I have developed a seedy new habit… Whenever I see a robust and bustling garden, I have an insatiable desire to loot it. Always begging for seeds and offspring plants at any opportunity presented.
In my third year of gardening, I can say that my style has been largely inspired by my Aunt Pam’s “tough and adaptable, natural and Texas native” planting creed.
This au naturel style is abundantly clear when meandering down her thyme covered stone steps… the entrance to her whimsical, 
butterfly-peppered sanctuary… filled with patches of periwinkle Plumbago, pungent Spearmint, and happy little clumps of Blackfoot Daisies. Continue walking, and the crunch of the crushed rock underfoot will fill your ears as you explore the P-shaped path of her little prairie 
garden… Strange old world herbs, utilized by long ago pioneers, bushing to the right… trailing Vinca (occasionally blooming with bell-shaped lilac flowers) ever so slightly grappling up the wall of her house for more space than the floor of the garden will allow it… Autumn Sage and Turk’s Cap to satisfy the greedy hummingbirds buzzing around them, all held ransom by a border of redbud trees and tall red yuccas (that always seem to be blooming with their ferocious crimson spires reaching towards the sky.)
Even in negligence, this garden would survive. In fact, without the dutiful hand of a keeper, the “daughter plants”, as my aunt would say, and “grand-daughters” …would pop up wherever the breeze or birds directed them to take hold.
I'm obsessed with my little rock garden, filled with different types of Sedum, Iceplants, Torch Cactus, Salvia, and Skullcap
- This lovey Rock Rose seems to be doing well in my West facing garden of fire… for now.
This is what I want to emulate in my own garden. NATURE’S beauty. Not the fake, pointy, manicured nail of perfection. While cookie-cutter gardens are very beautiful, the maintenance involved seems tortured and insincere. I don’t need voluptuous ‘Knockout Roses’ and begonias to be satisfied with myself, er uh, I mean… my garden. 😉 It sometimes feels like I am surrounded by prisons of conformity and compliance.
But I also know, that when my garden is lush and thriving… I would do the same for my friends and family. Share in the joy of gardening. Let the grand daughters go play in someone elses yard!
I have also taken to collecting seeds from my own plants, and I relish discussing each variety. So far I have Salvia greggii, ‘Winecup’, ‘Nana’ Coreopsis, two types of ‘Rock Rose’, and I even took seed from my ‘Batface’.
Rock Rose and the White Crab Spider
Citronella Plant and the Lynx Spider
Will I ever have daughter, even grand-daughter plants in my garden?! I certainly hope so.
3 year old Salvia greggii ~ one of my FAVORITES
Post Punk Girl living in a material world. 