Can't Hug Every Plant

I've gotten some kind of plant fever lately, and I mean that in a good way. I can't stop planting things! We finally ventured over to The Natural Gardener this past weekend while my mom was in town, and I got two of the plants I've been pining for practically since I moved to Austin and a couple others that I didn't know I wanted until I saw them.

Nick picked this one out, and it is so awesome! It's marked as a Century Plant, or agave americana, but it's so much spikier and more dangerous than any agave I've seen before! It's probably a safety hazard, and it's awesome.

This one I fell in love with immediately because it looks a little like a hydrangea, which has somehow become one of my favorite flowers despite never owning one, but unlike a hydrangea it's native to the area! It's an Imperial Deep Blue plumbago ariculata and it's been blooming like crazy since we planted it.

This guy you've seen before, but he has quadrupled in size since we first got him back in April! He needed a bigger pot so he gets to come up front with the other big succulents :)

Now for the most exciting part! We are calling this phase three (I think) of our front yard landscaping masterpiece. Phase one was putting up some hanging plants in the tree out front. Phase two was planting irises in the flower beds along the front of the house. Phase four is already planned out and will be adding a rock border to this area so it looks a little more finished and "landscaped" if you will. Since all of our in-ground plants are relatively young, we have added some potted plants between them to fill in the spaces. All of these can get up to eight feet wide, so we wanted to plant them with space to grow into. I won't tell you how much Nick, my mom, and I sweated to dig holes big enough for these... the ground here is basically solid rock. Thanks mom! This was my first time ever putting mulch down for anything. Who knew something as simple as mulch could make someone so happy?

The fern-like plant in the front is one of the ones I've had my heart set on forever. It's a Pride of Barbados and though I don't think it will bloom this year since the rest in the neighborhood are blooming like crazy and it doesn't even have buds, I am very excited for it next year.

The other shrub I've been wanting forever is the Yellow Bells Esperanza, the yellow one in the middle here. We have some in the neighborhood that are about seven feet tall! I'm absurdly excited for how big and bold it will be in a few years. Looking at these photos I'm a little concerned that we planted them too close to the walkway, but they really don't look this close in person.

We added this Variegated Heart Leaf Iceplant to our hanging plant collection out front as well. I've never seen anything like it before and I'm in love with it and its delicate little flowers! Bonus: it's a succulent! Everyone knows I'm a sucker for a pretty succulent.

The rest of the changes this weekend were in the backyard. Home Depot was having a 20% off sale on patio furniture and since I would walk by the French doors and wish I had a place to sit to eat breakfast on the deck at least twice a week, I figured that would be a great place to start our patio furniture collection. I've already had a few breakfasts out here since we got it and I am even more in love with our backyard now. If only Nick didn't wake up at ungodly hours (I just can't force myself to get out of my supremely comfortable bed before 8am most days) we could have breakfast together every morning!

As soon as my mom and Angela got it put together, I added a plant (of course). This one is from Nick's parents, but it doesn't have distinguishing blooms so I don't really know what it is. The pot it's in was also made by Nick's dad!

Another project I've been meaning to finish for quite a while is these herb planter boxes. I nearly killed the basil by keeping it in its original tiny container for too long, so I decided it was finally time to plant the poor thing. He's paired with a cilantro, which I think we will use the heck out of for fresh salsa! The smaller planter has two kinds of mint in it, spearmint and some other kind that I forgot. No matter what kind it is, it's darn good in a mojito and that's what matters! I may end up moving these over so that we can instead put some hummingbird-friendly flowers in boxes here since it's right in front of the window, but for now I'm just trying to finish some projects :)