so the Sabal seedlings were killed off. I dug several out as I've progressed.

Slash pine would probably be a bit to big for these areas but a great suggestion I may use elsewhere and I'll have to start propagating for future use. Saw Palmetto would probably be frowned upon next to a school walkway. Imagine a kid throwing another into them fooling around or during an after school fight since my plantings are just off "school grounds". Rumor has it there were over 150 fights at the school this past year.

[NOT A TA]

My first step was to kill off the weeds along curbs, sweep, clean up litter and tidy up the area in general. Once that was done I started planting Crown of Thorns Euphorbia milii in the planter with the utility pole. I'd been testing their drought tolerance and thought maybe, just maybe, they'd survive long term if I could get them established. I also planted three Cactus which I have no idea what the name of is. However they propagate easily, gain some height but not enough to hit the electric wires above, and are drought tolerant in that they'll die back as needed then recover.  I just ripped out the weeds where I wanted to put each plant initially knowing they might die from various causes.

[NOT A TA]

As I continued planting  it became very obvious that trucks and cars would continue to drive over the curb/planter at the pointed end. There's no street lights in the area so at night drivers in cars can't see that it's not a circle around the pole. I've been trying to get the city to put lights back up. There were some before the school was built. Anyway to stay on topic. I decided a bollard was needed because the box trucks etc who end up here because their GPS hasn't been updated since the street was cut off just drove over the planter rather than have to make a three point turn.

As mentioned previously I don't want to spend money on these operations so I asked a plumber friend where I could get an old fat piece of pipe to make a bollard. I figured he probably came across some being replaced knowing the work he does and explained why I wanted it. He said he'd keep an eye out and two days later I got a call. He had a brand new piece twice as long as I needed and it was at his home awaiting my arrival!!!  Apparently they have "scraps" that big on the large jobs he works on. So I jumped in my truck to go fetch it!

Next I cut it in half to suit my needs. I work with metal a lot so I have tools to cut things like this. Then I bought a couple bags of concrete mix at the big box store, waited for appropriate conditions on a weekend when no school use, and installed the bollard. Went back a few days later & painted. As you can see by this time I've cleaned out all the weeds and planted more.

[NOT A TA]

Projects like this take lots of hours and being in S FL it's no fun out in the open when the sun is high even during winter. Couple that with the school schedule and I found evenings just before dark was a good time to plant a few more things, weed, and water. I collect roof run off rain water, put in containers, and throw them in my truck bed. Then I have them ready whenever there isn't enough rain. Pic below was taken when I arrived as by the time I leave it's too dark for pics although that's when it looks the best because it's weeded & cleaned up. You can see by this time I've decided the Euphorbia milii will probably survive and started planting larger specimens. Also planted some variegated Agave to see how they might do.

[NOT A TA]

Next I turned my attention to the area by the water dept. access road and figured I'd work my way from there around to the school gate.  I planted a three clump of Adonidia merrillii on each side of the gate and started planting the purple plants as ground cover. I don't know the name of them but they're easy to propagate, grow on lousy soil, and are drought tolerant. Since I knew I'd need a couple thousand of them I had container ranches full of them I'd started long before starting the on site work. Note the police car in the background. I think it's kinda funny they watch me doing landscaping on public property in the city's "right of way" and compliment me, never asking if I actually have permission to do the work.

[NOT A TA]

I kept moving along the fence area 5'-10' at a time removing weeds & planting.  I've planted a couple different types of small trees that flower at different times of year so there should be white flowers throughout the school year. Sorry but I don't know even know the common names of the trees but like the other plants they'll tolerate lousy soil & occasional drought once established based on my observations & testing. During the winter (our dry season)  I was at the site at least twice a week planting and to provide water to all the plants other than the ground cover. Even when planting in bone dry soil they purple ground cover didn't get water because that would just require too much water & effort on my part. If planted in dry soil they'd look lousy till eventually it'd rain. Then they'd perk up. Once spring rains started arriving they started actually growing.

I started planting a section of Bromeliads in the widest area along the walkway by the fence Neoregelia carolinae tricolor I learned from someone on the forum (thank you).

