• Dog deterrant mulch around roses September 22 - 9:21 pm [2]

Loyal site visitor, Becky Christopherson, lives in Little Elm just north of the Colony and northwest of Frisco.

She writes: “We started from scratch (less than 2 years ago) in a new house with 4 shrubs and a couple of stick trees and a sodded lawn of Bermuda grass. … My gardens over the years have been mostly trial and error with some “rescued” plants and some store bought natives. Friends and relatives think I am a little crazy to go rescue plants like common Sunflowers, Snow on the Prairie and Milkweed Thistle, but I enjoy integrating them into my cottage type garden since you can’t find them in the nurseries.

Her adopted native orphans come from open fields that are destined for devastation as they will soon be leveled for housing. I love her stand of Snow on the Prairie (Euphorbia bicolor). She says, “In rescuing a Milkweed Thistle that dropped its seed and then promptly died in my garden I had Snow on the Prairie as a “come along” plant. Each day presents wonderful surprises when you garden.”


That’s my kind of gardener! There is also a little pond for resident wildlife behind the fence. I think her barn styled storage building, country windmill and picket fence provide a delightful milieu for the indigenous flora and fauna inhabitants.


What trees do you have Becky?

The trees in the back yard up near the house are Sweetgums. Inside the garden are a Lacey Oak in one Iris bed, a rescued Native Flameleaf Sumac by the windmill, Leyland Cypress along the back fence and an Oklahoma Redbud near the pond. All of which will look great in about 10 years. So far the front yard only has one Texas Pistache centered in the yard the way homebuilders landscape, but I am interested in working in some Possum Haw Holly as well to creat less of a cookie cutter look.

Oh that possumhaw will be a wonderful winter treat for yous! I have one in front of an evergreen in the front bed for some winter cheer along the sidewalk.

We had 50 or-more year-old sweetgums at a previous house - they were monsters and the prickly pods would cover the ground solid. We had to rake them daily along walkways, the way we have to rake the native pecans and crab apples here.

At least the builders are installing more native trees nowadays, than the nightmares they used to in past decades,, even if they still don't know how to place them ;-) But its good that they put in only one and you got to choose the others.

I see you have been dividing iris - the FW Iris Society is having their plant sale this Sat ,, Sept 20, 9-4:00 at the Ft. Worth Botanic Gardens on University Dr. Not that I have room for any more,,, but its hard to resist :-)