When you start looking for outdoor plants safe for dogs here in Central Florida, it’s doggone disappointing at first.
Asiatic jasmine? Nope — toxic. Podocarpus? Toxic. Croton? Ti plant? Bougainvillea?
Nope, nope, nope.
Aw, man, so many Florida favorites! We’re clearly barking up the wrong tree. This might be ruff.
If you’re standing in the backyard with a ruler and your Pinterest patio printouts trying to decide how big your new patio should be, you might be overwhelmed.
You don’t want your cool new outdoor space to be way too big and cost more than it has to, but you don’t want things to feel too cramped, either, and have your party spill over into your pretty petunia beds.
What size patio do I need?
Ground Source landscape designer Eric Frisch says there’s no average patio size — the beauty of patio design is creating a space that perfectly suits your lifestyle. But he offers some helpful tips:
If you show up for your landscape design consultation, plop down in a chair and say, “I want to do something in my backyard but I haven’t really thought about it,” you’re doing it wrong.
Some landscaping tips are obvious: water your plants. Mow your lawn. Don’t plant those giant man-eating plants you saw in that really scary movie when you were 12.
It’s kind of fun to compare stuff.
It’s easy to get used to your home and all its quirks when you live there every day.
Let’s face it, the only truly hurricane-resistant landscaping is a bunch of fake plants arranged in a living room bunker underground.
Palm trees scream vacation. Maybe even louder than you scream “vacation!” as you load your packed suitcases into the car.
There are plenty of benefits to a small backyard:
1. Nobody asks you to host the family reunion. (Did you really want to grill 80 hot dogs?)
2. Tourists don’t mistake your place for a state park.
3. You don’t have to send a search party out to find the mail carrier who took a wrong turn and got lost.
Sure, big backyards get all the attention in the home and garden magazines, but your small yard deserves some landscaping luxury, too.
There are signs that prove you need a fire pit:
1. You’ve been making s’mores in the microwave. (We all know that’s a crime against marshmallows.)
2. You’ve been frequently sneaking over to enjoy your neighbor’s fire pit, sometimes wearing disguises so he doesn’t know how often you’re coming over.
3. You daydream about being a caveman.