More Work In the Back Yard

Today's list of completed chores:

• run to the dump for more mulch
• mulch the rest of the garden beds I've recently built in the yard
• plant the two lavenders and the columbines I purchased last week
• clean off the back porch

I still have a couple of herbs I need to pot up, which I imagine I'll do this evening or tomorrow morning.  

I was so pleased with myself for mowing the backyard and getting the gardens going.  Then my weed-eater died (after I was finished, thankfully).  I don't own a mower;  I "mow" the entire property with my weed-eater.  SIGH.  Thankfully, one of my costuming clients has offered to pay me for a new dress with a new weedeater, hehe.  Let's hear it for the barter system, folks!  

More soon. 

.

Another Big Backyard Gardening Day

Today, I have

1. Finished raking up the yard clippings from yesterday
2. Pruned all the trees in the backyard
3. Cut down the Esperanza bush in the yard so it can grow afresh from the roots (which it does every year). 
4. Finished Raven's Garden in the northeast corner by the back porch
5. Dug out and new veggie garden in the same old veggie garden spot, and planted it
6. Dug out half the remaining stones from the old patio and moved them to create a short wall around the new veggie bed
7. Visited The Natural Gardener with friends, and brought home (only a few) new plants, and a bunch of seed packets. 

To wit: 

Backyard, east:  Chaste Tree (Vitex), compost bin and yarrow
in the corner (I put sunflower seeds all around it today), some
pallets just sitting around collecting dirt, and a small landing
of flat stones filled in with dirt and mulch (part of a long path
that will eventually run from the porch to the compost bin)

Backyard, west:  newly-pruned Mexcian Orchid
Tree (Bauhinia) just barely leaving out, Daisy and
huge Mulberry tree in the background, with free-
range bbq pit and lawnmower corpse. 

Backyard, northwest: the new veggie garden,
in the old spot, surrounded by short wall made
with old patio stones.  Chives and Daffodils
visible now (left over from the old veggie garden);
this morning I also planted Yellow Pear and
Roma tomatoes, and Tam Mild and Mucho
Nacho jalapenos, as well as Kentucky Wonder
and Scarlet-something kidney beanson the trellis
 panels. 

L-R: Remnants of the old patio under the Mexican Orchid (with
Shelly), then removed, then stacked around the veggie bed. And
yes, I was singing "I Fought the Law" the whole time I was doing
this ("Breaking rocks in the /hot sun...")

Orange Mint (top) and Pineapple Mint (side)
in the old strawberry jar on the back porch. 

Raven's Garden: only the blue fencing around
the outside will stay; the panels stuck randomly
in the ground behind it are to keep the other dogs
from jumping in there and digging up the fresh
soil.  There's yarrow around back, and a mound
with strawberry plants in the center under the extra
fencing.  I also spread seed for "Bright Lights"
and "Sensation" Cosmos, as well as blue and white
Morning Glories and red Cypress Vine around the
fence.  (And the baling wire panel fencing wrapped
around the post, for my 'Romantika' Clematis) 

A very silly concept sketch of what the garden
will look like later this summer, made with Ribbet

Helpers! 

And I STILL have two lavenders and a Columbine to put in the ground (where??), and an Angel's Trumpet, a cilantro, and some comfrey to pot up and stow on the porch...as soon as I clean up the back porch, which is kinda still a dumping ground (I've been working on it slowly, right now it's mostly full of tools, abandoned yard shoes, and a junk table that needs to go out on the curb for bulk trash day - although for now it's coming in really handy as a makeshift potting bench!) 

AND I bought some new houseplants (a parsley-leaf Aralia and a couple of wee succulents) and a Persian Shield (Strobilanthes) to put into the front garden.  Tomorrow I need to run to the dump again for another giant tub of mulch, before I go much further in the yard. 

At the moment, though, I would give my left arm for a hot tub to sit in.  I'm pooped. 

Hair by Mother Nature

Spring Doesn't Start 'Til I Do

I've finally gotten started on the backyard for the year!  I did a bit of work a few weeks ago before I left for my big SCA trip in Mississippi, but the BIG work is all in the backyard.

Since the Martian Death Fungus of Aught-Ten and the horrific drought of '11 and '12, I've kind of let the yard go.  It needed time to recover.  The few things that survived (my Mulberry, Vitex, and Bauhinia trees,  my 'Romantika' Clematis, a couple of Daffodils, and a whole bunch of Garlic Chives and Yarrow) have been doing well on their own, but they're all badly in need of pruning and shaping.  Last November I spent a couple of weekends crawling around on the ground pulling what felt like millions of Hemlock and Ragweed plants out of the ground one at a time (to make sure I got the taproots; controlling them with mowing wasn't helping at all, even though it works great for annual weeds).  Since then I haven't mowed the grass once.  The Bermuda grass the house came with in '04 has finally all been replaced with wild, native grasses and groundcovers that do MUCH better in the heat and sun, and I let them go wild for a few months to establish a good hold on the earth and reseed themselves as they saw fit.

