I once had philippine violet plants. The word violet throws people as it is a shrub. Mine grew to approximately that height. The most common has med. purple flowers. Castro gardener has some white ones on her San Antonio swap trade list. Since you are in zone 9a I also suggest gardenia and brunfelsia pauciflora, aka: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. You would only have to prune if you wanted to do so.

Thank you so much!! I’m gonna look all those up now :)

you might also consider trellises off the posts.. to add a splash of color from vines ... of which.. i have no idea for TX ...you could do the same on the garage .....

is there a cement porch behind.. and do you use it.. or wish to use it???

what the sun when the tree is leafed out???

ken

So many choices and beautiful suggestions!! The yesterday today and tomorrow colors are gorgeous, such a true purple color. I want my front to look light and airy (?) so I was thinking maybe low growing items that are lighter green than darker, but now that I am picturing in my head I think dark green shrubs to contrast the trees light green leaves would probably look prettiest (I am a girl after all (insert hand raising girl emoji here)). I really love the the tropical look because of the color schemes it can provide, but I’ve also seen many beautiful landscapes that weren’t necessarily tropical that provided just as beautiful colors. Honestly all of the suggestions so far have been gorgeous; I guess living in Houston can be a blessing and a curse because of the unlimited amount of growth choices we can have. It’s almost overload for my ADD mind!! But I do love the idea of vining around the post, that type of “natural” (?) look is exactly (?) what I think I’m going for!! I honestly didn’t realize how big of a can I was opening until yesterday! It’s intimidating but also very comforting because I know I will, or at least should, never be bored in my garden :)

And yes ken, the porch behind is cement and it’s currently really only used for sitting every once in a while. It has a bench but that’s it. I would love to make that area into something more “intimate” or at least more comfortable with beautiful foliage all over!

This may be of interest, if you haven't seen it already.

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkind/plant-selector/

Are you in East Texas or further west below San Antonio? I like things like Texas, Mountain Laurel, Cenizo,... If you can find some Grevillas. That would be really fun.

Embothrium I have definitely frequented the a&m website for info but hadn’t come across that. That’s like very useful though. Thank you for showing me. Seriously what would Texans have done without our aggies?? And wanton, I’m more southeastern in Houston, gulf coast area. And I think the mountain laurel is so pretty but I think I’d rather do that in my back area where there is much more sun and where I’m going for more of a “rustic” Texas look! Before just a few days ago I had no idea that Texas was home to so many different beautiful plant species, it’s seriously overwhelming!!

I better keep my mouth shut then because that is an environment that I know nothing about. Sandy or gumbo?

I will say that I’ve recently been to Lowe’s and HGC and HGC seriously had an impressive amount of different everything and it all looked so healthy and cared for; Lowe’s inventory wasn’t as impressive as HGC’s but I did see some beautiful things there as well. Have to admit, I went to stock up on ICU plants!! Found an African blue violet daisy that I’m currently in the process of reading up on as well as an asciata(?) lily and few house plants. Those weren’t among the $1.00 or less stock but they were priced at $3 thus being at least half off! And they’re gorgeous plants. By no means look diseased, just look like they hadn’t received the proper water and lighting treatments at the right time. And as far as my soil, I’m not too sure what the difference between the two is but is it possible for it to be both?? There are seriously parts of my front bed are really just basically dirt, doesn’t even really turn to mud when drenched, just hard saturated dirt. But there are areas in my back that I could definitely describe as being gumbo like!

You might have your soil tested to see what amendments you need to add . That might also tell you what plants will do better there.

Yes I have really been meaning to do that. Might as well do it today! Is is possible to have different types of soil on one property??

Yes, soils can vary within the same building lot. Especially if a foundation was excavated and the subsoil bladed out over the lot. In which case a homeowner is not actually working with the native topsoil.

Regarding amendments - as in peat, bark, sand etc. - and not chemical fertilizers etc. - these are best reserved for beds of certain plants with small root systems such as flowering annuals and annual vegetables, not used for the development of long term decorative plantings. If there's something in this latter group you really want to grow, yet your existing soil seems entirely unsuitable the effective solution is to excavate and replace sufficiently large sections of the existing soil. Or buy loads of suitable soil, dump those on top of the existing soil - without blending them together - and plant your pets in this new layer.

However where alkaline irrigation water is present chemical treatments will very likely still have to be used to keep kinds adversely affected by this going well.

Ok so just completed a homemade diy soil test with baking soda and vinegar and no doubt according to this test that my soil is acidic. Fizzed and fizzed with the vinegar and absolutely nothing with the baking soda, honestly makes sense in my mind. If anyone’s had false results though with this method I will def have it professionally done as well

Oh my gosh thank you embothrium, such useful knowledge! :) I had no idea. I can only read and come across so much information in a day on my own

Long term decorative planting would be best completed with the native type soil??

Myer, I think you may have gotten the results of that pH test backwards.......if the vinegar reacts, the soil is alkaline. If the baking soda reacts, it is acidic :-))

Haha oh lord!!! I’m sorry my brain is trying to wrap itself around a lot right now!!! :D

I was just going to say that about getting it backwards. I pick plants that like my existing soil.

How funny to "listen " to this thread.

I am willing to bet your soil is a combo, depending on what the builder used as "top soil".

I moved to my current home 2 years ago. Some fool before me put several inches of small gravel all arou x the deck and small side yard.

1plantmaven, gravel as in for roads??

Fat fingers. Around the deck where one would have grass or plants.

I had my 4th back surgery in November. So no more gardening. Which has always been my passion. In 2006 six months after the 3rd surgery several friends and I started the San Antonio "SAPS" plant swap here. I am pleased that it is still on going.

Sorry, I got long winded. One can buy bags of gravel at Wal-Mart, Lowe' etc. I think they call it decorative gravel. But don't you dare put any in a flower bed. You will regret it for ever. There is so much here that I suspect they parked a boat or RV in the back side yard. Until a couple days ago I thought it was just around the house and deck. I hired a young man to dig a hole to plant a mtn laurel and the gravel is 2 to 3 inches deep and 3 ft from the fence.

Must have been an rv Park! I can’t imagine why else somebody would place so much in a backyard. So how do you go about that now?? If you’re able to dig far enough can you still plant things?? And I am so sorry to hear about your back surgeries :( I can already tell that I give myself a few more years before I’m out of the beds and sticking to small pot plants. Gardening is a whole body workout!!

I put the plant in a hole my friend digs and back fill gravel and all and hope fore the best. at least it will drain well. Hahaha. The first year I was here I found a great young man on Next Door site. He planted 6 shrubs for me to make vacation money for his family. All but one has survived.

We have become close friends. He apologized the other day for not coming to see me more often. He has a wife and 4 kids nd a job. Bless his heart.

What a treasure to have on hand!

Aww what a sweetie!! I bet he’s proven to be invaluable. And that’s what I was thinking, hopefully the gravel provides that rock garden kinda look and theme!!

Not a rock garden look either. It was a rental before I bought it. So grass and weeds have grown over the gravel. Had I realized this, I probably would not have bought this house. It has a metal roofed deck. I had visions of pretty perennial beds all around.