I love to be outside. One of the most exciting perks of owning a house is the freedom to landscape and hard scape as you see fit. When I bought my house three years ago, the backyard consisted of a covered patio, grass, and a fence. Now my backyard is my private oasis, my daily escape. I have my morning coffee in the garden, I eat lunch in the garden, and I entertain in the garden, thanks to this 10×10 flagstone patio.

Those are grapevines against the fence, hanging on to the white trellises. I romanticized the idea of leisurely dinners on the patio, plucking grapes straight off the vine. Unfortunately the varieties I grow aren’t sweet enough for that fantasy.

Japanese Yew grows on either side of the grapevines. I almost lost them last year when North Texas endured an unusually harsh winter. They persevered, but I had to cut off the dead weight to save them.

Succulents are a new addition to the flagstone patio table. I’ve never been a huge fan of potted plants. In Texas, you have to water most daily in the summer and who has time for that? This summer I discovered no-fuss succulents and now have them all over my back patios.

The real star of the flagstone patio though is Malabar Spinach. I discovered these beauties at Archie’s Gardenland, a local garden shop in Fort Worth, and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw them. Malabar Spinach is so fanciful and exotic and…EDIBLE! Can you believe it? I spent an obscene amount of money on Archie’s last two but the whimsical columns are exactly what I needed to anchor my patio and I figure, if it brings you joy every day, it’s money well spent. Now, it is an annual but it reseeds itself and therefore comes back year after year. The weather has turned cooler and the outer leaves have started to turn an attractive rose color and I’m already excited to see it Malabar Spinach return next year!

Have you ever heard of Malabar Spinach? Let’s discuss.

Stay fabulous,
The Rose Table