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Garden journal entry

 

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October 01, 2016. Finally, the Houston summer appears to be receding. We've had some delightfully cool mornings, and even the afternoons have been pleasant, with temperatures reaching only into the mid-80s. So it is now time to start exploring the joys of gardening on the Gulf Coast. Over the past few months, Amy and I have visited a few local nurseries, and have been perplexed by the variety of plant offerings, almost all unfamiliar (or familiar only from gardening magazines) – very little overlap with our Pennsylvania perennial plant palette. Our canvas is quite different as well – compared to the wide open back yard we were accustomed to, the regimented, fenced-in space we see out our back windows now seems restricted. It's a decent-size yard, by new Houston-area subdivision standards, and the St-Augustine-grass lawn comes with a sprinkler system, a luxury we didn't enjoy up North. But where to begin? The front yard is off limits – the homeowners association has placed such extreme limits on what is and isn't allowed there, we're likely to leave the anemic landscaping put in by the builder as is for now, and focus on the back. And there, we can choose from a smorgasbord of new subtropical plantings. Today, we set our first steps towards a garden that's our own – selecting both familiar plants (a hydrangea and a Sky Pencil holly) and new ones (a lemon tree! a sago palm!) in our first Texas plant shopping spree. Just to get the juices flowing – the few plants we bought won't make a dent in St. Augustine's domain. But it's a start to establishing our new garden. I hope to be writing updates more frequently from now on.


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Last modified: September 09, 2009
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