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| The strawberries are really looking good this year. Lettuce from last year went to seed and has come up all over the strawberry patch and they love each other! |
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| Decandence tall bearded iris. I brought this from my old house in 2010 and this is the first time it has bloomed! |
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| Electrique iris |
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| I started these double Columbine from seed in Feb 2012 and have babied the seedlings and now am rewarded today with them blooming! I have lost the seed packet, so I think these are Clementine Double Columbine. Out of 2 pkgs I got 2 plants. |
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| I think they were worth the effort! |
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| When we first bought the house in 2010 |
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| Trying to make the well house not stick out like a sore thumb. |
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| Today |
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| Photo taken when we first bought the house |
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| Today |
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| Superstition iris |
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| Silverado and Sky Spirit iris |
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| Trying to train the Wisteria onto the top of the fence |
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| The living fence is slowly coming along. I can't decide whether to shape into a box hedge or leave them bushy. |
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| Before photo |
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| Spin-off, an Heirloom, and Footloose iris |
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| I thought I had killed this beauty - Moonlit Water. She is alive and well. |
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| These iris are in the rose bed. |
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| I just love this time of year - everything is new and green. In Texas when June arrives, everything begins to look a bit raggedy and stressed. The silvery bush to the left is one of the remaining Elaeagnus, in front, that survived the drought in 2011. It seems to be doing well now. I did plant it a little bit to close to the Pink Knockout rose, which is to the right. I planted the dark purple iris last summer in front of the Red Knockout roses. I planted the Heirloom iris on our embankment last summer as well and they have really multiplied! |
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| Heirloom iris on embankment. |
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| Sky Spirit iris just bloomed this morning. This one is in the backyard. Behind it is another Elaeagnus that was almost dead in the Summer of 2011. I moved some of them to the back for tender loving care and now they look great. The red "schoolhouse" birdhouse is now home to what I believe are Eastern Bluebirds. They are a beautiful blue with orange bellies. |
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| I also moved some of the Footloose iris to the front. I think they look great by these rocks. This is usually the first iris to bloom in my garden and is very prolific and looks stunning planted alongside tall white iris. I bought this several years ago from Schreiner's Iris Gardens online. They are based in Oregon.  the white with me, but haven't seen them this year so far. |
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| My granddaughter went with me to the garden center and this is what she picked out. I've never really looked much at succulents - but this all looks quit nice together. She did a good job of picking these out. Later she wants to add some miniature cactus. The plants are Flapjack Kalanchoe luciae and String of Buttons and the two on the bottom- we are not sure - they didn't come with labels, but after looking on the internet I think Tricolor Stonecrop Sedum spurium 'Tricolor' and Blue carpet sedum. Update to last post - RV has been moved out of the backyard! |
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| I bought this shrub last spring (Loropetalum "Purple Diamond"). It survived the summer and now it's in bloom. I love it. |
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| Texas Mission Almond tree. My daughter and son-in-law bought this tree for me at Christmas time a year ago by mail-order. I didn't even bother to photograph it last year, as it looked like a small stick. It has just bloomed and is looking more like a tree. |
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| We bought an RV last fall and my hubby wanted it in the backyard. My question is how do I make a beautiful garden when this is staring me in the face? I haven't been posting much lately - been really busy getting my Etsy quilt shop going and have two new grandbabies. I will be back soon. |
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| A beautiful bi-color zinnia. |
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| The big box store had these labeled as bell peppers when I bought these last spring - they turned out to be peppers of some sort - not sure what to do with them - but they are pretty on the plate. |
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| Morning Glory growing up the fence. I thought they look pretty up against the wildflowers in the field beyond our property. |
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| This is a Natchez Crepe Myrtle. This is my favorite of the white crepe myrtles. It seems to grow really fast and have masses of white blooms, however this one did not like where I had it before. It was planted in the front yard in the fall of 2010 and never bloomed in all of 2011. So last fall I moved it to this spot in the back yard and it has thrived here. This Natchez was just gorgeous this year. This photo was taken several weeks ago, and now the leaves are starting to turn a beautiful red and orange. |
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| Before photo of where I had the crepe myrtle in the front yard. |
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| I have daylily buds! When purchasing daylily's online, I have always ordered rebloomers. When I lived at my previous house in another town, the soil was mostly clay and the daylily's would produce once and then just hang on the rest of the year. Our soil here is sandy loam - the daylily's seem to love it. |
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| Our tree must be stressed. It has been raining leaves. The plan for today is to cut back all the roses and give them some food and hopefully by the time fall arrives I will have a yard full of sweet scents and beautiful color once again. |
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| Brandywine, an heirloom tomato, picked today. It was the largest tomato I have ever seen. This is our first year to grow this one. |
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| Brandywine on the left and an average size tomato on the right. Hubby cracked the tomato when picking it, so we sliced it up immediately. |
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| Todays harvest. We are also growing Abe Lincoln, Prudens Purple, Box Car Willie and Arkansas Traveller, all of which are the Heirloom varieties. The smaller ones which are very tasty as well are Bistro Hybrid and Early Treat Hybrid. We've been using these in our salads. |
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| Brandywine ready for eating. This is one tomato on a normal size dinner plate. |
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| I knew Elainealope iris was a rebloomer, but here in North Central Texas, I've never had one rebloom for me. I guess the conditions were just right this year. I went out this morning to look at the garden and this nice little surprise was waiting for me. |
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| Newberry Festival is such a gorgeous cranberry color and has very large flowers. It is a late bloomer, which extends the daylily bloom season. |
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| This is Savannah Debutante, a double daylily, and also a late bloom variety. |
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| Here are some photos of other pairings for white zinnia. This is the first year I've grown Bachelor Buttons. I can see the beautiful blue color from my kitchen window. I think it shows up because it is in front of the white zinnia. |
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| You can't see in this photo, (it's not in bloom right now) but on the right of the zinnias is the Double Delight rose and on the left is the Red Knockout. |
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| A returning sunflower. I just love the rust color on it. |
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| We planted tomatoes again this year. This is by far the largest one to date that we have harvested, an heirloom, Boxcar Willie, which we also grew last year. We decided not to try the Black Krim again, it just seemed to have a lot of problems with blossom end rot. |
