If yards had sex appeal, mine would be Jeff Goldblum-sexy.

Adios boring bushes! We left room to plant annuals here in between the agapanthus as well.

I like to think my yard is unique and interesting and not so tightly held to the definition of a southern front garden. My yard walks to the beat of its own drum. My yard has panache and mystery. My yard strays from the typical. My yard is smarter than other yards. My yard is Jeff Goldblum-sexy.

We ripped out the boring green bushes and planted all the agapanthus and purple fountain grass then laid out new pine straw mulch. Today, I can barely walk and I’m totally sunburned.

I can’t even tell you how much I appreciate all the feedback I received from you guys regarding the empty area we have surrounding the crepe myrtle. It gave me a great deal to think about.

I was on my 273rd bottle of water at this point.

Ultimately, I decided all your ideas were crap and it’s best to circle the tree with purple fountain grass and then leave a small area in front for annuals with a ton of color. A risky move because now I have no one to blame should things not turn out well. What was I thinking? I know better than that. You should always place blame on others. It just makes life easier that way. And certainly makes you look better in the process. If my yard turns out terrible I should at least have the option of saying, “Thanks to my reader Sheila in Omaha, all my plants have died, moles have made their home in my front yard, and hummingbirds are dropping dead from the sky. Thanks, Sheila in Omaha, thanks a lot.”

Is it possible my yard is too sexy for the neighborhood?

I don’t know if we’ll win any awards from Better Homes & Gardens, but I do think it looks pretty schnazzy…

My yard is the star of Lawn & Order. C'mon! You know that's funny.

Thanks to the best neighbors, T & M. It was a blast. But let’s not do it again. For awhile, at least. Okay. Maybe never. Unless Sheila in Omaha’s “advice” totally messes everything up.

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Now it’s your turn: If your yard had sex appeal, who would it be?
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Unfortunately, none of my thumbs are green.

I have an itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny front yard.
You’d think it’d be a cinch to landscape, but you would be ding-dong wrong.

I’ve included a few snaps so you can see what I’m working with.

Photo #1

In this first photo, you’ll see the small area in between my house and my neighbor’s (I live in a townhome). Currently there are 3 shrubs/bushes that are just not doing a thing for me. They’re just those plain ole regular green bushes you see in every bank’s landscaping or in the beds in front of your dentist’s office.

Bor-ring!

I want to yank them out, but I’m not 100% sure what to replace them with.  The purple plants in the first photo are still in their pots from the nursery – it’s 2 of those purple grasses with the little wispy things on top. The green plant in front, in its pot as well, is a gorgeous Midnight Blue agapanthus.  I’m thinking of ripping out the bushes, planting the purple grasses somewhere in there and maybe getting another agapanthus to pair with the one I already have. But I need some kind of bush or shrub for all-year greenery as well as filler (don’t I?), but I don’t know what. Urgh. Any ideas?

Photo #2

Okay. In this second photo, you’ll see the larger part of my front yard. I have European fan palms, along with some society garlic and some low growing lantana. There’s also a small crepe myrtle in front of 2 lorapetalum bushes (not seen in this pic as they are set back in between my house and the neighbor’s on this side). But something is definitely missing around the crepe myrtle/lorpetalum area, I just can’t put my finger on what. Please, anyone out there have a clue as to what I can do to put a spit-shine on this small yard?

After I get the front yard planted up, I plan on getting 2 large pots/urns to fill with seasonal plantings to flank my stairs leading up to my front door. But I first gotta figure out this front yard business. I eagerly look forward to hearing your ideas!

I figured it’s probably best to post a larger pic in case you were having a bit of difficulty viewing the smaller photos in the post.

Blow up of Photo #2

Anyone will tell you I’m a bit of a braggart.

Don’t know if it’s because I’m from Texas, or if I’m making up for some underlying inferiority complex, or maybe it’s simply because my husband is a bad ass.

You tell me after you take a look at some of Jason’s work featured in the Winter 2009 issue of Beautiful Homes magazine. His handiwork includes: the ceiling, the doors, the windows, the baseboards, the crown, the kitchen cabinetry, even those divine credenzas flanking the fireplace. It’s all him, baby.

By the way, this is someone’s vacation home. Yeah. I know. I hate them, too.

A Sampling of Dad's Artistic Soul

My dad is a Vietnam Vet living in south Texas.

He prefers his movies gory, hunts and guts deer, thinks “pull my finger” is hilarious (even after the fourth time), loves Applebee’s, could out-cuss a sailor, and scratches his back with the claw side of a hammer.

He also fancies himself as a bit of a photog.
In a “I’m so cool I only have original outsider art in my home” kind of way, I asked him if he would send me a few of his photos to blow up and frame. Wanting art that was a bit off-kilter, I knew my father’s pics would be good for something a tad demented – a sure conversation piece for my suburban walls.

Well.

He sent me photos, hundreds actually.
All delicately composed shots of sun-filled meadows and dreamy florals. There is even one of a dragonfly caught in mid-flight.

WTF?

Lovely, lovely photos. Joyful, peace-filled pictures normally plastered to bath salt containers at Bath & Body Works.

Not at all what I was expecting.

But in a weird way, I find the shock and surprise of these photos exactly as I unknowingly wanted them to be. It’s off-putting to realize my father’s artistic soul is bursting with sunbeams and wildflowers. In fact, I find it a tad demented.
And oddly, just how I like it.