The fourth installment of the lawn killing fruitcakes.
Shout out Joey Santore at his
** Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t **
utuub channel – there is also a podcast series.
Sorry Joey, I’m only in it for the clicks – one should have made it more accessible.
We’re going to cleanse this Fort Lauderdale lawn with fire you don’t want to get too close to your main fuel source making room for tropical fruits put them in an area with like full sun pineapple Rescue 911 let’s torch this grass and replant it with host plants for Florida butterflies we can find
Plenty of native plants that look awesome all these little oh Yeah This is the first time I’ve been deep in Florida have you ever been down here before no man America Florida beautiful Fort Lauderdale Florida beautiful Fort Lauderdale they could plant actual plants on all these embankments and stuff ecology and like well-being of the landscape is the last thing taken into
Account it’s another day in Tropical Paradise so what inspired you to move down here they don’t have to use is much lotion they left closer to the ocean they have left the commotion of the city behind it looks like we’ll be building a natural oasis amongst the asphalt travel
Down the road and back again your heart is true you’re a friend than a Confidant such a chill little neighborhood in here it’s kind of nice oh wow this is a nice lawn to Kill the lawn we’ve Marked for Death belongs to Liz Durant and her boyfriend Mark bohane hello what’s going on nice to meet you guys Liz works at a plant nursery where she’s cultivated a growing collection of cool native plants PL for sale now Liz plans to bring her work
Home and build on what her parents began when they immigrated from Haiti we’ve got a couple of coconut trees here can’t be Haitian without having coconut trees this is an avocado tree that we’ve had for quite a while I remember my dad coming out during Hurricane Andrew to
Try to like put some Stakes on it because it was small and vulnerable and we were looking out that window like you’re not supposed to be out there he’s like in a rain coat like trying to hold on for the avocado tree this yard is already a pleasant place to be you know
The homeowner’s lived there for a long time or family’s been there for a long time they were planting fruit trees they kind of had an innate resistance to the lawn the lawn is not even that big still the lawn is too big to keep on living the turf’s got to go but anything
Producing fruits going to stay I think this neighborhood has a lot of island people there’s just mango trees everywhere avocado banana everything so anytime you’re walking by yeah you can just kind of grab something but not pineapples at least not lately as Liz’s pineapple Harvest has dwindled to
Nothing as it’s growing in the shade put them in an area with like full sun and where they might get more water or something I don’t know okay yeah maybe you fertilize them too they would probably produce fruit pineapple Rescue 911 that’s nice to have pineapples though yeah that’s a nice Regional
Benefit so the idea there being you know not only treating the yard as a potential native habitat restoration project but also is a mini farm so we’re very used to taking stuff from the yard and using it so I want to bring that back what’s the soil like it’s pretty s
Oh good that’s really good oh is it yeah it’s I mean it’s nutrient poor but it drains fast which is good I mean I always associate Sandy so with being able to grow a lot of stuff you know yeah I little worried about that cuz I was just thinking it seems like they’re
Sand all over the place yeah we were thinking was a negative Florida it’s like sand limestone and coral one of the three you get yeah the sandy soil supports pollinating native plants that then play host to the reproduction cycles of native butterflies another cool symbiosis exists in the trees where species have
Evolved to grow as epiphytes above the sandy soil it’s so humid here that you can grow a lot of epiphytes which epiphytes are plants that grow on other plants now there’s a diversity of unrelated plants that are epithetic you know orchids Brads mosses ferns that’s something to think about too you know
Stuff that you can plant on other plants like the tree like the avocado tree it’s not just about one plant species and how it looks like no species is an island everything’s part of a network hear like people in nurseries especially saying oh like the native stuff is boring it’s
Weedy it’s like man you just don’t get it you just they just don’t know yeah and we want to break that Narrative of native plants being ugly not flowering they’re not nice to look at we can find plenty of native plants that look awesome yeah I would love to just see
All the variety that we can bring you know and it’s not a big yard it’s not a fancy neighborhood if you give it some time it’ll grow over time you know if you’re patient and really create an ecosystem that’s a refuge in a sea of Lawns for all of the native birds and
Insects to really be able to enjoy it but also create something that’s uh native to Florida sustainable so that’s why it’s really cool what you guys are doing cuz maybe other people will see it I just think people will be inspired you know and I think that’s so cool actions
