Hey, There! It's Been A While...

You know it's been a while since your last post when you can't remember the password to get into your blog account.

After nearly 17 years in our home, we moved last fall to a home one mile away.  It's a beautiful lot with tons of potential and an older home...read that to mean it's been a lot of work.  There are lots of projects in the works and lots of dreams that will hopefully come to fruition in time.

This cypress vine was a volunteer that hitched a ride in a 4" pot from the nursery this spring.  I found it languishing in the undergrowth as a tiny seedling and moved it to a larger pot in the heat of summer.  It started flowering this week and I was instantly reminded of how much hope can be held in one tiny flower.  This sweet little vine reminds me that this garden will be beautiful.  No, IS beautiful, yes, is beautiful, right now.  The move has made me step back and appreciate the small steps and victories of growing a new garden.

I'm not sure how often I will post here so if you're on Instagram, please find me there @cat_jones_atx.  The ease and instant gratification of Instagram has lured me in and I frequent the app and post updates there regularly.  You'll get glimpses of my new garden and snippets of whatever happens to catch my eye.  I hope to see you there!

Cat

Impulsivity

1. Impulsivity :: a predisposition toward rapid, unplanned reactions to internal or external stimuli without regard to the negative consequences of these ...
2. Annual moonflower vine wants sun; my garden has little, reseeds readily; we're short on space and I've yet to find a home for her but all that aside, I'd say the acquisition was nothing short of brilliant. 
3. A camera and a penchant for fragrant, hand-sized flowers can make an impulsive purchase appear as if it were a perfectly rational plan...  
4. 
   

Thinking Outside the Drive-Way

There's nothing like a long, pleasant spring and a bunch of garden tours to motivate and inspire.  These tours always cause me to come home and look at my garden with fresh eyes.  After gardening in the same spot for fifteen years, I can easily become narrow-viewed to the potential for new ideas.

While touring with my friend Pam, I mentioned not having much space left to garden and she simply replied, "oh, there's always more space."   Such a matter-of-fact statement that she probably doesn't even recall saying caused me to scrutinize any available spaces. 

So I came home and started ripping out grass in a skinny little strip at the drive-way's edge.  The soil is beautiful after years of decomposing leaf litter.  It gets morning sun and is shaded by the house during the heat of the day.  In other words, this is prime gardening real estate!

Then I went in and shopped the house.  This old iron piece was perfect for vertical gardening.  It probably comes as no surprise that I happened to have a few plants on hand.  Gulf Coast penstemon, a red passion flower vine, red salvia coccinea and fall aster (not shown) were among my choices.  The name of the plant to the left rear escapes me...anyone know?  **Edit: Many thanks to Steph at Rambling Wren for her id which led me in the right direction; the plant is called Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon'**

The passion vine is tender here in zone 8 so I will either grow it as an annual or if it's just too happy and I love it, I'll take a cutting this fall.

So far it's happy and I love it ♥

The best part of this new found little bed is that it sits right outside the laundry room window.  The transformed view is so much more inviting than the plain, worn fence ever was!