Texas Strawberries

I replanted my parents’ front flower bed because over time, the sun-loving plants that were there got shaded out.  It was full of lantana, pink skullcap, and mealy blue sage.  Watch the short video and see what I planted.

Both the Salvia coccinea and Ruellia are seed spitters and spread quickly.  I chose these because my parents need something that will fill the bed and be super low maintenance.  Don’t plant either of these if you don’t want them to spread!

Turk’s cap (Malvaviscus arboreus) is a great sun/shade plant.  It’s one of those rare ones that really can do both.

Texas Strawberries

I was itching to put food in that bed somehow.  The two big problems were deer and shade, not to mention the fact that certain neighbors would think food growing as somehow subversive.  Little do they know that they are right.

I picked strawberries for the following reasons:

• In Arizona, people would grow them as a sort of ground cover.  Granted, the growing conditions are much different, I thought it was crazy enough that it just might work.
• That particular bed has been mulched with wood mulch for 15 years.  I figured there had to be the type of fungus found in woodland soils in that soil, a plus for strawberries.
• Commercial strawberries are sprayed with a super toxic chemical, methyl bromide and I won’t buy them anymore.
• I was gambling that the 3 hours of late afternoon sun would be enough for the strawberries to grow.

So far, so good.  What crazy chances have you taken in your garden and how did it turn out?  Let us know in the comments below.

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