All things bright and beautiful that one can find growing in the dirt--
L O V E .
A newly installed hardscape--hooray!
Here's the beginning of a new love affair, aka our new back yard.
My Faithful Assistant would like to show you pictures of her new digs.
The back yard, designed and installed by local landscape guy Tom Pearce/PearceScapes, consists of flagstone walks, 2 small flagstone patios, crushed granite gravel paths, a river rock swale, and lots of beds bordered with moss rock or river rock.
There's no grass in the back yard--only xeriscape gardens.
And right now, there are only larger shrubs and small trees in the ground.
I'm waiting for this drought to break before investing in all the perennials and annuals that will soften up the hardscape. And I'm watering like a wild woman!
You can see the smaller patio in the southwest corner of the space.
The picture below shows some detail of the beautiful (Oklahoma Wister) flagstone work that Donny and his father did in the absolute heat of July. It took them a week to lay the walk and two patios.
Here below you can see the larger patio with moss rock-lined granite gravel paths and lots of planting beds all around. (My metal rabbits are 'resting' there on the right--waiting to find their spot.)
See all the yellow and orange plastic flags? More about them in a minute . . .
A couple more hardscape pix--actually that's about all there is right now. Just want you to see one of Steve's 3 stone bridges (lower center of this shot.) Happy Father's Day! He did not want little wood bridges over the river rock bed, so I surprised him. Happy man. Stone bridges . . .
A look toward the northeast corner of the back yard:
And a view toward the southwest corner of the yard:
Even though we have an irrigation system installed, I've been getting up to water first thing every morning before the scorching sun gets busy. I water each tree and shrub so they all get a good drink until their roots are established. Most are doing really well--just a few were really shocked with their new home.
But they're getting over it.
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| Bottlebrush Tree likes the full sun. |
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| This is a Duranta with pretty blue flowers that make gold berries. |
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| Mexican Buckeye Tree will get to be ~20' tall. |
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| What's a Texas xeriscape garden without Sage! |
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| This is a Possumhaw Holly--see the berries starting to turn? It's a deciduous tree, but the red berries will stay through the winter. |
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| The Mexican Buckeye Tree shares space with a variegated Yucca & a Carefree Yellow Rose |
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| More color to come when the drought is over. This was in a pot on the back porch. |
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| What's more xeriscape than a pretty Yucca . . . |
One of the first areas I can't wait to plan and plant is a large herb garden just off the back porch. You can see just a corner of it in the bottom of this picture. Hoping to have Rosemaries, Parsley, Cilantro, Bay Trees, Oregano, Fennel, Thymes, and, of course, lots of Cinnamon Basil, Lemon Basil, Spicy Globe Basil . . ..
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| The first plant to grow in the Herb Garden--NUTGRASS :~/ |
Remember those little orange and yellow flags in one of the first pictures? They are a clue to one of the reasons we designed a garden for this new yard. Reason One: we don't have a lawn mower, and don't want to pay a service to cut the grass in a small space like this. Reason Two: Reliant Energy Underground Electric Utility Box. Reason Three: ATT Phone Utility Box. Reason Four: SBC Cable Utility Box. Reason Five: SECOND, though smaller, Reliant Energy Underground Electric Utility Box. Three of the boxes are in one corner close to the larger patio:
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| PLUS two lines (phone and cable) ready to be buried so they can run across the garden and I can cut them at inopportuned times while working in the dirt. |
The other, smaller, electrical box is in the other back corner of the yard, by the smaller patio. My funky garden tool trellis will soon be full of vines that will screen this box.
Oh, and someday I hope to have a little 'disappearing fountain' using several pretty blue pots of varying sizes right there in the middle of the garden. After all, my Faithful Assistant misses her country water bowl (the garden fountain in Chappell Hill). Now that she has a new litter box (two choices--soil + mulch or crushed granite gravel), all she needs is outdoor plumbing and a few more plants to hide in.
