Palms, Agave, Yucca, and Cacti, Oh My.

 Remember the progression;  first we were just sitting on a pile of sand, then added some, and added some more.  But it still looked like a pile of sand.




Now we have changed the look of the front.  It is hard to see all the plants in these photos.

But there are now a lot of plants.  You'll have to wait for Alese to do more detail on her blog (Mustang Islander).  There are 23 palms across the front of the house and another 20 or so along the West and back (North) property lines.  There are no large palms; yet.  Our tallest are just under 3 feet tall.  

We have different varieties, but until they get some height we won't know what exactly what we have. We did buy 6 Mediterranean Fan Palms, and we have Mexican Fans, but other than the Mediterraneans,  the rest are the result of Alese growing plants from seed, or rescuing babies before a lawn mower got to them.   

There are over 100 agave plants -- most are only a couple of inches tall. The plumeria is almost 6 feet tall though and in flower. Alese will probably tell the stories about those, the yuccas, and the cactus on her blog.

We Have a Garage!

You may have noticed that we have garage doors on the house,  and looking back there was generally a car parked in the driveway outside those doors.  This weekend we worked on boxes still in the garage.  We unpacked a few boxes and shifted some things into their "final" storage spaces.  As a result we now have a fully functional two-car garage.

This makes a big difference in our lives.  First, the cars are now out of the afternoon Sun, and that makes getting into the car in the afternoon much more comfortable.  The car is no longer a sauna.  
Second; there is can be salt moisture that drifts in from the Gulf overnight and coats everything. When that moisture evaporates it leaves dirty windows and  windshields.  Now, we can clean our windshields and expect then to stay that way for more than a day.

One of the observations I made as a result of  living both in North Carolina and in Texas is the large number of folks who use their garage for storage, and park the car in the driveway. I don't remember that being the case in Yankee country. Houses here seldom have a basement, and if there is an attic it is generally way to hot to use for storage.  

We built this house with plenty of storage space and one reason was so we'd be able to park the cars in the garage.  That goal has been accomplished.

See the new Post at Mustang Islander Blog

See the new post at the Mustang Islander Blog

Big Sky!

One of the things I had missed, living the past few decades in various very tree-d locations, was a good view of the sky.  Alese had always wanted trees, but she gave in to me on this location and we have great views of the Gulf and wildlife, and the sky.

Last Friday a front came in from the North and dropped some rain near-by, but only about 5 drops on us.  The views of the sky,which would have been impossible in our other houses were great. It was easy to walk out on the various porches and watch the clouds move by.

The Contrast!

Do you remember the 24 loads of sand delivered to the yard?  That was because we'd been a river bank not a yard.  

And, because we had to wait to for the water table to drop, the land to dry and get firm, and another 12 loads of sand delivered we started our own  efforts to shift sand.  So, the neat piles, especially around the house looked like something had been eating them.

Yesterday everything changed!  Roland and his John Deer came and took all those mounds of sand and smoothed them out.  There's a relatively flat front yard, which Alese has plans for.  Hay, plants, and longer "creek beds."

We have creek beds -- those drainage trenches filled with gravel (see the second photo),  And we have gutters -- the trenches that border the driveway.  All to direct water, when it comes,