We finished up most of the remaining planting this week. We put in 3 1-gallon containers of sweet potato vine, 2 variegated and 1 purple. Also, 3 1-gallon blackfoot daisies and 3 1-gallon mexican mint marigolds went in. The mint marigolds are very pretty and replaced a bunch of seeds that weren’t coming up too well.

The daisies are cold hardy to 0 which will probably make them perennials here in our area. They should be fertilized in early spring and again in early fall. They get 18 inches tall and 24 inches wide which should mean they fill the space they are in perfectly.

We also planted two 1-gallon Texas Rock Roses which don’t really look like roses at all. They are Texas natives and drought tolerant which will work well here even though we now can water twice a week again. They are cold-hardy to 10 degrees (zone 8 ) which will be borderline north of the Metroplex. They grow 15 inches tall and 24 inches wide.

Other things I don’t have the tags for right now are another duranta, this one white, 2 camillias and 2 abelias where were on sale in the half price house, 1 new sage, a bat-face cuphea and some verbena. Still left to go in are the mexican oregano in the garden, a firebush and a firecracker plant which both have no homes yet. The last two get pretty big so I’m having trouble figuring out where they will go.

The pinkeye purple hulled peas all germinated today and the southern cowpeas that I planted last week are also up. Three new kinds of basil got replanted last weekend and are coming up as well so I’m cautiously optimistic about my veggie garden. Now if I could just manage to kill more grasshoppers, all would be good.

This was a plant weekend for us as we made an impromptu trip to Covington’s and came home with a ridiculous amount of new stuff.  We still hadn’t planted the zinnias that we got at Home Depot last week and we added a flat of petunia to go with those in the front.

We bought an EarthKind Livin’ Easy rose that has apricot colored blooms and planted it by our bedroom window.  It’s really pretty but I’m worried it may not get enough sun to thrive there.

For some reason, I decided it was a good idea to go ahead and plant more stuff where the dog runs around.  A flat of Graffiti Pentas went in, colored in white, red and purple.  Scooter doesn’t seem to notice as he runs right through them.  He also proceeded to dig up one of the Mexican Heather plants about 10 minutes after I planted it.  That behavior will soon get modified.

I dumped another $4.25 into the veggie garden with some Pinkeye Purple Hull peas going in as well as some beans and cucumbers.  Rumor has it it will be too hot soon for the latter but the peas should thrive.  Though thrive is relative in my veggie garden.  I think that I haven’t been watering enough and I’m experimenting with watering schedules, specifically on plants that are freshly planted.

We have a ton of other things that we didn’t get time to plant.  I’ll start work on those tonight as well as taking pictures to post here.

We had a freak storm come through tonight that broke off our main hibiscus stems leaving us with only one of the original three that came up this year.  That one left is pretty stumpy and sad.  We were looking forward to a nice bushy plant this year but I guess we’ll have to wait another year.

I’m bummed.

Our first day lily bloomed April 27th this year.  We have several more blooms on the way but this one is nice.  We’ve planted about 6 different kinds of day lilies but haven’t marked any of them so it’s always a surprise when they bloom.