What a lot of wonderful things to see, eat and enjoy! You do it all, including exquisite photos.

Thank you, roselee!

Thanks for sharing. Absolutely gorgeous.

I found an asp in the backyard yesterday and decided to bust out my macro lens for some extreme closeups. Figured since I had the camera out I'd get a few more shots around the yard too, before everything goes dormant and grey. :)

Burros tail succulent.

Cabbage.

Holly berries are finally turning red.

Hot lips salvia. The cold snap really brought out the bi-coloration.

Polka dot plant.

Thai basil.

Beautiful, Katherine! What is that in the first four pictures? That insect is so cool :))

Sunshine - thanks! It is some kind of asp or stinging caterpillar. Definitely do not want to touch one!

It's been a while! Not much to take pictures of this time of year :)

The last lemons I harvested from my meyer lemon tree:

A little anole sunbathin in the cabbage:

Purple cabbage after a rain:

Cedar berries:

Pampass grass at sunset:

Thanks.. enjoyed the photos!

EDITED to correct typos.

Love your ornamental cabbage/kale, Katherine. I planted a couple of the green/white kale this year and they are doing well.

Roselee, I had two little anoles get into my house this December. Everyday, they'd be up on my foxtail fern basking in the sunshine coming through the side light windows of my front door, looking wistfully out the window (no doubt, wondering how to get back outside). I finally was able to pick them up gently with my hands and set them back outside in the privet along the front porch. :)

Spring is closing in and I’m excited! The garden is still a bit brown and mopey but I know it won’t be long before the 100 degree days are here and I’ll be wishing for cooler weather again, haha.

Red giant mustard in the containers on my front porch. Very dramatic plant!

Sweet violas in the front bed.

A staple of the winter garden. It’s not unique but they are a needed pop of color when nothing else wants to shine.

My first year growing hellebores. I want to get a nice little collection going, but I want to do how they do over our summer before I get more.

The stonecrop around my bird bath is showing signs of life. I’ll be replacing it with sweet alyssum because this spot stays quite wet, even in deep summer.

Sori on the back of a lush fern frond. Maybe I’ll get lucky and some baby ferns will pop up.

On a recent warm day it was nice to see a few honeybees getting a head start on spring.

A little love for this zz plant that was rescued from an office that shut down. I don’t have a ton of indoor plants but I love the ones I’ve got!

I love them all, but especially the (yes, dramatic) red mustard plant.

In my early gardening days I attended a seminar at Antique Rose Emporium that included a talk titled "Large leaved plants that grow in winter". I wondered what on earth they could possibly be referring to.

Well of course is was the beautiful large leaf edible plants of the brassica family. The one you show is a wonderful example.

roselee - I get a lot of comments from people that come to my front door because the mustard is so stunning. Everyone is surprised when I tell them what it is! One of my favorite things about it is that it has been so hands off and easy to grow. Once it established itself it just kept growing and growing.

It was a great idea to pair it with the yellow pansy. That really sets it off! Gottta' remember that for next fall.

Spring is in the air!

Exotic emperor tulips:

Synaeda blue tulips.

Hellebores.

The gladiator alliums have started sending up buds.

Pear trees are blooming all over (stinky!)

Andouille enjoying the sunny days.

Reported my front porch containers for spring. I can’t wait for this jasmine to bloom!

This plant is an experiment - Jack Frost brunnera. Its putting on lots of new growth for spring and I’m hoping it can survive our summer heat!

My daffodils are coming up late than everyone else’s for some reason, but I’m happy to see them finally starting to wake up.

Synaeda blue tulips looking splendid.

I repurposed a busted coffee grinder into a container for rooting succulent cuttings :)

My big spring cleaning and outdoor organization project is done. The storage space for my garden supplies was an absolute wreck; I could barely get the door open let alone find what I needed. I took everything out, laid down a new rubber floor, put together a shelving unit, hung a pegboard, scrubbed the patio furniture, and got to work reorganizing everything back into the “shed”. I worked from 10:30am until 5pm, with a small break for lunch (which I ate standing up haha) and a trip to Home Depot for dry wall screws to secure the shelf. Two people can now enter the room together and I can find everything I need no problem. I took an Advil and went to bed early last night!

Before: Don't judge me! Hahaha

Before: The patio was a mess, and my supplies were overflowing into the sitting area because I didn't have room for them in the closet.

Progress: All of my garden stuff cleared out of the closet and moved onto the patio.

Progress: I pulled up the dirty blue carpet (previous owners used this room as a doghouse!) and put down rubber flooring. I also put together a new shelving unit for vertical storage.

