Garden Shopping in South Texas

This weekend a couple of friends and I headed south of Houston to the Seadrift/Victoria/Goliad area. We were in need of some good healthy plants and heard that Devereux Gardens was the place to go. The Garden's are part of the Devereux Foundation that provides services to children, adults, and families with special needs stemming from behavioral, psychological, intellectual or neurological impairments. After seeing the beautiful plants they grow, it seems the program is working and benefiting all.

These beautiful trees and pretty wildflowers surround the garden/nursery.

Pretty flats of annuals, herbs, roses, perennials, etc. were all over the place.

I had three other "gardeners" with me and we quickly filled up two carts of goodies. Thank GOODNESS we thought ahead and took two cars. By the time the day was over and we'd made a few more stops, both cars were filled to the gills.

Devereaux thrives because they can "make" more plants from cuttings and seeds. The workers do all the planting, re-potting and trimming in this shady covered area. It's April in South Texas and the hot sun can beat down and temps can reach 90 degrees by mid-day. We all had "red necks" and "farmers tans" by the time we finished shopping. But we got great healthy plants and it was a fun outing.....NOW I need to get out in the yard and plant all my goodies.

Spring Yard Work

When the yards in your neighborhood are 1/3 of an acre, it's a good idea to recruit friends to assist with yard work. Below is a picture of my yard last spring before I had the stone patio installed (more about that on another post). The picture is taken from the deck outside my dining room. The building on the left is the garage and attached to the back of the garage is the game room (aka known as the Martini Lounge). In the very back is my cute little storage shed. A single girl needs help with the big yard work so I've lured some friends (and their hubby's) over to help with the MANLY things! My friend Susan A is a Master Gardener (just look at her lush yard behind us) and she loves to share plants. WOOHOO....!! She's holding cuttings from her 10 foot tall Angel Trumpets. We ALL got to take some home.

Jeff got the job of dividing the huge ginger plants. They smell divine when you cut the stalks...just like Ginger Root . We all got a huge trash bag of ginger to plant at home.

After all the digging, we brought the Mother Lode back to my house to plant. Since I'm not a very good digger or planter (however, I'm the best darn water-er around)...I decided to take pictures of pretty flowers in my yard and the next door neighbors yards. I just LOVE the pretty passion flower that grows on my deck railing. It looks fuchsia in the pic but its really a deep red.

Don't you love the view of my next door neighbors yard? A lot of this flower bed got ruined when IKE blew threw. Many of those big trees in the easement behind the fence fell over into the yards. Neither of our houses, garages or sheds were damaged by trees so we feel very blessed. We can ALWAYS plant more flowers, right!?!?!?

Back in MY yard, the Bougainvillea is beginning to bloom. This is a pretty pinkish/orange bloom and it gets beaten down by 100 degree sunshine in the summer.

On the other side of this fence is my other next door neighbors pool. We have a gate between the two back yards and it's nice to be able to wander over for a dip after hot yard work! This neighbor, (Tyra--from a previous post regarding the Yaya Chique) is also a VERY good gardener and helps me with my yard work. We trade off and she helps in my yard and I help her decorate her house....great trade off, huh?!?! The bird of paradise is planted near a beautiful rock waterfall.

Hibiscus do really well here in South Texas and I particularly like this red and white one. It looks so happy and fresh.

Morning glories are very prolific here too. They climb up the fences and are 75 feet up in the pine trees in the backyard. They grow like pretty weeds.

I WAS planning on doing more yard work today...but the weather had different plans. We are having a cold and rainy day here so my plans are thwarted. I think Ms. Riley has the right idea. She got back in bed and got under the covers.

I hope YOU are HAVING SOME FUN this weekend even though Mother Nature might not be cooperating in your neck of the woods!!!!