Flip My Florida Yard- The Valdez Family

flip my Florida yard is brought to you by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection protecting Florida's environment starts with you what you do in your yard can have an impact on the health of our environment and Water Resources welcome to flip my Florida yard on today's episode we're in the central Florida town of Oviedo where the Valdez family's dream of a Backyard Oasis is about to come true [Music] it was completely a mess when we move in the Valdez family made the backyard 9-1-1 c

all we can even go outside and do anything we just stay inside and today the flip my Florida yard crew is coming to the rescue I drill and he plants them Complete Backyard flip we've had 40 plus people in your backyard working all day and of course in all in eight hours it is chaotic along the way we unpack Florida friendly Landscaping principles that can help make your yard beautiful and better for Florida's environment okay everybody the family is going to be here about 30 minutes see florida-

friendly Landscaping come alive for this family it's just so exciting all this and more one two three on flip my Florida yards looking on doors and flipping yards into beautiful florida-friendly landscapes and all in eight hours is this really happening who's ready organized chaos experts show us how to use florida-friendly Landscaping principles putting the right plant in the right place water efficiently very low maintenance fertilized appropriately all leading up to a dramatic reveal the best

surprise of our whole life [Music] this is my favorite part hey guys hey good morning come on out here well today is the day [Music] he looked out the window we have all this beautiful space outside we have no way to enjoy it the kids can enjoy it our backyard is very dry and we not have much fun to do outside all I do is just stay inside and play video games when my wife told me about it I was like oh my God this is insane I was speechless Valdez family this is your flip crew tell you what the

y are going to absolutely transform your backyard when we're done you're going to have a beautiful Florida friendly landscape yes what do you think Mom I'm excited out of here you guys ready yes all right follow me let's go [Applause] [Music] Buckle everybody in they're going on a little road trip to hontoon Island okay Nelson no peeking no talking with neighbors I'll see you in eight hours sounds good all right get out of here all right today's the day we're getting our yard okay guys driving a

round the Valdez family just left you know what that means we had eight hours to flip this floor to yard who's ready [Applause] [Music] to go and go go go go go go go go go okay let's check out the valdez's backyard here as you can see we're dealing with a little bit of a blank slate not a lot going on back here that's why we're here so the completely taking out a lot of the grass we're gonna redo all of their irrigation here here was the major demo is right here there was a concrete pad that ca

me out here and there was a wooden deck all were in really bad condition so they had to be removed we did this a couple days before our paver crew has an incredible design that's going to really give the Valdez family a beautiful place to hang out as a family but a lot to do in a very short period of time [Music] with the work underway let's check in with landscape designer John Madison so when I met with the family they won an outdoor living area that they can entertain not only a family of fri

ends but really enjoy the outdoors with their three children that they have John I know you met with the Valdez family what kind of family are they oh they're incredible sweet young couple three kids I mean this is going to change their life kind of walked me through some of the major features of your design here the idea is to have this outdoor indoors feeling so they can leave their doors open when it's beautiful outside like it is today and then we'd have a nice paper walkway that kind of cut

s through the gravel spaces that's going to come to a fire pit area so it just made perfect sense to kind of incorporate that into this outdoor living area so this is a landing pad here you have this looks like just a beautiful Florida friendly Forest that's going to be in front of them here everything here is completely Foreigner friendly drought tolerant butterfly and bird attracting yes that was the idea the mother loves to Garden the kids love butterflies and birds so they wanted to bring th

at natural element into the space but also creating some screening so that when they're out here and these trees are mature and established they don't see a house behind them yeah they literally have their own space back here yeah oh okay and everything gets crazy machines are going stuff's getting ripped up let's go find the man who's in charge of this chaos how are you doing sir good morning this feels a little Deja Vu I love this we've got about 40 people here today all total doing different

aspects of the landscape so we're doing a little bit of everything we're just doing it all at the same time give me your thoughts on the day a lot going on here where are you at it's an easy job should be done by lunch I love this man the optimism coming off of him it's infectious I hope I get there right now this looks like a war zone one thing I learned with Billy was this man cannot be rattled he's the one tasked with bringing all this together today can he do it we're gonna find out while th

eir own backyard Park is being created the Valdez family is visiting a state park on beautiful hontoon island this Unique Park on the St John's river in Volusia County is accessible only by a free public Ferry or private boat today we're going to take the family on a little Adventure today we went hiking the kids loved it it was an experience that we've never experienced before so yeah it was fun this park is best known for its natural beauty it's a gem nestled right in the middle of the land Fl

