Pine Straw Mulch & New Plants

I've added pine straw around the plants to discourage weeds. I've also put in another purple scullcap (I think it is call heartleaf skullcap). All the green around the beds is horseherb, some stray grass (not st.augustine, I don't think), and a weed here and there (wood-sorrel and icky bent-leaf spurge which secretly I think is pretty though I have been pulling it up where I find).

Here is the golden leadball tree I planted and below it my happy mountain laurel. I think the yellow ball flowers will look great with the mountain laurel which has sprouted all kinds of leaves since the rain happened and to think it used to look like it wouldn't make it as well as the desert willows.

Here is a picture of the very first desert willow I planted. I keep wanted to call them dessert willows. My old dessert budget is going into buying plants. I think this is the best picture I've taken of it. It reminds of something out of a Dr. Suess book. Super cool.

Success!

It rained and I got to check how our drainage solution was working. Check it out. The water no longer covers up our side-door mat let alone reaches the door jam. I'm thinking we no longer have to worry about flooding just about a prettier more permanent solution.
After 15 minutes and the rain stopping, there is barely any water left.

After 30 minutes the water has almost completely drained away.

tasty greens

I harvested some kale and mustard greens today. In general, manperson doesn't really enjoy mustard greens. I like them in my tomatillo, green chile, chicken stew. He actually enjoyed these because they were so mild in flavor. Happy wonderful garden greens from our very own garden are so much better than store bought, whoohoo. I made them in a saag which is basically spiced greens. 

Here they are on the stove. I blanched them in salt walter, food processed them with tumuric, cayenne, cumin, dried garlic, oregano. Then sauted onions & green peppers in olive oil. After the onions were translucent I threw in the greens and a little salt. The manperson gave his seal of approval "tasty greens."

10 months & counting no more

Yes, the lawn has been mowed. It was the first sentence out of both the across the street neighbors and the next door neighbors mouths that they were happy that this house had permanent people who would take care of the lawn. Whoops. Today, is the first day we have ever mowed the lawn and I had my doubts. I am currently highly impressed with the manperson. He has in last week: halfway removed two crepe myrtle stumps that are in the way of our drainage project, he organized the garage so that I could get to the gardening tools easier, and most impressive of all mowed the lawn today just like he said he was going to. I'm not sure how I feel about the lawn being mowed. On one hand it both looks nicer and less nice. I was kind of enjoying the renegade grass stalks.

I was so taken with the weedeater that the Manperson was using to get the stragglers that I couldn't help but use it on my cover crop. Thank you, wonderful in-laws for giving us the grass-hog weedeater. It was so much fun. Though, I was suppose to wait to cut it down in November. I have uncovered the crimson clover, so maybe that will get taller now, but who cares it was so much fun! I like chopping things down (insert evil laugh here).

Mound Garden "Hugelkultur"

I'm currently reading "Forest Gardening" by Robert Hart. He mentions using mound gardening which originated in China and is also practiced in Germany where it is called Huglekultur. I think I need to try this since I have huge stacks of rotting ligustrum already in make-shift chicken wire compost bins that I have stomped down (yep, having a bit a weight on me is really useful for stomping on tree branches). His description on page 53 says to dig a 1 foot trench (I won't be doing that...) fill it with woody material (branches, hedge cuttings purnings) to make a firm but porous core (already done), cover with sod, placed grass down, then layers of compost, then top with soil. Plants can be grown on the sides and the top. Here is a website with another description and pictures. Here is another blogger who shows a side by side comparison.

I was already thinking about growing pumpkin, sweet potatoes and other random vining plants on top of the outdoor compost pile, but this seems like it will be even cooler to try.

Flowering Cover Crop

Just to get a sense of size and to see the flowers, here are two more pictures of my cover crop. I think these are mostly purple hulled peas and black-eyed peas. The question is should I wait until they make pods and eat them or should I start thinking about cutting them down?

