Designed for management companies, HOAs, and property owners, the webinar will review state and local codes and the 9 principles of Florida-Friendly Landscaping™. Participants will learn strategies that homeowners and HOAs can use to implement FFL in their communities.
Welcome everyone we are just waiting another minute here to get started let anybody finish joining us here we’ll start right at 4 what okay it’s four o’clock we can go ahead and get started here I want to be respectful of everyone’s time and we also have a lot to squeeze in in this
Short hour so um we’ll go ahead and jump in um my name is Holly Greer I’m with the elra County Environmental Protection Department I’ll be speaking today about the HOA Florida friendly Landscaping code we also have uh Cynthia Nazario lii who is our elasa County uh UF IUS
Extension agent and she’ll be talking about the Florida friendly Landscaping principles and we also have Jennifer Marvin the Florida friendly for home Landscapes Statewide coordinator for the Florida friendly Landscaping program and she’ll be talking about strategies um for working with your HOAs to implement Florida friendly Landscaping
Um we do have a kind of a tight schedule here so we’re going to wait and take questions at the end of the presentations so as we go along here if you can just jot your questions down or you can put them into the chat box and
We’ll get to those at the end um if you could also make sure you’re you’re muted for the presentations we would appreciate that and with that we’ll go ahead and and jump in literally you’ll see with the the next slide so you see what I did there with this picture um so
Why does Alat County support Florida friendly Landscaping why do we have this code so really it’s it’s because we have even though we live in a state where it seems like our water is very abundant we only have about 1% of fresh of the water on the planet in fresh water that’s
Readily available for human use so we really need to protect this finite resource and Florida friendly Landscaping is a way to encourage sustainable practices that will help us to protect both the quantity of water that we have available and the quality of that water as we move forward so our
Water comes from most of the state their water comes from the aquafer and we’re no exception here in Alat County we all depend on the aquafer where we get the water we use for bathing for drinking for filling our pools for and for our Landscapes and this is a really this
Unique and beautiful system that we have this photo by John Moran is one of my favorites but it’s out of sight because our our water is underground we want to make sure it’s not out of mine so Florida friendly Landscaping helps to protect water and that’s kind of the big picture here
So in addition to that aquafer taking care of all of our human needs the aquafer is also feeding these unique natural systems that we have that are that have such an Allure we’re getting new people moving into this area all the time which is another reason we really
Need to protect our water because with more Demand on that water um it really we really need to make sure we’re protecting the quantity of water that’s in the aquafer um it also means more pollution threats when we have more people moving here so the aquafer feeds
The springs and rivers in our in our area and these really are gems we value these places it’s part of what makes our um region so beautiful so we’ve got um Springs that are in elra county and springs that are surrounding the county that are so important we really want to
Protect the those aquatic systems and the wildlife that depend on them ALS also so let’s take a look at why we focus on uh outdoor water use and Landscaping in particular so this graph shows kind of a Statewide summation of water use when there’s an irrigation system present U for Residential
Properties so you can see it’s estimated about 50% of water can be attributed to irrigation when there’s an irrigation system present and really here in alacha County we’re finding that’s closer to 60% of Residential Water use when an irrigation system is present is attributed to landscape irrigation so we
Can really affect some serious water conservation through just curving our water use in our Landscapes so we know that um our Landscaping choices affect the quantity of water available and the quality of water available so let’s talk about um our Landscaping our water use in alastra County so the average daily
Water use and this was a study done with newer homes but it really applies more widely if there’s an irrigation system present the the homes can expect to use about more than double the amount of water if and if there were not an irrigation system present so you can see
That’s really significant water that happening when there’s irrigation present so curbing our habits is really going to help address water conservation so and 90% of our homes new homes are still going in with irrigation as kind of that package deal so we really want to affect positive change and how does
Florida friendly Landscaping help with that by encouraging native landscaping and drought tolerant species and species that are the right plant in the right place all of these things mean less water needed to maintain a healthy and beautiful landscape um um Florida friendly Landscaping can also help because Landscaping choices affect water quality
Too so our storm water transports pollutants and chemicals that are used in our yards can get washed into our storm drain systems into water bodies that ultimately have a connection they they travel often to our Creeks travel often to sink holes that lead directly to the aquifer things like pesticides
And herbicides can harm our aquatic species and those Springs that we talk about if you’ve lived here for any length of time at all you know that we have some algae issues that crop up and part of those algae issues can be attributed to too many nutrients in the
Water so if we can curb our um fertilizer use that’s really going to have a positive impact on water quality and Florida friendly Landscaping really encourages the the limit limitation of chemical use right so they have integrative Pest Management Cynthia is going to be talking more about the
Principles so I’ll leave that to her but it really does reduce our chemical impacts by supporting Florida friendly Landscaping it also really makes economic sense for us to support sustainable practices because our Lakes Springs and rivers are really economically important they drive tourism dollars um not just for people
