My friend Jean McWeeney, an enthusiastic gardener, birder, and naturalist, relocated to San Antonio last year from Houston, and before that from Louisiana. She left behind an established garden in Louisiana and a temporary one in Houston, and now she’s making a new garden in the drier conditions of the Alamo City. Even so, a colorful dish of carnivorous pitcher plants and sundews brings a little marshy goodness into her new garden.
Jean invited me to visit while I was in San Antonio for a work project last week. I immediately spotted the charming dish of meat-eating plants and exclaimed over them. Don’t they remind you of hungry mouths?
Jean also showed me her brand-new greenhouse with lime-green racing stripe and door. Love, love, love!
The brown paint and bright green stripe make a display of potted succulents pop. Notice the unity of sand-colored terracotta pots too.
As a birder, Jean set up several fountains to draw in lots of birds. She’s also growing fennel for caterpillars.
I admired this homemade, ground-level fountain, which Jean called a WarblerFall. She purchased how-to plans from Julie Zickefoose, who promises it will attract birds like no other fountain or birdbath. Jean says it’s true, and during the spring migration through Texas, “it’s like it pulled them down from the trees!”
Other interesting moments in Jean’s new garden include a staghorn fern on a trellis screen…
…and a collection of succulents on a patio table, including a Moby pup! She’s planning to stick it in the ground as soon as she constructs a raised bed in the front yard. Grow well, Moby Jr.!
Jean has many cute planters filled with succulents. On another shelf, cat and turtle planters hang out with a pretty dove.
Thanks for the tour, Jean, and happy planting in your new garden!
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