Progress: Hung some metal pegboards next to the shelving unit. I made sure to include a few baskets for storing my gloves and other small items like twine and sprayer nozzles.

After: Patio cushions got hosed down and the frames were scrubbed with soap and water. I shook out the rug and swept the patio. Much better!

After: Is this even the same room?? Two people can comfortably walk inside and move around now. I know where everything is and it's all easily accessible.

After: It felt so good to get this done. I feel ready for a new season of gardening now. :)

Wow -- you done good! Loved seeing the before and after photos. What an inspiration!

It feels so good to see everything coming to life again with the onset of warmer weather! ❤️

Even the inside plants are growing.

Queen of the night tulips. DEFINITELY planting these again. I’m in love with then!

Other fresh, spring growth includes these alliums on the verge of bursting into flower.

Fragrant jasmine going full blast in my patio containers.

Its not new growth but I just had to show off these gorgeous bears britches leaves. this is a new plant for my shade garden this year.

A returning Autumn Frost hosta.

I made a small water feature yesterday and I’m happy with how it turned out!

I can’t post videos to houzz, so here is a link to a video on my Instagram account:

https://instagram.com/p/Bvr1CT6n6nU/

And a few photos:

redbud in front of abelia

My irises got pretty tall!

The only azalea I’ve managed to keep alive is small but sweet.

This glorious autumn frost hosta looking soooo fresh.

Gladiator alliums are filling out quite nicely.

And handful more photos from a pretty spring day!

Strawberries setting fruit!

Autumn ferns with bright new fronds.

Lush oakleaf hydrangea.

All of the rose bushes are setting buds.

Brunnera Jack Frost with it’s tiny blue flowers.

The late tulips are still being showy.

The onion bed is taking off.

Also I changed my hair color a month or so ago - garden selfie time!

I love seeing all your beautiful plants and flowers. Thanks for posting. It introduces us to plants we might not be familiar with. I like your hair color, too.

Thanks roselee!

A nice round of spring photos. Always fun to see the changes this time of year. :)

Iceberg roses are going wiiiiild with buds!

Hellbores are still beautiful!

Giant acanthus leaves in the shade garden.

These Dipt in Wine coleus are small now but I think they will be striking in this location when they get bigger.

Swapped out my spring plants for summer plants in the front porch containers. Petunias with these beautiful dahlias.

The bubbling fountain I built is doing great. I did a little modification to the filtering and it runs even better now. The flowers planted inside are happy as clams.

Silvery and deep plum colored heuchera. I think this variety is blackberry ice.

A pretty canopy beneath the forest pansy redbud and oak tree.

Belinda’s Dream rose is right on the brink...

I planted these petunias last year. They died back over the winter and have come back with a vengeance this spring.

Beautiful, uplifting and inspiring!

Katharine..beautiful yard, beautiful photos. i just planted some Velvet Picotee Petunias, yours are gorgeous,,, thanks for sharing!!!!

sunshine - Thank you!

MsRed Byrd - I moved my pot to a spot that gets a little more sun and my petunias are actually looking less than ideal now. I'm going to re-pot them when the weather clears up and put them back where they were before!

My first rose bloom of the year! A burgundy iceberg.

Arizona rose sensation thunbergia - aka black eyed Susan vine

Beautiful sempervivum order from mountain crest gardens. I’m giving these away as Easter presents!

The purple flowers have faded from the alliums, but they still look cool!

Supertunia bubblegum. I planted it in this pot last year and it came back, looking like this!

Supertunia bubblegum.. such a pretty name!!! and beautifful plant.. just give me a garden and a good book and i'm happy! love every one of your plants

I love the color of that rose, Katherine! Here is what I woke up to this morning.

My noID tropical hibiscus (my favorite)

My 4 year old pomegranate tree from seed is flowering for the second year, no fruit set last year:

I grow everything in containers.

Katherine. please keep us posted on your Velvet Picotee Petunia, would love to see if they are picky about being moved. I kow my hoyas don't like being moved so i try not to...,lol :-)

SUNSHINE ... LOOVE your noID tropical hibiscus!

MsRed - will do!

subshine - That hibiscus is a stunner :o

These photos are a little different since I don’t often show large areas of my garden. I do more closeup photos so people can’t see all of the holes in my flower bed, haha. I’m feeling like the shade garden is finally starting to turn into something though. We had irrigation work done around here last year so all of the grass got wrecked. Laying sod next week to fix that :)

And a photo from the sunny side, just because the sweet alyssum looks lovely at sunset!

The roses are looking so lovely right now!

