The yard needs mowing so badly. Back and side yards.
Although the Mistflower in the front yard could probably handle a mow as well.
I love Gomphrena. I do not get why this stuff isn’t everywhere.
I hope I’m not jinxing myself. Frequently when I fall in love with a plant it decides to look beautiful for a short time then die in spectacular fashion.
Although this did nothing last year, and this year has become a riot, holding its own against the relentless onslaught of the Desert Mallow.
The Desert Mallow wants to consume everything. I think I mostly have it at bay. Mostly.
And finally, the reason I’m not doing much gardening.
We are currently remodeling our kitchen. I thought gardening left me sore. Turns out it was nothing compared to a day spent pulling apart cabinets held together with 5” long nails.
People think stuff was built better in the 60s. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it was definitely built to last forever. If the wood had cooperated. Frequently it was easier to break down the old wood than it was to deal with the screws.
The wood falling apart being the main reason for this remodel. Well, and fashion of course.
This is just fair warning that this may become a remodel blog for two weeks. At which point it goes back to gardening.
I finally got around to letting the soap aloe out. This was the one that was bulging alien style out of the decomposed granite, trying to burst out of the landscape fabric. I used my new weeding knife to let it free. It is a very, very pale green.
Went to Barton Springs Nursery yesterday with my mom. She bought me this for my birthday.
Julie likes it better than the stone Chihuahua I had my eye on. I may still have to get that Chihuahua. I love it.
Oh and they have gopher plant for $2.99 right now. First time I’ve seen small gopher plants.
And I got another Monterrey Oak. In 20 years my back patio is going to be a very nice place to sit. As long as I calculated my angles correctly.
Fingers crossed.
Julie got a Laura Bush Petunia as thank you for being a Girl Scout leader this year. It’s a bookish plant.
But of course thanks to recent rains we are back to spotted spurge removal. *sigh*
I got Pam Penick’s “Lawn Gone” for my birthday.
I know I already said this. But look- photographic evidence-
EDIT: You’re the one supposed to act excited. I am excited. I realized that was not clear from the title.
it looked like I had finally captured a pretty fantastic photo. But of course it ends up being blurry. Ah well. I definitely think I’m getting better.
This is yet another plant I have no clue about. It looks like I just let a shrubby weed grow out of control. I’d love to identify it so I can prune it properly.
It has been too long since I’ve been in the yard to do more than admire it. And we’ve gotten a lot of rain. So today was a big day of weeding.
Renee of Renee’s new blog, while plying me with savory cocktails, convinced me that using Oxalis as a ground cover was a really good idea. And that cocktail was super-good. Mango and onion?
Man.
So I’m going to try it. These Agave Perry’s were supposed to be modernist and spaced apart, but they end up just disappearing into the mulch. So I’m going to let the Oxalis grow and see if they show up better.
I’m not just being lazy. Shut up.
Question 1: What is this?
I really like them. But I’ve been pulling them, worried I’ll have 1,000,000 of them. But I don’t want to pull it. So tell me. What is it? That thing in the middle there.
I’m already loving the Ruby Crystal’s from Pam Penick. It looks so architectural. Can’t wait for it to start spreading.
Julie also got me a copy of Pam’s book - Lawn Gone for my birthday. We took a picture of it. But it’s not online yet. So pretend I didn’t say anything and act surprised when I post the picture later. ‘Kay?
I’m going to try to get a picture of this at the right time of day. It’s soap agave trying to burst through the landscape fabric. Around sunset it gets side lit and you can see the tentacles pushing up from underneath Alien style.
Red Gomphrena!
The purple didn’t make it. But red! Still very, cool!
And my baby is about to surpass me in height. I brought one paddle of this cactus from our old house. It sat neglected on my parents porch for 4 months, then wintered inside our shed, before being planted. Now it’s almost as tall as me. She’s beautiful.
And I’m having the problem Jenny at Rock Rose is always lamenting. I mean, I know I should pull this prairie verbeena. It’s covering the path. But just look at it!
I got the cactus’ pokey bits out of the way. What more do you want from me? Clear traffic patterns are overrated.
It’s the mowing time of year. So that’s what I did on my lunch break. I actually saw my lizard friend today. I’m aware she’s there most of the time. Lots of rustling in the bushes, but she doesn’t usually come out. I guess the lawn mower freaked her out.
Big lizard. Hopefully living in the flower bed with Spanish daggers will keep her safe from cats. Damn cats eating my lizards. Although I can’t be too down on them. Because I’m pretty sure they’re the vector for getting this sedge into my backyard.
It’s really starting to spread back there. I have some out of focus pictures of my octillo. 
Admit it. Part of the reason you come here is to find out how badly the pictures I take today are going to be. How about this fantastic picture of the ground with out-of-focus Shrimp plant?
This would kind of be an impressive photo if I was trying to get a nice picture of the bedstraw.
But finally a decent picture of my nicely mowed lawn and the giant oak tree that is the main reason we bought this house.
Here’s hoping for a deluge tonight!
Man, I’ve been meaning to do a blog post for so long. I have a backlog on my camera. One thing that’s happened since the recent rain is *KA POW*
I have never seen a feather grass this tall. It’s huge!I expect it start shambling around the yard ala Uncle Fester.
Perhaps I should buy it a pair of glasses and a nice brown derby.
And on a similar day I found this fantastic little guy. I love moths. The hummingbird moths have been all over the dianthus, but I can’t get a picture of them. Too hummingbird like. And as you know by now, my photography skills are substandard. It’s genetic. Just be glad the thing I’m describing is in the picture.
Isn’t this lady cool though? She looks almost Plasticine.
I think my favorite part of having a xeric yard is suddenly becoming aware of all these super-cool bugs, animals, and birds I had no clue existed.
So I was dividing some Liripoe the other day. Also because of the rain. It had suddenly become like 52 plants in a 4” square area. I think it looks pretty nice.
Anyway I pulled out some feather grass that was in this side of the bed and transporting it to the middle of the bed where nothing was growing and *clink*. What the? *scraaaaape *. My trowel hit brick. So apparently part of the reason the tree doesn’t grow so well in the flowerbed is this:
I haven’t fully unearthed it. Had to get the monkeys to bed. I guess this was a plant stand?
It’s now a plant stand. At least until I pull those bricks out. Always something interesting to dig out of this garden.
Most of it brick.
And finally a not so great picture of the pomegranate tree in my neighbors yard. It may be in their yard, but most of the beauty comes arching over the fence into my lovely sunshine. I could definitely see adding another one of these. The fruit and blooms are spectacular.
Back to the weeding today. And trying to figure out what to do about my Lantana… man my Lantanta is ugly right now. I’ll snap a picture as long as you don’t judge me.
Thanks! Glad you think it looks cool. Here was my yard when we bought the house.
The previous owner had obviously fought a really valiant fight to keep that St. Augustine going, and some of it was insanely healthy. After a few summers of draught it was suffering. You can read the whole process starting here.
I went about removing the grass the most difficult way. Mainly digging out clumps with a shovel. Removing excess dirt. Throwing it into my green waste can.
With about ¼ of the yard left to go I rented a sod cutter and did the rest in about 2 hours.
Long story short. I highly recommend a sod cutter and then going back behind it in the loose dirt and pulling out roots. The other thing that has saved me is using the contractor grade landscape fabric. The gray stuff, not the black. It is still working as a weed barrier in most places.
