Scrappy the 5th, 6th, 7th?

I love to work in the yard. It's like therapy for me. When I have a lot on my mind I pull weeds; strange I know but it beats a six pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon, don't you think?

When Randy and I built this house my friend Tiffany and I drew up the landscape design for my yard on a beverage napkin from Texas Roadhouse. Truly amateur work!

My absolute favorite plants in the front yard are my two Gardenia bushes. One of the Gardenia plants that I put in was the scraggliest, scrappiest thing I've ever seen. It was not a show stopper by any means but I affectionately named it Scrappy (really original) and babied it to the point that Scrappy became a beautiful bush that produced literally hundreds of decadent smelling blooms, until a couple years ago when an ice storm came in while I was still at work and Scrappy was no longer. *if you'll bow your heads for a moment of silence* The other Gardenia bush right next to it survived and has gone on to be huge and beautiful.

Since then I have tried to replant Scrappy several times and each time the new Scrappy dies a painful death within a couple weeks. Not one to give up easily, I have tried again this season, despite the fact that I won't be here to tend to them, to get another Scrappy to live and this time I bought bigger plants, hoping their maturity would help, and planted three additional Gardenia bushes, hoping Scrappy would enjoy it's new family and would have a will to live and flourish.

If this doesn't work, I will be convinced that the spirit of Scrappy the 1st has tainted the soil and I will not have any other choice but to call in a Native American Medicine Man and have them cleanse the tainted soil. Hopefully when Artem and I return to Texas at the end of May, my newest babies will be alive and kicking, instead of in the trash can.

____________________________________________________________

Artem is my best helper in the yard. He loves to get into everything make my job easier by cleaning up the leaves. For the record, he asked to wear the gloves.

My hard working assistant stops to take a moment and smell the flowers.