Blueprints and River Rock

Landscaping Plan For a New House

94 degrees and 95% humidity makes it feel like 105 degrees outside and it is only the first week of summer in southwest Florida.  Watching the maintenance and landscaping crews work makes you wonder how they can work so hard in the heat, dripping wet they go from one job to the next beautifying yard after yard.

Cute Renovation

This house looks very different with the huge old bougainvillea standard removed the schefflera rearranged and the addition of panama roses.  The stone and weed barrier will help this elderly couple reduce maintenance.  Hazeltine designs and installs jobs of all sizes.

Before Mostly Junipers

I have designed and sold a few projects in Bobcat Trail in North Port this year these newer homes have the builders package landscape plan which generally consists of the same tired, cheap  plants; shore juniper, cabbage palms, Washingtonian palms, flax lily, iris and grasses. 

Tear Out

The skid loader makes short work of removing the old juniper and the weeping bottlebrush. The bottlebrush was good looking but planted to close to the house.  Maintenance for Bobcat Trail is done by a major national company and they trim all the bloom from the bottlebrush even though the clients have asked them not to, I replaced it with a palm at the proper spacing.

Sun Impatiens, Oh Yeah

Flowers spilling out of a pot surrounding the lamp post with a great new jasmine vine really changed the look of this house.  The homeowners are really happy with the new look.

No Real Landscaping Before

Cleared Property Line

I did not have the opportunity to meet with the owner of this property but that did not stop us from helping out with the landscaping.  This rental is owned by a woman in Miami and she wanted a spruce help that would help facilitate renting.  HNI to the rescue.  This quick fix up included chopping back the bush on the neighbors empty lot, adding some curb appeal to the road side and making the backyard more family friendly. 

Adding Curb Appeal

Many of the jobs I design have multiple components and frequently owners are absent so it is up to HNI to deliver the project on time and on budget, it is a good feeling to work for a company that is capable of delivering what it promises.  I ran Millgrove Landscaping with that philosophy and am pleased to continue with those values.

Bagged Stone

Topdressing beds with landscaping stone whether bagged or from a gravel pit is an effective method to help reduce weeds.  Landscaping fabric or weed barrier is installed under the fabric and weeds are kept at bay.  Gravel pits are in short supply down here in flat Florida so all stone is imported from other states.  I traveled to a few of our stone suppliers last week and got an education on how the stone gets to our southern most state.  Very interesting.

At Conrad Yelvington stone of various is brought into their yard by railcar.  A spur allows the cars to pull over a large pit with a heavy steel grate.  The car doors are opened and the stone drops into the pit.  The pit has a conveyor that runs under the road and then to the above ground belt which dumps it into the trucks.

The Conveyor

This will give you  an idea of why stone costs so much in FL, back in IN we could just go to the gravel pit and buy stone for around $ 12.00 a ton, down here all that shipping translates into stone that costs $ 120.00 a ton.  But it was a pretty cool to watch the stone being delivered.

Been awhile since I was required to wear a safety vest and hard hat but I did not mind.  I would prefer to have my own hardhat and not wear someone else's but that's okay.

The Grate Over the Pit

Florida Landscape Design

Loading the Shady Lady

In January I sold a 8" caliber Shady Lady Black Olive tree from our field.  Raphael and sons dug, loaded and planted the behemoth, I was impressed with their skills in getting the job done.  This single tree was one of the most expensive and impressive specimens that I have sold.  Hazeltine moves trees twice this size, that is some really heavy lifting. 

Strapping Her Down

August 1st will be my one year anniversary at HNI the last ten months have flown by, moving to Florida and settling into an entirely new routine, adjusting to city life and working on the house have filled the days. "Landscaping season" is opposite here in southwest Florida winter is peak sales time with "snowbirds", (seasonal residents ) mainly arriving in fall and leaving in spring.  Northeast Indiana where my business was located the seasonal folks opened their cottages Memorial Day and closed up Labor Day so those were the busiest months. 

Road Side Before

Deigning the landscaping and watching the installation at this house was a good experience.  The clients knew much of what they wanted and I made some suggestions along the way.  Corner lots are great and these folks bought the lot next to them and behind making theirs extra groovy.  Excavation took awhile but once that was complete Julio, James and Pablo were on track to install plants and irrigation.

After Landscaping

To install irrigation the county requires a backflow preventer.  The irrigation technician designed a water system coming directly off the main water supply, once that was installed Pablo began trenching and installing.

Trenching Irrigation Lines

Denise (the homeowner) and I went on a drive in the neighborhood so she could show me a bromeliad garden she really liked.  I drew a sketch for the excavator and he roughed in the island between two Sabal Palms, we planted 10 bromeliads 3 gallon and now Denise has room to collect and grow many more.

Bromeliad Island

Denise and John wanted concrete curbing installed which is a very durable product in Florida, about the only negative with concrete is that is not exactly adjustable.  In order to accommodate the curbing retrofit we left extra weed mat and stone, working with other contractors is often necessary in the trades.

This project has many components; landscaping, lighting, irrigation, drainage and hardscape, good thing Hazeltine does it all makes it all so much easier, no waiting for other people to get there end of the job completed.  The clients are not big fans of plants and maintenance so my design focused on pavers and function.  The paver entry welcomes you, the hose you can see will fit into a flower pot keeps the work load down for the clients.

Utility Walk

This paver walk leads to the garage utility door and makes setting out large trash bins a breeze.

Outstanding Entrance

Circle patio is plumbed for potted plants and makes a dynamic entrance.

Laying Pavers the Right Way

Laying in the final few feet of pavers where trash bins will be located.  Once the pavers are set the crew uses the flexible pvc to mark the line for cutting with the hand held concrete saw.  This process keeps the curves tight and looking great.

Concrete Destruction

Cutting out the old concrete to prepare for pavers was no easy task.  The hammer drill, chisels and concrete saw were all put to use.  I did not prepare the supervisor well for this so they were not real thrilled with me, but hey you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. 


Lots of projects going in, still working away in Paradise.

Queen Palm Seeds