Little Bits

There is something magical that happens overnight in the garden. This weekend most of the little sprouts seemed kind of unnoticeable and this morning they seem tall as if they pushed through the pine straw mulch and announced here I am world. My little bits are growing up.

Snow Peas

Sugar Snap Peas


Baby Kale

New plants, new thoughts, and strange sculpture

I divided up one of my planting beds into two smaller ones because I just couldn't resist walking through the middle and planted a nice selection of plants around the alligator juniper and mountain laurel. The mountain laurel has bunches of new growth, so I think it either likes it's new friends, the rain, or the bevy of new beneficial insects these new flowering perennials attract. I'm seeing bees everyday and am now actually finding earthworms in the soil. I am also seeing new birds not just the nasty grackles.

In the beds, I have planted black dalea, purple skullcap, calyophus, damianita

, hymenoxys, and flame acanthus. I also planted another dessert willow. It is a different variety from the one I already have. Realizing that I will probably have quite a bit of leaf drop from the desert willows, I've decided to forget about stone or gravel pathways in the backyard and stick to mulch of some kind. 

The cover crop is now flowering and about a foot tall or more. I was planning on cutting it down in November, but I've found a really good explanation of cover crop/green manure and living mulch in Smart Permaculture Design by Jenny Allen and if I wait until seeds and flowers the cover crop won't have as much nitrogen to give back to the soil, but will have more carbon. Not sure what I am going for .

I made this weird sculpture out of tree limbs and the metal folding chairs that came with the house. I've planted coral honeysuckle and snapdragon vine. One day when there is more time and money to spend I think I will put an arbor here, but for now I have this place holder. It will be interesting to see how it develops and if it can withstand winter weather. 

Raised Bed Update 2

Along the chicken wire, you can see all my sugar snap and snow peas reaching up out of the ground. I suspect in another week or two they will be climbing.

My transplants are getting bigger. I think they have all added new leaves and some have grown two inches.

You can also see that the mustard has bunches of little mustards of various varieties all around it. I pinched a few off today and ate them. Tasty micro-greens.

The kale also some little kale of multiple varieties growing around it.

It's all about the tools!

It is sometimes all about the right tool and learning to use them. My success with chopping down trees has to do with having multiple pruning tools. Also, the "Man" taught me how to use the hand saw. I went from  I can't deal with this thing to actually enjoying it. 

It is also about figuring lazier ways of doing things. Orginially, the "man" was using the mattock to break up and pull-up the ligustrum stumps. I built these make-shift compost bins around the ligustrum stumps and am putting rotted ligustrum limbs in it to attract the insects that break up dead ligustrum. Sadly, some of the ones I have seen the camera does not want to take a picture of. The stumps are mostly dead because I poured feathermeal which is a high concentrate nitrogen fertilizer on them and they look like I burned them. I figure I can do a long compost method and in three years I can plant asian pear and plum trees in this area after the ligustrum has totally returned to the earth. Probably dwarf varieties because I don't want anything here taller than 10 feet. I'll be making a rich nutrient area for them. 

I also thought I hated shoveling, but I got a trench shuffle and boy it is so much easier to dig holes. I've been planting perennials left and right with it. It is all about leverage and the ability to sink the shuffle in far enough. I was figuring I would have to wait for the "man" to deal with our rain problem. But now that I have my nifty trench shuffle I can start the first stages of dealing with all this water and the stuff coming from our gutters building up near our side door.

Here is a picture of the trench, I dug last night after dark.  I had to also use the hand saw to cut through 4 in crepe myrtle roots. I filled it with river rocks so it doesn't collapse in on itself.

It was raining when I got home today and there is no water by our side door. I need to extend it along the sidewalk though to the end of the house, since the ground is pretty saturated along the sidewalk, but not any more than normal.

Tools are so cool. I'm now trying to convince the "man" I need an Austrian Scythe to cut down my cover crop and for mowing. They look really cool and I am kind of afraid of the lawnmower. The scythe can also be used in a larger variety of ways. I can apparently cut perennials with it that need the tops lopped off. 

