[willbush]

Originally Posted by bobdeb

Just my opinion, however, I do have some experience with the following.

These are some things I highly recommend you Do Not plant in your yard in The Villages. Please add whatever else you feel is appropriate.

1. Live Oak. Well, you may not have a choice here as one may already exist on your property. I love oak trees, and the shade they offer is welcomed from the heat of the sun.

However, you be forever dealing with relentless and testy little leaves and acorns that are difficult to control and clean up. They will ruin your lawn.

Personally, I would resist buying a home that already had an oak tree in the yard. And your nearby neighbor's live oak tree will also add to your endless yardwork.

They grow slowly but will eventually become enormous and offer yet more leaves and acorns.

2. Magnolia trees. These also grow very large and add to your relentless yard work. The flowers are lovely but I'm not a big fan of the huge leaves.

3. Citrus trees. Don't do it. It's tempting I know. Citrus trees take more care than one might imagine. So many of these grow unattended. There may be exceptions with some folks but the fruit will be beyond your ability to process or give away. It will fall and rot and attrack rats. And, in turn, the rats will attract snakes. Fruit trees are especially problematic for snow birds to manage.

The upside is that many citrus trees are quite attractive and the scent of the blossoms is exquisite.

4. Palm trees. I have four sylvester (king) palms, one pindo and one European fan.

The king and queen palms will grow beyond your ability to prune yourself. You will have to hire a crew annually to do that for you. Also, all palms have incredibly nasty thorns. You could lose an eye if not careful. The immature leaves are sharp spikes. Queen palm pods are extremely heavy and they will fall. The fruit from the king palms is significant to clean up.

European fan palms are full of needle like black slivers.

Face it, these trees evolved to protect themselves. It's tempting but don't plant palm trees. You'll thank me some day.

5. Anything else with nasty thorns unless you want a barrier between your home and your neighbors.

As a person (with the help of my lovely wife) who does his own landscaping, you are spot on with your recommendations; one note, if you have a live oak that is I believe 4inches or less in diameter you can remove it without permission; also some have requested removal that was granted. Those items you mentioned require a lot of extra work; our yard is filled with easy to maintain bushes requiring little maintenance; PS we get a lot of comments on how nice our yard looks

[Art cov]

This thread has been informative and entertaining! I love plants and trees, however after suffering through storms (in other areas of the country) I don’t want any trees in close range of my home. I enjoy seeing them, as I cruise around. Some are so beautiful! Others can take the risk, clean them, deal with rodents and bugs while I enjoy them from a distance.

[The Mountaineer]

Sorry, but not having any of those trees around would be leaving great beauties of nature out of my life. But to each his own, of course.

[JoeinFL]

Originally Posted by Two Bills

Do not plant husband/wife in garden.
Police these days have dogs trained to sniff out cadavers!

I guess I need to get out my shovel again. 😂

[Charlesp]

Actually it was Euphorbia milii, the crown of thorns, Christ plant, or Christ thorn that was placed on Jesus Head...

[Bwolf1]

Originally Posted by John_W

Oak Trees, I bought a new home in Pinellas Park Florida in 1976, that's between Clearwater and St. Pete. Since it was new, the developer had cleared out all the trees as so many do. So I left one year later in '77 there only shrubs in the front yard.

A couple of years ago I googled the address and on google maps street view the front had the biggest oak tree you can fit. I just took a screen shot of the home. This tree did not exist in 1977. A little extra info, I paid $35,500 for the home new and it sold a couple of years ago for $212K, and it was tiny, only 1200 sf, it was tan with dark brown Bahama Shutters over the front two windows.

I bought a house in LA in 1975 for $65,000. Today on Zillow it’s est. value is $1,250,000. I sold it in 1978 for $211,000 and all I added was a pool and TLC.

[OhioBuckeye]

Originally Posted by bobdeb

Just my opinion, however, I do have some experience with the following.

These are some things I highly recommend you Do Not plant in your yard in The Villages. Please add whatever else you feel is appropriate.

1. Live Oak. Well, you may not have a choice here as one may already exist on your property. I love oak trees, and the shade they offer is welcomed from the heat of the sun.

However, you be forever dealing with relentless and testy little leaves and acorns that are difficult to control and clean up. They will ruin your lawn.

Personally, I would resist buying a home that already had an oak tree in the yard. And your nearby neighbor's live oak tree will also add to your endless yardwork.

They grow slowly but will eventually become enormous and offer yet more leaves and acorns.

2. Magnolia trees. These also grow very large and add to your relentless yard work. The flowers are lovely but I'm not a big fan of the huge leaves.

3. Citrus trees. Don't do it. It's tempting I know. Citrus trees take more care than one might imagine. So many of these grow unattended. There may be exceptions with some folks but the fruit will be beyond your ability to process or give away. It will fall and rot and attrack rats. And, in turn, the rats will attract snakes. Fruit trees are especially problematic for snow birds to manage.