[NOT A TA]

As I got closer to the school gate the planter area gets too narrow for trees so I used some large flowering plants I've been growing. Again based on drought tolerance etc. They have showy flowers in spring/summer and get pretty large like 3'-4' tall and 3' wide. I got the mom along the side of the road. There was a small nursery that closed I passed by often and admired the plant. After the nursery was gone most of the ornamental things they'd planted in the hell strip died off for lack of water and I knew the city would be by soon to maintain the roadsides by cutting everything to the ground with mowers. So I rescued" it and sure enough everything was buzzed to dirt a few weeks later. Mom before rescue in first pic and pic of moms flower in last, if anyone can put a name to this plant I'd be grateful.  Pups in planter pic is after I'd potted them up and let them grow on their own a while till I got to this section.

[NOT A TA]

My plan included planting along the outside of the fence on the East side of the school along the large canal. There's a lot of traffic on the canal with fishing from shore, boating, jet skis, walkers, etc. and the school fence/property isn't exactly "scenic" like the other side of the canal is, so I thought I'd fix it. I started by planting a Cocos nucifera outside the fence midway between each light which are on the school side of the fence so the fronds wouldn't block the lights and the night visual of the palms being backlit at dusk would be cool looking.  Between Coco palms I had groupings of Plumeria, Cactus, Dypsis Lutescens as well as other large plants and ground covers. The school maintains the 5' strip outside the fence and weed whacked & used weed killer around all the plants I'd installed.

The people who maintain the grass between the school and the canal didn't like my plantings so much and left me a note like the one below on almost every plant, must have taken them a while because I'd gotten about 1/2 way to the bridge you can see way off in the distance. So I had to remove all the plants, truckloads. Can't drive my truck by the canal because too much risk of getting stuck in the sugar sand with only rear wheel drive and everything including water for planting was brought in/out by wheelbarrow & hand truck.  So a lot of time & work wasted, but that's part of the game. Take the risk, pay the price if things don't work out and just move on.

[palmsOrl]

That is real dedication to the community.  Lovely work and it is a shame about the plants along the canal.  Would the coconuts have presented a problem with the power lines above or were they not directly under the lines?

[HtownPalms]

What a great project! It's great to see people like you spending so much of their time and resources trying to make their community better. It's a shame about the plants by the canal. 

[NOT A TA]

42 minutes ago, palmsOrl said:

That is real dedication to the community.  Lovely work and it is a shame about the plants along the canal.  Would the coconuts have presented a problem with the power lines above or were they not directly under the lines?

The Coconuts would interfere with the wires eventually. The actual power wires are up really high but I didn't plan on leaving them that long anyway. I wanted to use the Coconuts as a little bit of canopy for a couple years and would cut them when they started to reach the bottom wire. Because the level of water in the canal is low compared to the elevation the Cocos were planted at they'd appear backlit by the lights from boats before they reached the height of the lamps.

The reason the drainage district doesn't want plantings like that is because over time you end up creating a naturalized area encroaching on the canal which then costs a lot to clear because of all the Palmettos etc that would grow. I knew that going forward but took the risk that they might make me remove. So instead we'll have to wait for the volunteer Palmettos already growing along the fence line, many of which are already trunking since it's been 15 years since the school was built.

[NOT A TA]

4 minutes ago, HtownPalms said:

What a great project! It's great to see people like you spending so much of their time and resources trying to make their community better. It's a shame about the plants by the canal. 

Thank you!

One day about 4-5 months into the project when I was there planting a group of 5-6 male students came out the gate hours after school had been dismissed and strayed from their path to walk over to where I was working then lined up in front of me. The first one said "Thank you for fixing up our school" and held out his hand to shake then each one behind stepped forward saying "thank you" with a hand shake.  Have to admit I was a bit relieved being a lil ole man there alone, if you saw this same group standing on a corner of a bad inner city neighborhood you'd assume they were gang members. Was really nice to know they appreciated the work I was doing even if I was a bit nervous as they headed toward me.

[HtownPalms]

NOT A TA,

That's great to hear that they appreciate what you are doing! I think we get so used to hearing about all the rotten people in the world that we tend to forget most of us are genuinely nice and grateful people.