I am really enjoying the tools and discovering and using new ones. Though, I am old school. I want ones that don't require anything but sharpening now and again and if I could do without that it would be even better. I seem to be collecting a lot of more traditional methods.

Gardening Cult Member

One of my supers is a gardening cult member. She turned me on to the joys of Barton Springs Nursery and to be honest the soil at Natural Gardener.

gardening after dark and random info

I discovered yesterday that we have a new street light on our electric pole behind our back fence gate. I have no idea when the city put it in, but it lights up my yard. I also found out that some maintenance fairy must have fixed the light on the side of our house near our rainwater problem. It suddenly works and never did before. This solves some of my lighting issues. I'm not sure the "Man" thinks it is a good thing.

What does all this mean? I was out working in the yard until 8pm last night and would have been out longer if the "Man" hadn't come out to ask me if I wanted to run some errands with him. Yes, I am addicted, but I think it is a good addiction. If I had known I would be able to garden at night and before the break of dawn I would not have had to get off the phone with my friend L, because I wanted to take advantage of the available light to plant the perennials I was waiting for from Barton Springs Nursery. I still like gardening better in the sunlight, but I was able to water my ollas this morning before I went to work instead of worrying about them being mostly empty and my veggie garden wilting even more in the afternoon sun because I got distracted (inspired?) last night.

I'm loving the cooler weather. I also love gardening during light rain or after the rain is over. I know it can be bad for the ground because it is easier to compact the soil, but digging is so much easier. The air smells better after the rain and the light is amazing. I also find that the plants I put in the ground after the rain seem to be happier overall. I'm hoping that since I am not standing in the planting beds i.e. only compacting walkway soil planting in the rain is not so bad, though disturbing the soil brings up weeds. So far, I'm liking most of my weeds. I'm even hesitant to start working the area under our big window because I don't want to disturb the big cluster of wood-sorrel and horseherb growing there. The wood-sorrel seems to love growing around the wood that I've used to delineate my planting areas from my walkways.

I also spent some time last night digging a trench around our side door to help mitigate some of the water that pools there. I put in some river rock so that the trench doesn't end up with dirt again. Hopefully this will help until we have the time and ability to lower that whole area, create a swale, take out the side walk, build a new walkway, etc. I also found a cool new project while browsing the intertron yesterday. A cinder block planter wall. I am going to build it along the side of the house to get the water from our neighbors yard to flow around most of the house rather than adding to our water issues and the picture of it I've seen looks super pretty. I have a cinder block and wood placed between the side of our house and the channel that the recent rains have made from their back roof to our side door. It is working pretty well to redirect the water except the wood is not tall enough which is how I started searching for short wall ideas.

As much as part of me wants a privacy fence instead of chain-link on the sides of our house another part of me likes having the chain-link. I really enjoy talking to our neighbors (sadly they are renters not permanent ones) on the rainwater issue side and I like being a nosy neighbor and seeing what the quiet guy who won't even look at us is doing on the other side of us. Our talkative neighbors are irritated with the landlord and most definitely moving when their lease is up in December and encouraging me to call the city about the water flowing onto our property from their rented house. It was a nice break last night chatting with them. Having the chain-link and great neighbors to talk to really builds a sense of community. I guess depending on who moves in next I may be really motivated to start working on a fence, or wishing my plants to grow faster.

Wood-sorrel... So tasty!

I took this plant to the natural gardener. I wasn't sure if I might have planted it or not. It is natural. Oxalis Drumondii. A form of clover. The natural gardener staffperson broke off a leaf and tasted it and then handed me one. It has a sharp lemon taste. I'm thinking of collecting some leaves and adding them to salad, but the flowers are so pretty and tiny. Isn't nature grand. I hope I end up with more of these little beauties. I wonder if someone would call them weeds?

