around my yard

I'm definitely one of those girls who needs instant gratification - patience is not a virtue I was blessed with, so when it comes to my yard, I look for annuals and accent plants that are going to make a dramatic impact...right away. Living in southeastern North Carolina, I learned pretty early on to rely on drought-tolerant plants that can withstand the scorching sun - there are quite a few that, thankfully, make my yard look like it's a lot more mature than it really is.  Here are a few of my favorites:

I bought a bunch of purple queens on the clearance rack at Lowe's to go under my needle palms and, surprisingly, they have flourished!  Once they got going, I only needed to water them once a week and even then I sometimes forget, but they look so good, you'd never know:

My lantanas came back in full force this past spring, thanks to a mild winter (and lots of fertilizer and pelletized lime).  Mine look like they are on steroids and I'm contstantly snipping them back from growing up into the bushes above them, but you'll never hear me complain...they add pops of bright yellow to my yard and smell amazing...we always have butterflies, bees and the occasional hummingbird visiting:

You can't live in the South without a crepe myrtle in your yard.  The blooms on all of mine are so big that the branches are bowed under their weight!  You can't tell in this picture, but this one bloom is more than 9 inches long!

Sweet potato vines are quickly becoming one of my favorite annuals.  I love their lime green color, they grow like a weed and it seems like overnight that they fill in any empty space in a perennial garden:

What are some of your favorite plants for summer?  Have a great weekend!

lantana, take 2

Remember these pint-sized lantanas I bought at Lowe's back in April?

Well, here we are, four months later, and they have completely taken over the beds!

The gold flowers add just the right color and warmth for Fall!

lovely lantana

Gardening at our home at the beach in the coastal Carolinas was difficult, at best.  I had to find plants, flowers and bushes that could thrive in sandy soil and were drought tolerant.  Luckily for me, our front yard was always overflowing with bright gold, orange, pink and red flowers from spring until fall every year, thanks to lantana. 

Depending on where you live, lantana can be a perennial or an annual.  It never got too cold in the winters, so every fall, if I cut them back and protected the stubs with mulch, the following spring, they would burst through the soil in all their glory.  I don't know if that will work everywhere, but they are so easy to grow-they don't require watering, spraying or fertilizing-it's worth a shot.  Best of all, you can find them at Home Depot or Lowe's for next to nothing.  The gold lantana are ground creepers, whereas the orange and red grow in mounds up to six feet tall! 

Here they are in our last home; some wayward purple verbena found its way in there somehow:

About a month ago, I bought a bunch of pint-sized lantana for $2.50 each at Lowe's.  They've quadrupled in size and are filling in between my ligustrum perfectly:

If you're looking for an inexpensive, environmentally-responsible way to boost your curb appeal, lantana is the way to go!