So it seems like every spring we try to pretty up our yard only to have to repeat the process again. Last year we planted azaleas and replaced one dead palm tree. They all died. This year we made an attempt at finding stronger plants that might survive my lack of green thumb and unpredictable weather in the Houston area. Houston tends to stay pretty humid, but since we live west of Houston, our area actually ends up being pretty dry at times. Especially with the drought last summer. So I couldn’t water the azalea plants enough and they still died. Here’s what we did this year – we planted two Julia Child yellow roses and one knockout pinkish rose in the front yard where the azaleas were. Then we replaced the dead palm with a bird of paradise. I don’t know why we had two palms die in the same spot, maybe the the other two palms were not giving enough sun to the replaced third one and that’s why it died. (The first time it died because we had an extra cold winter – actually all 3 palms froze but two of them made a recovery). We also planted a lot of bedding flowers to make the general area look nicer and I put some in planters. Here are some photos