Latin Names

Mealy Blue Sage (Salvia farinacea)

front yard dry shade

Climbing snapdragon, Roving sailor, Snapdragon Vine

Alkaline Okay Plant Possibilities

These are the plants that I have looked up so far that have potential. I've crossed off quite a few plants that I had in a previous list that would probably not be happy in my soil. I would like variety and I'm planning on letting whichever plants want to spread to spread, so if I get some of these it will most likely be only 1 of each for whatever planting area.

Large Spread & Tall- 5 ft & over
Sumac Evergreen
Elaeagnus Pungens-- seems okay-evergreen
Sapphire Showers -Duranta Erecta -- low medium water--evergreen

Purple Emporer Butterfly Bush --medium water
Elbow Bush- very low water
Pride of Barbados
Blue Dalea- not enough info, but good possibility

4ft & over
Thryallis, golden showers--evergreen
Cenizo- Evergreen
Sage, Mexican Bush


3ft & over
Sage, Penstemon (magenta)--evergreen
Skeletonleaf Goldeneye-very low water--semi-evergreen
Yellow Dalea -- low-medium water
Flame Acanthus (pink)- very low water
Sage, Majestic
Little Bluestem


1-3 ft
Mexican Oregano-Poliomintha longiflora-evergreen
Calylophus- very low water--evergreen
Bulbine- B. Frutescens- very low water--evergreen
Sage, jerusalem--evergreen

Penstemon- Most
Black Dalea- very low water
Sage, Cedar (red)
Blue Sage
Sage, Russian cultivar 'Blue Spire'
Mexican Marigold-Tagetes Lucida

1ft or less
Damianita-very low water-evergreen
Hymenoxys- very low water-evergreen

Measured in inches
Desert Sand Verbena
Verbena- tolerant of variety of soils?-Semi-Evergreen
Mountain Pea -no info on ph-Evergreen

As I look over the plants on my list, most of them are variations of blue, purple, and yellow with the occasional pink or red.

Figuring out soil issues...

I've done some research on a few of the things I've planted to discover the commonalities in those that died or are wilty versus those that are neutral or doing well.

The 'will fleming' yaupon holly does not like chalky soils and also required more water than other plants I bought. It was also a cultivar rather than a hardy native. It died.

The inland sea oats is not so happy. It apparently does not like chalk and likes slightly acidic soil. Similar to the American Beautyberry.

It turns out that desert willow has a medium tolerance for calcium carbonate (chalky stuff), so I will be keeping an eye on it but it does like alkaline soil. So far, it is not exactly happy or sad, but pretty neutral.

The gulf muhly is doing well even though it has similar requirements to the inland sea oats in many ways except that it likes alkaline soil. I take this to mean that I should really stay away from plants that prefer any kind of acid soil.

Bamboo muhly also pretty happy likes mildly alkaline soil and though it likes regular water, doesn't like to be overwatered.

The Hacienda Vine has managed to live though I have not watered it nearly enough for a vine. It like alkaline soil.

The hops bush has managed to survive even though I didn't water it enough and planted it in the heat of the summer. It has a wider ph happiness.

Maiden Grass 'Gold Bar' also has a wider ph happiness and seems to be doing fine. I didn't know they grew as big as the website is saying. 5 feet after 8 years. A slow growth, but still pretty big.

Mexican feathergrass yet another wider ph plant, also seems to be pretty happy. It also doesn't need much water. On the other hand it seems to be dangerous to dogs, or at least that seems to be a major complaint.

The indian grass seems to be okay even though it was root bound. It has a high tolerance for calcium carbonate and seems to flourish in a wide variety of locations. It seems to have a wider ph tolerance, but more in the acid direction to just mildly alkaline.

Primrose Jasmine has a wide ph happiness, but needs water. It is wilty a little probably because I haven't managed to water it enough. Ah well.

Coral honeysuckle is similar in to the desert willow in that it is okay with a medium amount of calcium carbonate. I planted to tiny ones. One is doing really well and one is not so great. They are planted only two feet away from each other. Not sure what the deal is, maybe I pounded down the soil a little too much around the unhappy one or the other one is sucking up all the available water.

