Sneak Peek

I thought I'd better show you some pictures of my yard while it was all still alive. This time last year there was very little green.

The bougainvillea in the courtyard is looking good. I love the dark pink color.

My shrimp plants love the heat and are just beginning to bloom heavily. In the background is my beloved Meyer lemon tree. Last year I got over 50 lemons from that little bush-this year it looks like I'll only have 15 or so.

This side of the courtyard gets some intense afternoon sun so I keep most of my succulents over here. The Crown of Thorns in the blue pot was nearly dead when I finally gave up my dream of having it in the house. It loves the sun and has looked and felt so much better since it went to live with it's hardier outdoor kinfolk.

It told me so.

The two baskets on the wall are recently planted and not very lush at this point. They contain two of my very favorite plants- chartreuse potato vine (watch out! it will take over everything!) and my all-time favorite Scaevola or blue wonder.


All of the coleus plants in the courtyard came up as "volunteers". That's what my Mom always calls plants that just come up here and there from the seeds of last years plants. There were so many about a month ago that I thinned them out to give some of them a chance to thrive. The variety of patterns is incredible.

Here's a few.

Somewhere in the middle of all these coleus is my antique English statue of a frog couple. I should probably move it...

I love succulents - they remind me of New Mexico!

Some are so mean and spiny. Others, like baby toes in the front left, are just smooth and cute!

In my herb garden in the side yard, things are getting a bit out of hand. The parsley is taking over the world, and the multiple basil selections are growing faster than I can make pesto and paninis!

Help me.

The sage is abundant, the parsley keeps bolting, and the odd, shiny-leaved plant to the left has evil one inch spines growing from all the stems. It came up out of nowhere and I'm determined to figure out what it is. It looks similar to a crown of thorns, but isn't...

Some of my rosemary plants in the side yard. This spring, these two large plants got some kind of odd scale or something that made the leaves appear pale and gold-ish.  It seems to be going away for the most part and they're looking much greener. I have some other rosemary plants that weren't affected. 

Thank goodness. I'm not sure what I'd do with out my salad dressing.

Another succulent pot. This one has been a challenge. I like to call it The Difficult Pot. I've already replaced two or three plants that were original members of the group.

Evidently I'm not playing the right music for them - what genre do you think succulents prefer?

Rock?

Bluegrass?




I'll try to take some pictures of the backyard sometime this week.

Happy Monday,

Lu