[NOT A TA]

2 hours ago, HtownPalms said:

NOT A TA,

That's great to hear that they appreciate what you are doing! I think we get so used to hearing about all the rotten people in the world that we tend to forget most of us are genuinely nice and grateful people.

Thanks!

I try to forget how the rotten people have pretty much ruined the rest of my life. I'm a glass half full kinda guy and lucky to still be alive!

[NOT A TA]

I had a couple buckets of the purple ground cover plants ready to go (I plant them bare root) so I planted them this evening and took some current pics when I got there. It would be great if I could take pics after weeding etc. but it's always too dark by then. Anyway on to pics, gotta get my moneys worth out of Photobucket!

[kinzyjr]

Thank you for sharing the progress of this project.  This is a really enjoyable thread!  I was recently asked to participate in the landscaping of a "lunch area" and hoping to make it half as nice as this looks.

[Merlyn]

That planting looks great!  The oysters should do a really nice job of choking out the weeds, at least they've done that in my yard.  They are also reasonably resistant to oversprays of weed killers like Roundup.  Post some followup pictures later this fall, when everything has a chance to really grow in!

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

@NOT A TA Thanks for sharing your amazing work within your community. I can only imagine how rewarding it mustve been to have those young men shake your hand. Keep up the great work !!! 

[NC_Palms]

Amazing project! I wish the best of luck to you.

[NOT A TA]

OYSTER PLANTS!!!! Thank you Merlyn2220 !  I've been asking people for almost 15 years what their name was. AND, now I know where the occasional rash on the inside of my forearms might be coming from.

Thanks for all the compliments. Current goal is to get things weeded & trimmed along with continuing to fill in the Qysters and power wash the walkway and curbs before school starts in a few weeks. The walk & curb cleaning should really make a big difference in appearance. I've already started the next project (much smaller scope) and will start a thread on it. The next large project I have planned is the local Post Office which I'll probably start in Sept. and have been growing plants for the past few years.

[The Gerg]

Kudos to you. That’s a wonderful thing you’re doing.

[NOT A TA]

Found a google street view from before I started planting. Can pan around to get a better idea of the area than my pics. Since it had rained recently you can see the puddle the municipal water people didn't want to have to stand in if they pulled up to a locked gate.

https://www.instantstreetview.com/@26.465155,-80.095766,279.17h,-20.19p,0z

[NOT A TA]

On 7/24/2019 at 9:54 PM, Merlyn2220 said:

 The oysters should do a really nice job of choking out the weeds, at least they've done that in my yard.  They are also reasonably resistant to oversprays of weed killers like Roundup. 

As I removed all the original weeds and planted the palms, oysters, broms, etc. I kept thinking "the oysters will fill in & choke out the weeds", meanwhile trying to move along planting new sections while weeding previously planted areas at the same time was seriously slowing planting progress so weeding the big bed which is 120' long got neglected for a few months. Now I'm working my way back through weeding and planting more oysters between previously planted ones. I think the weeds won the first round, can't wait for the oysters to fill in!

[Rickybobby]

Awesome work looks great!

[Merlyn]

Another plant that would probably do well is the "Xanadu" Philodendron.  They stay relatively low, maybe 2 feet tall maximum, but they'll grow a pretty decent sized clump over 1-2 years, around 3-4 feet diameter.  I think the oysters are tougher, but you can cut off the mini philodendrons to propagate those too. 

I planted about 10 pots of oysters in the backyard bed this spring, and half of them rotted away and died.  I have no idea why, because the others right next to them grew into a dense cluster about 2' in diameter and 6-10" high.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think the ones that died didn't like the May drought + blazing sun.  The ones that died are the darker green ones, I think the variegated ones like the sun more.  In my front flower beds the darker green ones are not creeping out into the sunny areas, but the pink-white-purple-green striped ones called "tricolor" are moving right along:

https://garden.org/plants/view/541759/Variegated-Oyster-Plant-Tradescantia-spathacea-Variegata/

Edited August 1, 2019 by Merlyn2220

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Cool project!  Things are always rough around schools...  

I used to live in Delray, if you want some free seed, go to the townhouses around southbound federal hwy an NE 3rd...  Planted some Chambeyronia and other pretties in and around the small neighborhood and no one there cares about them, no one will run you off if you walk in on foot... 

