WABASH FEED STORE: YOU NEED TO VISIT!

Let's say you need a change of pace. Something different. Something a bit out of the ordinary. A place where you can see and buy fun things. Now throw in a healthy dose of nostalgia and you've got Wabash Feed & Antique Store on Washington Avenue. It's a fun place to take older people who have ties to country living and are stuck in the BIG CITY. And it's fun for the kids to see animals, plants, and a feed store. Plus, the garden art is fun, fun, and more fun. Stop by now that it's cooler since they have no A/C.

Cloth chicken

Metal chicken

Live chicken. These beautiful Black Australorp hens just arrived and need a good home.

Lots of herbs, vegetables, and other plants.

Whimsical doesn't begin to describe the art! I love it!

This is definitely a good post for my blog, "The OTHER Houston". It's not what you imagine you'd find in a metropolis of over 2 million.

BUNGALOW & COTTAGE GARDEN FLOWERS FOR HOUSTON & THE GULF COAST

I've been asked to design a colorful entrance to our church in the historic Houston Heights district. What an honor and what fun!  My inspiration comes from the wonderful color beds designed by professionals in the Galleria area. The person who invents these is a genius and makes the drive very pleasant even in the worst traffic. I also love to see what's going on at my 3 favorite garden centers in town. Most of these flowers can be used all summer in a cottage garden or sunny bungalow garden.

This is a perfect balance between blooms and foliage. It's not overpowering, but still eyecatching. I like it because it has endured an awful summer with drought.  Pictured: Purple verbana, Silver Lamb's Ear, Silver Dusty Miller (Artemesia), Yellow lantana (not in bloom), Rudbeckia (daisy), and a tall Blue Salvia in the background. Photo from a church on Montrose Blvd.

Zinnia linearis, Gomphrena (tiny purple globes), Sun-loving Coleus, Caladiums, Salvia, Rudbeckia, and white Angelonia. All can take full sun.

A little space between plants gives a cottage garden feel to these Rudbeckias (yellow) and lavender Obedient plants.

A rock or two adds interest to a mix of Zinnia, Vinca, Cuphea, and a lavender-flowered bush I don't recognize.

European fan palm, roses, loripetalum and a grasslike foliage plant gives a different look.

Another beautiful, mixed planting

Coneflower, angelonia, zinnias, and a dwarf hibiscus are fabulous together.

Zinnia linnearus with lime green Sweet potato vines are an unusual mix, but seem to work together.

Well, that's it for general impressions. Scroll down for Part 2 and a list of my 3 favorite nurseries in town.

Thanks for stopping by.

David/ :-)