Speak louder and I’ve been talking about native plants and oh I hate Lawns I feel like it’s just like talk because then you pull up at my house and it’s a lot um not for long though not for long we want to give them that creative freedom
Uh we’re not experts in this and we’re really interested to see what it looks like when you go all out we got to kill all of this grass yes all of it I think we’re going to burn it nice insert evil laugh right be cleansed with
Fire fire is the great cleanser of the South Florida woodland ecosystem and many other ecosystems across North America lightning triggered wildfires and controlled Burns help native plants by clearing that organic debris letting in light and adding nutrients to the soil we’re going to pay homage to this natural process by setting lizz’s lawn
Of Blaze with a Contraption known as the flame weeder it will allow us to replicate what happened out in a wild Florida Forest where fire helps native pine trees Thrive and triggers new growth in native plants I have never had my lawn flame weeded before never and that’s
What I’m looking forward to and seeing that thing uh go up in Flames we’re going to kill this lawn you guys are free to burn we just got to read through the safety instructions free to create flame weeder is a propane gas Appliance free to design free to plan have at it
Right burn baby burn so long as they just burn the lawn and not the house we’ll be watching kind of like a push mower of fire now we just got to come in here and clean up the edges I felt like some kind of Greek goddess using this immense powerful
Tool you don’t want to get too close to your main fuel source that’s going to presentent a problem and now once the Earth has been fully scorched we’ll be able to plant a beautiful variety of native plants in here and it’s going to be so much nicer this might just have to
Stay in a kill your lawn Toolbx Fort Lauderdale lawn Killers Liz and Mark are basking in the glow of their first kill and stoked to see their front yard come alive as a mix of native plants and non-invasive fruit producers and we just know that it’s going to be great we’re in such professional hands
Everyone is so passionate about this movement and about native plants this is not a neighborhood where someone’s going to call the cops on you I like it here not a neighborhood where you’re going to get scals from old white ladies for not having your dog on a leash and we’re all
Aligned in our uh values so really that’s that’s all we need this is going to be great I got a landscaper named Dennis super cool guy like very aligned all he does is native Landscapes oh nice in South Florida’s cookie cutter world of corporate and Suburban Landscapes Dennis Duo is a rare species
Of contractor who’s made promoting native plants his life’s Mission if you can really get a yard and it can be put together correctly designed correctly installed correctly it actually in the long run will save you a lot of dollars and a lot of chemicals put in your yard
The flame weer did a good job impersonating a forest fire but we still need to physically remove the charred remains of lizz’s lawn we’re going to first take out all the weeds and grass that comes with it whatever’s down there so we start fresh Dennis is up there
With the crew side cut and just taking strips off like a South Florida hair transplant you know what I mean like he’s skinning a fish that’s it the design that I put together creates a sitting area in the middle of the yard around that will be a mosaic of native
Plants shell Mound prickly PE cactus opuntia stricta a two be termin native epiy planted on the existing avocado tree and as for the pineapple plants we’ll move them into more direct sun alongside native grasses and ground covers of course making it look as cool as possible yeah the ground cover is a
Native plant called frog fruit and it does bring in a lot of beneficial insects it brings in a lot of butterflies but what do you think about epiphytes for uh you like some of the Brads or the epiphytic cacti or orchids and stuff for any of the trees they want
To keep now you can’t buy epiphytes here because they’re endangered nothing native is is is allowed it’s because of the poaching that was going on in the Everglades Orchid thieves are still lurking in the Everglades so you got to be careful about where you’re buying your native epiphytes good thing Dennis
Has his own private stash of sustainably grown ones I got some native ones like Zer R but I’m not going to sell them I’m just going to give them to you there you go and that’s the way that’s legal totally below the epiphytes and trees will be the unsung heroes of native
Plant Gardens in South Florida the mighty ground covers pakahi ass the cocoa plum that grows more horizontally on the base of the ground chrysobalanus is the genus iako Crystal bolinus iako does have a plum so it is edible as well River Sage which is a Salvia I have that
In there as a ground cover ground covers are a big deal because when you’re taking the grass out you need to have something that replaces it making sure that you don’t get the weeds overtaking all the plants you just put in mhm looking to get schooled about the
