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Variety Spice Of Gardener's Life

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By PENNY BRAGG

Special to the Tribune

Published: March 11, 2009

PLANT CITY - The Plant City Garden Club has presented its December beautification award to Sally Spooner of Paddock Drive, who moved here in May.

It has not even been a full year, yet she managed to do an amazing amount of work in her gardens. The yard was filled with plumbago, which is great, but she wanted variety. So she replaced much of it with new and interesting plants on all sides of her home.

All along the perimeter of the house, decorative pavers placed in a serpentine manner allow gardens to swell into larger areas out into the yard and then retreat back again up nearer to the house. These areas are mulched and planted with everything from ornamental grasses to small and bushy plants to small and medium-sized trees. Some are foliage plants and some are flowering.
Lava rocks and metal or ceramic sculptures are found here and there to add to the charm.

The largest area leading by walkway to the house has a sizable earthenware pot with bougainvillea in it and African iris and snowbush nearby. Little rust-colored lanterns lead the way to the house. By the front door is a large potted dracaena with a frog reclining on a "leaf chair" next to it. The pavers then run left along the front of the house where a hedge of loropetalum, also called Chinese fringe, is the backdrop for several plants such as pittosporum and mandevilla.

The centerpiece for the area on the left front of the house is a young bottlebrush tree. Plumbago, three pineapple plants, periwinkle, a coontie palm, a firecracker plant, a variegated hibiscus and oyster plants surround it. Around the left corner of the house, you pass by pittosporum and viburnum on your way to, and through, a white picket gate to the backyard. By the screened porch, Spooner has planted tibouchina, papyrus, bleeding heart, coontie palms and viburnum.

Out in the yard, there is a 12-foot lime that bears no fruit; however, a second fruit tree more than makes up for it. Through grafting, that tree is able to bring forth oranges, grapefruit, tangerines and lemons.

The back corner of the yard is home to a birdbath standing among Mexican petunia, angel trumpet, stromantha, jacobinia, day lilies and crotons. Along one side of the pool, there are chrysanthemums, four o'clocks, a copper plant, ixoras, periwinkle, kalanchoe and plumbago.

The back side of the pool is not just pretty; it also is a vegetable garden. Spooner has had good luck with her beefsteak tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and peas that are growing on a stringed pyramid. She also has broccoli, rainbow chard and an herb garden there. The herb garden offers dill, sweet basil, lemon, thyme and rosemary.

Turning the corner to the last side of the house, there is a multicolored birdhouse structure. It is not on a pole like we are used to seeing; instead, it has made excellent use of an old tree stump. Running from there to the front of the house, we pass by red hibiscus, marigolds, nasturtiums, purple shield and snowbush until we reach the right front corner of the house, where there is a crape myrtle tree, gardenia bushes, a pink hibiscus and lots of blooming periwinkle.

Penny Bragg is a member of the Plant City Garden Club.

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