After months of obsessing over landscape design, reading books with gorgeous pictures of plants that don’t grow here, and generally making no progress on what to do with the front flowerbed, we went to a plant sale at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in south Austin. On impulse alone, we grabbed an assortment of drought-tolerant perennials: purple coneflowers, bush sunflowers, winecups, yellow trumpetbush, scarlet penstemons, wright’s skullcaps, and an array of salvia.
Then we commenced the overly ambitious project of rearranging what seemed like virtually every plant in the front bed. The deer muhly that previously crowded the graceful trunks of the wax myrtle now softens the edges of the front steps. The loropetalum moved over to make room, and an extra copper canyon daisy had to come out. The mondo grass and inland sea oats, neither of which were thriving in the full sun, made way for the wildflowers.
Nearly a month later, we finally finished spreading the last of the mulch on the beds and trees last night. The project is all but done; when my parents come to visit over Memorial Day weekend, we’ll swap a couple more of the copper canyon daisies for some iris bulbs.
Meanwhile, in the backyard, our experimental tomatoes are growing! The plants in the sunnier spot definitely seem to be doing better, though there are a couple of little cherry tomatoes on the shadier plant.
Speaking of growing, Laika grew five pounds in three weeks! At three months old, our goofy puppy weighs 18 pounds.
She’s learned a lot of tricks, thanks to Timothy’s patience. We ought to teach her to pull weeds, rather than eating the weeds I’ve already pulled and pulling up the grass.
We thought she’d like her own puppy pool to splash around in, especially given how hot she gets with that black coat, but no such luck. Look at her miserable face!