Belinda’s Dream

Burgundy iceberg

Eden climber

Andouille by the catmint

Took a lot of photos around the garden this week... then it started to rain on me and I had to run inside.

Ladybug nymph on some pink salvia. I've been seeing a lot of these lately and that makes me happy!

Pink guara from my fountain planter.

The three-year old velvet picotee petunia persists and still looks amazing. Just put out a new flush of blooms!

The Eden roses got rather beat down by the rain, but still look beautiful.

The Belinda's Dream rose is also looking good.

And of course we can't forget my fragrant Burgundy Iceberg rose.

Even though the purple flowers are gone, the gladiator alliums still have structural interest with the huge dried seed heads.

I have three pots of these osteospermum on the patio. The flowering is a little sparse but consistent, and I like the color range within each bloom.

The Snow Princess (or was it White Knight? I can't remember!) sweet alyssum is getting bigger. The weather pounds it flat and within two days it's nice and fluffy again. Smells wonderful!

I don't know what kind of sedum this is, but it's growing around the base of my bird bath and is flowering like crazy right now.

This Angelina sedum has been growing for over a year now, and is the closest I can get to having a spruce tree in Dallas, haha.

Ending on a colorful note, because I do love these Eden roses. :)

We've had loads of rain lately. Some of the plants are getting beat down but others are taking it well :)

Found a ladybug pupa today!

I found this beauty resting on my Eden rose. I rushed out and bought some milkweed, so maybe the next one that comes through will find it. :)

Pretty cardinal on the black eyed susan trellis.

And a grumpy baby wren right underneath him :)

This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in my garden for a while. I found a rose than is half pink and half burgundy, split right down the middle!

And on a similar note, this velvet picotee petunia is also revealing two tones. Some of the flowers are a warm pinkish red while the others are a cool dark purple.

Speaking of petunias, the Priscillas are looking glorious.

And the supertunias off the front patio are filling in beautifully.

For fun I went around the garden and picked a selection of leaves. Foliage deserves the spotlight sometimes too. :)

I haven't posted in a while so I decided to drop a bunch of pictures in here as a quick update. The three posts above are all from the last month or so. This summer I had a surgery that put me out of commission and the garden suffered as a result. I've still been trying to get photos of pretty things though!

A couple more pics in addition to the ones I posted up above. Most of these were from July. It's a lot more of a jungle now, haha.

Mexican oregano. This is probably its last year. The flowers are pretty but it's always flopping and has a generally odd growth habit.

The front flower bed is almost all self sown basil. This is from July and now it's all up to my chest.

Just a view of my patio as the sun is going down.

priscilla petunias in a hanging planter

the prettiest strawberry plant - it's called berried treasure. the flowers are deep pink instead of white!

So many pretty flowers in the Dog Days of summer!

Katherine, beautiful pictures as always! I like the dragonfly with those "burnt " looking wings. Do you grow watermelon, have you harvested it yet? I grew one this year in a container on 11 floor open balcony, the size of a large orange, when I harvested it, lol.

But it was juicy and with a very good watermelon flavor, even the white part of it was sweet. I have never experienced the white part being sweet, it had 22 viable seeds. I am definitely going to grow them next year :)

Sunshine: I am growing a watermelon now and I have a few fruits ripening on the vine. I’m hoping they manage to get there before the temperatures drop. I have tried in the past but vine borers have always gotten to them and killed the plant. This is the first year my melons have made it through unscathed and I think it’s because I planted them a little too late.

It’s amazing how quickly the fruit grows. I took this first picture on Friday and the second this morning. All that growth in just one weekend!

Katherine, what is your growing zone? Very nice looking watermelon there :)

Not only do you grow gorgeous flowering plants, but watermelons too! Wow -- I'm impressed. Keep the lovely photos coming. They are always enjoyed. I love the one with the strong shadows.

Sunshine - I’m in 8a, north Texas. I had two watermelons growing on the vine and lost one to rodents. Boo! Built a cage to put around the other so it’s nice and pristine. :)

roselee - Thank you! You know I gotta keep the photos coming, especially since I spotted a gorgeous Eastern Tiger Swallowtail in my garden this morning. <3

What a lovely collection of pictures Katherine! I enjoyed them so much! What is that white flower with a bee on it? Is it an onion flower? Did your Eden climber bloom during Summer. I have one too and mine did’nt bloom.

Dylan - Those are garlic chives. They have actually completely taken over my flower bed. :O I didn't have any luck with the Eden blooming in the summer. I'm still holding out hope for a fall bloom, but we'll see!

I gathered flowers around the garden for pressing and drying. The bowl of things I prepared looked so beautiful!