orida so most people who come out here come out just to enjoy nature we find it beautiful family-friendly Park we would love to come back and experience more about it what's happening in our yard we're like biting our nails we can't wait for us to just get there and see what's happening over there [Music] while the Valdez family tries to relax we're in full flip mode on their backyard our goal turning their yard into a Florida friendly landscape out the florida-friendly Landscaping program is re

ally for everyone it's for homeowners landscape professionals even renters can think about ways to enhance their landscape with Florida friendly principles watering efficiently is Florida friendly Landscaping principle number two it's easy by starting with the in-ground irrigation system we want to be checking it for clogs and the spray heads for breaks in those PVC areas and to make sure that those rotors and pop-up sprayers are not buried and covered with dirt or irrigating the pavement we wan

t to be making sure that that water successfully lands on the area where the root zone is going to be absorbing it fertilizing appropriately is one of the nine principles of a Florida friendly landscape proper Plant Nutrition leads to those beautiful healthy landscape plants that we desire Dr Brian Unruh from the University of Florida shares the importance nutrients plays in our landscape just like we need proper nutrition to be healthy and and live a vibrant life plants also need proper nutriti

on and that nutrition for plants comes from a lot of different sources fertilizing being one of them so we think about if there's organic matter in the soil many nutrients can come from that organic matter when it rains rain oftentimes brings nutrients with it as well when we apply fertilizer to the landscape very quickly that fertilizer will start to dissolve within the the water that's in the soil and then the nutrients are taken up through the root system up into the plant to then meet the ne

eds of the growing plant in the urban landscape I think one of the biggest misconceptions about fertilization is that it has to be fertilized in many of our Landscapes especially is the age the soils May provide adequate nutrition for the plant that is growing in which case fertilizer would not be needed so one of the things we do at the University of Florida is test the performance of various fertilizers how well they do for growing the plant but then also looking at environmental impact and so

do those nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus in particular do they Leach through the soil and end up in our groundwater it's very important that we put the right amount of fertilizer at the right time so that the plant uses it efficiently and we minimize environmental impact proper Plant Nutrition leads to healthy plants a healthy environment improper Plant Nutrition can lead to unhealthy plants and negative environmental impacts the best thing a homeowner can do is to get educated the University

of Florida ifis extension has tremendous resources available through the florida-friendly Landscaping program that will train you or educate you as to what is needed back to the flip now for most the journey to a Florida friendly yard takes a bit longer but the time and effort has many benefits for both Floridians and Florida to ensure this yard is using water efficiently we knew the Valdez backyard was going to need some irrigation work but it's turning out to be a much bigger job that we plan

for I see a lot of trenching going on in this yard Billy we thought we were going to retrofit it but what did we end up doing we pretty much redid the whole irrigation system in the backyard we're starting at the main line running new pipes into the backyard dividing the zones up into bubbler zone for the trees and emitter zone for the pots and a shrub zone for the shrub areas what we found was an old rotor system that pretty much watered everything by just squirting water in the air so we're t

aking out the old rotor system and installing 12-inch pop-ups with MP rotators on them this is the old the old rotor system here this is all coming out it's all coming out you know one of the features that we're featuring this episode is the florida-friendly principle water efficiently talk about watering efficiently how does the irrigation play into that plants have their special needs so when you have what they had to begin with with just water squirting it water is everything and the same amo

unt of water is getting on the turf or the shrubs or the trees and that's not very efficient you need more water on things when they're first installed yeah some things you need less water after they're established some things maybe none the turf every now and then the pots regularly so that's very important in being water efficient foreign [Music] two hours in actually we have trees going in that's always a great sign look at that big old magnolia tree that went in just that one tree in this ya

rd alone is already making this backyard better there's something special about seeing a tree being planted in a yard knowing that tree is spent its entire life in a pot and today it's found it's forever home Billy this is a big tree this is a nice tree this is uh an average tree for what we put in on a landscape job you're not going to the Box Store and throwing this in the back of the minivan I wouldn't think you could do that you couldn't pick this up without a machine like that so what do we

need to do here walk us through this but we're going to remove the cloth on the bottom cut those roots if they need to be cut we're going to set it in the hole make sure it's at the right height and depth put water around it so we remove all the air pockets yep looking good guys and then start back filling [Music] a big part of John's design is the large paver area right off the family's French doors I talked to our paver supplier Chris bettinger about our flips Hardscape plan we're looking at

a really nice living space here um what kind of product are we using today the product is one of our concrete products two and three-eighths inches thick very durable very resilient yeah it has a permeable nature to it where the water is going to go through so it'll be very easy to manage wow you know really make that living space long-term for them looks fantastic we're thrilled to death with John's choices the colors everything's going to really pop when it's done I mean they're going to come

