the long view of the big backyard
Forgive me friends for I have been lax, it's been a week since my last confession (and I haven't been so great about reading either). So what the hell have I been doing? Nothing to write about apparently. Monday I texted Abby that the couch was holding me prisoner and I wouldn't be at yoga. It was the last cold day/night of the last bit of winter but I did show up on Wednesday, grocery shopping and drumming on Tuesday, SHARE on Thursday and we were very busy filling 38 requests for food and yoga that night. I filled the 5 gallon bucket again with walking onion seed/flower heads, planted green bean seeds in little pots to get them started since I couldn't decide where to put them in the ground, checked my potato pot and something is sprouting all over (I recycled some dirt from other dead pots) but no potatoes yet and I'm wondering if they rotted since I planted them two days before the week of cold wet weather, fixed dinner my two nights. Exciting stuff, right?
Friday Pam and I went to two nurseries and I came back with two small pots of moss rose and two pentas. After lunch I went over and cut loose, dug up, and potted the aforementioned wisteria branch that had rooted itself and sent up new growth as well as three other green ends of branches and scraped the ends, dipped them in rooting enzyme powder and stuck them in pots to see if they will root and grow. Wisteria is pretty much just a weed and today they aren't the least bit wilted.
I started writing this Saturday, as often happens, and then the day happened. First was this month's EarthLab talk, this one on beneficial insects in the yard. Not all bugs are bad so don't just kill them, in fact, he said, only a very small percentage of bugs are detrimental (and he included wasps in the good bug category, just leave them be unless they're in a high traffic area). Good bugs not only do things like pollinate and break down organic material they also prey on bad bugs. Then I filled the bucket with walking onion seeds for a third time, decided the fire ant poison didn't work worth shit so I was going to go back to my dish soap/orange oil formula which does kill the shit out of them and discovered I didn't have any orange oil, was coming in for lunch when my daughter drove up with a surprise...my grandgirl Autumn. She surprised everyone Friday, getting a ride into Houston with some friends coming in for the weekend. So she and I hung out the rest of the day and evening til I went to bed and her friends came by and got her sometime after that.
Today I think I'll wield the chainsaw cutting down the last dead branch of the yellow bells over at the shop that was too think for the loppers and the purple orchid tree branches that froze to the ground and maybe even the lower branches of the red tip photinias in front of the house. Or maybe I'll use the trimmer to tidy up around the flower beds.
I'll be back around. In the meantime, here's an assortment of pictures from the last week or so.
blue eyed grass
the corn is up
the neighbor's magnolia tree in full bloom about two months early
walking iris
Whoa! That magnolia is early. I have not seen one blooming anywhere around here yet. And I've never seen a magnolia put forth that many blossoms either. I am most impressed. I wonder if it's a different variety.
ReplyDeleteYour flowers are so pretty.
Pretty pretty! I tend to leave bugs alone unless they're stink bugs in my house. Those dudes are toast! Well, the ones I can reach anyway.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing everything blooming there. It's so beautiful and full of springtime colors.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely LOVE the long view of your yard and the charming buildings. - and blue eyed grass! What is
ReplyDeleteThat about? So cool! Springtime is full blown there!
I like those walking iris. Thanks for speaking up for the bugs! We don't kill any bugs in our garden, except now and then aphids and the Solomon's seal sawfly larvae -- and I do that by hand.
ReplyDeleteI am encouraged to hear that you are taking a course on bugs. They are such a vital part of a healthy ecosystem and I wish more people understood their role. Perhaps we wouldn't be in the pollinator crisis that is gripping the world.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am not very kind to bugs in the house. They startle me and I have to smush them or try to smush them. They drive me buggy. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteYour flowers are beautiful. I have never heard of a walking iris.
ReplyDeletethe bloom stems that look like leaves arch over and down and onto the ground (if it was in the ground, mine's in a pot on a stand so they just hang down). where the bloom part hits the ground, it roots and so you have a new plant, 'walking' as it travels, like spider plants do.
DeleteGood gosh. I'd better get myself over to the San Bernard refuge. I'll bet while I've been running around looking at bluebonnets, the native iris there are up and maybe even in bloom. Wish I could be everywhere at once. I did notice on Saturday that the pink evening primrose and Texas dandelions are starting to put on a show -- but my gosh. Look at that wisteria! I saw a lot of foot-high corn, too. The year's going too fast.
ReplyDelete