Who come from all of the surrounding areas but even locally um so we get tourist dollars from from all over people I meet people from Germany I meet people from all different regions who are here just to visit our Springs or to travel in our Rivers so it really is um
Economically important for us to protect our water it also saves US money so when it comes to HOA communities you can save money in those common areas if you’re not using so much water there’s not so much chemical application that really helps your HOA to save money now and
Also we’re helping to save money later because if we have to seek alternative water supplies that tends to be much much more expensive so we’re really um protecting the almighty dollar also before I talk about the HOA Florida friendly Landscaping code I do want to
Mention a few of the other codes we have in place that are also meant to protect our water one is the fertilizer ordinance and the fertilizer ordinance applies throughout elra County um it really I’m not going to go through all of the details but um basically our fertilizer is now permitted just during
The growing season um from March through June and it has to have at least a 50% slow release nitrogen so this is really another means of protecting our water from too much too many nutrients in the water that can disrupt those systems um fertilizer with phosphorus is
Not permitted unless there is a soil or tissue test that verifies a need and that’s really because we have such an abundant amount of phosphorus here locally um our irrigation restrictions so these apply countywide they are the maximum really what we suggest is turning your system off and only if you’ve got an
Irrigation system only operate it as needed and that’s the best way to conserve water if you do use your irrigation these restrictions are enforced year round and it’s based on house number so we have two days of watering permitted um in the spring and summer and just one day of watering
Permitted in the winter when plants go dormant we really suggest you turn your Systems off at that time but this helps to again protect our Water Resources also we have an Irrigation Design code I don’t have a slide for that but I did want to mention it briefly and the
Design codes really more about how efficiently systems that are going new systems that are going in are so it kind of regulates how systems are being put in to make sure that they’re maximally e efficient and that code was recently changed to kind of limit the amount of
Area where IR permanent irrigation is permitted so it’s all about protecting water resources and that leads us to the Florida friendly Landscaping code so um in the interest of of protecting Florida’s water in 2009 Florida legislature found that the use of things like Florida friendly Landscaping and other preventive measures um served a
Compelling public interest and that it was really important that HOAs and local governments participate um for water conservation and water pollution prevention for the state so they adopted um Florida statute 3731 185 that says deed restrictions coven covenants or local ordinances cannot prohibit or be enforced so as to
To prohibit the implementation of Florida friendly practices so that was done in 2009 but there wasn’t really an agency that was overseeing this so a lot of times if there were disagreements between homeowners and HOAs it led to costly Court uh cases and it and it really dragged on also without a
Specific agency involved it could be really difficult to determine what’s Florida friendly and what’s not Florida friendly it could be a bit subjective so um alacha County adopted that state statute into local code um so that we could kind of support in these cases and help avoid those lengthy Court battles
And lots of of money here so um in addition to that we adopted that same state language but we also have that deed restrictions or covenants after October 2019 can’t require a property owner to have permanent irrigation system on their property I’m going to pause here and just I want to uh
Emphasize that this code does not say if you want to have Florida friendly landscaping and you live in an HOA as long as your yard is Florida friendly Landscapes you can do as you wish right so that’s that’s not the purpose of the code we do want to encourage Florida
Friendly Landscaping in general and we’re encouraging HOAs to continue to move in that direction however homeowners still need to follow their HOA process for making Landscaping changes so I just want to emphasize that before we continue here so HOA may have restrictions on Florida friendly Landscaping so we know
That these deed restrictions and Covenants are really in place um because these communities want to maintain Community Care and that means they they can still dictate what plants you may use they have to provide a Florida friendly option um but they may dictate specific plants from that list that can be used
And they um can dictate the percent cover of specific plants okay now let’s just go ahead and move right into some examples when we’re talking about the code here so in this first example ex Le we have an HOA that allows St Augustine grass and that’s the
Only um grass that they have or excuse me not grass but only plant they’re uh including as an option but some residents want to do Baya grass you can see in this image here the grass looks great no problems here there’s a minimal use of fertilizers pesticides or
Herbicides that are used to maintain the grass the turf is doing really well and there are no reports of having to reside yards in this case even though the homeowners may want to have a different type of grass Santa Augustine is a Florida friendly option and it’s the right plan
In the right place so the HOA would not be prohibiting the implementation of Florida friendly Landscaping by requiring that St Augustine let’s look at another uh another case here so this is uh this is a lot different and this is something that we run into often um in this case
The HOA only allows St Augustine grass but the homeowner is proposing an alternative Florida friendly option in this case the site conditions on that property have really changed over time and there are mature trees that are shading this area homeowners are having a hard time keeping St Augustine grass
Alive they’re having to resod and there may be issues with pests or fungus so they’re having to apply chemicals to treat the grass in this case the St Augustine grass is no longer the right plant in the right place so it would not be uh Florida friendly to um to make
