flower beds

All posts tagged flower beds

Back From the Dead……

Posted by James on May 20, 2015
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: . 12 Comments

When we moved into the Cavender house 5 (Has it really been 5 years already?) years ago….our front flower beds were filled with Indian Hawthorn.

Cavender House May 2011

Not a very pretty bush. Just kinda …….there.

It was only 2 years ago that we removed the not-quite-our-taste bushes from the front flower beds and added all this awesomeness.….

Cacti and succulents….

Flower Beds on the Right Side of the House full of Plants

But 7 months later, after a particularly grueling winter, everything looks like this……

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Here, get a closer look at the devastation….

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We were a little bummed too. Even considered calling FEMA.

Thought we were picking plants that were hardy. They were perfect for our Texas summers…..not so much the winters.

But now, a little over a year later, we’ve grown into this…..

The Cavender House Flower Beds May of 2015

The Cavender House Front Porch May of 2015

Like a breath of fresh air…….and green grass.

The Cavender Diary House Front Yard May of 2015

Might possibly look this spectacular because Jamie spends every Saturday working in the yard.

possibly…..

Isn’t This How Nature Works?

Posted by James on May 11, 2014
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Remember those Marigold seeds we planted in a Dixie cup?

That was one of my favorite activities in grade school.

I never knew that there were so many seeds to choose from.

Just look at all the variety at our Home Depot.

Seed Display At Home Depot

Why not grab a few and see what they do in our flower beds? Plenty of empty space since we lost most of the old plants this winter.

Here’s what we ended up with:

  • Indian Blankets
  • Mexican Sunflowers
  • Marti Gras Coreopsis
  • Dwarf Marigolds

(notice they are all shades of orange/red)

Assorted Flower Seeds We Started With

Indian Blankets grow on the side of the Texas highways, and Marigolds seed themselves every time we plant them….so these should do just great on their own in our flower beds.

If not……we wasted a few dollars. And about 1/2 an hour.

Jamie picked up these large popsicle sticks at the dollar store.

Large Popcycle Sticks from the Dollar Store

I just used a Sharpie (God bless a Sharpie) to label each one so someone (not me) knows that these little sprouts aren’t weeds.

I also put the height they grow to, so we know where to plant them in the beds – Taller plants towards the back; and smaller ones right up front.

Write the Flower Name on Each Stick

The propper way to start seeds is in seed cups in a greenhouse. But we roll a differently at the Cavender house and didn’t want to exert too much effort.

So we just dropped them in the beds.

Most of the seeds need to be about an inch below the surface. I just used a wooden spoon to poke holes in our soil/sand/pea gravel mixture.

Use a Wooden Spoon to Poke Holes in the Ground

James Planting in the Flower Beds

Some of the seeds are pretty tiny. The Coreopsis seeds looked like little black specks.

Luckily the Marigold seeds are visible with the naked eye….and look exactly as I remember them.

Carefully Pour Out the Flower Seeds

I dropped a few in each hole….and covered them up.

Drop a Seed or Two in Each Hole

The popsicle sticks temporarily mark where these little guys should start sprouting from. I’ll pull them up when the plants are established.

Us the Popcycle Stick Tags to remember What You Planted

Let’s give this a few weeks of rain and sun, and see where we are….

Fingers crossed……

Finally Finished Those Flower Beds

Posted by James on May 9, 2013
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: , , , . 12 Comments

Normally I post several “teaser” pictures leading to the finished project…

But in this case, I’m just gunna start with our new cactus/agave/drought tolerant filled flower beds…

BA-BAM

Flower Beds on the Right Side of the House full of Plants

Front Flower Beds on the Left Side of the House

Square Flower Bed Full of Zennias

Front of House with New Flower Beds

Jamie wanted me to be sure to point out that the “We” in these stories of the flower beds is 90% him.

Although, I did Art Direct.

After removing all the heinous Indian Hawthorn….

and making a list of the plants that we would like to try planting.

We cruised down to the Dallas Farmer’s Market and bought a few.

Hippie at the Farmers Market

We found an old Hippie to help us with our “zero-scaping”. That means that we want to plant it then forget it.

Perfect.

Jamie lay everything out before digging any holes.

Adding the Plants to the Bed

Then planted away….Tall things in the back…at least, things that we expect to get taller.

All the Greenery Added to the Bed

All the Greenery Added to the Bed 2

Pretty groovy, right?

We wanted it to look a “desert-y”, but it was a little too “desert-y”.

Maybe some color…and no color is better than orange….and a little red and yellow.

