The Arbor

In The Dead Heat of Summer .....

Man is it hot! Every day for the past month has been one hundred degrees, sometimes more. Somehow I have managed to keep my garden and lawn alive - for the most part. There have been causualties. I can't wait for cooler weather. I'm not adding any plants at this point, just trying to water and keep alive what I already have. Fall will bring the chance to create new spaces and plantings. One thing I am very happy about is the new arbor that replaced the leaning tower of Casey. I will reccomend never to buy an arbor off of Amazon.com. I paid $200 for what was supposed to be a $500 cedar arbor and what I got was $7 worth on cheap wood, some screws and an arbor that looked NOTHING like the picture. So I went to Lowe's and got what I really wanted a squar cedar arbor. I loooooove it. I am going to stain all the wood and even the fence the same color. I can't wait. Well I can. I am going to wait till its not so hot to do all this staining. Here are some recent pictures.

The New Mail Boxes

For my birthday of all things, I wanted a new mail box. So my wonderful husband and my little brother put them up for me. Sadly our neighbors are renters so we had no choice but to pay to replace both of them. I filled the raised bed with 2 Texas Lantana, 2 Pride of Barbados, and then a couple of other plants whose names escape me. Here are the pictures.

July Photos

Just Add Water

Summer Garden

Summer garden has been a challange for me so far. We are in stage 3 water restrictions and it has been well over 100 degrees every day. Some of my plants are thriving such as my Vinca (Perrywinkle), Lantana, Climbing Roses and Zennias. I just about cried when I had to rip out my glorious Snapdragons. I put some inexpensive plants in those raised beds just to get through the heat of summer,  then I am going to till up the soil and plant some show stoppers again. Here are some pictures of my summer garden.

More Photos.....

Pictures...

Phases

The garden was started December 2010. First we removed all the large overgrown bushes. I started at the right of the house. I decided the best way to go was with raised beds. I started with 2 raised beds. We used natural wood landscape timbers to make two 8' x 8' and 8'x6' beds. I used paveing stones staggered and filled in with pea gravel to make and area to house potted plants. After that was phase 2. I created a walk way using the same paving stones filled in with pea gavel that led to both the driveway and the sidewalk. I added 2 more raised beds connected by a wooden cedar arbor. These beds are positioned at the front of the yard by the sidewalk. Looking at the house on the right is an 8'x8' bed and on the left a 16'x4' bed.  After that it was on to phase 3. I removed the rock garden filled with bushes and cacti that were on the left side of my house by the door and the kitchen window. In their place I added two more raised beds. Another 16'x4' and a 8'x8'. To date I have 6 raised bed gardens each with about 64 sq ft in them. Next step is phase 4 which involves replacing my existing mail box and doing a raised bed around it and the clean up my right entry gate and pave the whole area in front of it with paver stones. I also want to build a potting bench to keep under my covered front patio to story my gardening tool in. If it were up to me completely I would have no lawn and just gardens. But since I will someday sell this house, I figured it best to leave about half the lawn. I'm really not a big grass fan, I would much prefer to xeriscape the whole yard. Instead I will just enjoy the gardens I am able to put in.

Slideshow

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc215/cw1054/?action=view&current=8c526510.pbw

The Foundation

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When we bought the house it was just a normal yard. Grass, bushes and no trees. Boring. Boring. Boring.

Why a blog about gardening?

Growing up my mother always had the most beautiful gardens. I can remember clearly when we lived off Hunter Rd. in Gruene Tx, how tourists would walk up to our house just to compliment her yard. I was always so proud of her for this accomplishment, and thought someday I want to have the same thing. My father is also an amazing gardener. I would say he got this from his father's side of the family, although I hear his mother's mother alway kept a garden herself. There are plants that are in his possession that were planted 50 years ago or are at least cuttings from some ancient plant. I think this love for gardening is a blood thing.

There are many things I love about gardening. I love the way the dirt feels in your hand when you are planting new plants. I love the satisfaction of taking something small planting it, taking care of it and watching it turn into something really big and beautiful. I love the way the neighbors slow down when they drive past my house. I love to just be able to sit back and say "I created that."

I plan on using this blog to share with family, friends and fellow gardeners my garden. I am a newcomber to the world of gardening. You can learn what I learn as I learn it. My garden is a living experiment. To me gardening is very much a form of visual art. I hope you enjoy as I share my art with you.