Homeowners have St Augustine in these areas the HOA would be prohibiting them implementation of Florida friendly landscaping and they would be considered in violation of the code oops sorry it’s paused here for a second for some reason okay sorry about that let’s see okay so what is our conflict
Resolution process so when uh a disagreement may arise with between a homeowner and the HOA um first thing is the Environmental Protection staff will discuss the code with all parties so that everyone’s clear on the code sometimes that can resolve things early on if there’s still a disagreement after everyone’s sure
They understand the limits of the code the parties are referred to elro County extension for a site visit and for Florida friendly recommendations and that would be Cynthia right now as the extension agent that we work with for these site visits um if that’s still usually most of our cases up to this
Point have been resolved at that level right so we get to the site recommendation then the property uh owner and the HOA gets that information they work together to find a resolution a species that will work or they they come to terms with that um if that doesn’t work and there’s still a
Disagreement um Environmental Protection May hire an independent expert who can make a determination about Florida friendly Landscaping in that case if the HOA is not compliant for some reason um enforcement options would include citations notice of violations or a special magistrate hearing okay and so I this is this first
Point is really related to the HOA Florida friendly land scaping code um the second point is not but I wanted to bring up some updated code requirements that are in place because we have maybe some HOA um management and management Representatives here so it was recently
Adopted into our code that HOAs need to keep a current contact on file with our County um and if you did not receive an email from Eliana B this week um regarding that please her name is on the her contact information is on the last
Side slide so you can reach out to her also another point I wanted to mention for code requirements is that Commercial Irrigation Systems now have to be registered and they must submit an annual inspection report that documents their water conservation repairs and other actions that they’ve taken this is
Really to um create a little more account accountability um it’s always been a requirement for both residential and and Commercial properties to do an annual inspection and to do the maintenance needed for the system but um it hasn’t really been enforced it’s a hard one to enforce so this registration
Really helps there to be a little more accountability we see a lot of water waste in commercial systems over time when they’re not maintained with that in mind I did want to mention there is a new rebate program that is available for water conservation it um and Eliana is the person in
Contact there I’m seeing now that I’m going over my time you can hit this QR code here to um to inquire about the rebate program for residents it’s up to 2,000 and for commercial properties it’s up to 8,000 so let me go ahead and now um stop sharing and turn this over to
Cynthia thank you Holly um sry about that that’s okay I’m G to try and power through these principles um the nice thing about the principles is that they’re on the um FFL website um so if you can’t remember principal or you don’t know what’s involved in that principal there are
Definitely resources to double check so I’m going to go ahead and share my screen um um hope everyone can see that can’t see it yet something okay there we go yeah okay um all right why am I here we go okay so um see if that’s going to progress no it’s frozen hold
On I had this all set up before hold on a shoot hold on I lost my um I lost my screen now it’s working okay can everybody see that perfect all right okay sorry about that um okay so um for Florida friendly Landscaping um Holly had mentioned that
We have the principles um and basically for these principles these are kind of these guidelines uh for helping you know understand what you can have in your yards but the Florida friendly Landscaping this is an integrated approach um that you know that’s going to be environmentally sustainable and friendly to Wildlife it
Can be less work it can be less maintenance although there might be some initial uh maintenance um or efforts upfront to plan and make sure that this is going to be a landscape that works for you but the overall goal really of the Florida friendly Landscaping is to
Conserve water and to protect that water quality that that Holly was talking about okay so the nine principles these are a collection of practices um involving design installation the operation and maintenance of the landscape and again intended to reduce the irrigation um and protect the water
Quality um so that we can uh reduce the amount of fertilizers and other pollutants that may be entering into our um our water system our water sheds so the nine principles are one right plant right place two water efficiently three fertilize appropriately four mulch five attract Wildlife six manage yard
Yard pest seven um sorry that didn’t get in there recycle yard waste uh eight reduce storm water runoff and nine protect the Waterfront so we’re going to go through all those really quickly I know we’re um kind of um running out of time here um principle number one right
Plant right place if you’re going to focus on any principle I always say focus on this one first because if you get this one right usually all the other ones fall into place and basically what this means is that you want to have a plant that’s thriving in the area that
It is which means you you have it in a place where it’s getting the right amount of water it’s getting the right amount of light the climate conditions are good for that plant um when you have a plant that’s in an area where it can’t Thrive or where it’s struggling that
Those plants tend to need more attention they’re going to need you know more input from um from the homeowner so we’re trying to reduce that number of inputs because once plants get established in a landscape they shouldn’t need um a lot of additional fertilizer or water to keep them going
We want plants that can establish in the landscape and then do really fine on their own once they’re once they’re there so making sure this is where you know and analyzing your landscape knowing where the light hits knowing what the water conditions are in your yard uh and focusing on the right plants
