Flowers in bloom

I'm very slowly getting back into gardening in our new house.  It's a big job and it often overwhelms me to think about where to start.  There are so many places where I can plant flowers that it's just too much to handle.  I seriously need to narrow my focus.  I snagged some $2 plants from Lowe's at the end of last season after we had finished up the hardscape around the pool.  So far, only 6 plants but it was a start.

This agapanthus is just beginning to flower.  I'm not really sure what all the plants will end up looking like because this is the only one with many small flowers; the others are sprouting tall buds.  I love how this plant resembles the allium plants that I adored in Lansing.

I am amazed that we built this hardscape ourselves.  We had all the stone already in the yard, we just moved it to this new location to help build up the backside of the pool decking.  It was a tough job but it was so worth the effort.  The company that we hired to lay sod asked us who we hired to do that job, they told us that their company would have charged us $3,000 to do all that.  Jackpot!

We have big plans for this area behind the water feature.  It's just weed infested mulch right now but soon we will have small palms and bird of paradise flowers.  Very tropical!  Again, we had those stones lying around.  It took us about an hour of silent work time to figure out an arrangement and lay them all together.  Estevan and I work very well as a team, it's funny that we often don't even have to talk when we have one goal in mind.

We just need to figure out what to plant here.  We arranged  the stones and laid down mulch but so far, no plans.  It's fairly shaded back here and so far we only have some pink crepe myrtles and one ligustrum.  I'm thinking that we need a thicker layer of mulch to cut down on the amount of weeds popping through.  But at least we only spent $500 on mulch for both the front and back yards, labor included.  I'm sure that as the years go by it will continue to get thicker and more weed proof.

That's it for now!  Hopefully, there will be more to come soon. Pin It Now!

Making it right

Grass was delivered to our house 2 days ago, and not just a little grass, a whole 8 pallets of lush, green sod.  I was very impressed with the quality of sod delivered; not at all what I was expecting to see and I'm immensely pleased with it.

Pretty.

Instant gratification, man.  We will be watering it like crazy for 2 weeks and then sitting back to enjoy the yard we always envisioned.  This is exactly what we saw when we looked at this yard for the first time, through all the overgrown bushes and ivy, the dilapidated fences, in spite of the maze of unused flower beds and miles of stones.  This is finally the yard that we bought and dreamed of. 

Well, almost....  Hence the title of this post.

 The decking company is back out here, today.  They are power washing and redoing the top layer of the deck around the pool.  You see, the finish coat on the deck started to flake away so we called them back out to take a peek.  They decided to patch up the spots that were flaking away.  Patch.  That word alone should have told us that we were not going to be happy with the finished product.  At the end of the day, it looked like I had gone through and smeared dark concrete on top.  "Oh that should lighten up and blend right in," they told me.  Yeah right!  I'll let you know how I feel when they are done making it right today, I have my fingers crossed.

Now, for the next "Making it right" project.

This is a picture that I took a few days ago of the dry stacked retaining wall around the edge of the spa. It doesn't quite look like this anymore.  The dirt has started to wash through the gaps in the rocks and now it's just a heap of a mess with the new grass at the bottom.  Projects don't always turn out the way you hope they will but that's what learning is for.  I'm going to try to fix the problem by digging out the dirt right behind the stones and then laying in gravel to help retain it while still allowing water to flow through.  Sounds like a good plan, right?  This would have been a lot easier to do before we heaped the dirt back in, but oh well, you live and learn.  We shall see if this works. Pin It Now!

A hard day's work

A big storm came through our area last and tore up the neighborhood last week.  The rain came down so fast that it flooded our pool, despite the drain, and the wind blew in at 75mph.  Last year, at about this time, we were going through a historic drought and that resulted in a devastating loss of trees.  However, the unseen danger was when root systems of old trees were severely damaged but still standing and then tried to come back this past spring.  The leaves collected rain, which made the trees heavy, and the wind blew so hard that many trees ended up looking like this in my area.

This is a picture taken from my driveway, looking right across the street.  I saw it slowly start to fall and I hightailed it to the pantry which is in the center of my house under the stairs!  Trees were swaying all around and some enormous trees were bent so far that their branches were brushing the ground.  Java and I hung out in the dark pantry until I could hear the wind subsiding.

