NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

f16...most everyone starts over; builder generally puts in crap plantings with maybe a magnolia or bottlebrush decent plant/bush thrown in; I have seen a few palms in the newest neighborhoods installed by builder.

Some do-it-yourselfers (or those on budget) get their stuff from Lowes or a nursery; most folks hire out one of the landscaping companies for a total package. Can get pricey...for a designer, anywhere from 2,500 to over 6,000.

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

We were happy with ours, it was a good start, we added some stuff and moved some things around, kept everything.

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

While we have not been able to see ours first hand other than pictures :) Thanks 07 :) we are already planning changes. We did not get any palms and we did request at least one. While the package is basic it does need tweaking. If had been allowed to change things we could have saved the builder a lot of grass and turned the area into shurb beds. Oh well something to do.

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

Been here 4 years and moved from our first house to our present (more centrally located) home 3 years ago. Each home came with a "basic" landscape package. This gave us the opportunity to select what we do or don't want for additional landscaping, if any.

Hired tri-county landscape who did basic package for the villages. They added extra landscaping, palms, etc. and did a wonderful job each time. Results were exactly as drawn up by Scott at Tri-County.

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

Recommendation: If you are considering modifying your landscaping, get several competitive bids. I emphasize several. We embarked on a small landscaping project in July and it was an eye opening experience. We removed some sod (about 450 square feet) and put-down some washed river rock. We solicited three bids with quotes of $455, $1,200 and $1,700. We did something stupid and went with the low bid (not really knowing the cost of materials or labor needed). We paid the low bidder, JJJ Tree and Landscaping, 200 bucks up front to do the work and waited over a month to come out to work. I got fed-up waiting and cancelled my work order. It's been two months since and JJJ still has not returned our money despite numerous calls and letters. Soooo, I did a little more shopping to get this project done. I went to Brown Distributors in Lady Lake (hwy 441/27) and priced 5 cu. yds. of river rock....there are two grades ($90/cu. yd. and $50 cu. yd.). The less expensive rock has a little bit of fine grit in it but it looks just fine for landscape jobs. I bought 5 yards of rock, 500 square feet of weed barrier and pins for about $375 delivered. I found a free-lance landscaper (through Brown Dist.) who removed the sod and placed the rock for about $400. Total project price tag was $775. After costing-out this project myself, it became clear that JJJ Tree and Landscaping could NOT do this job for the price they quoted us (in writing).....but they accepted our deposit and perhaps later determined they'd lose money if they did the job (very close to fraud IMHO). Be careful out there folks.....the references these contractors provide are often their friends....rely instead on personal references of your friends or acquintances, check with the BBB and NEVER pay up front. There are a lot of unscrupulous contractors in these here parts. Had we gone with the high bidder....we would have paid a 100 percent mark-up over the actual cost of materials and labor.....but the work would probably have been done. And I'm not done with JJJ yet....they'll be getting a notice to appear from the Marion County Court this week.

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

Oh John, that is so good to know. I don't know how I feel about what the builder put in because I don't know what anything is down there. How do I find out? ??? Oh and like everyone else, I want a Palm. The short fat one. How expensive are they? And who is the best landscaper for the money?????? :dontknow:

I don't know how JJJ stays in business because there was one other post awhile back that said he was awful!!

Let us all know how your situation comes out in court!

The Good And Bad About Villages Landscaping
 

The vast majority of people appear to replace or supplant the landscaping provided by the developer. In our case, our landscaper integrated all the plants installed by the developer, moving most to new locations and adding items like palm trees, more colorful flowers, citrus trees, etc.

So the "bad" news is that the developer-provided landscaping most often is found esthetically-lacking by homeowners. The "good" news about the landscaping that comes with your house is that it has been carefully selected by the developer's agronomists and will almost certainly thrive in any weather conditions occurring in TV.

That's not necessarily true with some of the plants that independent landscapers recommend or that homeowners install themselves. Plants like split leaf, hibiscus, bouganvellia, Hawaiian Tai. etc. look very tropical but often don't survive even the modest sub-freezing "snaps" that occur pretty regularly once or twice each winter. If you want the better-looking plants to survive, you'll be busy as a beaver on the nights that freezing temps are predicted covering them and "tucking them in". The plants installed by TV are almost certain to survive cold snaps that do other varieties in without any particular attention.

