OMG, I'm drooling! Your garden is absolutely magnificant! Those photos are magazine worthy.

Wow! I pay money to look at pictures like this in magazines! Absolutely stunning!

Ohmygoodness, Renee! You have a wonderful eye for combining colors and shapes and textures!
So glad, too, to find out I'm not the only one who "steals" lawn square footage (although I prefer the terms "converts," or "improves") for more garden space.

Kay

Renee,you've done a great job,everything looks beautiful.Think my favorite picture is #3.TFS
Kathi

Renee, Your beautiful garden is inspiration to me, I have been very busy planting my gardens at my new property.I love it but it is a lot of work.Thank you for sharing.

Yowser! Looking good!!

Oh, Renee! SO pretty! I love the arbor, what a nice entrance to your garden. And the Japanese Blood Grass is a really pretty accent. Very lovely, I always like "strolling" through your garden, it is such a treat!

Patty S.

so pretty! and what inspiration!

can i ask, what plant/tree/shrub is that - you have a close up of it with the begonias i think, and it's in the background with the pinkie roses - the flowers are yellow cone shaped and droop down. they're gorgeous and i just love them! they're all over my daughters school in different colors, but no one knows what they are.

thanks!
~ angela

Ladybugsmom, that small tree is a brugmansia, or angel's trumpet. And it surely is a knockout in bloom.
Since they are plentiful at your daughter's school, a note of caution is in order: despite the beauty of the flowers and the name "angel's trumpet," brugmansias are second cousins to jimson weed. All parts of the plant are poisonous if ingested.

Kay

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of brugmansias

Thanks, garden women. I live for your praise.

Kay, you snake. I'll bet you practice the "I'm just EDGING the lawn" ruse and get thanked for being so helpful.

Annmarie, we're waiting with bated breath to see the new gardens. I can't imagine doing the whole thing at once. I operate on the basis of a hundred square feet or less at a time.

Angela- Two years ago there was a rumor that brugmansia blooms would make you high. Kids in some parts of CA spent their afternoons vomiting them up for a while, until the rumor died down. Thank goodness the rumor wasn't about foxgloves, or we would have had an epidemic of 11 year olds with heart attacks.

Renee

Just edging. . . ooooooooooh! I'll have to try that. Actually, however, my favorite pretext for covert lawn repossession is that I'm "weeding." Since the lawn is mostly weeds holding hands, yes indeedy, I do have the enduring gratitude of DH.

The real fun happens, however, when he goes away on business. Next time he leaves town, the hell strip between the sidewalk and the street is MINE!

Kay

My oh my!!! Fabulous. What a wonderful retreat.

Hey, I remember you were debating about a palm tree some time ago....remember? Did you take it out or what? (Or maybe I'm dreaming, hope not.)

renee, are you not mentioning your head gardener and his many helpers?
and also your huge greenhouse hidden away for starting seeds?
min

You showoff! lol! Just gorgeous!

Socks- you remember! I took out a whole gaggle of them and miss them not one bit. We still have three Queen Palms near the pond and one King way in the back there. I had to replant a bed, but it was worth it- no more dates and evil five-foot long head-impaling machete-like sheaf thingies falling out of the sky. I'll never plant another Queen Palm.

Min, don't you go spilling the beans now. The check's in the mail.

"weeds holding hands." Heh heh. Dang funny there, Kay. My dad always says he hopes the termites keep holding hands at my house.

Well, here's to another year without water rationing.
Renee