New landscaping blooms in Pasco
By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published October 9, 2007
When you drive north into Pasco County along Seven Springs Boulevard, you are welcomed by swatches of red, purple, orange and yellow.
It's a pleasant peek into what our highway medians and back yards may look like in the future. Call it going native. But it's also a sober acknowledgement that we may have to change the way we live, because we won't always have as much water to keep those sprinklers running.
"This is fairly unique. Nobody has ever done it this way," said Pasco County biologist Bob Tietz, who spearheaded the recently completed 31/2-mile landscaping project.
He got the green light from County Administrator John Gallagher and county commissioners to take a different approach - and there's not a crepe myrtle and a blade of sod in sight.
This gateway never looked so good.
Tietz worked with the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods program through the county agriculture extension office. A Lutz outfit, Florida Natives Landscaping, won the contract to do the planting.
The idea is to show what can be done using mostly native plants, which are more drought resistant than their exotic cousins and need far less maintenance.
Penny for Pasco dollars paid for the project, which had its share of doubters.
"Some said it would cost three- quarters of a million dollars and 'you're never going to get this done,'" Tietz said. "That's what happens when you're trying something new and different."
In the end, it cost $220,000. And these plants don't need watering. Unlike sod grass, the dwarf perennial peanuts don't go looking for nuts to boil only need to be mowed about three times a year. The yellow mountain marigolds and the coreopsis will reseed themselves year after year.
Although initially they didn't look like much compared with the ornamental flowers at Wyndtree housing development across the street, the red salvia and purple verbena are now making a bold statement.
"It's gorgeous," Tietz said.
You can forgive him for sounding self-congratulatory. He was feeling the pressure to get it done right, to please the boss. He thinks Gallagher likes it.
"He wants me to do more," Tietz said.
It's like a small, green wave. Even the development community is trying to catch it. Some of the large, influential developers in Pasco are resisting the urge for instant curb appeal in their new neighborhoods and are trying more native, drought-resistant species.
It's good for the environment - and the bottom line.
Andrew Skerritt can be reached at askerritt@sptimes.com or (813) 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602.