Saturday, April 14, 2012

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)

20 comments:

  1. Your garden is looking lovely - I know it must be hard to garden in your climate and I have nothing but admiration for you. That bromeliad bloom is fantastic! Also love the new pink flowers.

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  2. Loving the look of your Texas cottage garden, David. The mix of herbs, Agaves and perennials is wonderful. The bean flowers look great mixed in amongst the Coreopsis. Lavandula dentata survives well here in the heat. I tried the stoechas, but we can only treat it as an annual here. Love the Cape Daisies and Osteospermums. I grow a lot of Pentas as well. Nothing beats them for colour, persistence and butterfly attractors.

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  3. LOL!!! I was going to say, you're a cat whisperer if you can get a feral cat that close to you:) Cute kitty. Your garden looks great. Hope you are enjoying the weather and the outdoors:)

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  4. Your front garden is looking great. Those new acquisitions fit in well too.

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  5. You have a lovely assortment of plants and I enjoy my virtual visits to your garden. We have a feral cat as well. I'll keep trying to help him out, but with three big dogs I don't think we will have much luck.

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  6. Cute cat! I love the indigofera. Really good choice for a shaded area. When I worked at a garden nursery, we shorted the name to Indigo. I'm guessing it was to help the customers pronounce it better. Love the coreopsis too. I need to buy one for my garden!

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  7. Oh - what a great reveal! You have done so much - I'm amazed! Love ALL the plants. I hope your Spanish lavender works well. I have some and although I've read it's not supposed to do well here, it looks great - and made it through last year's summer heat. I hope yours does well. The Indigofera should do well for you, too. Mine lasted through last year's heat for me. It was a new plant to me last year, and I love it. It's sending out runners now. However, mine was labeled 'decora', not 'kirilowii' like yours. Love the bluebonnets mixed with that grey foliage - and the blue glass is a nice touch. And your Pip-Squeak is adorable! Pip and Pep - sounds like they will be great friends. Happy GBBD!

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  8. aloha,

    congrats on your bromeliads blooming, its stunning!, i also love that true blue looking blue bonnets, those were my favorite including the leaves.

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  9. David, I think Stoechas can grow well in your garden ... also, I have Salvia sylvestris growing among rocks, once established is very hardy.
    Pip is beautiful, she has been lucky to find your garden!

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  10. Love the blooms in your garden. We don't have any of those plants blooming until midsummer here in the UK.

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  11. If I were a butterfly, I would head to the Pentas.

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  12. Congrats on the new cat addition to your family. Sometimes they pick you! Lots of beautiful flowers in your Texas cottage garden. I love the silvery plant. Is that a succulent?

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  13. Your garden is looking good. The weather must really be wonderful this time of the year if all those blooms are anything to go by.

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  14. Hi David! Loong time no see..so sorry I haven't blogged or read your blog in a while..even though you left a bunch of lovely comments. Thank you! Anyway I hope you're well. Your garden looks amazing. Love the Cereopsis flowers..really striking. Your new blog background (maybe it's not new..I haven't been reading =P) looks awesome too, very eye-catching.

    By the way, one of my cats is named Pip too. He's a little rascal. Happy new family member!

    FYI, I've changed the name of my blog, it's now at
    http://tendrilanddewdrop.blogspot.com/

    Cheers,
    Angie xx

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  15. Hi David. Your garden is looking so wonderful. I am with your wife the Bromeliad is gorgeous. I have had Blue Hill Salvia for years and it is a tough plant. I cut mine back in summer when it goes to seed and the blooms start waning and it grows back and blooms again. The Cape daisy is so pretty. I love Bluebonnets and tried to grow some last year. They got only 5 inches tall and were so spindly. LOL! I will keep trying again, not that I am stubborn or anything. LOL! Have a wonderful week.

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  16. pip and pep, hugh? and your knickname is pop, right? pip, pep and pop, the three amigos! nice post and I like your Texas cottage style, especially with the beans.

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  17. Everything is looking so nice down in TX! So much like summer. Happy April!
    ~Julie

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  18. David, I'm honored and delighted to have been of inspiration. Your cottage garden is coming along brilliantly!

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  19. I'm so glad you took Pip in! When I was a teen a scrawny brown cat wandered into our kitchen, took one look around, and never left. He joined three other cats and a dog. When we got him cleaned up we discovered he was actually a Siamese! Your garden looks great. :o) I have a ground cover indigofera that I love. It's just a few inches tall. Tough as nails.

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  20. I don't want to be in all that Texas heat, but I wouldn't mind at all being in your Texas cottage garden...very nice.

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I always appreciate your comments & questions! Happy Gardening from David/ Tropical Texana