Happy New Year in the Jardin

 

 Hi Gang, it's January in Texas which means - it's nearly Spring!  It's been pretty warm this week, and I asked the fabulous landscaper to come over & do some heavy work.  Here's the side yard, "before" - it was awkward to mow around the air conditioner slab, and between the gate and slab.  Why did we need grass there, anyway?  Dump it.  The droplets on the photos are fog (not snow) - took these pix in the early morning, before I left for work.

 

Awkward, awkward, awkward.   Get rid of it!

 

 In the back of the photo below is our cassia tree.  It blooms in the fall and really looked great last year, but then it grew a bunch of seed pods, and got a little too big, and fell over.  I couldn't straighten it back up, so the landscaper did it. 

Here's the "after" - gravel between the gate & the AC slab - no more mowing there:

 Here is our new cutting garden - it gets the midday sun, should be a good spot:

 

I already had two roses, a hollyhock and a gardenia - planted 'em.   I'll probably add some wildflower seeds and sunflowers to the mix.

 

There's the gardenia, on the right.  We used to have a retired partner at the big law firm who brought us gardenias from his garden every year.  He is now in law firm heaven, so I needed my own plant:

Here is the cassia tree, all straightened up & trimmed.

The landscaper always trims back this muhly grass, and it's a shock, but it has already grown a couple of inches in the 3 days since he cut it:

 

 

 These are the roses along the back fence - year round bloomers.  They change color as the blooms mature.  But they aren't fragrant - bummer.

 The landscaper must have thought the roadrunner, below, looked a little thirsty.  He set him up at the birdbath for a drinkie.  I mean, if you don't have a sense of humor, don't come to work for us.

 

Every garden needs a gnome - ours used to be a rain gauge - he hugged a little test tube.  Well, klutzy me kept knocking it over & the tube cracked.  So now, he's just waiting for a gnome-babe to come along, visit the tadpole cafe next door, and he'll have someone new to hug.

Meanwhile, I went for a new rain gauge.  The guy at the garden center asked, what kind do you want?  "One I can read without glasses."   Check it out:

We'll be planting tomatoes soon!