I have a courtyard in between my house and my garage/storage area. It was a screened patio and the previous owner tiled over 4" concrete. Needless to say, in Florida, every 2-3 weeks I had to pressure wash the tile to keep mildew from growing. This got old, quickly...not only the pressure washing, but the fact that every time I pressure washed I was inhaling aerosolized water/fungal particles. Yuck! So I eventually gave up and let the area "win." It became unbearable, and I didn't even want to open my windows because of the growing mildew/mold. So finally I got motivated, had a guy with a Bobcat rip out the concrete, tile and screen house, and then I brought in 9 yards of potting soil/fill/mushroom compost. I trenched around the house (18"-2' down and put in anti-termite treatment) , hung gutters, fixed dry-rot damage around the outside doors, painted the area in happy colors, planted it out and mulched it (50 bags of mulch). Since I live in a borderline-too cold-for mangos locale, I thought this courtyard would afford some protection for 2 mango trees. So months ago I drove down to Excalibur (3 1/2 hour drive) and bought 4 Maha Chanok trees (I kept two, gave one to my father, and gave one as a housewarming gift to a mango-loving friend south of me). Rob was our gracious host. I wanted a variety that would be slow growing, somewhat on the small side and pretty. I love the picture that HMHausman posted of his smallish Maha bejeweled with beautiful fruit (a search on Google images of Maha Chanok/Chinook will turn up this photo). The only downside to this project is that the yellow paint makes the rest of my house looks dull and old (needs to be painted). Sooo...that is my next project! I will pick a toned down color for the house though! I've posted before and after pics. The tree behind the courtyard is a Mauritius lychee. One wall of the courtyard is western-facing, so I had to put in some sun loving plants. The other wall is eastern-facing, so I planted more lush tropicals. Most everything is perennials. I realize I will eventually have mango trees dropping leaves on my roof, but my house is surrounded by 30 huge oaks that rain litter down non-stop, so a twice a month gutter cleaning is already in my schedule!
Yes, it was this bad. Almost everything on the ground is mildew. It loves tile in FL. I bleached it 1 time, the water ran into my backyard and killed the plants on the oustide of the screened patio. Plus, when this tile would get wet it was slick like ice. No good...
Trenching before termite application
Dumptruck delivering soil
Same vantage point as the 1st photo ("yes it was this bad")
