Okay, I’ll admit it right now, I have a black thumb.  I am a plant killer.  Yet, even I have been drawn in by the lure of color.

Gardening may or may not be your cup of tea, but the results are usually worth it.  When we bought our home, it had grass in the front yard and a grass/weed mixture in the back.  I thought this would be fine to me since I don’t spend much time outside of my own home, but two years ago, HGTV did me in.

The Gardening Bug Hit Me

Just a few episodes of Designed to Sell convinced me that I needed some color and I needed it NOW!  In my tv show fervor, I seemed to forget that September in Houston is usually the end of planting season and that I can’t keep plants alive even if my life (or wallet) depended on it.  That started the saga of digging up areas for flower beds and hunting down plants that could survive an owner like me.

After several failed attempts that month, I was finally able to get a surviving group of plants out front.  One Double Knock-Out rose bush got an area to itself.  Miniature Monkey Grass and Sun Proof Lily-Turf shared the walkway bed with two Caladiums.  A green shrub of some sort finally got the area next to the garage to itself since no other plants seemed to be able to survive.  I also bought a Red Dynamite Crepe Myrtle for the center of the yard to add the biggest splash of red possible.

Gardening – 2 Years Later

The joke was on me.  That Crepe Myrtle hasn’t bloomed since it was planted 2 years ago.  It gets taller and it gets greener, but I swear it’s laughing at me.  So is the green anonymous shrub…it is almost exactly the same size as 2 years ago – it looks healthy but it refuses to grow.  (Update 03/28/11 – the anonymous green shrub has bloomed this week with holly berries…it’s a Holly bush, lol)  The Monkey Grass and Sun Proof Lily-Turf also look exactly the same but have killed one of the Caladiums, so the walkway no longer seems symmetrical to me.

In fact, only my rose bush seems to love me…she’s the prettiest rose bush ever and blooms 9-10 months of the year.  She grew triple her starting size in one year alone.  I think all the other darn plants know that she’s my favorite and are sticking it to me…

Anyway, as you can tell from the before and after pics below, my front yard is at least more interesting than before.  All the plants I have now seem healthy, and I refuse to replace anything that survives through a year with me (just ask my hubby, lol).

Do you have a garden?  If so, are you more into flowers or vegetables or herbs?  Do any of your plants hate you too?

MY PLANTS

Anonymous Shrub and Accidentally Planted Mother’s Day Roses

Monkey Grass and Sun Proof Lily-Turf with Remaining Caladium