How Our Garden Grows

Pedro did come to trim the shrubs yesterday. He did a fine job on most of them, but he does not understand how to keep nandinas looking pretty all the time. It was my fault for not going out and "talking with him" about the process. Nandinas are one plant that I dearly love. They will live through the worst droughts, flooding, and almost any weather Texas has thrown at them. Nandinas fell from favor a good while ago. People said they get all "leggy" and look like they have knobby knees. The trick to keeping them lovely and keeping the berries for the birds in the winter is to prune them from the bottom. Take out one third of the tallest canes in the spring and the height will be maintained and so will enough of the berries. I've kept ours looking very nice using for many years using that pruning method. The bottom canes will fill in so they quickly regain their fullness. The height is maintained because only 1/3 of the tallest canes are cut, and the berries are great for the birds in the winter. I will have to show him next spring how to care for my nandinas.

Lantana, lavender, a yellow mum that came back this spring from last year and a purple sage just barely in the picture on the right.

These are nandinas behind the yellow butterfly bush in our herb garden next to the driveway. The berries had begun to turn from orange to red on the nandinas, but they were beheaded to my dismay, but we will all get over it by next year.....nandinas are tough plants. :o) In the spring they have masses of small white flowers that turn to green berries, then to orange and eventually to the bright red berries the birds love.


Pineapple sage, orange mums, basil, some lantana, some sweet potato vine, and lanvender grow

in a small garden by the driveway. It is nice to have fresh basil just outside our backdoor. All of these plants came back this past spring after being out all winter. Even hubby's tropical hibiscus came back. I don't believe that has ever happened before. The basil didn't come back. I grew it from seed in the greenhouse. It is everywhere! Basil is a very easy plant to grow and maybe even inside.

Pineapple Sage

The pineapple sage is blooming again and I just love it! Very pretty bright red flowers on the pineapple sage. This is the second year for the plant and it bloomed in the spring for a short while. The leaves start getting a sort of yellow glow and then the flowers pop out. I had never grown them until last year and boy oh boy I think they will always have a place in my garden.

Just inside the back gate is a small garden where plants that have just been potted or I just want to look at a lot are placed. Sweet potato vine is a wonderful plant, too. There is some in the far left corner of this picture and growing out of the pot on the left. Center is a beautiful light green coleous with a blush. I think it is very beautiful and there is some traditional coleous planted in that pot as well. Marigolds are a good plant for fall color along with mums. In the back is a grey/white plant called Dusty Miller. It will overwinter outside if it isn't too cold.

Keeping plants in pots is something I like to do. I can move them if the sun is too strong, or if it seems they will grow better in a slightly different place. If it seems like it might hail, we bring them up under the patio cover. Hubby really adores me on those occasions.