Autumn Garden and New Project

Here's the Gulf Muhly grass planted last year around this time (purchased at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower sale). As you can see it is going nuts right now! I love it! The purple-pink blooms just glow in the sun--incredibly eye-catching. That Christmas tree-shaped thing next to it is a vine my mother-in-law planted to cover the gas meter--I propped it up into this shape by using three tall garden stakes. The question is---will I put lights on it? Hmm, dunno yet.


Windy day showing the muhly grass and the salvia gregii (still!) blooming.
Mums planted last fall from small Wal-mart pot; behind it is "Black and Blue" salvia, and next to that Texas sage (I need to move that over, it will outgrow that spot)
Here's those damn hollies planted along the front porch. Why anyone would want needle-sharp, constantly growing bushes along the porch and encroaching on the entry-way is beyond me, but they'd been growing there for over 30 years (oh, and there was one euonymous in the middle that looked ratty and never grew as tall/fast as the hollies). When we moved in, we literally had to cut back the bush right up next to the sidewalk in order to get us and our stuff to the front door.

Anyway, I've never been big on planting big ol' shrubs that I'm supposed to prune religiously along the foundation of a house or porch, and as much as I like hollies for their bright berries and shiny leaves, these had to go. After trying to dig out one small one (there were 5 hollies and the one euonymous), I thought better of it, and called in the BIL with his truck who dragged them out of the ground by their roots with a chain. I just trashed the eonymous there and one on the other side of the entry, but figured I'd try to keep the hollies going by planting them out back along the fence-line and just letting them grow as big as they'd like. They looked great back there for a while, but now a couple are turning brown--hopefully they'll make it through this traumatic event (I know my dad has had luck transplanting hollies around his property, but I think these two came away with v. small root-balls)--we'll see...


Here's the "After." I laid out 12 in. square cement patio blocks up against the porch and put a lot of my big potted plants down there--much more space on the porch now. In the pots are Foxtail ferns, jasmine, bouganvillea, bay tree, a potted mini rose, and that nameless purple plant I got at a nursery this fall (many of the above will have to come inside this winter). Then in place of the hollies I planted iris divisions from around back, 2 roses, 2 rose of sharons (one day these will shade the porch), a couple salvia, and some annuals.