All that rain took a toll on the fresh dirt around the pool and, with nothing to hold it in place, it swept to the corners of the yard and under the fence line.  This is what the edge of the decking looked like.

The sprinkler system was revealed in several places and the corner of the decking was completely exposed and precarious.  So this past weekend we went to work and grabbed stones that were previously used around all the many flower beds in the back yard and came up with this.

Looks better, right?  We did it all ourselves with materials on hand and probably saved a couple hundred bucks, if not more.  It still needs a little tweaking but this should hold the dirt and I'll be planting some pretty plants very soon.  Also, sod is being put down tomorrow.  Very exciting! Pin It Now!

Gardening at last

After 2 and half very long years of no gardening, I'm back in the saddle again!  However, it's not so much gardening as demolishing.  Our neighbors commented that I was "taming the jungle at last" and they were not exaggerating one bit.  I will show you an example...
 

This is our back patio pergola and it is completely covered with ivy.  Ahhh!  Do you see how the boards are swaying??  It has caught every pine needle and tree debris for many MANY years.  I got after this a few days ago with many tools of torture including sheers, bypass pruners, and loppers.  The result has been this....

A complete and utter annihilation of all source of nutrients.  Victory is mine!  Now all I have to do is wait till it dries out and loosens its grasp of the pergola rafters. 

The ivy isn't the only problem, no no.  The sprinkler system has been the bain of my existence since moving in.  First off, we had no idea how to set the timer and then when we did figure it out we had no idea how long to run them for.  The real beef of the issue came upon us this past weekend when we tackled the leaky heads.  Five heads were consistently leaking and we thought that if we replaced them all would be fixed.  No easy feat but it seemed straight forward enough, so off to Lowes we went, full of pep in our step.  We started this day at 9 in the morning.... after 4 hours of digging and replacing and more digging and a little dash of PVC repair we thought "YES, this is it!"  We turned the water back on and ..... drum roll please..... STILL leaking!  So back to Lowes we go (third trip of the day).  VERY long story short, we figure out that it's the diaphragm in the zone valve.  Lots of bruised knuckles, egos, and knees later we fixed the leak.  We now have a new and wonderful understanding of sprinkler systems, our knowledge is growing every day!  Home ownership is an ever evolving test of one's knowledge and most definitely a test of patience.

Pin It Now!

Patina on terracotta pots

I've been thinking for the past 24 hours about how to turn a plain terracotta pot into an aged masterpiece of patina.  You see, my dilemma first arose while looking around at Thompson & Hanson (see photo).  A beautifully aged yet tiny pot, I mean tiny pot, cost $10.25 and the very same pot, minus the patina, cost only 75 cents.  So that would be $9.50 for mold.  FOR MOLD!  So, I've been researching how to age a perfectly new terracotta pot and have found a very simple way to do it.  

Simply, brush plain yogurt onto a pot and let it sit outside in the shade until you get the desired amount of mold.  It may attract ants and other bugs, so set it in an unused part of your yard.  Seriously people, mold is not worth $9.50. Pin It Now!

Thompson & Hanson

Yesterday, my good friend, Ashley, and I spent the afternoon outside at a beautiful oasis in downtown Houston.  Thompson & Hanson is a lovely garden center which also hosts a very delicious cafe called Tiny Boxwoods.  Ashley told me that the cafe is always busy with the "Ladies That Lunch" and she wasn't exaggerating!  This cafe was incredibly busy but I can attest to the reasoning: the food was absolutely superb.  

We probably could have spent a few more hours going through the garden center, looking at all the pretty plants and ingenious designs.  Here's some of our favorites....

Pin It Now!

And it begins....

Something has been missing in my life over the past few months, that missing piece is gardening.  I absolutely loved my little garden in Michigan and probably became too attached to some of the plants.  I even had a dream last night about going back to my garden and being absolutely heartbroken that the new owner hadn't watered anything for the whole summer.  No flowers, no hostas, no hydrangea... just dirt and twigs.  I woke up very upset.  Yeah, I became way too attached. 

It's about time to start a new garden down here in Texas.  I've been doing some research today to find where to begin this task.  Literally, I know nothing about gardening in Texas!  It's like starting from scratch all over again. 

