6-1-2010 recent projects

Tile planter for Alphonse Karr bamboo

Yet another barren area of the deck has been greened up with a concrete and tile planter filled with "Alphonse Karr" bamboo. It's very cold tolerant (

A/C unit enclosure. The design maximizes air flow, but doesn't hide the A/C unit very well as a result.

at least it can easily handle anything Florida can throw at it, since we had an epic winter this year, during which it didn't shed leaves. We were given the bamboo by a friend of a friend, and it sprouted right back from a culm. It seems pretty easy going for a plant, the sort of thing I need more of, with our our recent crazy weather fluctuations. We spread the white Mexican diver rock to fill the empty areas until the bamboo fills the planter. The white looks a little strange, but it stays cool in the wicked Florida summer sun.  On the right, you can see some native Sunshine Mimosa filling in.  I'll let that stay.  In some ways, I think it's prettier than the bamboo, especially when you look at it closely.  It also folds up at night.  Next project is a cedar A/C enclosure. I had to rip out the old one, because it was a solid fence and didn't let the A/C unit breath through the enclosure. So, this one gives it plenty of ventilation, at the expense of hiding the ugly A/C unit. Oh well, the environment comes before aesthetics in this situation, since the increased efficiency of the unit lowers my power bill quite a bit.  This last project is just some landscaping I did.  These are African Irises. Very drought tolerant for flowers, and my dog likes to sit on them.