June 21, 2024
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/01_Heights_house_garden.jpg)
Throughout a stroll by means of the Heights neighborhood in north Houston final month, amid the derecho cleanup I noticed cheerful cottage gardens in bloom. I snapped just a few of my favorites, beginning with this pistachio-green bungalow. Olive-green Vego planters — I’m going to have some in my subsequent backyard! — are parked within the hellstrip between sidewalk and avenue, overflowing with flowers and maybe some veggies too. The proprietor is profiting from all of the sunny area out there.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/02_Heights_house_garden.jpg)
This yellow home, subsequent door to a pink one (a rainbow row?), ups the colour enjoyable with a turquoise gate, royal-blue mailbox, and yellow-and-blue footbridge over a drainage swale.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/03_Heights_house_garden.jpg)
Orange flowers add extra punch.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/04_Heights_house_garden.jpg)
Native wildflowers and sunflowers make a contented hey at this inexperienced bungalow.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/05_Heights_arty_house_garden.jpg)
And right here’s a foot-traffic stopper. At this home, previously a nook store, painted stripes and a checkerboard sample rework conventional siding. Spherical home windows are hung with clever preparations of secondhand finds, and the packed-to-the-brim avenue backyard bristles with yuccas, Satisfaction of Barbados, and retama.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/06_Fence_planting_Squirrel.jpg)
A wire fence across the tiny principal yard helps a planter with agave and mother-of-thousands, plus a buddha and backyard squirrel.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/07_Eyeball_decor.jpg)
There’s a Halloween-ish component with staring eyeballs and some different spooky touches. The entire place is a treasure trove of clever junk. A inventive soul lives right here.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/09_Art_sink_decor.jpg)
In a castoff sink, purple coronary heart and ivy froth round letters spelling ART.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/08_Hermans_Park_gate.jpg)
Herman’s Park reads a punny signal on the gate — a play on Houston’s Hermann Park, as I assumed. However it seems to have two meanings. The house was previously Herman’s Boot & Shoe Restore.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/10_Love_wall_Painted_house.jpg)
In the present day it’s the inventive expression of a free spirit with like to share with the neighborhood.
![](https://www.penick.net/digging/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/11_Love_wall.jpg)
The Heights is certainly one of a sort and a enjoyable place to wander.
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Digging Deeper
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