Sue, nothing better than fresh veggies! Love cooking with food fresh from the garden. :)

This fall, I planted 30+ shrubs and perennials, and transplanted 3 poorly placed hydrangeas and a small tree in my new-to-me yard. I'm excited for spring.

Pink, I would love a greenhouse! Keep us posted--you have the perfect spot for one.

Those are pretty nuch the same veggies we plant Sue, although we didnt have a garden this past year. jinx, i almost alwYs plant pink portulaca! love them. My pansies survived last weeks snow storm 😊.

Wow, Feathers! That’s a lot of work!

Tina, glad your pansies survived!

This is a part of my weekend rose garden. It’s full of weeds since I don’t have enough time gardening over there. I pull out weeds twice per season.

Beautiful roses, summers! I’m envious. I lost all mine to RRD last year, so am waiting to decide on planting more. Too many neighbors here don’t stay on top of it, so I feel like it’ll just keep spreading. :/

The big obstacle other than the cost of having it custom built, is that my dad put up the shed and planted the cedars and is inordinately attached to both. So even if I put up something much nicer he would see it as an affront and totally unnecessary and he'd obsess about the wrongness of it. Which I could ignore if he didn't come over at least once a week . . . that's why we tend to go incremental with our projects, so we can get them finished between visits so no chance for him to catastrophize, they are done deals.

Thanks Jinx. Sorry to hear that. RRD is so hard to control. I don’t know if you grow jasmine, gardena, patio orange trees over there. I grow them in pots, and move them inside during the winter months. They fill the garden with sweet fragrances. The growing season is so short here, I try to grow fragrant plants.

Summers, we have such alkaline soil here, it’s tough to find any acidic-loving plants like gardenias even for pots. I love their scent, it’s heavenly. :)

I never have had citrus trees, but would love to try sometime!

Pink, I’m sorry for those challenges … it can be hard to deal with, I’m sure.

I want to think about plants, but I don't want to think about plants. I have spent so little time out in the garden this past year, and I'm not even sure why that is. Maybe a bit of backlash burnout after exerting so much work in redoing our little postage stamp expanse of lawn in 2020. Last year, all I did was half heartedly plop some petunias in pots, but they didn't do well. My parents, on the other hand, planted the same variety (Proven Winner Petunias from Lowes) and theirs were glorious. They had them spilling from numerous pots on their front porch and front beds, and strangers frequently stopped by to marvel at how lovely they were and ask about them.

And then, as would be my luck, my folks went on vacation and trusted me to watch their house. I trusted their automatic watering system to keep the plants alive, and skipped a few days of checking on things in the heat of August. So naturally, their system bit the dust and I found the poor petunias half dead when I finally made it back over there.

Anyway ... I love, love, love a beautiful display of lush flowers, but may be planting more desert-like plants in my pots once spring rolls around. My parents are going to do the Proven Winners Petunias again, and probably entrust the care to their more watchful next door neighbor, should they take another trip this next summer.

ETA: Not the best pic, but this gives you an idea of what a success those Proven Winners were for my parents last summer:

Aww, Kaya, I’m sorry that happened! I never like being asked to house sit/plant sit/pet sit for people after:

1. My DD’s best friend’s fish died under our care.

2. My neighbors’ house flooded after a washing machine hose came loose during the night. I went in the next morning to the entire house under water. It was a nightmare.

Everyone reading this is thinking, ”Yeah, not asking either of them to take care of our house while we’re away!” 😂

You did a lot of amazing and big things last year! Love how it all turned out. This year, sit back and enjoy it. :)

Wow! @Kaya I can’t ever get petunias to grow for me so join the club!!! Our town has baskets of a hanging geranium like you see in Germany. They are incredible from Spring through Fall… I should try them instead.

I did love the wild look that the backyard took on last spring and on into early summer. Once summer fully settled in though, it's like everything just wants to lay down and die. Including me.

This was taken in the early summer, I think. We have repair work to do since a stinkin skunk dredged up spots here and there, but I'm not going to ponder that until later.

The best petunias I’ve ever had were ’Laura Bush’ … but I don’t see them anymore. They were the lush, spilling over, non-fried looking ones.

Ok, just looked, can order seeds. Might try them again!

Beautiful pictures, Kaya!

What lovely gardens and plants! I could not keep a plan t alive if my life depended upon it!

Ak, are you planning to try some potted ones on the balcony this year? Do! :)

Wait. Does Kaya = Jen? That back yard looks familiar.

Yep. 🙂

This is dreamy:

More and more I’m liking small areas with big impacts.