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

Kahuna,

My husband said I could have anything I wanted BUT he HAS to have his 2 favorite flowers - Bougainvillea's and Azalea's. I love Gardenia's (I think those are the wonderfully smelly ones) So are you saying they may not grow in TV?? If so, do you want to tell my husband or should I?

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

Everyone in my area with TV landscaping has either upgraded or it just looks a little immature.
Except one guy (right across from me) who has the most incredible set of bushes in front of his house and I assumed he'd trashed TV landscape and bought new. Turns out, he has the normal, upgraded TV landscape, and he applied Miracle Grow every week or so. The landscaping from TV looks really decent when it gets larger.
My wife has a great desire for a palm tree, so I know I'll be adding that, but otherwise, I may just buy lots of Miracle Grow.

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

Kahuna, We had a beautiful gardenia bush when we lived in Tampa. Isn't the smell wonderful! I'd like to get one here also.

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

I love to landscape and we put many years of hard labor beautifying our front and back. When I think of the summers and hauling that wheel barrow back and forth, I wonder where I got all the energy. But the results were worth it and this is one area I will miss when we move to TV. I love tp plant but I leave the big stuff to my huband.

What about annuals and perennial (flowers/plans). I have over 25 pots and hanging baskets on my land now. I'm sure the plants we use up north will not make it in the FLA sun. Are there annuals and/or perennials we should not bother planting?

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

DD and Nanci and others:
A source I found very useful when I first decided to replace most of what TV provided originally is www.floridata.com. It's an active and up-to-date UFla site which provides encyclopedic info about Florida compatible growing things.
My impression is that bougainvilleas are a little too sensitive to our rare cold spells; they're very common in South Florida, though. I had some azaleas and some gardenias put in this past spring; neither have been very happy. I'm not sure whether it's because of the poor soil (mostly sand) or too much direct sun or what, but I am, quite frankly, still struggling with my yard.
I would dearly love to have a quarterly change out as do TV public areas, but I can no longer do such labor myself and so far I haven't found a really decent landscaper who will provide the "weekly gardener" I'd like to have! They're still too busy making money by installing entire landscaping packages!
Important (as you really do know) to ask everyone you meet for references, and make sure to see those folks' installations. And, withhold as much money as possible until you're happy with the results!
Oh, DD: sorry I won't be able to help you unpack boxes later this month! I'll be in Broomfield, CO, for my elder daughter's wedding! When you have your official Open House, we'll all come! :joke:

Re: NEW HOME - DID YOU LIKE YOUR LANDSCAPING ?
 

Hey Swrinfla,

Pack a couple of warm sweaters or sweatshirts. We got off the plane Sunday from TV and it was raining and COLD! Today it's 85 but they said that a change in the weather (read colder) is coming for this weekend. I'm having a Garage Sale this weekend in Aurora to get rid of all the stuff we don't want to take so stop on by.....Maybe you can pick up a nice wedding present!!!! :joke:

I really am sorry we won't have good luck planting some of the southern flowers we were looking forward to having down in TV. We have such a teeny yard that I really don't think there is too much to be done, but by golly, I want a short fat fan palm (I think that's what their called) and some pretty flowers. We'll figure something out.

Will It Survive The Cold Snaps?
 

Almost anything (except the plants that can't take a lot of sun and heat) will thrive in TV. That's not the problem. The issue is those few nights every winter where it gets close to or a little below freezing. That will take its toll on some of the less mature and more tropical plants.

In our case, we have split leaf, Hawaiian Tai, gardenia, palm trees and lots of hibiscus plants supplementing TV landscaping. We cover some on cold nights and have concluded that we'll just replace the others that get nipped by the cold. At first I resisted the idea of replacing the hibiscus I love. But then I thought of how much we used to spend on annuals up north. Really nice hibiscus plants are available everywhere for less than $10 each. So we concluded, what's the big deal? We try to protect the tree hibiscus, but any of the others that get nipped simply get replaced after the chance of frost goes away.