I'm thinking that the mountain laurel didn't like the front yard more because it gets more water since it is at the bottom of the slope our house is located on. I'm also thinking I better test the soil ph in front since it has more grass, shade, and trees.

Sadly, what would by most people be considered weeds in my yard that I like don't really seem to have available ph information or soil preferences per say. I know in some of the books I read that certain weeds are good indicators of the type of soil one has. My weeds are pretty and likeable, but fairly soil mysterious.

Things I need to keep in mind as I choose plants: Calcium Carbonate tolerance, Alkalinity, Watering needs. It seems that chalk and ph make the most difference in survival rather than watering. I'm not sure what to think about cultivars, I suspect in some cases they are a bit more difficult than native varieties and in others they were developed to be really hardy.

Lots of plants on my list to check out...

Sad Plant Test and Deciding What to Plant

My American Beautyberry test plant is not doing well. It is droopy and it is easy to tell even though it is really short. It turns out that it actually needs slightly acidic soil. I have super alkaline soil. The American Beautyberry also needs quite a bit of water (of course, any water is quite a bit to me). I have been watering it, but apparently either not enough or the soil is killing it. I'm really glad I planted it. I'm starting to reconsider some of the other plants I like that I was thinking about planting with it.

It is really hard to resist wanting to plant pretty plants. I made a list of low to medium water plants from the Austin Native and Adapted plants booklet. I wanted to plant Skyflower Duranta (S&C have a really fab one in their yard), Esperanza/Yellow Bells, Pumbago, Black-eyed Susans, Indigo Spires Salvia, Coreopsis, Society Garlic, and Liriope with the American Beautyberry. I'm starting to rethink planting any of those plants and just enjoying them when I see them. They require water every 2 to 4 wks.

I'm starting to also wonder about low-water plants that require watering every 3 to 4 weeks. It is just that if I stick to very low water plants that only need supplemental watering when it is very dry, I won't have all that many choices and that is not even considering what kind of soil requirements they have. At the same time, I need to keep in mind self-knowledge. I really liked the description of one plant at one of the nurseries that said appreciates benign neglect. I'm having a hard enough time keeping up with the watering requirements for my veggie garden and that is with using ollas.

I'm feeling really lucky that desert willows like high alkaline soil and very low water (I just looked it up.) because I've bought a 2nd one to plant today after work. Along with some calylophus (which looks much better in person than any picture I've seen of it). It likes slighlty alkaline soil. Lucky again.

Growing Fast and Furiously

My cover crop is filling out every where I planted it and it looks like all the different kinds are coming in. Black-eyed and purple-hulled peas, buckwheat, vetch and crimson clover. Some of these plants can grow up to 3 feet tall. I need to remember to cut them down after they flower, but before they drop seeds. They just keep getting taller and taller everyday and more of the bed is filling out.

The smaller bed took several days longer to sprout and develop, but it is now coming along nicely.

 

Raised Bed Update

I finished planting my raised beds over the weekend. Here they are just before refilling the ollas. I put pine straw on top to keep my seeds safe and happy and for various other reasons.

I bought and planted two different kinds of broccoli transplants, a mustard green transplant, a kale transplant, a cauliflower transplant, lemon thyme, oregano, and garlic chives for the 

4 x 8 bed. I planted seeds for two kinds of broccoli, mixed kholrabi, chinese broccoli, 3 kinds of kale, sweet allysum,  2 kinds of mustard greens, red and green cabbage, chinese cabbage, marigolds, asters, dill, cilantro and brussel sprouts. I might have planted a few more seeds that I've already forgotten. Yep, I forgot to label almost everything except a transplant or two. I have lots of variety and should be able to id stuff once it is grown up. Right now the ollas seem to be needing refilling every other day to everyday, since it stopped raining. I was a little worried today about water because the transplants were looking a little wilty, but they perked up once the sun went down. I have bunches of sprouts in this bed. I think about 40 to 50 % of the seeds have sprouted. Mostly the little ones, not the  bigger seeds, but in truth I have no idea since I didn't label anything.

