Thank you Carolyn, as for the flowers and the fruit trees, I will just have to hope that the next person enjoys them and allows them to stay. I supposed leaving a trail of peonies and flowers behind you in various properties isn't the worst possible legacy one can have.
). I am sure you are about to beautify a small patch of texas as well.
Heather, maybe you can find a ranch just outside of Dallas? I can say from living in California, that you might find year round gardening to be a nice change. You can also grow some amazing things that you cannot grow in the snow zones. I had bird of paradise, rubber tree plant, begonias, all kinds of tropical flowering plants, figs, passionfruit, guava, tangerines, jasmine, year round rosemary that got so big I trimmed it with a hedge trimmer, ditto on the lavenders, the most amazing roses, sugar cane, bamboo, bouganvilla, and a rose of sharon tree that was cut bonzai style. I had tomatoes growing year round. You are going to love the options. Stone fruits don't do well, but they now have some varieties that only require a few hundred hours of cold weather. Citrus has the most amazing smell when it is in flower (takes a lot of water though to make that juicy fruit though). Jakaranda are really beautiful too (the tree blooms in purple), but they make a huge mess when the flowers drop. Herbs love it out in the arid land. Salvias, milkweeds, and lantana are easy growers in the dry climates. Of course, you will need irrigation, but if you do rain barrells and drip lines you can keep it pretty eco friendly. We did arid plantings on our parkway (area between the sidewalk and the road) so it didn't need irrigation. You can also do succulent plantings.Avoid grass. We had a lawn for a few years, it cost us a fortune to keep it watered. We changed to a groundcover for the lawn when we bought a place and planned the garden zones based on irrigation needs. I miss my garden in California (in case you can't tell) so I know what it like to leave one behind as well, but the thought of leaving a wake of beautiful gardens behind you actually made me feel better (thanks for that
That WAS inspirational! Leaving behind a wake of beautiful gardens. I love that image.I miss my garden in California (in case you can't tell) so I know what it like to leave one behind as well, but the thought of leaving a wake of beautiful gardens behind you actually made me feel better (thanks for that
Too true, Christine, too true. I'm already a subscriber to Southern Living magazine, and have been for ages, but the one thing that gets me upset are all the gorgeous plants I can't have - and how much longer their season is. It'll take me awhile to figure out the climate and the soil, but I'm sure I'll get there. John and I are not big on lawns, we have organic pesticides here and could give a crap whether or not it looks like a putting green, and I'm already aware of droughts so yeah, there'll be some interesting things to plant.Heather, maybe you can find a ranch just outside of Dallas? I can say from living in California, that you might find year round gardening to be a nice change. You can also grow some amazing things that you cannot grow in the snow zones. I had bird of paradise, rubber tree plant, begonias, all kinds of tropical flowering plants, figs, passionfruit, guava, tangerines, jasmine, year round rosemary that got so big I trimmed it with a hedge trimmer, ditto on the lavenders, the most amazing roses, sugar cane, bamboo, bouganvilla, and a rose of sharon tree that was cut bonzai style. I had tomatoes growing year round. You are going to love the options. Stone fruits don't do well, but they now have some varieties that only require a few hundred hours of cold weather. Citrus has the most amazing smell when it is in flower (takes a lot of water though to make that juicy fruit though). Jakaranda are really beautiful too (the tree blooms in purple), but they make a huge mess when the flowers drop. Herbs love it out in the arid land. Salvias, milkweeds, and lantana are easy growers in the dry climates. Of course, you will need irrigation, but if you do rain barrells and drip lines you can keep it pretty eco friendly. We did arid plantings on our parkway (area between the sidewalk and the road) so it didn't need irrigation. You can also do succulent plantings.Avoid grass. We had a lawn for a few years, it cost us a fortune to keep it watered. We changed to a groundcover for the lawn when we bought a place and planned the garden zones based on irrigation needs. I miss my garden in California (in case you can't tell) so I know what it like to leave one behind as well, but the thought of leaving a wake of beautiful gardens behind you actually made me feel better (thanks for that
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