Mistakes
We have made nearly every mistake in the book. I have plants that have been moved literally 6-8 times because I did not have a clear plan on what I was trying to do.
Our fist major boo-boo was putting down a ton of white marble rocks around the pool- can you spell G-L-A-R-E ??
They were blinding!! We thought it would make for easy maintenance but instead we have been digging them up ever since.
Once we remove them (mostly) we went through a stage of planting one of everything in a really ridiculous pattern-
There was no height, no flow and it just looked bad. We have since learned about grouping plants and combining textures.
It got so bad that in 1996 we took up every plant in the yard and redid the entire rear garden. I had plants sitting in pots, trees laying bare root on the patio, and trees in wheelbarrows- the only things not moved were two tall Queen Palms.
While all the plants were out we had a new privacy fence installed to replace the ghastly chain link. Here are some photos of the process-
Here are some of our landscape plants waiting for the new fence to be finished so they can be put back- hopefully in a better location.
Aerial view of the new fence soon after installation
New fence again
Every single square inch of shade I have in this yard was bought and paid for. This is our Carrotwood (Cupaniopsis anacardioides) tree going in- at the time it was looked upon favorable but has since been placed on the invasive list. It has not caused us any problems as underneath is mowed anyway so nothing sprouts.
Oh- I've got plenty more mistakes photos.... in time.