In the 4x4 bed I have seeds planted for 3 different kinds of sugar snap peas, snow peas, 3 kinds of winter salad greens, 3 kinds of spinach, early beets that are suppose to produce 

lots of greens, a fennel or two, marigolds, sweet allysum, parsley, chard, nastaturium and probably other stuff that is currently escaping my memory. I also have a rosemary transplant, an english thyme transplant, and swiss chard transplant. The salad greens are sprouting like crazy mad.  I have other sprouts as well. I would say 40 to 50% maybe more of my seeds have sprouted because I couldn't always see them under the pine straw. I accidently pulled out a couple of my sprouts trying to look under the pine straw so I stopped messing with it.

If even half of what I planted grows up, it should be pretty cool. I have lots of variety, so I should get a good indication of which fall veggie varieties are happiest with my kind of gardening. I have lots of leftover seed in mason jars in the fridge. If I keep them cool and dry, I can apparently use them for 3 to 5 years. I'm finding that I am talking and lightly touching my veggie transplants and super excited to check them everyday. When I originally planned for the veggie garden I planned for my interest to wain a little which is why I thought making ollas was so important. No worries there, so far.

Internal Landscapes

I've been understanding through this blog and other interactions lately that I am even more territorial than I thought or want to  acknowledge. After work, I've been meeting with hardscaper/landscapers, water specialists, and irrigation specialists to see what solutions are available for the standing water on the left side of the house since we have quite a bit both from our yard and roof and we are getting a lot of run-off from our neighbors yard. I don't like digging, so I was hoping to be able to hire someone else. I've been finding out so many things that are helping me understand things I didn't quite understand on our inspection when we bought the house. It turns out what I thought is a drainage issue on the left side of the house is something that is fairly easily solved with a swale or dry creek to help the water flow faster so it doesn't build up next to the side door. 

While I had the different specialists there, I also asked about other areas that I was concerned about namely our back patio as I have discovered that it is not a good idea when one's foundation is completely covered up. I find it really cool when I meet people who I feel comfortable with and have ideas that work with my ideas or that I can learn something from. One of the people, I consulted with was a landscaper/hardscaper. I had called him up in February to get an estimate on a fence because he made some really artistic and beautiful fences as well as hardscaping that flowed. He also specializes in dry creeks. He gave us a really simple idea on how to get the overabundance of rainwater to flow away from the side door faster and basically said we could do it ourselves as did the other two specialists but he also said that we should save are money to hire someone to deal with the more difficult aspects of our property. He outlined ideas he had for a fence that he wanted to do and for what to do about our patio. I told him I was open to changing the pathways near the patio and to changing what I had laid out. I was really excited while I talked to him, but afterward I got kind of down. I knew it wasn't only how much it was gonna cost for his beautiful artistic designs and that I wasn't sure we should be spending that kind of money or that I felt we couldn't afford to spend that kind of money.

Through talking with Tara and the "Man", I came to understand that I was worried about what I had already invested in the landscape. I'm very attached to what I have already planted and worried about others tromping through my backyard playground. I was also worried about any future plants that I hadn't even bought yet. As the backyard has taken shape through my hard work, I find myself thinking about different plants in their respective areas and using them as tools to calm myself in stressful situations. I've been imagining the beauty of my desert willow and grasses or seeing the grasses or the alligator juniper flowing in the wind.  Sometimes, I see the calm of the hops bush in its protected spot. These plants in the environment I have placed them are becoming part of my internal landscape and growing a contented joy there. When I am faced with dealing with a difficult situation, I can go to those spots and suddenly I can breathe again.  I have the same feeling to a lesser extent when I think about certain paintings I've done that imagining them can put me into a meditative and calm place. I think of the scene in "Fight Club" where the main character is building his happy place. 