To put in those areas um that’s going to get that first principle and it’s going to help you with the rest of them and you’ll have happier plants and happier Landscapes all right principle number two water efficiently of course right we’re all about reducing irrigation and protecting that water quality and that
Really starts with um knowing how much you’re Watering your yard and do you need to water your landscape how often are you Watering your landscape make sure that you are um if you have an irrigation system in place um that you know what your controller is doing um you know that the schedule
That’s on there you know are you watering at the right times especially if there’s any ordinances for watering um uh also make sure that you don’t have any leaks in your system um you know and that you’re um that you have a rain shut off device that’s another uh requirement
Is that if you’re going to have an irrigation system that you’re not watering when it’s raining out or you’re not watering when it’s when it’s about to rain and considering this past winter where you know uh typically we have a dry winter but we’ve had kind of a wet
Winter um this winter so that’s where it’s really important to have some type of rain sensor or be monitoring your irrigation so you’re just not watering mindlessly okay and just wanted to put up that sign I know Holly had this in her presentation as well just be aware
That in Elo County we do have some irrigation restrictions so you need to know uh when those are it’s basically summer and winter we’re in uh the winter one right now um I believe these go with the uh the time change so when you time change you know you got the irrigation
Change as well principle number three fertilize appropriately um again just as we’re talking about minimizing our water inputs you know basically optimizing the water input for our plants we want to optimize our fertilizers as well many plants don’t need fertilizer once their past establishment um and this is this is
Applying to the ornamentals um you may need to apply fertilizer you know if you know that the plant is going to bloom or it’s going into a particular type of season where it’s going to need extra nutrient input but we highly and strongly always recommend that you get a
Soil test so that you know what the status of the nutrients are in your soil in your particular yard and if you have a really large area you might want to do several samples to find out how that nutrient might vary throughout the space in your yard that’s going to be
Basically your base line it’s going to be basically what we are able to then recommend uh in terms of plants um and in terms of things that you may need to do to um also optimize uh nutrient uptake which means understanding the pH of your soil so doing that basic soil
Test understanding whether your plants really do need additional fertilizer um many of them don’t especially once they get established again alacha county has our fertilizer regulations um so right now we are not fertilizing um mostly because usually typically in the winter many plants go dormant they’re not taking up
Nutrients actively so you’re putting if you’re putting fertilizers out they’re not going to be really taking up those nutrients anyway so we only want to apply nutrients when we know the plants are actively growing um and so that’s where this um the fertilizer uh band really kind of comes into effect because
It’s it’s trying to maximize when those plants can actually take up those fertilizers and those nutrients principle number four is mulch mulch is a great way I call it the insulator of the soil right it really um is going to keep soil moisture in it’s going to buffer those soil temperatures
Especially when you have cold or hot extremes having a nice 2 to 3 in layer of mulch um is really going to help protect your plants and again kind of um you know minimize loss loss of you know nutrients and water from the system and they’re also really great at inhibiting
Weed growth um it’s not a full proof fullprof um weed barrier um but a nice um healthy usually two to three inches of mulch um if you maintain that uh that’s going to be a great way to limit the number of weeds entering into your landscape and it also provides you know
It gives that nice like um delineation between you know maybe a ground cover a Turf and your landscape it can really kind of clean up boundaries um and really delineate a landscape um principle number five is attract Wildlife right um we are really fortunate here in Florida we have some
Amazing Wildlife especially when it comes to Birds um and pollinators um and so we want to attract those into our yards because as um our urban areas are expanding we want to provide Refuge um for those wild animals especially um you know those animals that may be migrating
Through Florida um on their way North and South as they migrate throughout the year um so creating food and forage um you know maybe think about having plants that can provide food such as berries seeds um to uh local Wildlife um or providing that habitat Refuge so like vertically layering your plants so
You’re providing um different places of Refuge in habitat for various types of animals depending on what layer of the forest or what layer of the ecosystem they might use you can create those um habitats in your yard as well um thinking about maybe what trees or what
Shrubs um might be a home to a a a bird or um or even bats um the more Wildlife you attract you’ll notice you’ll have a more balanced system too because those uh animals um are going to be part of that ecosystem and balancing out both both maybe those pesky insects that we
Don’t want in our yard with with the good ones that we do um manage Landscapes pest responsibly this kind of the always kind of I think of the the turn of the principle number five um just we want to encourage the beneficial insects we want to encourage
Those uh insects that are going to benefit our plants as well as control the insects that we don’t want um but also means that we need to be conscious of what um herbicides and insecticides and things we’re putting into the environment to control the things that
We don’t want to have there um make sure we’re not taking out you know throwing out the you know the baby with the bath water I always hate that c that analogy but it’s it is that thing we don’t want to throw out the good with the bad um so
Integrated Pest Management is something that we talk about in extension um and with the Master Gardener program um but it’s something every everybody can do and it’s basically um a balanced approach to um to controlling pests and managing pests in your yard and if you do have any questions about any of these
