The great outdoors

The dirt in our front yard is about 3 inches of a nice, rich, brown topsoil with good old Texas dirt underneath...Texas dirt is sandy unless it is wet and then it is like clay. And it holds water pretty good from what I can tell. If I dig in it even a few days after rain, it is still wet. But it is compact and doesn't look like roots could grow in it very well. When the kids walk through it, it sticks to the bottom of their shoes and does not come off.

Anyway, plants that are indigenous to Texas obviously like it. My Lantana is doing AWESOME. It is pretty, it loves heat and humidity, it flowers all summer and is drought resistant. Woo Hoo!

My Impatiens, on the other hand, are obviously not loving my Texas dirt. I didn't think that they would, but Aliza thought the flowers were pretty and asked if we could buy them. We have morning sun in our front yard, so it is not too intense, and the little placard in the plant said sun to part sun. That surprised me because impatiens usually do better in shade. Am I wrong? Regardless, it was an experiment gone bad, and it is not a pretty sight!

Speaking of Aliza and the great outdoors...last night at Tyler's baseball game, the cicadas and crickets were out in full force. The crickets are 1 inch long and when they walk across the street they look like mice scurrying. Anyway, I walked into Aliza's room this morning and found her icee cup with 3 little, er, I mean big, crickets in it.GROSS!!!

If she thinks that I am letting her keep them in the house, that little girl doesn't know her mommy very well!