Petunias and million bells do well for me, especially if I plant where they don't get full afternoon sun. Jen, I think your back yard looks great!

To: Kaya

From: Houzz

You have officially reached your limit on name changes. We must ask you to cease and desist on the name switcheroos. Forevermore, you will be known as Kaya. Thank you and have a nice day.

😄

I just came across this picture from last summer.

We noticed one of our salvia greggiis was looking odd. I leaned in and came eye to eye(s) with this creature:

It’s a Green Lynx Spider. I’d never seen one before in my life. It made a web around branches of the salvia and was killing bees.

It moved on after a few weeks.

Better pic of one (not my photo):

Of course in my first pic, NOC is in background. 😸

Wow. Now that's a spider! 😲

OMG I’d have to move.

Wow, that’s quite a spider! Lots of nice flower pics everyone.

My seed order came a few days ago. Big ambitions as usual, so we’ll see how it goes. I sort of ran out of gas last year with planting flower seeds. Not my usual effort. I usually get a lot of re-seeding from zinnias so don't have to do much but they didn’t reseed as much and I waited around too late.

This year I will sow several zinnia varieties, plus I plan to plant my favorite, gomphrena. I use a mix of pink, white and raspberry/purple and it does really well even in dry areas. I also plan to do a section of sunflowers in another bed a sort of experiment. Last year I bought some marigolds ($2 for a tray of 6 I think) to plant near my veggies and I’ll do that again.

Pansies? Forget it. Mine always end up with powdery mildew. Too much humidity here.

Outside, your seed selection sounds wonderful!

@OutsidePlaying where do you get your seeds? I am waiting on my order . I would love some gomphrena! Those are my colors and if they are easy and like dry areas then I have the perfect place. i can’t do sunflowers as the deer are so bad right here in the middle of town. They destroy so many plants and love sunflowers! Any other recommendations for easy seeds that like dry would be great. I have tons of Echinacea that were here when we bought the house and they reseed. I ordered Zinnias already .

Wow, such great ideas and plans! It’s too cold to plant anything here yet, but our almost always sunny days and many, many pine trees keep it, thankfully, from looking desolate. We had 4 more tall deciduous trees planted near the house the day after Thanksgiving. All had dropped their leaves by then, so I’m anxious to see them leafed out this Spring. We finally got the the tiny lights strung through our main garden tree fixed, so sitting out there in the evernings with the fountain going will again be wonderful. My potted plants from out there are, as usual, over-wintering under the skylights in our attached garage . . . and around the tub in our master bathroom. It kind of looks like a little paradise in there at the moment. I’d love to plant more flowers this Spring in other areas around our house and property, but I have to be extremely selective, as so many would just get eaten by our wild horse herds, mule deer, rabbits, packrats, etc. And, because of our crummy soil here, as well as our very low humidity, planting from seeds does not work well. What works best here is planting larger plants with well-established root systems. And then always drip irrigation! DH is talking about getting me a smallish shed for my walled garden, and a larger one for out back this Spring. Your pics of some here look wonderful!

I love the look of your windowbox pics, but this is an all adobe house and plants hanging on the walls would just get fried. I want a pond very badly (says the girl who grew up on Michigan’s Great Lakes lakes and huge ponds), but out here in our Northern New Mexico mountains, even a small one would just be a magnet for all of the aforementioned wildlife, as well as for our rattlesnakes, bobcats and mountain lions. Seriously! So, no pond :~(

Lynn, I’ve always loved your yard areas — and all the wildlife who visit.

Can’t wait to see your new sheds. Tell your DH we will be expecting them now, he has to build them. 😁

Window planters are so dang challenging for us in the south central/western states. I’ve tried every xeriscape plant there is, and all became french fries. Portulaca is my ace in the hole, even though I have to water them 16 times a day. :D

Trailrunner, at my house, the deer eat Mexican sunflowers. Granted, deer in my area are particularly perverse and eat all kinds of things they may not in other areas, but they have definitely grazed on the Mexican sunflowers.

Speaking of ponds and built-in pools out here, when DS was in college, he got a job one Summer, working as a waiter at a resort down the mountain from us. His job, as a waiter for the patio area outside around their huge pool, was every morning to first scoop out all the mice, rats, snakes, squirrels, etc. that had fallen in and drowned in the pool overnight. I was shocked to hear how common that was! As I mentioned, out here they’re sadly wildlife magnets.