Principles or how to address these principles at the end I’ll have a slide about how you can reach out to our extension office and our Master Gardener help desk line so that you can get those questions answered all right principle number seven recycle yard waste um this one and
The next one it’s all about keeping nutrients keeping things that are on your property or in your landscape in your landscape and not letting them um flow or you know leave your property recycle you know when we’re talking about mulch or Leaf clippings or yard clippings all that’s nutrients that when
You remove it from your yard you’re taking it away so we really want to retain those nutrients in your landscape so think about maybe composting or how you can mulch things um you know using clippings or pine needles as your mulch um can mean reduced cost of having to
Buy that mulch uh so the more that you can recycle within your yard that organic material you’re going to be adding that back into your yard uh it’s less maybe fertilizer inputs that you have to use um as well as that means there’s less of that nutrient going off
Site and potentially into our water systems principle number eight that’s now you know related to reducing that storm water runoff that Holly talked about and it’s really again making sure that we keep the water on the property don’t let it run off into the road um where it’s going to you know go
Somewhere else try and keep it within within the property um and that way too you’re minim minimizing the things that are carried off with that water like pollutants or um nutrients that are going to you know fill into our um waterways and potentially lead to um you
Know algae growth or invasive species um taking advantage of those extra nutrients in those areas so um the more we can reduce the amount of runoff and there’s lots of creative ways we got rain barrels you can have uh diversion systems or ways that you can retain the
Water on your yard um the the better um it’ll be to kind of keep that water and those nutrients where they um on your yard in your in your landscape and then principle number nine protect the Waterfront um a lot of times when we do this slide everyone’s like well I don’t
Live next to the water front but if you’re in Florida there’s most likely there’s some sort of retention Pond there’s probably some sort of stream that’s very close by we are surrounded by water and we are surrounded by water bodies so being able being conscious of knowing where those water bodies and
Water systems are especially near your property um means that you want to try and protect those areas those are direct um entryways into our water system and so we want to make sure that the buffers the areas around those Waterfront areas are maintained so that any nutrients or
You know anything trying to enter into that system has to slow down and it has to kind of be filtered before it can enter into that system so um being conscious of where maybe your um retention or um overflow area is in your neighborhood um can be really helpful
For protecting that water body oh so um there’s a few additional resources if you would like to know about the nine principles and more about Florida friendly Landscaping um please visit uh the our our ifus UF ifus Florida friendly Landscaping website um there’s some also really neat apps you
Can get them right on your phone so the uh information is really handy um our also our extension office if you’re especially if you’re a newcomer or if you want to know more about the landscape resources available to you specifically in this County we have a great alacha County homeowners landscape
Guide um that you can get through this link or this QR code and also again if you have any questions any gardening plant related questions please email our Master Gardener help desk we’ll be happy to you know connect you with the resources or answer your your plant questions and specifically if you have
Any FFL we can help you with that so um these are our resources here um just so you know um I’m the residential Horticulture person so anything that regarding homeowners um or residential I’m the one that covers that and then we also have Dr Tatiana Sanchez she’s our
Commercial horiculture um and so she helps serve those um more commercial Landscapes or the companies that serve that provide those um landscape uh services and I know we don’t have time for questions so I’m going to skip that but I’m going to hand it over to Jennifer Marvin and uh thank you everybody
Ready thank you Cynthia um so I’m my name let me share first here um make sure it works yeah I’m gonna try to get the uh let’s see um here we go just one second I am trying to get the uh on I’m sorry just one one more
Minute it’s these dual screens I know I I actually don’t have a dual screen um okay can you see my any of my show no okay hold done not yet all right um sorry I I usually work with two screens it’s one minute let me share again you you’d think I’ve never done
This before um and everybody we did practice before this all right I can tell that okay so we see your presentation just not in present okay uh let me see here um um I think if you just click on from the beginning there maybe that’ll do it okay
Just trying to get my notes slides but um I can do it without it um all right so uh my name is Jen Marvin I am the uh Florida friendly uh res Florida friendly for residential Landscapes or for home Landscapes um Statewide coordinator for the Florida friendly Landscaping office
Um I I didn’t say that quite as well as uh everybody else did but uh so that that means that I work with uh with residents um and uh people around the state and I work with agents um and and uh you know in order to you provide you
With information about HOAs and um how to work with them um we also have a a big body of knowledge uh in the UF um system UF ifas system I’m going to share one of those papers with you today uh this is the um 10 strategies for working
With your homeowner association um to convert a yard to a Florida friendly yard um this is written by uh one of my um colleagues and it is um go I’m not sure even how old it is now but it is a perfect example of how to work with your
HOA um what we can say about HOAs is they are responsible for uh environmental health and function of large swaps of green space so if you think about uh your HOA and how much land your HOA covers how much land um that is uh you know a neighborhood like