out of here look step down and they'll step down again that's a pretty cool feature right this tiered approach again it's it's all about the scale how you look at it and just the flow it'll run into the backyard with all the Landscaping they're doing it's going to look fantastic we're a few hours in and things are really taking shape we're ready to plant plants and to help us learn about some of the plants that we're using today is University of Florida Extension agent Tina McIntyre this design

really focuses on putting the right plant in the right place and so we want to select florida-friendly plants that are going to thrive in that area what plants are you excited about here in this landscape this is muley grass okay it's a florida-friendly native plant in the fall it has beautiful purple flowers coming out here and so once it gets dense and established it's going to really have a nice bunching grass to it you know really full base and then it's going to have these beautiful purple

blooms coming out what I like about it is that it's super drought tolerant and we don't recommend that you come in and hack it back so you know you can do once a year after it blooms you can burn it a little bit but really this is super low maintenance and you don't really need to do anything to it awesome and I am familiar with this next one one of my my personal favorites this is the penta so pentas come in a lot of different varieties and colors this is the pink obviously it also comes in whi

te and red yeah and this is really great for our pollinators so this is going to be something that a hummingbird or a butterfly can actually come in nectar from so they put their little proboscis down into the flower and suck out that nectar and this is a food source and a reward for those animals to come into your landscape I planted these in my yard a year ago I walked out there yesterday these have gotten so big I could not believe it I mean this is an amazing plant it attracts all kinds of p

ollinators colorful fairly easy to take care of right absolutely very water wise doesn't take a lot of resources they do get up to about three feet tall so they're going to be established you can also come in and prune them a little bit you know to give them a seasonal kind of freshness but extremely low maintenance great and also readily available at a lot of our box stores and nurseries Tina what do we have next here this is is our Florida kunti and it is really a Florida friendly staple it's

a native Florida plant if you can believe it was alive during the dinosaurs wow so we actually call it kind of like a living fossil very drought tolerant and what I really like about the the tea is that you can plant it in both sun or shade and it thrives and so you can't beat it for Florida friendly Tina thank you so much you know for folks who want to just know more about plants what do you suggest florida-friendly Landscaping has tons of resources if you just go to your search engine and put

in Florida friendly Landscaping you're going to find Edith Publications and websites even apps for your phone to help you search for the right plant for your ZIP code you know that's a great place to start is online okay but even talking to your neighbors or your local Nursery about what they have that's Florida friendly our flip crew is working hard but we're running out of time and it looks like we're only about halfway there it's 2 30. yeah how are you feeling how what do you think here I'm g

reat you're great yeah you feel good I'm gonna pull my lawn chair out in a minute oh we've got all the crews working over each other and sometimes on top of each other so it is chaotic but it's organized and we'll still get it done on time this man is an incredible Optimist organized chaos comes together to a finished shop the backyard we're creating for the Valdez family means they'll be eating outside more so we bought a pre-assembled picnic table from a local box store and we're applying some

semi-transparent Blue vintage stain this is an easy and cost effective way to give a simple wood picnic table a fresh colorful look it's very apparent here you need some help we do so I feel like you're not utilizing my skills how can I help come on down and help plant plants auger we're gonna find out [Applause] this is the one that the men used to put the plants in the ground what is this one man the little one come over here I want to use the big one all right all right we're talking now be

careful it's a little more torque than that a little more torque oh yeah should I be strapped in [Music] that good before we jump back into our flip Tom Wickman from Florida friendly Landscaping program shares with us some yard maintenance tips on integrated Pest Management realize that most insects are not doing damage to your plants only about one percent of the insects that you find are pests in the landscape integrated Pest Management or IPM is a holistic way of how to manage pests in the la

ndscape you start first with the right plant for the right place and make sure that you get plants that are resistant to pests try and keep plants as healthy as possible and don't bring problems home from the garden center it's got yellow leaves or pests on it leave it there and buy a better plant and then go out into the landscape and Scout it so walk around those plants turn leaves over see if you can figure out what made that hole in that leaf once you have them positively identified and you

know that they're doing damage to your plants it could be that I can just cut off a branch it's a one particular branch that has all the insects clustered that's an easy way to get rid of them and dispose of that that or perhaps it's one large insect that's doing damage then you can just pluck it and dispose of it if you do have to manage some pests in the landscape make sure that you start with the lowest toxicity products first try soaps or Oils these low toxicity products are a little safer o

n the environment and a little less damaging and we're only going to spot treat because we just want to treat individual areas and make sure that you're following the label the label is the law on a pesticide products University of Florida has a wonderful pest ID app that can help us identify insect pests and remember managing pests in the landscape doesn't have to be difficult we just need to think about the environment before we take action foreign [Music] plants and trees are in the ground on

