Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
freshair2townsquare

A few photos . . .



Mexican honeysuckle (?), oxalis, purple heart, volunteered evening primrose, Gail's wood betony, purple ruellia & "Attraction" butterfly bush.



Non-native milkweed with Carrie's blue mist.



Purple coneflower.



Gail's "Blue Crown" passionflower with fat & juicy gulf fritillary caterpillars.

~ freshair

Comments (10)

  • Vulture61
    11 years ago

    Thank you for posting. I like you Mexican HS. Careful with your Blue Mist. It's very aggressive.

    Omar

  • carrie751
    11 years ago

    Ah, but it's easy to pull out, Omar...........LOL> The "cats" have finished off the Constance Elliott at my house, and are now on the Blue Crown. I love the flush of butterflies I get from this, so I decided to let them have both this season.
    Looking good there, Amy.

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    11 years ago

    I love all your plants, but the lime green pot caught my eye. Looks like you've put a clay pot on a tire and painted them to match. Or is that two tires? VERY clever! You got MY wheels turning for sure :-)

  • carrie751
    11 years ago

    I have tires saved for that purpose, just never seem to get around to painting them...........maybe this will motivate me to get my act together.

  • PKponder TX Z7B
    11 years ago

    Beautiful gardens! I saw the very same lime green planter and wondered where you got a tire with that cool pattern...I bet it is a pot on top of a tire :-)

    That milkweed is so pretty!

  • ruthz
    11 years ago

    I like the tire planter also. Good idea.
    What kind of tire is the smaller one?

  • freshair2townsquare
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks, y'all.

    The planter is just two stacked tires -- I have no idea what kinds -- they were both throw-aways. I had the top one for a year or two (picked up on the roadside), but never was motivated/inspired enough to do anything with it. I stumbled across the 2nd/bottom tire two months ago in a neighbor's trash -- our early April hailstorm prompted a lot of spring cleaning in our neighborhood & the back alleys were full of, ahem, interesting things that were being tossed.

    When I realized they stacked so well, I got excited. I'm pretty sure I only used 1 can of Krylon spray paint -- didn't bother with the insides or the bottoms. (Rustoleum has many other shades of green, but our local hardware store only carries Krylon.) The bottom tire was packed with an entire bag of live oak leaves -- only the top tire has soil.

    I took the milkweed picture just b/c I have such trouble with them. Mine almost never get that big, and I always have to battle the aphids even though I put out ladybugs.

    This is the last year for my "Blue Crown". The spot where I planted it is entirely too small. I've already planted a sucker in a new location with an extremely large trellis. This plant is well established with a 2" caliber trunk, so I don't think it will transplant well. Unless someone wants to try to move it or has a suggestion for me to keep it small, I'll be removing it this fall. :(

    ~ freshair

  • ruthz
    11 years ago

    This one comes up all over my flowerbed.
    {{gwi:42642}}

    Most years I try to keep the seeds cut before they mature, but I noticed today that I have already missed some.

  • freshair2townsquare
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I have two like that one (not sure if its the exact same), but they are always small and susceptible to aphids. I've never had vigorous milkweed. :(

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    11 years ago

    Freshair, thanks for the tire information. Plus I like the color. Incidentally Malcome Beck grows veggies in huge truck/tractor tires. Being the organic grower that he is I'm sure he researched the food safety of doing so.

    You might be able to move the large root of Blue crown passionflower. Barbra game me a hugmongous bare root of P. incarnata and it made it.