BEGINNINGS of a TEXAS COTTAGE GARDEN: HAPPY APRIL GBBD

After three months of steady work, the Texas Cottage Garden is finally shaping up. I find inspiration from many gardeners and their gardens. You'll find many of these dynamic diggers & superlative shovelers on my 50 fabulous favorites links. But, alas, at some juncture we have to find our own way and our own style, and especially our own plants that seem to enjoy growing in our plot of earth. Hope you like the Texas Cottage Style. (And special thanks to Cindy at  My Corner of Katy...she has it perfected for those in the Houston area!)

The front yard with xeric agaves, herbs, and flowers in the front and moisture loving perennial flowers in the back.

A work in progress earlier this month

Cape Daisy ~ Euryops pectinatus

Osteospermum series 'Red Velvet'

Lavandula stoechas (I would not recommend this for Houston. I got it as an orphan.)

Salvia x sylvestris 'Blauhugel' (another orphan that may or may not make it here in the heat)

Close up of Salvia Blue Hill ( I hope it makes it! It's a lovely plant)

The gray green foliage of rue. I love this look and the pungent smell. It's a butterfly host as well.

This was a nice mix...native bluebonnets with  Helichrysum thianschanicum. I found some broken blue glass to sprinkle around for added flavor.

My new favorite  flower is Coreopsis grandiflora 'Sunfire'.

The cottage garden green beans are currently in bloom in our front yard. Funny, huh?

A close up of the green beans. They're pretty in their own right.

These Red Pentas are great with yellow and purple flowers and are wonderful nectar sources for butterflies.

These are great colors! Have some new ones just come out in recent years? Why didn't someone call me! LOL

Another new plant I'm trying (see label below). I saw it growing beautifully underneath dappled live oak shade at a Houston Presbyterian church and instantly wanted one. I have plenty of shade for these and I think it spreads by runners. That's OK by me! I love this plant since it goes well with wisteria and blooms all summer.

Here's the label for Indigofera kirilowii. Other sources say it's good for zone 9. That's me.

 I'll show you one bloom from the tropical garden in the back yard. This is the first time this Aechmea bromeliad has bloomed. It's about as exotic as they come. My wife loves it!

Finally an update on the feral cat that showed up in our garden last month. Here it is looking at a white-winged dove.

Turns out that it's not so feral.

It's no longer running away from us. We think at some point it was somebody's pet before being dumped in our neighborhood.

It's very sweet and it's getting along with our other cat so we now have two.

It's so tiny we named it Pip-Squeek or Pip for short. Our other cat is named Pepper or Pep for short.

So now we have Pip and Pep!

That's it for this month. April is the nicest weather month in Texas.

Thank-you Carol, at May Dreams gardens, for inviting us to share our garden flowers each month. Happy Gardening & thanks for stopping by our Texas Cottage Garden.

                                                                               David/:0)