Taking care of my backyard!

My father has always had a green thumb that amazes the people who know him well. Whenever a neighbor has a plant they think is permanently deceased (the horror!) they promptly bring it over for my dad to see what he can do. Often, he brings plants back to a healthy and pretty state. I'm not quite sure how he does it -- he just has a knack for nursing plants to optimal health.
His chief way of relaxing, other than listening to old records in his office, is planting plants and nurturing them. Being his main hobby, our backyard is a sight to behold. All of my friends think it's cool. We have a great range of diversity in our plant life in our backyard. Part of what enables us to host such an eccentric family of plants is houston's weather, and the range of shade and sun we have in our back yard. Plants have optimum conditions for them to be happiest in. When you buy a plant at Home Depot or Tall Plants, they most likely will come with a little info card with a picture of the plant in bloom, and a list of how to care for it best. Typically it'll say what type of lighting and moisture are best.
Here are some pictures I took during summer of our variety of plant life:

These are some succulents we have potted. They have thicker, fleshier leaves and a waxy feeling outer membrane. Also we have different cacti around our yard and in our house. My mom loves dry climates so having succulents and cacti (plants that can survive drought due to how much water they store) is fun for her.

  We grow many types of herbs in our garden that my mom uses for cooking. These two pictures are of basil. We have 3 types of basil in our back yard. We also grow rosemary and thyme. 

This trellis is over our back door to the garage, and those are the flowers it grows close up.

These are a berry we grow called the Beauty Berry. We have blue jays in our yard eating them. I think they sort of look like clusters of purple pearls up close. Very pretty.

When you care for your garden and pay close attention to what grows in your yard you will begin to notice a lot of host plants that seemingly come out of nowhere. This little plant (not sure what it's called) usually grows on really damp soil around water, but it found a home around our sprinkler head, where it found the soil conditions that it thrives in. after huge downpours our front lawn is usually covered in creepy mushrooms. 

Last picture for this post! This is my favorite flower we grow. The color is so brilliant. 

Basically, a lot of my summer days were spent lounging by the pool in our yard, tending to the various plants with my dad. It just feels awesome to plant something and watch it grow. 

• this relates to environmental science because i'm learning about how unique plants are, and learning about the immense diversity we have in vegetation. Also learning how to take care of plants teaches me about being careful and observant.