Neighborhood Plant Farm

This fun and funky, colorful Houston Heights Plant Farm is on my errand route  most weekends. For several months I've been telling myself ..."I need to stop in and check that out!"  It's on a busy urban street, in the shadows of Downtown Houston and just the type of place I like to poke around!

My friend Susan A. and I drove by on our way home from Urban Market Hunting.   Susan A. has a VERY brilliant emerald green thumb while mine is more a blackish, green!  My best plants are ones that thrive on neglect.  Yet, I'm still drawn to garden stores, with the ever present hope that one day I'll be able to keep things alive.

These succulents found a pretty home in a colorfully painted frame.  Cute idea, huh?

Other succulents and herbs found a forever home in a pretty white colander. 

Around each corner was a fun surprise......there were cute bunnies that let us feed them.

The bunnies live in the hutch on the right.

These type of signs always catch my eye.  One of these days I want to create on for my yard, with some of the exotic destinations that I've traveled to.

Everywhere we turned there was a pretty grouping of plants, yard art and statuary.

I found lots of pretty fall color on the front porch.

You know what they say about us Texans.....?  We are REALLY proud of our state and use the state shape in many, many different ways.  How about a Texas birdbath????

Inside the former 2 bedroom/2 bath cottage the owners have created a fun place to shop for unusual items.  Do you know anyone that would like a Texas Plant Stake?

The colorful kitchen .............

We had a blast shopping for plants and visiting with the help.  She was so knowledgeable and accommodating and even took our picture!  If you are in the Houston Heights area....go check it out....you won't be disappointed.

From Asphalt to a Community Garden

This past weekend my co-workers and I meet up with a group of people in our industry (Commercial Real Estate) and worked on Phase II of a community garden.  That's me on the right.

Last summer a group of workers began the HARD work of picking and scraping and digging into a hard-baked Urban Parking Lot.  Someone had a LOT of vision  because out of that hard work, a garden was created and is thriving today for the neighbors.

Several neighbors have signed agreements with Volunteers of America and have their own little plot/pod to grow vegetables, herbs and flowers.  There are even picnic tables to sit down and have a cool drink or just admire all the pretty plants.

Power tools were brought to the work day and boards were cut to make vertical trellis, planter boxes and benches.

Bales of hales had holes dug out of them, for plants to grow straight out of the hay!

Above are some of the "pods" that have already been planted.  We saw okra, tomatoes, purple hull peas, wax beans, squash, and herbs already growing and ready for harvest.

As you can see from this picture, we are in the heart of a very urban area. For those of you that are familiar with Houston...it's on North Shepherd......near Yale in a neighborhood called Independence Heights.

A group of "Corporate Suits" showed up for a day of playing in the dirt!

Here is the beginning of the Mural.  A very interesting artist, David Flores, created this on paper and then put it on the wall facing the garden.  David outlined the colors and then we got to fill in the color.

I knew when I signed up for this workday and the flyer said there was going to be a mural painted....I wanted on THAT team.  :)  And lucky me....I got to paint!  I'd MUCH rather paint than do yard work...LOL!

David starting the detailing finishing touches to the mural.  I will drive by in a couple of days and take a picture of the finished project.  To check out more of his work, his website is:  Skeez 181

And for all our hard work.....a hamburger/hotdog lunch was donated...and it sure tasted good!

If you don't already, I highly recommend doing volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity, Volunteers of America, or just helping out people in need. It's a really rewarding experience!

An Adventure Deluxe!

Sunday afternoon my neighbor asked me to ride with her a few blocks to visit the house below. There was an "Estate Sale" there last week. Tyra (my neighbor) went and bought a few things but there were a few things left behind she wanted to check on. As you can tell, this house is in dire need of some TLC. The original owners passed away several years ago, after owning the home for 70+ years. The remaining relatives are not interested in fixing it up and I sure wish I could afford to buy it and bring it back to it's original charm. When we arrive the gates were locked and no one was home...but we saw some friendly neighbors next door on their porch. So they wouldn't think we meant any harm, we introduced ourselves to the sweetest little lady named Lucy. This is her yard below! Isn't' it great? She has freesia, snapdragons, begonias, roses, calla lily's, calendula, pansies, herbs, hydrangea, etc,etc. and the place smells like a florist. Lucy is 80 and has a bad hip but said if WE wanted to dig anything up, she would be glad to share. And share she did...we dug for hours (her back yard is even a bigger BloomFest!)

These are just two of the eight Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow bushes she gave us that I have planted in my yard. Both Tyra and I ended up with tons of plants and I sure hope I can keep them alive. Lucy told us HER secret to gardening....it's Osmocoat (Spelling??...a fertilizer I MUST go and purchase!)

Then...as if our new friendship and all the new plants weren't enough...I came home to this bag of anemone bulbs from another neighbor!......Did I mention I have the best neighbors EVER! Carson was very curious about the bulbs and wanted to know when we were going to plant them. He even offered to DIG the hole for me....what a SWEET helper, right?? LOL!

But the BEST find EVER was found in Lucy's driveway....she was just about to drag it out for BIG TRASH DAY! I've been looking for over a year for an old bicycle that I could use as Garden Art...and lo and behold...I found this one. She WOULD NOT take any money for it. And what a lucky day that was for me because the previously mentioned estate sale had a bike like this and they wanted $75 dollars! SCORE for me with the FREEBIE!!!

As we stood in the driveway and she told stories about the bike my heart was soaring. I couldn't believe our luck, meeting this SWEET lady, getting free plants and much needed advice for them AND a chippy, old bike! She really didn't quite understand why I wanted it but I told her I would be sure and take pictures once it got set up in my yard. She was worried that the paint was chipping and tried to brush it off but I said that made it perfect!

Call me crazy but I LOVE my new bicycle! The brand is "Texas Star"....How PERFECT is THAT!??!

PS: After visiting with Lucy for almost 3 hours, the caretakers of the house next door came by and we "shopped" a little over there too. I got, but did not take a picture of, a old black bowling ball. You'll have to check back and see what I do with that! It will end up in the yard too, but it will be re-purposed......Keep guessing...it's gonna be cool! AND Tyra got some really cool OLD terracotta pots that had a lot of aging on them. They came in handy as Lucy kept loading us down with plant and plants.

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!!!!