The evolution of a garden

It's amazing to see how a garden evolves, often in unexpected ways. I was looking back over photos from the last few years and found earlier pics of my garden, and I was surprised to see how much it's changed. It sneaks up on you.

Here's a view of the garden just after I'd first created it. You can see all the little baby plants I'd picked up at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. In the back you can glimpse my herb garden. I laid down cardboard and newspaper and smothered all the grass with decomposed granite. This is just 2 short years ago - April 2014. 

And here it is in July 2014, after the house got a fresh coat of paint. I got the tree (a Texas red oak) from TreeFolks - one of the freebies. I love TreeFolks - such a great program for encouraging everyone to plant trees. Wait till you see what that tree looks like today...

 
Whoa! Can you believe this is the same garden? Do you see how happy that little tree is? I know, not super impressive yet, but another two years... it'll be giving us some much-needed protection from the evil July sun.
The beauty of this garden isn't only what I planted intentionally, it's the little surprises that pop up, like that self-sown blue bonnet you can see hugging the corner of the driveway. And many of the plants have sent their seeds scattering all over, so I'm always excited to see the descendants of my first plant generation popping up in unusual places.