Beauty, Flowers, and Our Yard

One of the things I remember growing up in Abilene, Texas in the early 1960s, as a teenager, was when my Grandpa and Grandma Merriam would come to town with their Airstream trailer and park it along side our home on Dyess Air Force Base. We had lived in lots of different places by the time we got to Texas and we were not impressed with Texas. It was the panhandle, it was dry, it was hot and the wind was always blowing. We were accustom to more plush climates like Nebraska, Iowa, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Guam. Texas, while it had its own charm, was a step down for green and beauty. We got sufficient rain we did not water our lawn. In those days there were almost no irrigation systems and Americans had not yet adopted the notion that every lawn had to be perfect.

When Grandpa would come to town he would walk out behind our home. We lived on the edge of the military housing area with an open field behind us that went on for a couple of miles. He would find beautiful small plants, collect them, arrange them, and then take photos. I was always intrigued by his photos and the effort he took to find beauty in what appeared to be a drab place. I learned from that.

Fortunately, we don't have to go far to find beauty in plants and flowers. We have added much of it to our yard with plants that flower on and off 12 months out of the year. We do miss our green grass, but we don't miss cutting it. Also, the cost of maintaining a lawn in Las Vegas is prohibitive. Some folks I have talked to suggest it costs more to keep a lawn than a swimming pool. I'm not going to try either.

The plants in our backyard along the wall are new. This does not depict our major plant area, but the butterfly bushes and center plant replaced African species with big spines that had no beauty. The plant in front is a Hesperaloe Parviflora and the flower spikes are over 6 feet tall.

Grandpa Merriam taught me to look at the small things as well as the big picture. I have previously posted on flickr some of our backyard plants. Yesterday and today I took some additional closeups and a couple of broader photos of plants in our back and front yards. I didn't pick these, since we have the opportunity to view them so many months out of the year.

Enjoy.

This closeup of the butterfly bush with a light background is really striking. We had butterfly bushes in Bloomington, Indiana, but never as big or as vibrant as these. We have no butterflies, but we have bees (big ones) and a steady stream of humming birds.

This plant is from a sage that grows fast, when you water it, and requires us to cut it back regularly. I love the mix of flower and plant center. It is a large plant in our yard, over 3 feet tall and equally wide.

This is from a sage that blooms every 3 to 4 weeks all summer and into the fall. The flowers are so delicate. You think that it is done blooming and then all of a sudden it is back again. And it does this over and over. It is like a new spring every few weeks. We really look forward to it.