Landscape & Gardening

Take One Last Look

Click on the photo for a larger version.
Click on the photo for a larger version.

And say goodbye. Tomorrow morning the crew, Hadden Landscaping, will start the process of converting my backyard into a sun garden. Tomorrow’s agenda includes busting up the old concrete driveway, removing the small shed, and then spraying something on the St. Augustine to kill it. Killing the grass makes me unhappy, because this is the only location on my property where it has thrived. Michael Parkey, my landscape architect who is very environmentally conscious, tells me this is a necessary evil. If we don’t do it, the grass will grow back and become a nuisance in my perennial beds. I find this hard to believe because I can’t get the grass to grow very well in my front shade garden.

I plan to blog all the phases of my backyard’s transformation. The first phase will be the demolition, second phase will be the hardscape installation, and then the final phase will be the landscaping. Stay tuned.

Film: Design & Architecture

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

boys-night_00073-scaled

Boys’ Night Out (1962). Interior design trends in the late 1950s and early 1960s were a crazy mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly. For some reason the contemporary taste makers of that time decided to mess up a good thing by adding foo foo elements to the otherwise beautiful mid-century modern trend. These prissy details included gilding, Chinese statuary, bad art, bright colors, swirly rococo lines, marbleized mirrors, and hairspray.

It’s only through captured stills of film sets that I can identify the good, the bad, and the ugly, and Boys’ Night Out is packed with all kinds of 1960 trendy clichés. Notice that there are no captions on the following photos. My intentions are for each of you to discover what you consider the good, the bad, and the ugly. All has been done in good fun. A blast from the past.

Landscape & Gardening

Mini Sparklers Minus the Fuse

frontgarden_1343

The Texas Spider Lily. At the end of June, this container plant sends up five bloom stalks just in time for our Fourth of July holiday. Next year I plan to repot it into a bigger container. Unfortunately, once in a bigger pot it will not bloom that summer. For some reason this true Texas native likes to be root bound before it blooms. You can purchase the bulbs from The Southern Bulb Company.

Update! As of the Fourth of July, there are seven sparklers! Not five.