Wow, what a rose! Nice pics in the three posts Dave and great yard! Man, I miss those big trees. I grew up in Memphis, TN. I've been in the Dallas area for 11 years now and love it, but up here north of Dallas is all ranch land and we don't have those big 'ole Oak trees. Thanks for sharing the pics!

Kevin

Dave, how about filling that bed with all kinds of roses since you grow them so well! You can add some old garden roses along with the modern hybrids. Mix them up with some companion plants such as daylilies, etc.

Looks great Dave. I really want to try growing bananas again, but this time I will have to use hardware cloth to keep the ghopers out.

Kasie

Hi Dave,
Love your landscaping and all the plants, cannas too.. A banana tree, would be fun to grow. question, what do you put on your soil to stop the weeds in your landscaping? I have so much trouble with weeds in gardens. Love the trees in the back too.

can almost smell the rose!!!
Karen B

Kevin: gotta find out the name of that rose. I lived in Dallas (near Oak Lawn) while attending grad school. Loved it. Loved the live oaks. We've planted several of them in the yard too. They're quite small and I hope they do well. They're in the northern-most part of their range.

malibu: The roses need a lot of attention for fert, fungicide, pesticide, deer repelent, so we've consolidated them into one bed to make care easier -- although we do have a double red Knockout Rose in the far back. We're going to get some more of those. They really put on a show. Deer also love the daylily buds.

Kasie, I'm growing hardy basjoo and lasiocarpa bananas, along with tender Dwarf Cav, Brazilian tall, Rojo, Siam Ruby (new), and Veinte Cohol. Mulch and handpulling along with some carefully-sprayed Roundup seems to keep the weeds under control. Our most fragrant rose is 'Granada'.

Here's another view of the back border. You can see the blue China Fir there. You can't really see any plumerias in this view. They're kinda hidden.

Front of the house:

Pretoria canna. Don't have my image software loaded to rotate it! Can one do that in Photobucket??

Close up of Siam Ruby banana:

{{gwi:411483}}

Dave the yard looks great. Did you have to start from scratch when you moved in? That's a pretty banana. I have one that's similar, a Blood banana, I think, whatever it's red, pink and green. Is yours in the ground? If so do you leave it out year round?
Karyn

Karyn, yes we basically started from scratch. Large trees removed by professional, then I took out two large cherries and two medium sized apple trees and a 15 foot juniper. Everything you see along the back fence is newly-planted either late last summer or this season.

I have blood banana too (Rojo or Sumatrana). But Siam Ruby is new on the market within the last year or two.

Is your banana in the ground? Do you just lift them in the fall? I keep having to repot my banana because of the pups that I don't feel like separating. It would be easier to keep it in the garden if it's not difficult to lift. As you can tell I know nothing about bananas. lol What did you use to remove the stumps of the trees you cut yourself? I have 3 fairly small (6" diameter) stumps that are left after I took down a few evergreens. We don't want to mention that I also managed to take down part of the fence in the process. lol

Karyn

Hey Karyn,

All banana with exception of one basjoo, one Siam Ruby and a Veinte Cohol are in the ground. Generally, they just do better there. Of course the lasiocarpas and the basjoos are hardy and winter over. Others I will dig in Fall, put in small pots and winter over in the garage.

Stumps, -- I removed most of the juniper stump by digging and sawing. The cherries and apples, I just cut as close to ground level as I could, then planted around them to cover them up. Large trees, we had the stumps ground.