Who needs the farmer's almanac?

This weekend Michael, my brother-in-law on the brown sugar side came and helped us begin to plant some shrubs. Little did he know that he was gonna work for his supper! He really helped us quite a bit and I am so thankful that he was here.

So, remember when we planted the grass last summer? We left a big area under three trees bare with the intent of planting something interesting there. My mother-in-law has the best green thumb ever. She can grow anything. I, however kill plants. They don't talk and I can't hear them, thus they get neglected. I'm gonna try to do better this time.

We cleaned the area, and added manure, other fertilizer, and some bark or ????? Our challenge with our place is to find plants that will grow in extreme shade. We are pretty shady (take that how you want). So looking for plants that thrive in hot Texas summers with shade. . . and require LITTLE matainance is tricky. We decided to plant Phlox. I had never heard of this shrub. We bought it at Sams. The master gardener near us said that it should do well. It will have RED flowers and should smell good. If it grows. Please pray that it grows! We are going to plant more plants in this same area. . . but we have to wait for warmer weather. Hostas and other flowers will be added as we go. We also bought some azalea plants (12 of them at Home Depot at 75% off). But we'll have to build up beds for them because they don't like Texas native soils. GREAT! Good thing they were so cheap!

I'm planting lily bulbs here. . . I think.Speaking of Sams. . . .my darling husband decided to buy 10 boxes of iron work to fence a garden. 10? It will look nice when all of the flowers come in and get big. But right now, it looks like a grave yard. REALLY! It looks like we're going to bury somebody there. Yikes!

That's all folks!