Backyard Daydreaming

I love flowers, and one exciting thing about planning to live in this house for the next 4 yrs or so, is that Leo thinks our backyard needs some work.  Yeah!  This year all we could manage was to replace my houseplants (one I had since before Elena was born), sniff, sniff.  The movers wouldn't take them. And then I planted some flowers, because really, every house needs some flowers.   So here's my Lobelia and drooping Vinca (poor neglected plant) and some Scotch moss, all outside our dining room window where we can see it at every meal.  :)

 I bought this plant (the name is escaping me at the moment--cane plant?  corn plant?) for our living room, to brighten it up.  However it wasn't doing so hot, so I went back and read the instructions which said it needed FULL SUN--it wasn't even getting any direct sunlight in our gloomy living room, so I moved it outside.

Petunias and vinca and such,  I love the planters and hanger but I need to move it to the other side of the door.  

Because my gorgeous hibiscus needs to be moved to the other side of the door, so we can see it from the dining room too.  Really if you live in a climate where you can grow hibiscuses, you should grow one.  It's criminal not to.  

And a mandevilla to cover up the trash.

And a gardenia--again it should be criminal not to grow gardenias when you can.  I love gardenias.  

And my few herbs (the basil died--what's with that???  The bugs ate my basil in Utah so it died there too.)  And actually one of my favorite planters, begonias (I usually don't like begonias, but the real estate agent gave it to us), and coleus and whatever else that is.  

And a hanging basket because I needed something to hang on my hook, right?  Sadly, the hummingbird feeder is only feeding ants, and suddenly one day the pink stuff just turned clear again.  Weird.  

So this is our patio off of our kitchen and dining room.  The curtains are kind of cool, but sort of pointless.  They're so close together that the area they enclose would never fit a table, and even if you put two chairs inside, it would feel claustrophobic.  Just my opinion.  

 See, I need to change the hibiscus and the hanging plants, and then stick the bikes in the corner.

Other angle.

And another angle.  I think I need to put a huge planter of elephant ears or something in that corner.  It's kind of dull. The Lobelia is pretty, but doesn't fill it enough.  What do you all think?

Someday if I had the money I'd have furniture like this there. 

And then here on this part I'd have a table with an umbrella.

This is daydreaming, remember?  

 Anyway this is how our yard looks now.  In the space behind the garage that's fenced off separately (someone must have had a dog once) we're planning on putting a playground and some raised garden beds, because it gets the most sun.

 And a black currant bush by the garage too but by the other corner, if I can find one that will do well in Texas.  

Then I plan on planting a Rose of Sharon back there in the corner by the garage and the chain link fence.

And then I would plant these day lilies in the beds in front of the entire chain link fence.

So this part is almost always in the shade.  I would fill it in with these beauties:  

 
 

Those would be along that entire back wall, only with some bamboo thrown in.  I love bamboo.  

And then this last wall, it's the sunniest spot in this part of the backyard, and well, lets just say, that once I start looking at flowers, it's hard to pick my favorites, but here's my ideas so far.  

 

 
 Irises--oodles of them.  I love irises.

Roses, because I also like roses.  

Lisianthus, because you guessed it, I love LisanthusSweet peas, because I love sweet peas.

Calla lilies because Leo likes them.Poppies because I like them.  

 And various other types of lilies.  

Okay, I was a bit carried away. And I won't be able to fit all that.  I know.  And I'm kind of torn between more traditional flowers (sweet peas, roses, irises, poppies) and all the other lilies that have a much more exotic, tropical feel.  So what's your opinion?  Do you think I could successful blend the two?  And the colors, I tried to stick with a common color scheme, (I know it doesn't look that way--but I did).  Leo wanted blues, so it was: blues and purples contrasted with yellows/oranges and maroons.  Is that too wide a palette?  Ha, ha, I just realized that pretty much covered every color.  Yeah.  Well, we wanted a colorful backyard.  I tried to pick plants of varying heights and bloom times too, but I would have to plan it out much better before I bought anything.  Anyway, I don't really know that much about gardening.  I just like to plant things.  And I like flowers.  And this more than likely will just stay daydreams for the most part, although, I think this fall, I will buy some day lilies at least to cover that chain link fence.  And then in the spring a few more perennial plants and little by little each season, try to build it up some more. Anyway, it's really late, I got sucked in looking at irises and I really need to go to bed.  Goodnight all.