Neal Ekengren's Wekiva Wonder
January 1, 2005
My dad Neal built something remarkable in the backyard of our home in Apopka, Florida. Starting in 1990, he transformed 1.5 acres of scrub oak and pure sand into an elaborate series of themed gardens — each one reflecting somewhere he and my mom had traveled. The property borders natural corridors to Wekiva State Park; bear, deer, and all manner of wildlife pass through regularly.
The Orlando Sentinel awarded it Yard of the Month in 2002 with a full-page spread. HGTV later featured it on Look What I Did.
Waterfall Garden · 1990 & 2005
The Koi pond was the first major yard project, built in 1990 with a 2-ton truckload of rocks and a Hypalon rubber liner ordered from Colorado — still flexible and watertight fifteen years later.
By 2005 the waterfall had been overgrown with foliage. Neal wanted something more dramatic — a tall faux-rock mountain in the style of Disney's landscapes. He developed what he calls the Ekengren Foil Rock Casting method: a steel fencing framework filled with scavenged styrofoam, covered in mortar-soaked cloth, then faced with QuikWall concrete. Crumpled aluminum foil pressed into the wet concrete created rock-like surface textures. Concrete acid wash — browns, yellows, blacks — provided permanent coloration that won't fade.
Inspiration
Steel framework
QuikWall application
Gazebo Garden · 1998
A wood-frame gazebo reached by crossing a foot bridge over a bog garden — the bog created deliberately as the justification for the bridge. Inside: hanging Bromeliads, Orchids, and Tropicals. A Turkish tile mural added to the back wall after a trip to Istanbul; spotlights illuminate it at night alongside the rock waterfall.
Alhambra Garden · 2000
Modeled after sites in Portugal and Spain. A stucco wall with an arched alcove holds a lion-head fountain draining into a concrete basin, flanked by hand-painted Portuguese tiles. Beside it, an irrigation wall based on the Alhambra in Granada: water flows from a clay jar along a channel and turns an iron water wheel at the bottom.
By 2019 it had evolved into a zero-irrigation cactus garden — Dykias and Agaves — matching the dry Granada climate. The stucco became white epoxy; the water wheel was rebuilt in ceramic and fiberglass. The Portuguese tiles remain unfaded after twenty years.
Original
2019
Bromeliad Greenhouse · 2006
Walls scavenged from a commercial greenhouse being demolished locally; roof ribs of PVC tubing covered in 30% shade cloth. Inside, Neal built a Bromeliad Tree from Hypertufa concrete — a porous mix that mounted Bromeliads thrive on — still standing fifteen years later. The 2019 version scaled back to a smaller Croton/Bromeliad garden that fits the yard better.
2006
2019
Grill Garden
The working core of the yard — brick patio off the garage double doors, with grill, sink, workbench, and tools all within reach.
Recycle Garden
Six hundred square feet of cleared woodland. Every planter is a stack of two used tires wrapped in carpet screwed into the treads, filled with yard sand. Used toilet tanks serve as planters around the trees. The ground is carpeted upside-down to suppress weeds. Behind it all: a covered sitting blind for shelter from Florida's daily thunderstorms.
Deep Well
A 180-foot well drilled into the property, with large sections of the irrigation system reworked to handle the higher flow. The local water company had been sold and rate increases loomed. At this depth the water is clean and pure — shallow wells in Florida stain concrete. Now the swimming pool can be drained and refilled without a city water bill.