Specific stars of the South Florida native plant Community Joey calls in his friend and Resident expert Lily Anderson mess she works with the Florida Native Plant Society she’s got a good inventory on a lot of these species on the different types of ecosystems down here when you
Think about your yard we need to start envisioning it as a piece of a larger ecosystem oh God look at those flowers holy sh yeah they’re so gorgeous you know as many people know our wildlife and our plant species the biodiversity is on a steep Decline and we can change
That if we change the way we view our yards we’re going to go look at some plants in the field basically see you know in the few crumbs of habitat that are left we’re going to get some ideas of what might be good to plant uh in a
Native plant garden and kind of unraveling some of these native plant relationships we got to find the right promad here in South Florida a lot of plants have evolved The epiphytic Habit which means that they grow up in the canopies of trees without harming the trees where they can get more light and
Also don’t have any competition one of those epip fyes we’re hoping to see is Tania Facula so we head the Coconut Creek and fern Forest Nature Center you got some nice epiphytes over there those tanas see that see those Brads nice Tania facul you see that over there epip Brads see a lot of people poach the native epes pretty hard to procure Dennis the landscaper says he’s
Got one of these but first we got to show you how epy and other natives grow in the wild so you’ll see what we’re doing when we’re placing them around lizz’s yard any plans that really give us a sense of Florida that you’re actually in Florida oh yeah there you go
Oh well well well if it isn’t the native facts a Hatchy grass so this is a nice example of the tripsacum de toes Trum however you want to pronounce that that’s going in a yard that’s a nice uh nice example of what it looks like once it’s established oh yeah
So that’s the seed looking like a little corn yeah that’s it’s closely related to Corn this is the same plant that we’re trying to plant over there you know we hope to encounter one more species perfect for lizz’s yard aunti estricta the shell Mound prickly peir here’s the cactuses over
Oh so this is a native prickly par yeah this sun-loving shade intolerant Cactus thrives in Wildfire prone habitat and yard Scorch with a flame weeder resprouting after the burn comes through fire it needs to burn it will be cleansed with Fire we’re exploring Fern Forest near Fort Lauderdale in search of a native cactus which denises about the plant in Liv in Mark’s front yard the shell Mound prickley pear evolved in a prairie ecosystem I mean just like an inch of elevation change in Florida is like a totally different habitat this habitat
Is accustomed to a good cleansing by fire about every 3 years so this needs a good burn yep and it needs a regular burn things mostly burn in the fall or when uh during the like late spring early summer when the lightning would be peeking and it does have a beautiful
Flower on it it fruits only a few months ago there was a flower and but now we got a fruit off I’m just spreading Glocks all over the place Glocks are fiberglass like hairs and you certainly don’t want them lodging in your tongue mucousy a little a slight hint of
Sugar as we’re leaving Fern Forest Lily spots a native Orchid there’s one yay nice look at it nice species of habanera habanera a little nectar spur pollinated by moths at night do the flowers open at night no they’re uh they’re already open but they start emitting scent at
Night it’s always a treat to get to see one of these habenaria is a genus of terrestrial Orchid meaning that species in this genus grow on the ground and are more difficult to poach than orchids that grow on other plants they mostly go for epithetic orchids but I’m sure
People try yeah people are dumb enough to try I’m sure they don’t know Nothing we’re going to get all the laid out and wait for Joey to get here and check it out there is a slight delay as I fall into a trance on the forest floor sometimes you want to look up at the canopy look up at the trees and let them
Take you away to a peaceful Place I eventually come too at Flamingo Road nursery where Liz works it’s kind of a dream come true surrounded by plants all the time and uh people who are super knowledgeable about them it’s very stimulating intellectually just always being able to learn more about the plants the variety is endless do you
Want to grab one of these limes for yeah let’s get one for it zanox ly fagar it’s a native member of the citrus family about how big these get like 10 ft right probably yeah about 10 12 ft it’ll produce little uh beads tiny like mini
Limes the lime prickly ash is the host plant for one of Florida’s most flamboyant butterflies the the giant swallow tail she has a whole theme going on now with larval food plant she’s going to be filled with butterflies in her yard milk weeds are another great butterfly attractive but not all
Milkweeds are equal some non-native milkweeds that don’t die back in wintertime can actually harm Butterflies by passing along deadly parasites anding up monarch butterfly migration causing a lot of issues for a species that’s on the brink of Extinction the monarchs when they land on it there’s research showing that it tricks them into
