The Landscaper

Cyclamen & Pine Needles from reality on Vimeo.

Tagetes Lemmonii:

Genus: tagetes (Tag-e-Teez)
Species :Lemmonii (Lem-on-eye)

This wonderfully fragrant perennial is hardy in zones 8-10 .
A Fall bloomer that loves the sun and requires little water. A great choice for low maintenance "Zero-Scapes", attracts butterflies and is well suited for hill country and habitat themed gardens.
Easy to sculpt if out of control, just make sure you trim it in the early spring so it has plenty of time to produce the fall blooms.
If you have an issue of Deer eating your plants, this one is considered a Deer Repellent.
Copper Canyon Daisy is one of my favorites this time of year.

There is nothing like a New Orleans courtyard.

It is the perfect combination of a beautiful formal, southern, native landscape seasoned with European flair.

You get a sense of reincarnated romance.

This fabulous retreat has been around since the era of Napoleon.

Busting with French and Spanish influence the visual experience equals the spectrum of delicious eateries.

I cannot wait to return.

Autumn in Houston can be just the best. Not too cold and not too hot.
Perfect weather is what I would call it. A certain briskness in the air, suddenly I see more people out walking their dogs and couples holding hands while taking their walks.
Plenty of flowing moss blowing in the breeze, as you see here.

Sunday Inspiration

This Sunday morning I read an article in the New York Times on an amazing and talented artist/architect.

Her name is Maya Lin.
An Asian American women who started out designing and building monuments.
The article left me wanting to find out more about Maya.

Maya developed a passion for both art and architecture and refused to decide to specialize in one or the other and by doing this she defied the rules.
Most people told her it would not work to her benefit and that she was making a grave mistake by not choosing Art /verses/ Architecture.

Now Maya spends equal amounts of time creating both, in fact, she has taken it a step further by implementing an environmentally conscience mind to the equation.

Maya Lin, an amazing woman, environmentalist & Art-chitect!

I hope she inspires you as well.

What a wonderful day it was.
Thanks to Jennifer McClure and Carla Gwinn at the St. Marks Methodist Church Children's Development Center, I was able to spend time with two groups of 4 and 5 year old children.


I had the honor to teach & install a Butterfly Garden with 31 children.


We planted a variety of color and butterfly attracting specimens.


The looks on the faces of this bunch of wonderful bright spirits was priceless.


This garden was in honor of Ms. Rose.


Thank you again Jennifer and Carla.

What a great day in Houston, Texas.
There seems to be hopeful energy in the air and people are happy and excited.
It proved to be a good day in the stock market with a strong rally.
So, all in all it has been a very positive day.
Who will be president??? Hmmmm???

Here is the Templet project after a spruce up for the season.

This property faces East and can handle full sun or partial shade.
The palms are Dwarf Pygmy Dates and will not stay small forever but will look great for a very long time.
We will transplant them later when we are ready for a change.


Decorative Cabbage and Kale are wonderful accents for the cooler weather.
We also added some Sweet Alyssum for some white.
This is newly installed but will fill out the space quickly and will look even better in a couple weeks!

Dark green, gray, dark purple, silvery green and white are the color elements we used here.
A good combination.