This is the book I will need:  Neil Perry's Complete Guide to Texas Gardening

This is the place I will go: Montgomery County Master Gardeners Association

And this is the blog where I will get all my ideas:  Donald's Texas Garden

Pin It Now!

Faux-Bois Planters

I received a new Living magazine in the mail today, completely out of the blue and unexpected.  I have my sneaking suspicions as to who may have renewed my subscription (thank you, Mami, if it was you).  I love those little surprises that come in the mail!  

I was reading through it this evening, loving all the gorgeous photos and beautifully written articles, when I came across a craft that I am definitely going to do soon. 

Isn't this faux-bois planter the most fantastic thing you've ever seen?  Ok, maybe not the most fantastic, but it's at least up there on your list of awesomely-inexpensive crafts.  It's made by pouring "hypertufa" mixture between two vessels and sitting for a few hours. 

The mixture consists of equal parts perlite, peat moss, Portland cement, and enough water to reach the desired consistency.  So simple!  Click the photo to see detailed instructions on how to make this particular planter.

You could also use two metal mixing bowls of different sizes to form a more modern design.  Click this link to read the history of this craft and for different types of molds. Pin It Now!

New Garden Wish List

One of the things that I'm really looking forward to is learning how to garden in my new area. I learned a lot about gardening in Michigan, and that only was in the last 2 years! I'm sure I can learn it all over again, right? I'm fairly positive that all I need are a few books (Christmas wish list to come!) and I will be on the right track to gardening in Texas. So far, I've been looking around my neighborhood to get a pretty good idea of what can be grown here. Here's my newest garden wish list... oh and get this, they can all be grown in pots! Perfect for rental living.

Aloe vera; has saved my fingers from burn scars more times than I can count.

Bird of Paradise; so cool looking!

Hibiscus; the epitome of tropical living.

Night blooming Jasmine; I might actually enjoy waking up early in the morning.

Bouganvilla; these grow in huge bushes.
Reminds me of La Quinta, CA which was my favorite place to live...
I guess that must be part of why I like Houston so much!

Gardenia; these can also grow in huge bushes down here.

This is definitely my favorite; Meyer Lemon tree.

Pin It Now!

The flowers keep coming!

Hope that everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! The weather in Michigan was absolutely perfect on the fourth, great for taking advantage of our beautiful lakes. I made the strawberry shortcake cookies from my previous post; they came out very tasty but my baking powder wasn't up for the job. Very flat cookies, but still very good.

We came back to a garden blooming with new color yet again... maybe we should go away every weekend. Here's some new garden shots, enjoy!

The lilies are in full bloom. I divided this clump last fall and now this pretty pink color is all over the garden.

Gorgeous Asiatic lily, too bad it hasn't multiplied naturally yet.
It's also always facing backwards, towards the South... anyone know why?

Delphinium. Notice the allium which has gone to seed on the right hand side, still looks cool!

And finally, my Limelight Hydrangea... color that is soon to be.

Pin It Now!

How the time flies!

We always knew we'd have to sell our home someday but I never imagined that the time would fly by so quickly! I'm sad but a little bit excited to announce that we are putting our cute little house on the market next week. Hopefully, soon we will have another cute but slightly bigger home if everything goes well, wish us luck! I'm putting on my well-worn moving pants, we'll see where we end up.

What do you think of our new and updated curb appeal??

We got rid of all that nasty, plant-killing lava rock, put it a thick layer of mulch, and added new edgers. Oh, and hostas of course!

Hopefully, the mulch will bring our dry shrubs back to life.
Did I mention how much I hate water sucking lava rock?

Welcome home.

Pin It Now!

New Hostas

I've finally found a decent hosta nursery! Christians' Greenhouse in Williamston, MI has not only a huge selection of perennials and annuals but also an outstanding collection of hosta. These are some snapshots of my new little babies.




'Old Glory'



















'Blue Mouse Ears'

Side shot of 'Blue Mouse Ears'

'Dream Queen'

Pin It Now!

Garden shots

Pretty, pretty....

Foxglove 'Camelot'

Geranium 'Dilys'

Malva Sylvestris

Bearded Iris

Pin It Now!