Hello to all!  It’s been awhile since I have posted anything and I’ve really missed all of you.  Last week I was sick with some sort of something and am still not completely over it.  I’ve been slowly catching up on all of the blogs that I frequent and love that gardening season is now in full swing.

As you all know we have been working on a swimming pool area and are doing our best to make ourselves a little tropical oasis in the middle of this desert that we live in.  One of the plants that I had my heart set on was a Sago Palm.  The first one that I saw available to buy was HUGE and was a whopping $900.00.  Unfortunately we do not have that kind of money to spend on plants, so I was out to find a smaller one with a more reasonable price tag.  We did find a smaller one that was $249.00, still a little out of my price range.  I was sad, but bought some other cheaper plants to heal the pain and decided that we would continue looking elsewhere.

We visited our regular greenhouses and didn’t find one that was suitable and I have to admit I was probably more disappointed than I should have been.

Then on Monday which was officially my birthday my parents called and we decided to have burgers at our house.  Since it was my birthday I decided that James could go to the grocery store while I floated around in the pool.  He was very nice and went without any complaints.  When he returned home he was carrying this little beauty.

I never imaged that we would find what I wanted at the grocery store!  My hubby really came through for me and I’m so happy.  Poor little guy still needs to be repotted and that is first on my list for the weekend.  Not to rub it in or anything but I have just been to busy in the swimming pool after work to repot this baby.

On a similar note… we have decided for each special day (birthday’s, anniversaries, Fridays - haha) we will be purchasing some kind of plant to commerate it.  That should be cool to see 20 years from now when you can’t get in our jungle of a backyard any longer.  haha  HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

Tags: Design, Gardening, Personal, Pictures by Shala
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As you know we picked up a chair from my Grandpa a few months ago and had plans to revitalize it for our pool area project (that we finished this past weekend).  It was in pretty bad shape with rust trying to take it out.  However with a bit of sanding… OK A LOT OF SANDING… it was coming around and ready for paint.

We went with a white paint, since it was already white to begin with - it just seemed right.  Then we did purchase a nice cushion for it on Friday and once we got it into place… we knew we had done the right thing by revitalizing it.

See the pics below of our “new” lounger before & after the revamp.

Before…

After…

Oh… and the pool area post is coming… don’t you worry.

Tags: Design, Living Green, Pictures by James
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We picked up some yellow cannas this past weekend for the pool area and yesterday they had already started blooming.  They look great and give a burst of color to that area already.  We can’t even imagine what it will look like when everything is blooming 100%.  Enjoy this burst of goodness.

Tags: Design, Gardening, Pictures by James
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So as you know, the pool project is almost a wrap, we are just about to put the pool up and get everything situated around it.  We have a big party planned for Sunday night (for Shala’s birthday) and we want to have it wrapped up by then - not really to swim at the party… but to have it finished. 

Shala has caught some kind of cold/bug/sickness thingy, at first we thought it was allergies, but now we are thinking it is more than that.  She hasn’t felt all that great since Sunday, so she has been out of commission since.  I know she wants to help, and it is killing her.  So just too keep things on track - I have been working a bit out there during the week this week in hopes to keep it on track so that when she feels better we can tag team it and get it done.

I say that because I am sure some of you have noticed Shala hasn’t been commenting, being active on Blotanical or blogging lately… and I just wanted to let everyone know she is in recovery mode.

Now - back to the pool project.  So we had put some heavy duty commercial grade round-up on some grass that needed to be erradicated (I know, I know… it isn’t very organic of us…), and it has finally done it’s job.  All the grass looked pretty much dead, but I got to thinking about it and I remembered the people we bought the house from said that they had laid down sod within the past year.  The stupid thing… I didn’t think about it until after we had sprayed it with the roundup.  If I would have thought about it, I would have just ripped it up and reused it (hindsight is indeed 20/20) throughout the yard.  Oh well… too late.

Yesterday afternoon, since the grass had went to grass heaven, I decided to take it up so we could get on with the pool project already.  It really went fast, since the sod was fairly new, and also that corner of the yard is NEVER watered really and the dogs had done their fair share to ruin it as well.  With a shovel in hand it ripped up fast and within 45 minutes or so it was all over.  A bit of cleanup and leveling with the rake and we had us a nice spot for a swimming pool. 

