07-09-09
Well, it’s gone, and the pleasant surprise is yes, the yard is much sunnier but the tree at the way back, behind the big evergreen, has grown so much over the years that it visually covers part of the area that the plum tree had covered…so I don’t feel as “naked” as I thought I would feel…besides, it only leafed out in less than half the tree this year and next year it probably would not have had any leaves.
Next step, hopefully this coming week-end, is to have the dozen or so baby lilac bushes that sprouted last year transplanted against the back fence. Won’t that smell good when they’re grown enough to produce blossoms!
Hey! I’m getting tiny tomatoes!!!! and the pot with the dried up baby grapefruit tree (seed from the Florida House) that I’d cut off at the base and tossed the pot into the back yard to recycle – and forgot about-is growing a new tree!!!! It’s about 2 inches high already…that’s so exciting…the original seeds were from grapefruit that Lanni brought me about 5-6 years ago.
07-05-09
Put in my morning one hour of weeding. It really was clearing out and cleaning out the small space to the right of the back gate that had become a junk spot and was much over layered with rich black earth filled with energetic worms; all of whom now have a new home within the back garden proper.
I hope they make the new home area as loose and loamy as their old one. Amazing how much time I put into an area only about two square feet. That seems to be my usual time and space these mornings, but little by little, results are showing. Of course, I still have piles and piles of pulled weeds and cut branches lying about, drying out before going into landscape bags.
Later in the morning, while weeding in the area before the front windows, I heard a small sound, turned around and there were my tall and small neighbors from across the street. Small one, Phillip-age 1 1/2- had been on his own front lawn. He saw me working and kept pointing and pointing to me until his father, tall one, Albert, brought him over. At least that’s Albert’s version and I love it.
We went round the back and I pulled a huge amount of dill out of the tomato patch. They like dilled rice (so do I). I added some lemon balm for iced tea. I’m lucky to have such good neighbors.
06-05-09
The ladies of the FFM (First Friday of the Month) group will have dinner here tonight. My table decorations are small glass vases of flowers; lavender, wild geraniums and white blossoms from snow on the mountain ground cover, both from my back yard.
That snow on the mountain ground cover has spread all over the backyard and needs pulling out. Oh well, that’s next week’s chore.
Kristen, a young friend from the minyan, was here for an hour of digging out all the horseradish plants, ferns and garlic chives that have also spread all over the place. Now there are mounds of horseradish root piled in the way back…and to think, yesterday, at Whole Foods, they had organically grown huge horseradish root priced at $9.95 a lb!! I could send a kid to college for a year with the pile in my backyard!!!
It was wonderful having that help. Now the raspberry patch, which is what’s needing lots of weeding, doesn’t seem so overwhelming with all the rest taken care of.
It’s coolish, with bursts of warmish sun…rain on the way tomorrow and Sunday. The ground is still moist from last week’s rains, and the rains the weeks before then, so everything is growing at a rapid pace. Everything does look beautiful.
Ah! There’s the sun peeking out for a bit. Gotta take my weekly shower. All that weeding does enhance my natural fragrances.
04-23-09
My backyard looks like Spring has really Sprung!
The ground is covered with flowering vinca (the groundcover that has purple flowers like violets) and scattered hither and thither are clumps of white, plate yellow and deeper yellow daffodils—needs more daffy’s (next autumn’s big project) but the overall effect is delicious to see.
The peonies are peeking through their mulch, the lovage is almost a foot high and their split leaf pattern is really pretty against the wooden fence. Needless to say, the garlic chives are also a foot high and rarin’ to take over the whole place but this year I’m digging most of them out. The aphids that they’re supposed to discourage can’t be much more pesty. Besides, I’ve just driven special food and strengthening spikes around the roots of the climbing roses—maybe that will scare off the aphids. Worth a try.
Later, in May, all the baby lilac bushes that have grown throughout the yard will be transplanted along the back fence. In thirty years, they’ll be big and strong like the parent plant, towering over the fence and wafting old fashioned lilac fragrances around the yard. Won’t that be great!!!
Wish all of you could see this pretty picture I’m looking at, but my word picture is the best I can do—no digital camera for me, thank you.
08-21-08
It’s coolish…the breezes make it so. I spent an hour staking and cleaning up the tomato patch. It’s a tiny patch with only three large plants. They were leaning every which way. What inspired me were the three large, perfectly ripe heirloom tomatoes that the squirrels bit into, then left the rest to rot. Aghh!
I had thought to pick them in the late afternoon, having read that’s the best time for picking because all the nutrients have come up into the plant in the morning and not yet gone back into the earth for the night.
Don’t have a clue if it’s valid but the squirrels sure don’t wait until evening. They’re out there munching away in the early morning, bless their little pointed ears.
From now on it’s morning picking for me! I’m trying to work up the energy to go back out there and make a dent in the weed population. I’ll do some stuff but it’s going to take much energy to really make a dent in the south side wildflower garden.
It looks like a wildflower jungle. Many of the plants are over 6 feet tall and the not-invited-vines are sprawled over everything growing there. Ah well, that’s what happens when one lets Mother Nature show her charms.
If there weren’t a neighbor’s vegetable garden on the other side of the fence, I’d probably just let it go completely wild. I’m lucky to have good neighbors who don’t complain (at least to me) about what a mess my side is this year.