Zennias

Coreopsis Salsa

Indian Blanket

Much better…..How could we not plant a flower called “Indian Blanket”? They grow along the road sides here in Texas.

Here are a few close-ups of the cactus-y bounty.

Agave Americana Veriegata

Paddle Cactus

Bottle Brush

Agave Azul

Creeping Rosemary

Bunny Ear Cactus

Agave Raggae Time

This is just a start, we plan on continuing to add new cactus as we collect them.

One more time..here’s the bed in front of the porch.

Flower Bed on Right Side with Porch

I can hardly wait for everything to get bigger.

Ohhh, and Jamie still has plans to add pea gravel with a layer of weed-blocking newspaper.

We’ll keep y’all posted.

What to Plant

Posted by James on April 17, 2013
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: , , , . 7 Comments

What to plant in that completely naked flower bed is the question right now.

We agree on low maintenance and the dreadful Texas summers means drought/heat tolerant as well.

Here are a few ideas that we have for the front flower beds.

We’ve had great success with these 3 plants….

Red Yucca

False Red Yucca

Blue Desert Sage

Blue Desert Sage

and Creeping Rosemary

Creeping Rosemary

All three flower nicely and the best part is that we couldn’t kill them if we tried.

We’ve always wanted some cactus in our yard.

Like Bunny Ear Cactus with the fuzzy paddles

Bunny Ear Cactus

Blue Agave (I wouldn’t want to fall on that thing shirtless)

Agave Winterhart

Paddle Cactus (We see these growing wild in fields in Austin and San Antonio). But I was advised that the needleless plants are the ones to choose.

PaddleCactus

and Barrel Cactus

Barrel Cactus

I’m not a huge fan of Yuccas, but they are stunning when they are flowering.

Yucca in Full Bloom

Kangaroo’s Paw is a pretty easy grower too……look at all that color. They might burn up in the summer so we’ll try planting them under the Mountain Laurel tree.

Kangaroo's Paw

Bottle Brush plants grow in desert areas, are evergreens, and attract hummingbirds. All plusses.

Bottle Brush Cluster

We thought we’d throw in some Mexican Feather grass too. It gives the bed some movement when it sways in the wind.

Mexican Feather Grass

These are our thoughts for possible plants.

Hopefully they will all thrive, but our plan is to experiment with a few of each and see what lives and what, “clears throat”, doesn’t.

Stay Tuned….

The Indian Hawthorn is Outta Here

Posted by James on April 11, 2013
Posted in: New Home. Tagged: . 19 Comments

Good riddance.

We never liked that stuff.

Here’s a picture for the front corner of the house about 2 (has it really been that long) years ago when we painted the eaves chocolate-brown.

Front Corner with Indian Hawthorne

The Pampas grass we planted so I wouldn’t have to look at the gas meter, and the fan palm and rosemary are all huge now.

The Hawthorn? It hasn’t changed since this picture.

Jamie Clipping the Branches

Jamie clipped down the branches as far as he could.

Close Up of Jamie Clipping the Branches

…then we painstakingly pulled the root balls out with our hands …..and occasionally a pick axe.

Took most of the day to get to this point. Just one side of the front yard.

Front of House Without Hawthorne

We were exhausted….but still had energy to shop for some stone.

That’s right……..we added a retaining wall. (By We, I mean Jamie by himself)

Custom Stone has been my favorite place to buy rocks for about 20 years now. They have everything. And their prices can’t be beat.

Stone to Choose from At Dallas Stone Supply

All we knew was that we wanted a sandy colored wall to hold all the vegetation in….

Jamie Picking a Stone

Custom Stone has a delivery service, but there is a 4 ton minimum. 4 tons seems like a LOT of rocks. A lot more than we would need.

Since they charge by the ton, they simply weigh your vehicle before and after loading the stones. Then charge for the difference in weight.

Pretty simple.

Jamie's Car Filled with Pavers

B T W , We got 1/5 of a ton. Of Arizona Buckskin Ledgestone, in case you were wondering.

Then back home to lay out the perimeters of our wall with stakes and string…….oooh and a level.

Running a String from Stake to Stake

Jamie started by dry fitting all the rocks.

Dryfitting the Wall

Then he went back and glued them together with liquid nails.

Finished Wall

Not too shabby,

Yes, I am having a small amount of panic about filling in that much space with plants. I know , I know…they get bigger after you plant them.

It just looks so “naked” right now.

Mostly, I miss my Christmas lights.

Guess we’ll have to address that in December