Our subdivision is built on used-to-be prairie grasslands of a two-inch
chocolate-brown-clay icing spread over a white cake of solid-limestone.
The heavy clay over chalk stone grows beautiful Texas bluebonnets and
other native wildflowers, but not the diverse mix I desired for
year-round evolving colors. A plant collecting mania and an artist's
desire for design complicates my attempts all the more. The trials and
joys of figuring out 'how-to' have been described in an unpublished
work; an extension of the site which further narrates our living and
working in the garden.
The previous owners of our house had never tended this ½ acre
wedge-shaped lot, where once there was little more than Johnson grass
enclosed by chain link fencing. After building the pool, we not only
wanted to improve our outdoors 'living room', but we also enjoyed the
work and the results to the point that the lawn kept receding and
bed-making stopped only at fences. There was never a grand scheme or an
overall plan. I just kept looking behind me, rather than ahead, when
deciding what to do next. The features arose from my fascinations of the
gardens I had known in England as a child. To me, I was just making a
garden of hedges and beds in the yard when visitors dubbed it an
'English garden'. Whatever they shall, it is our haven, our bliss.
Visit Maggie's Home Page
Tour Maggie's Garden
Tour the Gardens of other Suite 101 members and editors
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