We?ve been slowly fixing up our house in Florida whenever we visit, and on my last stay earlier this month I gave the patio seating area a makeover. Anyone who?s lived in Florida is familiar with the weather patterns there: winters are sunny and mild, spring is perfection, summers are hot and humid, and it rains a ton in the fall. I didn?t want to tackle this project in high heat and humidity so I planned this outdoor update during the best time of year for it, and gave this corner of our patio a makeover while temperatures were in the mid 70s.
I wrote about pale pebble landscape design ideas last year in anticipation of just this kind of makeover. These kinds of low maintenance rock beds with tropical plantings are common in the area, they also complement the style of our older home so I refreshed our sitting area landscaping in a similar style.
 
Here?s what the patio looked like when I started, you can see there wasn?t much that was exciting going on in that corner. I also didn?t like the shade of cornflower blue the patio had been painted before so I decided to change that too.

 
This makeover required I dig out and haul away the old rock before I replaced the new. It was a lot of manual labor for me but with the help of a shovel and wheelbarrow I was able to remove the dingy old rocks and blackened edging blocks and start fresh.

 
After 95% of the old rock was gone we brought in some sand to support new 24″ pavers I bought for a trio of potted p...