I LOVE our yard.
I love the front with all it’s dips and waves. I love the slight mound where we had to take out a tree that came down on our cars during Hurricaine Ike. I love it all.
My front flower beds are a work in progress. Every year I spend a small fortune on flowers that wither and fry in the hot summer sun leaving a barren wasteland.
….But NOT this year.

Newly planted Hibiscus braid (pricey at $12) and the smaller versions ready to go in the ground $6 each
This year, I decided, would be the year that changes.
I bought $80 worth of Day Lily’s and another $40 worth of Hibiscus (because that’s the ONLY plant I can’t seem to kill) and pulled everything out of the flower bed.
I spent an entire Sat in the hot May Houston sun digging and weeding….I built some rather ghetto looking trellis’ to go behind last years jasmine climbers (that aren’t climbing mind you)….

$80 worth of Day Lily’s. Worth every penny being that they will come back year after year.
My reasoning was simple…i priced some at Home Depot and found that they were ugly, basic and expensive. I could make them just as ugly, basic and cheap. $20 and I made 3 that reach from my flower bed to my sofit. Savings of over $40

Just hours after planting (Mid May)
Yes the Day Lily’s lasted only a short time but they will rebloom when the time is right. The stalks are green and healthy.

Mid May. Right after they went in the ground
My hibiscus’ have proved to LOVE where I planted them…and are blooming daily. The red and peach flowers make me smile every time I pull up to my house.
The jasmine have resumed climbing…and will hopfully cover my awful ghetto trellis.
The one plant I splurged on…a $26 potted climbing flower vine of some sort has exploded with new growth and I will need to add a trellis for that soon.

A splurge at $26! But the only one in RED they had! (Mid May)

June 1st. Explosion of growth!
The backyard…that has never recovered from a 54 child birthday party we had here over 5 yrs ago, complete with a 17 ft water slide and turned my beautiful yard into a mid calf level mud pit….still has waves, low spots and is as uneven as they come.
My Canna lily’s that I planted washed behind a side fence and I found them all one spring day when I opened the gate for a shovel. 4 feet high, all in full bloom…a small field of lily’s in yellow and orange. I carefully dug them up and moved them back to where I planted them.
I guess when I split them and threw out some of the excess roots they fell out of the trash can because I found 3 tall and beautiful lily’s blooming behind the trash can enclosure a few weeks ago.
This year only two bloomed in that spot.
Overcrowded is my guess. After me and my bestfriend Google figured out a solution…
I dug a few up and carefully separated them again…this time lining my fence with them.

Sad looking little patch that is struggling. Last wkend of May
Two of the those have already bloomed again. The second area I replanted isn’t doing as well. I am not sure why but I’m watching them closely and if I have to I will dig them up and move them again.
I bought three pepper plants and put them in my veggie area….and they seem to be growing slowly but surely.
I never remember to water them so that is a major issue. I am going to buy a water timer this week to keep them from frying.
My three last minute and end of the season purchase of Oleanders from Houston Garden Center (sale $3) are doing well in the back yard and blooming. They aren’t the prettiest things all scraggly and rough but in a few years they will grow out and be beautiful.

Watering right after Bausilo and his crew worked their magic (Mid May)
This photo is from a few weeks ago. I have since staked them to the trellis’ and they are doing great.
For Mother’s Day my husband woke all my boys up super early and they cleaned the whole backyard. Gone was the collected junk that got put on the back porch over winter. Gone was broken planters and empty cat food bags. They wiped down the furniture and set it all up for summer.
It was one of my BEST gifts ever.
I love to sit back there and read. I drink my coffee and admire my gardening handiwork.

The Chair Hubs made for me!
I see how much my strawberries have grown and watch for the red of the tomato plants as they mature. It just makes me happy.
My yard guy took one look at my yard that weekend and said “Malo”….. “BAD”… yes. two feet of weeds was bad. Soon it was cut, blown and pretty again.
Best $50 ever. And trust me cutting down that jungle, weedeating and blowing all the debris AND blowing off my back patio to pristine condition was WELL worth $50.
When I heard the weedeater last night I ran through the house yelling “Bauselio is here!!”.
My kids think I’m nuts.
But being that he hasn’t been here in two weeks my yard looked horrible. We water and it grows…where once every two weeks works in the early spring….Summer brings the need for him to make an weekly appearance.
Honestly…he is the best $30 a week I could spend.
We don’t spend ALL of Sat working out there in the heat to bring it to a decent level of civility and he is in and out in less than hour. Leaving it for us to enjoy…instead of work on…the rest of the weekend.
My kids don’t get it.
Of course they don’t. They aren’t out there pushing the mower feeling the heat so intense your eyeballs feel like lasers or sweat til you think you will pass out. They sit and play video games, play online, read alittle…watch tv….all in the comfort of the 75 degree house.
I told my hubs last night…I would rather give up our weekly dinner out alone than give up the lawn guy.
and he gets it.
It is now June 1.
I just went out and took some new photos…which thanks to my crappy Lucid phone (never get one ..they suck) I am STILL 45 minutes later waiting for them to hit my inbox so I can upload them to this blog post…..ONE…the explosion of growth on my $26 climber loaded. So I will post a part 2 with todays photos. Mostly because I am impatient but also because I have a lunch date with Hubs and need to go clean up since I am sweaty and nasty from playing with my plants.
Thanks for visiting! Happy Saturday!
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