The upside is that many citrus trees are quite attractive and the scent of the blossoms is exquisite.

4. Palm trees. I have four sylvester (king) palms, one pindo and one European fan.

The king and queen palms will grow beyond your ability to prune yourself. You will have to hire a crew annually to do that for you. Also, all palms have incredibly nasty thorns. You could lose an eye if not careful. The immature leaves are sharp spikes. Queen palm pods are extremely heavy and they will fall. The fruit from the king palms is significant to clean up.

European fan palms are full of needle like black slivers.

Face it, these trees evolved to protect themselves. It's tempting but don't plant palm trees. You'll thank me some day.

5. Anything else with nasty thorns unless you want a barrier between your home and your neighbors.

BOBDEB: I totally agree with your expertise. This is about all the Landscapers want to sell you because I think they know you’ll have to call a lawn maintenance crew to maintain these trees.

[toeser]

We have a home surrounded by oaks. There are a couple of pluses. One is being outside in your yard without being fried. Two is the lowest air conditioning bill I have ever had at any other home.

[MandoMan]

Originally Posted by bobdeb

Just my opinion, however, I do have some experience with the following.

These are some things I highly recommend you Do Not plant in your yard in The Villages. Please add whatever else you feel is appropriate.

1. Live Oak. Well, you may not have a choice here as one may already exist on your property. I love oak trees, and the shade they offer is welcomed from the heat of the sun.

However, you be forever dealing with relentless and testy little leaves and acorns that are difficult to control and clean up. They will ruin your lawn.

Personally, I would resist buying a home that already had an oak tree in the yard. And your nearby neighbor's live oak tree will also add to your endless yardwork.

They grow slowly but will eventually become enormous and offer yet more leaves and acorns.

2. Magnolia trees. These also grow very large and add to your relentless yard work. The flowers are lovely but I'm not a big fan of the huge leaves.

3. Citrus trees. Don't do it. It's tempting I know. Citrus trees take more care than one might imagine. So many of these grow unattended. There may be exceptions with some folks but the fruit will be beyond your ability to process or give away. It will fall and rot and attrack rats. And, in turn, the rats will attract snakes. Fruit trees are especially problematic for snow birds to manage.

The upside is that many citrus trees are quite attractive and the scent of the blossoms is exquisite.

4. Palm trees. I have four sylvester (king) palms, one pindo and one European fan.

The king and queen palms will grow beyond your ability to prune yourself. You will have to hire a crew annually to do that for you. Also, all palms have incredibly nasty thorns. You could lose an eye if not careful. The immature leaves are sharp spikes. Queen palm pods are extremely heavy and they will fall. The fruit from the king palms is significant to clean up.

European fan palms are full of needle like black slivers.

Face it, these trees evolved to protect themselves. It's tempting but don't plant palm trees. You'll thank me some day.

5. Anything else with nasty thorns unless you want a barrier between your home and your neighbors.

So what is left? Grass and rocks? Is there any tree you recommend! Crepe Myrtle is beautiful, but it can be messy, too. There are neighbors down the street from me who have papaya trees. Those are interesting, but I don’t know if they ever ripen. There are live oaks and pines right behind my property, on the golf course. I love them. Pruning? Raking? Blowing? Weeds? Fertilizing? Mowing? That’s what the yard guys do. I’m retired.

[emb2458]

You are so on point. My neighbor has an oak that was planted by the builder that makes a lot of work for me. My drive way is a mess all the time. If you can take it down when it is small, do it.

[NancyLillian]

Thank you for your information on what NOT to plant.....how about some suggestions for good things TO plant?

[John_W]

Here's what landscaping can do for property. This is the home I sold in 2011 in the Baltimore suburbs to move to TV. I bought the home new in '98 and over the 13 years I bought some shrubs every spring when I bought new bags of mulch, and did all the landscaping myself. The tree in the middle was the only thing I saved from the original builder's landscaping.



Since I sold the home about ten years ago, it has been resold three times. The most recent seller posted this photo on zillow. They basically removed everything but the tree.

[E Cascade]

Too many of ditto complaints......so what works?

Small pineapple bush, aloe, geraniums, dichondra instead of grass, juniper, pansies, roses, impatience, ......any others that you've found?

[Bjeanj]

One mistake (of many) that I made up north was buying what I thought were supposedly small Japanese bushes for close to the house. Turns out someone had replaced the plastic plant sticks with the incorrect description, and I ended up with willow trees. SUCH a mistake so close to the house!

[stebooo]

Excluding the oak, I have all of these trees in my
immediate neighbors yards. The large magnolia especially is really aggrevating . The leaves when falling accumulate and the wind blows them all over to neighbor's yard. We all get to share in the cleanup.