It's beautiful, the love and care shines through. The repurposed items look great there and I love that they brought rocks from their ranch. They still do their own gardening too. I hope that was an electric chainsaw Billie used.

Lots of good ideas here. Those lattice panels on the fence look familiar don't they? That deer would be perfect in my yard, now I'm going to have to stop at every pottery place until I find it!

Great tour, thanks for showing.

its like a walk through the past. i see so much of my granny's yard and those we just drove past back in the 50's in west georgia. the older one gets the more spiritual a growing garden becomes.

How wonderful!! I'm 75 and I'm tired after planting a shrub or 2. One thing I like about it is the fact that it's not just picture perfect neat. I get discouraged sometimes with the fir needles and leaves in our yard. In hers it looks good.

Shirley, I don't know if the chain saw was electric or not! However, she was also in the process of unloading fill out of the back of a pick up to shore up the edge of water front. Yes, I noticed the familiarity of the lattice panels, too. Great minds and all that, huh? ;-)

Carol, that's so true. I don't know which comes first, gardening or an appreciation of the spiritual qualities in gardening, but they seem to merge somewhere along the line. Sometimes I think we are trying to recreate something vaugely remembered from another place and time.

Laura, I liked that aura of not having to have everything so perfect also. Gardens are for enjoyment and you never get finished. That's part of the fun. Also I thought about how one of my favorite garden quotes applied to Billie's garden.

"Grace without perfection is more to be desired than perfection without grace."

Thank you all for your comments :-) I don't know if Billie is on line and will get to see them or not. Maybe Barbra could print it out for her.

I love how Billie uses lime green accents, like this fern pot. However, the fern looks a lot like some of my things did after the last hard winter, but it's finding a way to live ...

Keep in mind that before the hard freezes she had lush tropical plants and flowers, and her yard was on the garden tour circuit. Barbra can testify to its former look and it will grow that way again, but it may take some time. Billie is still in the process of cutting things back and cleaning it up.

More lime green accents ...

The plant in the pot looks like it will return. I wonder what the cut green glass piece was originally ...

I love this water bird ...

And this wonderful weathered wood. The beautiful vase on the left echos its twists and turns as if they were dancing partners ...

I couldn't resist posting a few more pictures. Maybe someone will get some ideas they can use from them.

Her yard is full of interest and a little whimsical. The green glass object on the tree stump is such a cute idea. I notice she has a bed of the variegated cast iron plant. I saw it for the first time last year at Blue Moon's Garden and wondered how it did. It may not do as well in our zone but hers is doing great.
What an achievement for someone her age.

Carolann, she has the variegated cast iron plant everywhere in her yard. She has at least an acre of shade gardens. She is right on Copano Bay, two houses down from Linda's. I met her at the hidden garden tour. Her house was on it, she mentioned that she had never been on the tour. I offered to take her with me to see a couple of the houses close to her. Linda insisted that she go, and took over. We saw some of the most beautiful yards, words cannot describle. The next year we went on the hidden garden tour, that was in Rockport, Portland and Corpus Christi, complements of Linda. I drove, and we had a blast! She runs circles around me. Her yard is just beautiful, and almost everything in it has a story. Barbra

I want to be like her when I grow up too, God willing, of course. That is just beautiful and serene. The most interesting gardens are hodge podge "controlled abandon" gardens. I wonder if you looked down from the sky if it would look like a quilt of someone's life with plants as a foil. A colorful tile here, a lamp there, a bunch of bright pots there.... all tucked into a bright green background.

I need to add that Billie's garden is usually full of colorful shade plants. Her yard in the summer will be covered with blue pea vines, and variegated hawaiian hibiscus. She has unusual plants, many I do not even know the names of. Barbra

Billie's garden is a "garden in motion" constantly changing. She and her hubby Truitt are always outside working in their yard. The amazing thing is that their yard, right at an acre, is divided into garden rooms with each having a different theme! If you ever get the chance, check out her garden. Nothing here in Rockport even compares!

Barbra, it was nice of you and Linda to take her on the garden tour. It sounds like you ended up making an interesting and nice friend.

The green light globe in picture #4 (a few more) is from a swag lamp. I had one just like it in a trailer that I owned about 40 years ago.
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Hi CarolAnn - just wanted to mention that I have grown variegated cast iron plant in the DFW area (Euless) for 10-15 years and now east Texas (Wood County) for the past five years, and it does just as well as the solid green. The ones with a lot of white in them tend to grow more slowly, but they do grow. The last two winters didn't seem to bother them any more than they bothered the green.

HTH - Lin

I wondered how they did here. I may have to try some. My yard is starting to fill up pretty fast but there's always room for more. lol

Neat, neat, absolutely love this! And Roselee, I know exactly which picture you are referring to.

Thanks for sharing all these pictures with us. If Billie and her hubby have done all that collecting of garden junk and making all those paths, etc. themselves..that's a lot of work. They have a few things I'd like to have..saw a bench that we could use in our neighborhood to sit on. Would just need a lot of sanding and painting or staining. I saw some other items that I could use to elevate my container plantings. Maybe I should go "junking" somewhere. In one of the little towns we pass through enroute to Hershey/Lancaster, Pa. area, there is this house trailer and a small building and the yard is full of junk. Looks like everybody drops their junk off there and he probably sells it. I've always wanted to stop there. Maybe someday I will after seeing Billie's garden.

I enjoyed looking at these pictures again myself. It's my understanding Billie and her hubby did all the work themselves. Her acre is an inspiration for sure.

"Junking" for items that can be repurposed is great fun. Pippi, you should definitely stop at the junk yard you've been driving by and let us know what you find. Take pictures!

Yesterday Patty and I visited my neighbor Georgianne's garden and with less foliage due to the drought I noticed lots more great repurposed items than I had before. Georgianne is a pro at finding 'stuff' to use to decorate her yard. And like Billie's yard every thing in it has a story.

For instance someone put two large concrete pillars out on a curb to give away and all by herself Georgianne wrestled them one by one into the back seat of her long white Cadillac and used stacked up sofa pillows to roll them out. She then 'walked' them to where they were to go in her yard. I need to take some pictures of some of her stuff to show y'all.