Thinking that they’re in Mexico and so they stop migrating you have a responsibility to plant native stuff and that mentality is so foreign to the current American mindset too the native sign here yeah they got some native Bunch grasses some native fakahi grass fakahi deales yeah we’ve seen this it’s
Important to differentiate between grass and lawn there’s actually a bunch of cool native members of the grass family this is one of them trips seum daal loides provides habitat provides food source for a lot of the Native Wildlife grass is good I’m going to throw this one right
Here how you guys doing right here look good Dennis you’ve got a few more plants nice this for you we’re so glad that we’re at the point of where we’re getting to plant things right now you get this looking beautiful for Liz it’s fakahatchee planting time along
With the lime prickly ash so this is a good spot for the Z oxum so if you plant it they will come you’ll get more swallow tail butterflies around and as you get back to the back over here no more pineapples we’re going to repurpose them they’re going to be in a much
Happier place these will take off too being in the sun now that’s nice Definitely and there’s the Tania man I love the way that you use that stump right there that was actually your idea that was my idea hey nice job Lily yeah and you luckily had some of
That opuntia stricta that native cactus that is also edible it’s a really good use of a front yard Lily and I had off on another hike was this thing while Al helps with the final planting even though Liz is working with a tight budget and even
Though it’s the DEA winter this is going to become an important piece of the larger native plant ecosystem all these little oh yeah this soil is so Sandy could really be doing this with a Baker’s spatula getting outside in your garden it gives you a chance to move
Your body you’re not just sitting at a desk all day you just become a crumpled cashew of misery you come outside into nature and things open up during our botanizing adventures around Fort Lauderdale we encountered airplants cacti and orchids they need symbiotic fungi in the soil we also
Experienced all kinds of ative host plants for psychedelically patterned native butterflies what’s this butterfly and what’s this plant this is the Zia this is the host plant for this rare butterfly commonly known as CTI oh look at all the cist on here and now like the rare atala butterfly emerging from its
Cocoon on a CTI plant lizz’s yard is reborn right down to its eco-friendly mulch The Mulch we use is actually the ground shredded remains of an invasive plant this is cero which is referred to as Australian pine the whole point of using mulch is that you’re protecting that soil from evaporating moisture and
You’re also helping that soil gain nutrients because fungi and other microbes will slowly break that mulch down and in doing so they will release nutrients that can later be used by plants the shell Mound prickley pear cactus the river Sage the fog fruit I think Dennis came through with some really neat and
Uncommon hard to find native plants Riso balanus the cocoa plum I like Liz a lot I’m really excited about how excited she is there’s something everywhere to look at when I first saw the yard I thought this is what we see when we go out hiking through Florida we felt like we
Were working with Friends check it out I’m seeing different things that I’ve never seen before look they mooved the pineapples over there to that side oh yeah they look so much nicer here yeah so the pineapple they’ll get more sun they’ll grow a little bit B get fruit
Off of them and once they actually fruit that’ll be adorable also adorable the nurturing relationship between host plants and butterflies a plants give caterpillars leaves to eat and they return a favor by pollinating their host plants as butterflies look at thei yeah it was it thought to be extinct actually until
Their Resurgence landscaper started using the plant more often yeah yeah over here this is a a native member of the citrus family it’s a important host plant for swall tail butterflies you actually have butterfly eggs already got eggs on it yeah there’s one right there and there’s the other
Wow from these eggs swallow tail caterpillars will emerge with outer markins evolved to resemble bird poop so the birds don’t eat them if it’s going to be like a butterfly Rave out here there’s going to be like a butterfly DJ they’re going to be partying remember this is January the
Quietest season of all when it comes to plant growth but instant gratification and a big reveal isn’t the point the point here is for Liz to lead other Floridians by example I feel like this is going to be super inspiring for a lot of people it’s going to take a few years
For this yard to reach its full potential but when it does and even though Liz was working with a tiny budget it’s going to be as much of a banger as all the other yards of other long Killers around South Florida and I’m really excited too to
See you know a year from now 2 years from now what it what it’s going to look like here cheers I was too aggressive I’m sorry that was very aggressive it’s time to go yeah let’s go time to kill another Alan even if you have a small space even
If you don’t have like a huge budget that you can still accomplish something really cool in America