 

 

[NOT A TA]

The Guerrilla gardening thread prompted me to take some pics today when I finally got to this school entrance project for fall clean up. I normally get there before the school year starts but I've been very busy rebuilding the exterior of my house and haven't had any time. One of the downsides of projects like this is that no one else will step in and do the maintenance.  So as you'll see in the pics the weeds have taken over.

Plants are growing fairly well but not as well as the weeds! The only plants that have been fertilized are the Adonidia merrillii, and nothings been watered for a couple years other than new plants I put in to replace stolen ones. Most of the plants I'd put in the island didn't make it so I'm going to try different ones. The soil is basically sugar sand and with full sun, surrounded by pavement, and no irrigation, it's a hot dry place even though we get almost 60" of annual rainfall.. Even the weeds die from drought at certain times, the only thing that survives are Sabal palmetto but I can't let them grow there because it would be wrong.

So anyway, here's some "before" pics as it looked when I arrived.  As is my norm, I worked till dark so no after pics till I go there again to continue.

 

[WaianaeCrider]

Wow!  Lotta love work.  My lot is to big to plant outside of it.  LOL   About 30 years ago I planted a row of Foxtails along a path from one school building to the library.  Thought it would look nice in time.  The next weekend someone pulled them out.  LOL 

[NOT A TA]

Since my plan is to take pics of previous work upon arrival when there's light, here's today's pics. Earlier in the week I started the fall clean up by getting weeds off the sidewalk, digging out all the weeds along the long curb, and scraping up as much sediment as possible. Drainage is poor and if I don't keep a channel open a lot of sediment accumulates over time and I end up with a lot of dirt to remove along with the weeds that grow in it.  With that done I started cleaning out the weeds in the island and put a fresh coat of safety yellow on the bollard. Starting to look better already!

[NOT A TA]

Pic below when I arrived today.  Since It was a Sat. night I just left the mess and bags of weeds because it was already dark and no one else would care but me anyway and I'd planned on returning this evening to work on it.  Yesterday I continued pulling weeds in the island and sprayed Wet & Forget on about 1/3 of the long concrete sidewalk.  I've been saying for years I'd power wash the sidewalk and then spray the W&F but I just never want to spend the 8-10 hours power washing.  So I'm trying the W&F without power washing the walkway beforehand and we'll see how well it works.  Clean sidewalk and curbing concrete would/will really make a difference in overall appearance.

For those who never heard of Wet & Forget it's a chemical that gets mixed with water and sprayed on outdoor surfaces prone to mold. Invented by our friends down under in New Zealand IIRC.  With our high rainfall and humidity here in S FL concrete gets covered with unsightly black mold after a while as you can see in all the previous pics. Spraying with W&F kills the mold and keeps it clean looking for about a year.  For customers I do maintenance for, I power wash and then spray the W&F.  Slowly over a couple months the concrete gets even brighter looking than it looks immediately after power washing.  When the W&F is sprayed on the area looks the same after it dries, so there's no instant gratification.  It slowly begins working and each time it rains it looks nicer and nicer as the mold dies and gets washed away.  Supposedly you can use a hose periodically but I've never tried that method as this is the first time I've even tried it without power washing first.  I buy the stuff in bulk and it ends up costing me $30.00 per gallon with tax shipped  (of concentrate) which makes 6 gallons of spray solution. The 120' walk and island curb will probably take about 6 gallons of solution so my cost is roughly $30.00 to do the whole area. It's sold at big box stores and Ace in 1/2 gal jugs for roughly $30.00 suitable for typical homeowners.

[Little Tex]

Update?

[NOT A TA]

I've taken pics each time I went to work on the area but then get busy and forget to update this thread. I cleared out all the weeds and most of the old plantings in the island because the Crown of Thorns didn't survive dry periods and I certainly won't be around forever to water during dry spells. I planted Zamia furfuracea Cardboard Palm Cycads to replace them because they seem to withstand dry periods well here, we'll see if they can survive in the sugar sand. I incorpoated a bit of organic matter when planting but that's only really enough to get them going and then hopefully they'll get big enough to store enough water on their own to make it through dry spells. Also planted some flowers to provide a little color.