A park in or um what’s it called uh Green Space in your area your HOA has a great deal of say over what happens to that and your yard so they see they um exert a significant influence on um aesthetic prefer aesthetic preferences cultural norms environmental outcomes
And so when you are working with your HOA you need an educated approach um to show them exactly what you’re going to be doing and this what this will do is help you get that approval um it will help you make not make not make mistakes while going through the approval um and
So we’re going to start with really quick um a little information um about HOAs uh in Florida the percent of population that lives in HOAs is 44.8% and home owning residents 25.1% uh almost 49,000 HOAs are in Florida roughly 9.65 people in Florida live in HOA communities and an estimated
3.71 million homes in Florida are in HOA communities um this information I got from I property manage uh it’s using census data and uh some other data this um the top uh Box about Florida is um from a very I think from census data and
So is very um reputable uh in the US um 82 of newly constructed homes sold in 2021 were part of HOA communities 53% of all homeowners live in HOAs um let’s see 40 million housing units are part of hoa’s uh communities and there are roughly 8,000 new HOA communities each
Year and that just goes to show you how important it is to take your piece of property your piece of land and try to work uh at becoming Florida friendly try to make your piece of your piece of the world um a better place for nature and
For um our water um you know and our our streams um and protect it for yourself and for your children so what I’m going to do is go through these strategies one by one very quickly um you can always go back and read that paper so be the first
One is becoming familiar with Florida friendly Landscaping this is our website uh homepage um the uh QR code is directly to the homepage we have uh areas for home Landscapes Community Landscapes professional Landscapes and also it will uh explain the nine principles in in much more detail than Cynthia had time
To do today that what she did is usually done in like an hour and a half so she did a great job um you know pairing it down these are two guides uh this is the plant selection and design guide this is the home Landscapes guide uh this one
Home Landscapes provides all the information about the nine principles and the reasonings behind it um this is the plant selection guide it gives you a list of plants um these are both available from the UF ifus bookstore and uh you can we are selling them because we need to make money back
To print them but we’re selling them at cost so um they are available to you they’re also available as PDFs online um this is the plant uh the FFL plant guide which is the same thing as the book um it’s it’s offered browser iOS or
Android and then some of our other um uh related uh applications they are all free um so um feel free to take advantage of them um another one is our homeowner webinar series it’s every third THS every third Tuesday of the month at 11:00 a.m. eastern uh that
Information can be found uh also where Cynthia poined out in resources we’ve got a community landscape um template for um maintenance and then uh a Cod and Covenant uh template for um incorporating FFL into your uh codes and Covenants in your HOA the second part is understanding the law um you know we
Went through we went over this already conserving water protecting the environment that it’s adaptable to local conditions and drought tolerant but but the Nuance is that you know HOA doc documents uh may not prohibit any property owner from implementing FFL uh but they are allowed for reasonable
Limits on FFL uh such as um uh one of the other presenters said uh St Augustine grass you are your your HOA is allowed to say You must have St Augustine grass because St Augustine grass is a Florida friendly grass and if it is not uh if it is healthy and the
Appropriate plant you you can’t really challenge that that that they are allowing you to um practice you know Florida friendly same thing can be said with a rain barrel or um certain other elements that you would have in your yard to be Florida friendly so um and
The other thing that was already stated is that um this law does not invalidate your HOA agreement if your agreement says you need to get previous um approval you must get previous approval and if they say no then you can’t do it um so what I’m going to tell you now is
You know how you become familiar with your HOA uh regulations and and rules uh so some of the things you want to ask uh um are you know you want to review your Association approval process and the codes and Covenants documents so you want to ask things like are construction
And or landscape plans required to submit to the HOA board does the board have sole discretion for the approval or is there a landscape committee or an Architectural Review Board that will be deciding um you know if the plans you submit will go through is approval
Required in writing how long do you does the board have to give you an answer sometimes it’s a month and if it’s after a month you know then you can go back to them and and you know you just have to know what to expect and does approval apply to modification
Of landscaping including planting and removal of plants um what exactly does approval mean you can do these things you will find in your codes and Covenants document and it will keep you for being surprise later so um some of the things you can do to become familiar
Uh meet with your HOA board members check uh the plants listed and the regulations in your codes and Covenants uh check for Turf requirements there might be a require for a certain amount of turf you know you don’t want to have this designed or design it yourself and
Realized oh I had to have you know I can only have 20% Turf I can I had to have 40% Turf and have to go back and go through the whole thing again um not restricted elements I’ll talk a little bit about that in a few minutes um read
Your Association newsletter there are tons of examples in your newsletter of things that your board likes and likes other people to do uh review your property boundary survey so that you know what is um able for you to be uh landscaped where there are uh utilities
That kind of thing and then also talk to your neighbors who have been the through the approve through the approval process so that you can see you know what sort of things they ask what what can you do that uh will give you a better chance to be
