April Showers Bring May Flowers....Wait, It's March!?

Well, living in Texas, we get a head start on all the spring stuff! (Not that that fact stopped a winter storm from coming in last week!) But hopefully all that white stuff they apparently call "snow" will not return for a while, meaning 9 months, because I just planting our spring beds!

My blogger friend, Jean, in her awesome blog A Thing of Beauty posted pictures from this month's Cottage Living. This picture in particular totally inspired me.

I ran right out an bought a copy, cause this house is too cute. I love everything about this picture. The ivy, the potted boxwood, the windows, the double french doors, everything! And the good news is that hubby really likes it, too. So, now we have direction for our curb appeal. For years, I've been unsuccessfully trying to get hubby to agree to climbing roses. This picture convinced him! Thank you, thank you Cottage Living!

Since I have a similar porch and entry, I thought that I might be able to somewhat duplicate this. Now, before I show pictures of my house, let me just say that I know this will be an ongoing project for the next few years. You can't make a garden in a day. (Unless you are the production team on the movie set "The Holiday". Hmph. But I digress.)

Here is what I started with this morning.
(Yes, yes, our tree is crooked. We're not exactly sure how that happened. We just woke up one morning and couldn't get it straight! Whoops!)

And here's where I ended up.



Basically, my two additions that were inspired by the Cottage Living article were this hydrangea planter and my climbing roses. The climbing roses are suppose to grow fast, so fingers crossed.


I also added two hybiscus topiaries. We do that every year. They're suppose to last the winter, but so far, no luck. Also, a smattering of snapdragons was planted.

So, like I said, it's a work in progress, but at least it's progressing. Hopefully later this spring I'll have more pictures to show.