Front Yard Tour: HGTV Green Home 2009

Building HGTV Green Home 2009 posed a challenge: How do you build an eco-friendly home that offers all the modern amenities, yet complements surrounding architecture in the Tradition community and feels like a lived-in home? The answer came in the form of smart exterior color choices and mature landscaping that lend a feeling of permanence to the newly built home.

The color palette was inspired by the modern Spanish architecture and designed to complement the striking metal roof in a shade of terra cotta. ProGreen Exterior Paints by Sherwin-Williams include a sandy white shade for walls, a warm neutral gray for lower walls and a cool neutral gray for window trim.

The front path, lined by pygmy date palms, and surrounded by a lush lawn of Floratam and Zoysia grasses, leads to the front porch, surrounded by pine-needle-mulched beds of native grasses, flowering plants and shrubs. Drought-tolerant flowering plant varieties include Dune sunflower, Dwarf bougainvillea, Panama rose, Thryallis and firebush, while grasses and shrubs include Fakahatchee frass, Dwarf Fakahatchee grass, Sand Cordgrass, Muhly grass, Red-Tip Cocoplum, Wax jasmine and Green Island Ficus.

Senior landscape architect Scott Davidson’s favorite feature of the front yard? “The large Southern live oak in the front frames the house very well and makes it look like the house was built around it,” he responds. “That was the goal. The addition of the Sabal palms around the oak provides that additional native Florida look and the grasses underneath add to the entire built-around look.”