Approved some of that is going to um go with Aesthetics so um observe landscapes in your community you know study your style of neighborhood notice the arrangements of plants in your neighborhood what plants are used um how the turf is used how it’s shaped and material choices like Hardscape and
Pavers uh and types of mulch so the next step is to do that for other communities that you like you know you can collect photos of other FFL yards do you like them why do you like them do they fit into your neighborhood aesthetic um and include applications in
Your board photo or your your um your application to your boards sorry so the next thing is to take that survey that you had and do an inventory and Analysis of your yard so you know everything about your yard you want to write down this in the background is an example of an
Analysis um uh actually it’s it’s a inventory so what you want to do is write down everything you know about your yard on a piece of paper on the survey so you know here it says High Point this is how the water drains here’s an existing tree here’s a high
Sun area good views and bad views you know what’s too small um you know I need a workpace here the analysis of is what you’re going to do about it so you know the high Sun area do you not want a high Sun area so you want to plant trees
There do you want a high Sun areas you can have a garden like a a veget vegetable garden um you know good views from the house does that mean that you don’t want to plant tall plants in that area so you can see the view past the Landscaping um you’re interpreting the
Uh inventory and in that entire process you are also Gathering soil samples to send and like I said analyzing the site conditions so you know exactly what plants fit in what places um again uh strategy seven create a list of Florida friendly plants first like I said check to make sure that
There is not already a list that you have to choose from um and again it’s already been said that that is that’s acceptable as long as there are Florida friendly plants on the list your HOA is allowed to dictate which plants you can and cannot plant um you can um obviously
Compare your list with that list um you know and and then research um what what Turf you have in your neighborhood and in the area in general um just to double check that that is you know the correct um Turf and this is a a QR code for the
Plant guide app that I showed you earlier this book is the same thing as the app the app has 400 plants and is searchable by a number of different uh attributes and by your um uh ZIP code so strategy eight is use hard Hardscape or ground cover and your yard so what you
Want to do is design first with Hardscape where you’re going to walk where your patios are going to be what the what that uh looks like in your yard and then um you know determine functional places for those activities so that you can have that patio where
You want to have the um the barbecue generally or where you want a dog run and um you know you want to use plant beds and turf for spatial organization of your landscape uh and you want to think of ease and maintenance when you’re creating those spatial um you
Know those little landscape rooms uh ease of Maintenance would mean like the the curve of the the uh garden bed so you don’t have to like mow into those little Corners like where your Gates or your um fence comes together which always gets me uh and then you want to
See what other U materials you can incorporate like ground covers um Rock paths or G gravel paths um Garden walls uh decorative fences Mt Garden structures make sure you check your codes and Covenants to see if you can are allowed garden gnomes or if you are
Allowed a bench you know in your front yard I’ll tell you now that Florida friendly Landscaping does not encourage uh gravel or rocks in as Mt but you can use it as a pathway um let’s see and then strategy nine this looks like a hard thing to do
This is not like what most people expect what most HOAs expect they want to see uh you know what plants you are going to put in what place um so this would be considered a master plan if if you’re doing your backyard don’t don’t you know if you’re redoing your backyard don’t do
The the whole thing unless you want a master plan to implement later but um what you want to do is point out where in these areas you want the certain plants that you’ve chosen and be ready to say why you’ve put them there and you want to include photos of those plants
With the plan so you can show how your plan integrates into your neighborhood um and again um developing a landscape plan you know this is above and beyond but this is sort of gives you an idea of how you would visualize what that area would look like if you planted
The plants that you want to uh you know and include trees that are um existing or proposed plant beds um utilities um other features and the views finally include a description in the application so explain the neighborhood fit you know if there’s a Turf strip um uh next to the streets you
Don’t necessarily want to plant that strip Turf with something other than what is already growing in your neighborhood so if it’s usually Turf it’s usually grass um you might not be allowed to to do something that is that different from the rest of your neighborhood uh you want to explain
Similar plants as your neighborhood and um plant shapes and forms um and bed forms and then explain your plant choices um so that if there’s a question about whether a plant uh can or cannot be used you know that in the area where there’s more drainage you should use a
Plant that likes uh wet feet and you know by going through these uh resources that we’re giving you you will understand that and you’ll know that um so you know explain your plant choices and the the how it’s going to lower your water use how long lived your
Landscape will be um how how the aesthetic fits in and um you know newly proposed plants if you’d like to see them on your your uh hoa’s list finally the bottom line with HOAs they are there to protect um your property value and they expect a certain aesthetic and a
Certain uh way that Landscapes fit in to that aesthetic so you want to think about that when you’re designing but that doesn’t mean you can’t be Florida friendly Florida friendly can look like a lot of different things it’s the way you maintain it it’s the choices that
You make and the plants that you choose so you want to assure the board members that your landscape will not deviate greatly from the neighborhood aesthetic or look um assure them that it will be maintained that’s a big deal when people hear Florida friendly uh some people
