Hhh-erbs

Rosemary provides year round green in a Texas garden yet in spring there is the additional bonus of delicate mauve flowers. I've gone a bit overboard with rosemary plants this year as I've set aside one section of the extension to Al's garden for a rose garden. While at David Austin Roses during last year's trip to England, I saw that they suggested rosemary as  good companion plant to roses and then had that nugget of information verified when we went to Jennifer and Gordon's house and Gordon shared how he used rosemary under a rose to keep away pests. So, I've attempted to start a rosemary hedge around the plot that is reserved for my six yellow roses that should be arriving this month.  The rose emporium in Tyler, Texas ships David Austin roses to central Texas around this time of year. I've ordered three Golden Celebration and three Molineux and cannot wait to see if I can make some Wolverhampton roses thrive in Austin.

As you can see, I bought some of my rosemary plants a couple of months before the others! I'm hoping the front plants will catch up with the plants in the forefront of the photo. Now all I need are the roses to fill in the middle!

This shot also shows the extension to Al's side garden and some of the hardscaping that Chris and I put in last year. It's hard to believe that three years ago, all of the side area was grass. The new path of limestone slabs mirrors the path on the other side of Nassau leading up to Trish and Sandy's house. Sandy and I enjoy pottering in our gardens at the same time, sharing seeds and plants, and chatting with the neighbors that pass by.

As we've spent the past few weekends clearing out the front beds, this weekend we decided to tackle the back garden. First we took some inventory of plants that miraculously survived the freeze and came back from last year:

Not sure how this lettuce would taste, but it adds a bit of greenery

The fennel planted last year looks ready to harvest already

Ice blue pansies keep petering out and then rebounding. Here,  they are keeping the chives company

And the mint has gone crazy. We probably need to dig it out and replant in pots to stop it from spreading across the whole bed. Yet when everything looks a bit barren, it's hard to cut back or take out anything green!