When I see the yard take shape, there is a sense of child like amazement both in how beautiful it is becoming in my eyes, but also in the "wow, I did this" category. I have the same feeling when I see my paintings because I enjoy them so much and making them was in the past, and because I can never put together the elements that created those pieces they mark not just an expression of my feelings and me, but something ephemeral. It is hard for me to find the words for what they mean to me and how they have a life of their own now. My backyard has become my canvas, too, but it is also uncontrollable in some ways because it requires working with what is there and nature itself. 

What I realized is that I don't want to share creative control or even labor. I want to if it is possible without hurting myself have a hand in all the hard work because I want that feeling of looking out with amazement at what I can accomplish and thinking "wow, I did this, how was I able to to do this." I want to follow my own process and not have to deal with anybody else's process. Though, the "Man" helps and has input, it is not the same because he is also part of my internal landscape. We already have symbiotic relationship, an interdependence. The "Man" pointed out to me that part of why I keep bumping up against this issue is that I am impatient so I go out to search for ways to make something happen faster. Tara pointed out that I'm still doing research and talking to these various people is part of that. I've learned a lot in talking to these "experts" from the mulch I have been using is only good for smothering things and I shouldn't put around new plants, to my property can't support large scale rainwater harvesting, to everybody has a different opinion though sometime they overlap and charge differing amounts depending on their specialty, but most of all I've learned about myself. My wants, my needs, where I lack confidence in the face of "experts" and where I am willing to argue, where I feel guilty because I want to support another person's enterprise because I like what they are doing, but knowing that it would be at the cost of my family's needs. I think it is Krishnamurti who pointed out that we learn the most about ourselves through our relationships and interactions with other people. I would probably add though our relationship with art and nature as well i.e. our environment.  I don't know if I read it or dreamed it, but somewhere I found that learning is what we are meant to do in this life.

Plants Saved, Bought, and Dead--Part 1

This the "Will Fleming" Yaupon Holly that I killed. It has really colored how I choose other plants. I'm not as impulsive as I was in the beginning. I'm doing a lot more research on the plants I buy. I am also being more thoughtful as to whether I am up to planting something right away and if not I don't buy it until I have the energy to deal with it.

This is the mountain laurel that I moved from the front yard to the backyard. Not sure I want to plant anymore of these, though they used to be my favorite small tree/shrub. It is still kind of iffy. It may not survive. Lesson learned. Plants that I like are not always worth putting in my yard.

This a mix of snail seed and snapdragon vine. It came with the house and is one of the few things that I think I'm going to leave alone. The leaves are really delicate. The snail seed has red berries and the snapdragon vine has purple flowers. They are both native perennial vines most likely brought in by birds.

This is a little pecan tree that probably grew from a nut that a squirrel planted and forgot about. I'm not interested in another large shade tree in the backyard, so in the fall I'm planning to see if I can give it away for the price of someone digging it up. It is really cute right now, but the other pecan tree is such a pain that I really don't want to deal with two. Plus I would then have to think about shade-loving plants for the backyard instead of the sunny ones I've been looking at. The front yard will be the shade-plant area.

This is my hops bush. The flowers are supposed to be a substitute for hops in beer. I'm amazed it is still alive. I bought with the Yaupon Holly that died. It requires more water than other plants I bought.  

This hacienda vine which I bought with the hops bush and Yaupon Holly with the hopes that it would cover the shed is barely hanging on. That will teach me to try to plant things in the beginning of the hottest part of the summer in a drought.

This is a plant that I am not sure I want. It was huge and I cut it to the ground because I didn' t like the way it looked. It is actually a pretty good drought tolerant plant that is non-invasive. Double Wreath Spirea. Another plant that I mistakenly thought was invasive because it came with my yard.

This is a close up of the alligator juniper the second plant I bought after I got the mountain laurel. The "Man" hopes to someday make gin out of the seeds. With this and the hops bush I should of used some kind of level when I planted them. They are both leaning a bit. Ah well, perfection is overrated. They both have a quirky feel to them in their leaning attitudes that makes me smile.