plants and healing black thumbs

I'm not much of a gardener, or a cook, or really many of the domestic arts generally associate with Womanhood. I can craft and sew and raise a child (well, we'll see how well I do that after he's about 24 or so). But now that I am a stay at home Mom, and was given more time outside, and a completely wild and dirt filled yard I started to get the itch. At first it was because what we started with was so ugly. When we moved into this house there was some sort of half finished installation of rocks. About a ton or two. I truly mean a ton. My father had put them there and tried to create a Peace garden. It didn't succeed very well.

We moved some of the rocks, and then more and then more and more. We poured some concrete. I sprinkled some seeds. I tried not to kill all the plants and tree's my Dad lovingly planted. Somehow, many of them survived. Which is an extraordinary success considering my very black thumb. So now I am much more inclined to garden. Maybe just to cover up ugly areas in the yard, maybe because I LOVE flowers. Who knows? The Shadow knows, but not me.

after the peace garden deconstruction but before concrete

Ah, the disassembled peace garden and my little guy

After the concrete

Rose of Sharon, I didn't plant it, and didn't do much but water it occasionally, and it survived and thrived.

This spring everything bloomed and it looked much better

 I had a narrow strip of dirt to fill after pouring some concrete for a sidewalk and extending the driveway. I was going to fill it with rocks since well, we have lots. But my neighbor Robert told me I HAD to plant something. And that my yard had enough rocks. So thank Robert I suppose. I planted Mountain Laurel seeds, wildflower seeds, and many many daffodil and allium bulbs. The Daffodil grew and so did a couple mountain laurel. But the daffodils were dried out and past their season, and the mountain laurel was the size of my fist. Mostly it just looked like dirt. Well, dirt and weeds.

My narrow strip of weeds and dirt

not terribly exciting.

So, for my birthday I asked for plants. And this week got them. I chose mountain laurel, butterfly bush and lantana. All native, all flowering, and all drought tolerant. (I can be sporadic in my watering and we're almost always on water restrictions). That's why I don't have a lawn, just green weeds that we let grow to "seem" like a lawn.

Laying out the pots

My son helping. 

Dallas red lantana

Fuschia Lantana

Butterfly bush

Ham and Eggs Lantana

Fin

Let's hope none of them die. I mean, I was the one who planted them so, there's a chance my black thumb is in hibernation and will rear back to show it's deathly touch. Or maybe, just maybe, my black thumb is healing. I guess it's a bit greyish/greenish now.