Think it’s it’s a messy messy aesthetic that it’s not formal that it’s not um you know whatever they think it’s not it it is a maintained look um you know we’re not uh that’s part of the program and then the key is to know uh and use
Strategies that work with the codes and Covenants of your neighborhood so uh make sure that you know what you’re getting into what you have to do specifically how the process works and then you know if you have special asks you’ve done your research you can you
Know possibly ask for a new plant or you know and also get involved with your HOA you know if you have a problem with what they’re doing now get involved and and have a say so um these hopefully I didn’t go over too far uh this is the Florida friendly landscaping.com website
That I showed earlier um in case there were other people I know we uh advert advertised this Statewide so if you are not in alacha County um you can find your County extension office here I will say elat show county has uh the most unique um Florida friendly codes and
It’s probably the only county in the state that has this program um and again here’s my uh address um feel free to contact me if you have questions or after this presentation I’m sorry I had to go by so fast um but I can answer questions later if we have time so thank
You and we do have a couple of minutes I know Mary raised her hand way early in the presentation so if you’re still on Mary and you want to ask your question please go ahead and do so and we’ve been answering some of the questions on the chat if you have more
Um questions there please feel free to put them in and we’ll try and answer really quickly um we just have a couple of minutes if anybody does want to ask a question otherwise we can let everyone go and Linda also has raised her hand so go ahead and unmute yourselves and ask
The question yes I have a neighbor who has giant uh Brazilian Peppers that are growing into trees and I’m just wondering is there any kind of I live in Hillsboro County in an HOA area but I just am very I I mean it’s like an ecological cancer next door and she’s
Got three enormous they’re just overwhelming my own yard actually and I just wondered if you have any ideas about what to do because I tried to talk to her about it and she was like oh I like the green area and I I think I might have to say you know there’s still
A hedge behind it we could still kill kill the Brazilian pepper but I I just don’t know if what you would suggest that can be a challenging one um I’ve watched um my my family my parents lived in Melbourne and I’ve sort of watched over the years as that plant has
Creeped up um we we don’t have to deal with that as much here in alra County um but you know directing them to IAS documents might be helpful if your neighbor is open to it sometimes the more they learn about what the issue is um I think there’s some good pictures
That detail just what a um nuisance the species is and how and base of it is so maybe directing them to some information might be useful I would also say um you contact your local County Extension agent as well um your local County EXT tion agent knows so much more about
These um these issues and uh you know what has been done about them what can be done about them then any like me at the State Office in Gainesville would know or uh so contact your County extension office um you can Google County your county plus ufi extension
Office and it will bring up the web page uh um link to that web page so that for most of the people who are not in alacha County uh and have specific questions like that that’s that is what I would do that’s what you’re pay for so yeah
That’s what I would say to do thank if you are in alacha County um I’ll put that last picture up I I’m Cynthia and Jen thank you for adjusting I know I went a little over on my time despite my many practices to make sure I didn’t um I’ll put the information if
You’re interested in inquiring about the uh HOA FL friendly Landscaping code specifically or any of those new local code requirements that we discussed I will put the contact slide that has eliana’s information and my information up before we go here and I did want to mention something
Else that uh was brought up in the chat as well as in the presentations there are tons of lorda friendy plants on the list lots of them and so as an ho and as a community um please keep keep in mind that when you do provide a plant list
You need to provide a variety of FFL plants if your plant list is entirely sun loving plants but some of your residents have lots of Shade that’s not going to be sufficient and that’s not not going to work and like the person on the chat um mentioned you know just
Because that plant is on the list you still have to take into account the side conditions to make sure that it’s the right plant for that particular growing condition absolutely and we do really suggest just for HOA Representatives that might be here you know we really encourage the idea that as Landscapes
Change over time you really want to have options available that address those changing needs because like that example that we had the St Augustine grass at first when the trees were really young and it was doing well it might have been the right plant in the right place but
Having options for when Landscapes change is really really valuable really helpful yeah I mean I think I like went over it really quickly but understanding how big your plants are going to get is is probably one of our it’s it’s usually the mature Landscapes that we’re dealing
With in terms of when sometimes we have this conflict um because the the original conditions worked and now that the plants are bigger um now the conditions aren’t the same so really good point Holly a driving Point by Eliana there too so I have to share that
Credit we’re a little over five o’clock um I don’t see any more questions in the chat if anybody has a last minute burning question this is your chance otherwise we’re going to end this webinar and hopefully you know you know how to get in touch with us so you know
How to contact us at any point if any questions come up later on and with that I’m sharing this screen with the last time that has Elana’s information on it it has mine with specifics to the code but you can reach out to any one of us and we’ll direct
You to the to the right right person exactly thank you for for joining us today thanks everyone thank you thanks Cynthia Thanks Jen thank you thank you for having us sorry for the slight Rush there guys it’s okay thank you it’s okay all right I’m G to wrap it up everybody
Goodon thank you bye bye have a great night