Let’s turn off those lights!

I’m sure most of you favor the habit of turning off lights at night, but that’s usually to save electricity and ensure it’s dark enough to sleep. Many keep outdoor lights on for security reasons, although I thought this was why we lived in Palm Beach: It’s pretty safe here! In any event, leaving a porch light on may be OK for some, but to have the entire exterior of one’s home ablaze all night seems a rather unnecessary waste of money and electricity.

With the rest of the East Coast under a winter storm watch, it’s great to be in Florida, where we are surrounded by bright flowers and lush foliage. Despite the less-than-perfect weather we’ve had recently, or maybe because of it, my garden is full of color and fragrance.

Living shorelines incorporate plants and other natural elements to stabilize shorelines, increase and reinforce coastal resilience and provide habitat for fisheries. These shorelines are not only beautiful, they benefit the environment by buffering floodwater, reducing erosion, storing carbon, purifying water, increasing biodiversity and providing wildlife habitat.

I’ve discussed the dangers of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides in previous articles, but after speaking to numerous acquaintances recently, I was startled to learn how few people actually realize the staggering amount of chemicals used on a regular basis in Palm Beach.

Neonicotinoid insecticides (“neonics”) were introduced in the 1990s and are now the most widely used insecticides in North America.

The recent amount of palm pruning around the island has left many residents dismayed and infuriated at the disregard for proper healthy pruning techniques.

The iconic silhouettes of coconut palms are a symbol of South Florida; their beauty and stature is never questioned. Why then do landscapers feel compelled to prune them into ugly “feather dusters” every spring?

There is no better time, in my mind, than dusk in the garden, especially when surrounded by the wonderful scents of jasmine, brunfelsia, gardenia, or sweet almond bush. While these are all Florida-friendly plants, not natives, their fragrances are so intoxicating they all deserve spots in our gardens.

One of the best things about writing these articles is the feedback I have received from readers and fellow gardeners.

I was fortunate to have a recent tour of the wonderful Phipps Ocean Park. This exciting project will be a tremendous gift to the residents of Palm Beach.

The Preservation Foundation’s plans for the renovation of this 18-acre area include educational facilities and native landscaping to promote and restore environmental sustainability. In 1948, the Phipps family donated 1,200 feet of ocean frontage for use as a public park to ensure the land remained open in perpetuity. The park has not been well-managed in the intervening 75 years, is grossly underutilized, and currently consists of just some random paths and picnic tables with a few cabanas. Plantings are infested with invasive species including Brazilian pepper and melaleuca, and it is not an inviting area to visit.

"Project Paradise," an eye-opening documentary shown at the Society of the Four Arts last week, examined Florida’s most valuable natural resource: water.

We’ve discussed the importance of native plants for the sustenance they provide our birds and butterflies, and for the habitat they afford local wildlife.

But planting natives is also just smart landscaping: Natives need much less water than more commonly used exotic annuals such as impatiens, begonias and coleus, and natives help regenerate and restore the soil. Their deeper, more expansive root systems retain micronutrients and their dense coverage protects from wind, sun and heavy rain.

One of the takeaways from last week’s all-town zoning code review was that the natural environment is our superpower.

Our designs must embrace open spaces, including porticos, terraces and loggias, providing shade, light, and air: design over density. We are a town, not a resort or a gated community; we need to be unified without uniformity.

I’ve discussed the importance of native plants for the survival of our pollinators and birds, but I haven’t really explained why invasives are so damaging to our environment.

We lost David Crosby recently, and in a fitting radio tribute, I heard his iconic tenor in ‘'Woodstock'’ while I was driving.

Listening to Joni Mitchell’s lyrics, the wonderful refrain — “We are stardust, we are golden / We are billion-year-old carbon / And we’ve got to get ourselves / Back to the garden” — struck me as perhaps more pertinent today than it was in the 1960s. We had it right back then. We do need to get ourselves back to the garden, and there’s no better opportunity than here in South Florida.

With so much construction going on throughout South Florida and Palm Beach, new hedges are inevitably being planted everywhere. Ficus (Ficus benjamina) has been banned due to the whitefly infestation and landscapers are now recommending clusia as a replacement. This is absolutely the wrong choice.

When I count my blessings at the close of the year, family and health always top the list, along with coffee, but I am also grateful to have a garden.

The new pollinator/butterfly garden at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens opened last Sunday to great fanfare, and the butterflies, as if on cue, were all in attendance.

A few years ago, several homeowners on the North End put together a Healthy Yard Pledge, promising to reduce or eliminate the use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides on their properties while urging their neighbors to do the same. It was an idea whose time was ripe, and many of us were encouraged by the popularity with which the pledge was received.

Adding native plants to our gardens has never been of more vital importance.

Butterflies, birds and wildlife are disappearing because the native plants on which they depend are rarely planted. Native plants have evolved over eons alongside their native wildlife counterparts, and as such are critical to the survival of our natural ecosytsems.

Palm Beach dodged a bullet with Hurricane Ian last week, but still saw some damage.

After perusing several gardens around the island, numerous plants stood out for surviving Ian’s winds and torrential rains here with flying colors. Here are some exceptionally hardy species that will help hurricane-proof your gardens, assuming we don’t get a 10-foot storm surge.