Yard Pretties

This afternoon while I was waiting for my husband to finish grilling burgers so we could head out to the local amusement park, I wandered around our yard and was surprised to find some really pretty plants growing. If you're going to be a successful plant in my yard you better thrive on neglect because I have that domestically-challenged thing going on which includes being horticulturally challenged. In the spirit of spring I thought I'd share some photos of our yard pretties.

I have no idea what you call these hearty purple flowers. They bloom during the day and close at night. My sister-in-law gave me some out of her garden a few years back and each year they come back thicker and heartier.

I don't know what you call these white flowers either. This one is like a giant weed or bush growing over the fence from my neighbors yard. I also have some at the end of my driveway where blackberries- that were supposed to be wildflowers- once grew. The white flowers look like they will form into some sort of fruit and they smell really good.

These are the honeysuckles mixed in with the unknown white flowers at the end of my driveway. You know those smell terrific!

My daughter planted begonias and marigolds in our square foot gardens (another post for another time). She can't take credit for the weeds though. They grew on their own.

And this is the Lamb's Ear growing in our extremely natural area. My cousin, Teresa, gave me some of this years ago and it's still going strong even though my husband once "weeded" the natural area and pulled it all up. I was able to retrieve it from the trash and plant it back and thankfully it continued along just fine.

We have one lone azalea bush. The natural area used to have several as well as carnelias and a butterfly bush, but this year some things have died off and I'm not sure why. Perhaps, the incredible drought of last summer?

Now it's on to the spices. We have basil and parsley in the square foot gardens (not pictured). We have this mint which hasn't spread nearly as much from year to year as everyone said it would. Of course, I think my husband (who is as horticulturally challenged as I am) sprayed it with Round-up a few times too. It might be heartier than we think!

Oh, and my sweet love of a plant- Rosemary. Love the stuff! Every time I get near it I have to run my fingers along it and smell that lovely scent. My daughter enjoys cooking with it and from time to time I'll use some as a table centerpiece just so we can smell it.

The Crepe Myrtles aren't blooming yet, but I'll try to remember to photograph them when they do. That's our bloomin' yard!