In article .com,
" wrote:

I've tried to grow bluebonnets from seeds, but didn't have too much
luck. My neighbor, the manic mower, mows where I planted them. I bought
some and planted some around a tree on that part of my property, and
she mowed those last year. That was annoying, but mostly I am grateful
that she mows that middle stretch between our houses; I hate mowing.

Heh. Mowing isn't freindly to bluebonnets. ;-)
Most people around here that have patches of them in their lawns are
very careful to mow _around_ them.


Which is why I want to kill the grass.

Well, there is always landscaping fabric, and gravel!

Take a look around the desert areas of Arizona. Few people have lawns,
instead they landscape with various colors and sizes of gravel, and have
beautiful cactus gardens in between.

Oh! If you really want to kill grass, I'll loan you my border collie! My
front yard is pretty well denuded now. sigh The Ivy is doing ok as
long as the main bed of it is protected. I'm thinking of trying a pallet
of St. Augustine or something that must might survive the dog in the
center of the yard!


My expectation is that when I plant these bluebonnets, that they will
reseed themselves. I'll see what happens with the portulaca. I bought
them in the section of the nursery that said "perennials", but I just
looked at the label, and they don't say.

Well, for me, they go away every year but sometimes come back in the
pots on their own. I'm assuming it's from seeds dropped by the blooms?


I generally don't have a lot of respect for annuals, but even if the
portulaca were annuals, if they grow as I expect them to, I think I'd
plant them again; they are very pretty, and I love the colors. I also
planted some primula, which were labeled annuals.

Yes, they are lovely and heat hardy!

Petunias seem to do pretty well too, and begonias are another popular
one for blooming ground cover.


And now I have to go plant broccoli with my last 15 minutes of
sunlight.

lol Yeah, my computer eats a lot of MY sunlight hours too! ;-)
I did get some gardening today and oh! happy dance I got my very first
EVER passion flower bloom today!!!

Hey! That is another possibility for you!
Passion vine or english ivy. Those work pretty well as ground cover and
are both freeze resistant perrenials! My passion vine grew all winter
long and did not freeze at all!!!

Passion vine has the most beautiful bloom. I took a picture of it and
will post it as soon as I process it. :-) The camera pics, even with it
set on 1 megapixel, are too large so I have to re-size them with
photoshop first. It's a 4 megapixel camera.

The flower is gorgeous........ and they throw a LOT of them once they
get started!



Karen

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K.