Now with that all up, today I hope to get out there and put down some landscaping fabric to keep anything from growing into the pool.  Then we will be looking for some sand to put down and after that… the pool will go up.  We are still under budget, with about 200 bucks left.  We have to buy a few tiki torches and then the sand, and I think we are done.  After we get the pool up we are going to look at the boardwalk plan and see if it makes sense.  If we do it, then that will have to come out of that money as well.  If we do the boardwalk part, it would be only on one side… so it will be cheaper.

I will snap a picture at lunch and upate this post with what it looks like at the moment… apologies for not having one already.  Everything is going great though - let’s hope Shala gets well soon so we can work on the rest of it together!

Got the pic at lunch… here ya go…

Well actually, this is the before pic below.

And this one below is after the back corner of grass was taken out and plants and all that crap… you get the idea.

Tags: Design, Gardening, Personal by James
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We don’t have many friends because… well, there isn’t anywhere for them to sit! 

We usually spend Saturday mornings running around Midland trying to find things we can buy, plant or just look at lovingly.  ;)  It is an obsession.

As you well know, we worked on the pool project this past weekend and so we were in search for various “tropical”-y type plants that would look good around the pool.  It is hard to find plants sometimes that are tropical in nature - but can stand the 100+ temps around this place.  Most need shade or something… and so it took us a while to find good fits.

Oh… but we did find some good fits… no worries.

This is what the back of the truck looked like by the time the day was over… well at least one side of it.  The other side looked similar to this…

I know… we are bad huh?  Oh well.  Thank you Uncle Sam, for providing us with a nice fat budget for our pool project - we will tip a beer for ya when the time comes.  Por favor believe it.

So let us run down what we picked up and in turn had to pot and place in the garden area for the time being… until we get it finished up and ready for the pool and such.  Here we go…

In the second pic, so starting left to right across the back of the truck (where you would have to sit if you were our friends)…

That first vine is a “Ruby Star Mandevilla”, which should get rather big (up to 20 ft.) - so we planted it in the back corner so it could climb on the fence we put up and eventually be a nice addition to our area out there.

The next plant is a “Paddle Plant” - which we saw a while back and had to get.  We loved this little guy and so as soon as we decided to purchase the plants for the pool… this was the first one picked up.

If you switch to the first picture now, you we will continue left to right.

You can see a few “Caladium” leaves poking their heads out and we picked up a few of those that had several leaves of their own (they are young’uns) and we planted them all together in one pot.  We are worried that they will have the biggest problem adjusting to the heat.  Hope not, but if any of them have a problem… it would be them.

You can see something with a purple-ish bloom on it.  These are “Lisianthus (Eustoma)” which also may have a bit of an issue with the heat and sun we have to offer here in Texas.  We actually bought 3 of these guys and potted them in their own pots… so we could use them to accent different areas with some color.

Next to that in the front is a cool little plant called a “Lily of the Nile”.  I am sure most of you have seen these before - but they put off some big bunches of purple blooms that we cannot wait for.  A great plant for our pool area.

In back of that one, we have a “New Zealand Cabbage Palm” - which was too cool for school.  So we had to pick it up.  It was about 25$, but for the size and everything… one hell of a deal.  This is one of our favs.

The final plant on the right is my favorite of all and probably the coolest plant we have ever bought in my opinion.  This is a “Japanese Aralia” and personally… it kicks butt!  This one had some issues yesterday with the heat, but we watered it a bit more than expected and it perked back up.  IT WAS 100 DEGREES YESTERDAY!  Everything had issues! haha

So we got all these guys and went and picked up pots to pot them in and after some hard work… we had them sitting out in the pool area.  Now of course they are not where it should be yet, since we haven’t got everything finished out there… but they are chilling in the shade for the meantime.  You will see a few other plants there, some “Marigolds” (to keep the mosquitoes away) and a plant that I don’t know the name of just yet (Shala does) hanging.  Also in the back, behind everything are 3 “Cannas” we planted all in one pot.  See below for the end result (for now).

Tags: Design, Gardening, Pictures by James
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