e of the last but most important items to go down is The Mulch and it's also one of the Florida friendly Landscaping principles Lauren Scarborough from mulch for you gives us some mulching 101. you want to go at least two inches thick that's going to help you keep that moisture and also keep the weeds so two inches thick so this is this has been mulched here so yeah it's right about yeah about two inches also it's good to make sure you leave your roots uncovered okay if you put a mulch over your

roots it can suffocate them and it can shock your plant and die so we were talking about this a newly planted plant here so we've got the mulch backed away here just a couple inches just away from the plant stem there right and what does that do is that important that allows the water to get directly to the roots John's design called for three privacy trellises so I came up with a simple design consisting of pressure treated 4x4 post some gray plastic lattice and I trimmed it out with some pres

sure treated one by fours what's going to be cool is we're going to plant a climbing plant down here Billy has run irrigation to it so this is going to climb all up here it's going to look really really nice and it's going to serve two purposes this is going to be a little bit of an audible break there's a really busy road on the other side of this brick wall plus this is going to give the Valdez family a little sense of privacy as they hang out in their new Florida friendly Oasis so back to it

one of the many benefits of a Florida friendly landscape is the wildlife of the track this is a big part of what the Valdez has wanted was a yard that attracted Wildlife it's one of the nine principles I think it's number five I mean why is it important to attract Wildlife into your backyard oh well you're planting for it already so so why not fully engage with them but with the with the food and the seed and and having you know just that more discovery of Nature and bringing them in with with t

he food and good quality seeds so the kids you know talked about looking outside from the window not really having a reason to come outside is this a good reason this is a great reason to just look outside and then just be invited outside to participate once the birds are comfortable in your yard they're going to be right there with you while you're having dinner and hanging out on the patio [Music] additional features on the paver patio include Rock beds throughout adding texture and permeable

surface and large whiskey barrels as a raised planter for vegetables as well as some hanging plants we're also putting down the Haya grass which is drought tolerant it will also provide a functional Turf area for the kids to play on we got home stretch here guys you guys ready everybody ready oh we're almost there so we're almost there we gotta go go what are some things that need to come together here to make this complete here biggest thing is The Rock right now we've got a few veggies to plan

t turn the sprinklers on okay I'm gonna go get the family set and when you give me the go-ahead I want to bring them back we'll give you a thumbs up out there all right guys let's do it [Music] the family's here how you guys doing good you ready we're ready I tell you what we've had 40 plus people in your backyard working all day and I'm so excited for you to see it I think you're gonna like it you have to get these ridiculous his glasses on you there you go mom there you go sweetie and these ar

e special for you those match your shirt look at that oh my goodness you can't see right okay they're working okay so you're gonna take small slow steps towards me kind of follow my voice just follow the sidewalk here right keep coming keep coming you guys are doing good oh gosh you guys even look good in this backyard already are we ready to do this are you guys ready to see it you ready when I count to three I want you to remove your glasses okay one two three remove your glasses [Applause] th

is is amazing oh my gosh before the Valdez backyard was well wasn't really much at all and eight hours later it's a beautiful Florida friendly landscape with a multi-tiered paver patio complete with Oak Barrel Planters and hanging pots for herbs and Edibles rocks throughout adding a design element and added permeability to the patio all this flowing into a new yard filled with drought tolerant water friendly plants and trees a fire pit for cool nights an old inefficient irrigation system was com

pletely replaced with separate watering zones to maximize water efficiency and a new rain sensor was installed and for attracting Birds to the yard a water and food source all this in about eight hours [Music] we have a yard congratulations thank you so much thank you so much thank you so much I will always remember you you will always be part of our family now and we would enjoy it a lot with our children and our family and it's emotional we give this yard over to you you'll be working with you

r local Extension agent Tina who is going to help you take care of this yard we want to thank you guys for being such a good Steward of the Florida friendly landscape we have a little gift for you here Tina would like to present something to you it's officially recognized as a florida-friendly landscape yeah the valdez's new backyard will not only have a lasting impact on our environment it will serve as a sanctuary for them to connect as a family and to Florida well that's our show we hope you'

re inspired to help Florida's environment by starting in your own yard and remember everyone doing a little well that's a whole lot we are extremely happy with the yard we enjoy it we love it we enjoy the wildlife here our Brita house is amazing but the chilly night we did enjoy our fire pit thank you so much for flipping our floor of the yard [Music] flip my Florida yard is brought to you by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection protecting Florida's environment starts with you what

you do in your yard can have an impact on the health of our environment and Water Resources