Lynn how about a tiny fountain with rocks from the Great Lakes in it? I had this at my last house. It was a bit of a PITA because the birds used it as a birdbath and algae grew on the rocks because I had it in the sun. Now I have it in the shade and we live along a river bank so I guess it is not that attractive to the birds and the algae can be kept to manageable levels.

Man, that is one scary looking (yet cool) spider, Jinx!

I haven't thought about my front porch containers for Spring yet. One reason - last Spring the local garden shop employee steered me to plants that looked great until they got HUGE. Also, DH got tired of watering them daily.

The day I planted the first week of June

End of August.... :-/ Hurricane winds blew them around and around, you can tell the one of the right is falling over. Not to mention the bits of plumes that stuck to the door mat.

So I decided the front porch would just go to the dogs. I told DH I bought two dogs and his eyes about popped out of his head. Then I told him they didn't need feeding.

These planters looked great until hurricane winds came through, then the Mexican Petunias were horizontal. Will not listen to that garden shop employee this year.

Allison, I was hoping you’d chime in! Was wondering what you’ve been doing outside at the new place.

Love the dogs! They’re beautiful! LOL about your DH. 😆

I can relate to the purple fountain grass fiasco — I finally gave up on them for the same reasons. Well, not hurricanes, but how big, messy, and unruly they get. And they’re annuals here, so just not worth it. They sure look pretty for about a month, though.

I hope you won’t get hurricane winds this year!

Kaya, your parent's house is darling! Did they repot the petunia starts into their own planters, or did they purchase large containers and just leave them in those pots?

Trail, I order most of my flower seeds and some veggie seeds from Baker Heirloom seeds, and some of my tomato seeds from Tomato Growers Supply. I recommend getting them early as things do sell out quickly.

Thank you, @Jilly. There are several planned developments with ornamental grass along the streets. I need to find out what variety it is because I would like some on the front yard. Maybe the purple would be okay in the ground. I did meet a better salesperson at the garden shop last trip, so I will look for him again.

Our biggest project for the house has been a carport addition over the guest parking area. I showed two photos to the framer and said "make it look like it's always been here." Then he sent me a CAD drawing and BAM! Carport! Has a storage room (because the dang garage is small and we are not going to park outside) and room for DH's smancy street legal vehicle and a guest. DD2 was happy not to park in the sun when they were here for Thanksgiving.

We also took down the the signs the previous owners left on the directional pole, cut replacements for the ones they took and then I painted and personalized - all 16 of them. Currently making two more DH wanted to add.

Kaya, those petunias are crazy beautiful!

Allison, you have a gorgeous home! Every home you have ever given us the pleasure of seeing has been stunning. You have such a great eye!

Allison, that’s great! My dad just had a carport with storage built (even though he has a huge garage) and is loving it. Very handy to have for extra vehicles.

I’ll bet the signs look great!

I have two other grasses currently that I love — corkscrew grass and one of the muhley grasses that stay small. Both perennial for me and very well-behaved.

I’m sure there are so many great choices for Florida!

I’m currently getting ideas for a winter box. Most I see are Christmas-y in nature; I’m wanting a more organic look with cool-weather plants. I used to plant rosemary and use interesting sticks with it for sculptural height and interest (relocating the rosemary when they outgrew the planter). I’ve used dracaena spikes, too, but they start to brown in too-low temps. Cabbages wouldn’t show up well, the window is pretty high up. The hunt is on! ;)

ETA: I can’t decide if this is too holiday-ish in feel. I could use some nice faux items with the greenery. This is exactly like my planter, and similar red brick. Of course I wouldn’t use real apples … the squirrels would think I was setting up a buffet just for them.

Wish I could use cabbages like this:

I will look those up, Jinx. Thanks.

Thank you, aktillery9!

I just left the spider in my front yard:

(White banded crab spider). I knew it would not hurt the plant, but it does eat beneficial insects as well as bad ones.

I've also had terrible luck with wall planters, even when I planted succulents in them.

Ahhh, that hibiscus is such a beautiful color, Lars! Even the spider is cute. :)

Spiders and cute do not go together in my vocabulary. I'm still a little traumatized by the green lynx....

Indigo Rose, it was really intimidating up close. The spikes on the legs. 😬 The coloring was fascinating, blended right in with the salvia (blooms and leaves). I guess they’re like chameleons, I’m not sure.

Apparently, they can spit venom.

I won’t be sad if I never see it again. :D

ETA: I’d rather see the happy face spider.

So happy!

But the clown face spider can stay away …

Thanks, Oly! They started out with a number of 4" pots and planted them on their existing containers. My dad was especially proud of his petunias last year, and lovingly tended them and enjoyed them daily.