I’m pretty sure my photography would improve if I took my pictures at the beginning or the end of the day.
The first picture is what I discovered while mowing. In real life it’s a riot of pinks and reds. A little more subdued in the photo.
And a picture of my nicely mowed lawn. There is something soothing about a nice lawn…
Ah large brush day. Normally the time of year when I try to make headway in the pile of brush I have in the backyard. Get about ¾ done and am useless for the rest of the day.
Prior to this year I was using pruners and a tree saw to break down pieces. This year I purchased a cordless Ryobi pruner.
Yeah, I suppose it is basically just a cordless reciprocating saw, but it’s slightly smaller and that makes it much easier to work with. I did have to take it apart this morning because it had stopped working about 1 week into owning it. The factory worker had decided not to screw in all the screws very well. After tightening everything up I was able to break down all of my branches in two sessions. It took less than an hour and a half.
The size is such that I am unlikely to attempt to cut down something bigger than I can handle.
After clearing out the brush I found I had a Spanish dagger and a twisted leaf yucca growing in my compose heap. Where to replant them…
It has been far too long between posts. I’ve been fighting the spotted spurge in my front yard and have barely had time to think about anything else. The red salvia just caught my eye this morning. It’s been doing fantastically this year.
I also finally had to redo my back flower beds up against my house. You may recall the last time I attempted this here. The wood around the beds finally gave up the ghost, so I bordered it in brick which fits in with how this house has been landscaped historically. And I actually spent some money on white marble chips. I need about two more bags to finish it out, but it already really makes a difference. And you can see out the windows without the flame acanthus in the way.
But don’t worry there are about 7 new flame acanthus plants in the flowerbeds across our patio so we’ll still see the hummingbirds. I’m thinking about moving some ice plant from the front yard into this bed.
I finally finished all my weeding today. And that first picture reminds me why I love having a butterfly garden. Those guys are out there all day long, and if you walk close enough they’ll swirl around you.
The second photo is a cloth device you fill with plastic bags to deter wasps from building a nest. I’ll update you if it works.
So I realize I need to update with some pictures. Things are really looking beautiful in my yard, but the rain a few weeks back caused a massive weed infestation that I’ve been beating back. I hope to finish cleanup tomorrow. That last picture is all I have left.
But my Pride of Barbados is really coming into its own, and my Gregg’s Mistflower is starting to propagate in time for fall. This summer is so much nicer than last.
I’m definitely thinking about planting trees this fall, but are there other plants I should be thinking about to give fall and winter color?
While clearing the set for our latest play that closed this past weekend we happened upon this discarded “sculpture”. I don’t think Julie’s sure whether she likes it yet, and I’ve already had someone try to take it out of my front yard for scrap, so I decided to test it out in various flower beds.
Is this what landscape designers call a “moment”?
In other news, I’ve got cracks in the part of the yard that I give no supplementary water. Oog this draught is horrid.
I’m enjoying what’s thriving this summer as much of my native stuff is even having a bit of trouble and getting kind of crispy.
The Pride of Barbados I planted last year has finally started blooming, and I’m loving the color right outside my front door.
The second picture is of a yucca that’s reminding me that drought tolerant doesn’t mean it’s going to live forever. The cripsy yucca was under a tree I hadn’t pruned back enough and I think it’s suffering from lack of sunlight. It’s struggling even after I pruned the tree. But I see it’s surprised me with two pups. So even if it doesn’t come back I’ve got a replacement plant and one plant to put somewhere else in the yard.
Probably going to put it where I’ve got problems with erosion of the decomposed granite. A yucca seems like it might make for good erosion control.
Figured I should provide some updates. I’ve been fighting weeds under the granite. Finally resorted to Roundup for two species that have runners and are pretty much impossible to get up from under landscape fabric. Been fighting those same two species in small segments of the flowerbeds which has involved a lot of digging out of runner roots.
But otherwise, it’s just amazing out there. The Gregg’s Mistflower has had four butterflies dancing over it pretty much constantly for a month now, and the grasses are really coming in.
Still some patches where I plan to have modern cactus-ey look and the cactus are still very small.