This morning I spent about three hours out there mowing half the yard, then raking up all the trimmings and tossing them into the compost bin, layered with half-composted mulch I picked up from the city recycling center yesterday for free.  I cleaned off the back porch (which had, I'm embarrassed to say, become sort of a dumping ground for things I took out into the yard, mostly tools and things, and never brought back into the house), and then I grabbed a roll of baling wire fencing from the garage and wrapped them around the post on the back porch for that Clematis to climb up onto this year.

A New Kind of Dog Garden

I'm heartbroken to say, my eldest dog, Raven, died last week on the 19th.  He was fifteen years old, and riddled with all manner of Old Man Problems.  He collapsed while I was in Mississippi on my trip, and my roommate, bless her, took him to the emergency vet while I drove back the next day as fast I could.  I met him at the hospital as soon as I got back into town, where I got to spend a few final hours snuggling him and brushing his fur, and then we said our last goodbye.

I had had a feeling that he was nearly at the end of his time before I left for my trip - and I almost didn't go.  I think we all hope it will happen peacefully in their sleep.  Knowing that that might happen, I made arrangements for some friends to come and help my roommate out if it happened while I was out of state, and before I left, I dug a plot for him in the backyard, in his favorite napping spot by the back porch.  Instead, he ended up at the vet, and they took care of him for me there.

Amongst the plants I purchased today were "Sensation" (pink and red) and "Bright Lights" (orange) Cosmos flowers.  I started growing Cosmos around the fence line in the backyard in '07, and ever since then, Raven loved to burrow into them, dig himself a little dirt bowl, mat down some of the stalks, and make himself a little nest in there.  He also LOVED strawberries - so much so that although I always grew lots of them, I never got to eat any, hehe.

The first new garden I'm going to build in the backyard, then, will be a garden for Raven.  His collar will go into the place I dug for him a couple of weeks ago, and the whole area will be filled with his favorite flower, and his favorite fruit, in his favorite place to nap.  :')

<3 

Veggie Gardens Yay! 

Next up will be the creation of a new vegetable and herb garden.  The veggie garden will be in the same space as the old ones - why mess with a good thing, right?  The soil there is still in fantastic shape, and the grass hasn't even taken over the space fully yet, so it'll be easy to clear it out again and top it off with compost from the bin.

Today's haul from It's About Thyme includes (from left to right, above): 

• "Yellow Pear", Roma, and "German Johnson" tomatoes
• "Tam Mild" and "Mucho Nacho" Jalapenos
• "Texas Gold" Columbines (Aquilegia chrysantha)
• Citronella Geranium (Pelargonium 'Citrosum')
• "Goodwin Creek" Lavender (Lavandula 'Goodwin Creek Gray')
• French Lavender (Lavandula dentata)
• Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)
• Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
• Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum)
• Orange Mint (Mentha citrata)

Most of this will be going into the "vegetable" plot this year.  Once I figure out what to do with the old patio area (once covered in cobblestones, now covered in grass), and where to put a new, dedicated herb garden, I'll expand it, but I'm trying not to make too much work for myself all at once.  I've missed gardening the way I used to, but the SCA keeps me extremely busy these days, so I don't want to overload myself by biting off more than I can chew. 

The Orange Mint and geraniums will be going into pots on the back porch;  the catnip will live in a hanging basket (to keep neighborhood cats and possums out of it.  Possums looooove catnip!)  I also purchased an Asparagus Fern for the house.  

And now, I'm headed back out to the yard to make some gardens!   I'm hoping as I finish mowing the yard, I'll find my long-handled loppers, so that I can start pruning my trees.  Where the heck have those things gone??  

.

Long Time No See

In November, I was laid off from my job.  In December, my best friend became my roommate, and lots of house things happened.  February saw SCA Candlemas, and I'm leaving for Gulf Wars in like two days, so lots of costumery has been happening, as well.  Hence my long absence from both this blog and my actual gardens.

However. 

While I was planning to wait until week after next (when I'm home and rested after my trip) to start the gardening for this year.  But today at Big Orange Depot, where I stopped to procure some plumbing supplies for a woodworking project (which I'll write about on my SCA blog next week), I was waylaid by an armload of African Daisies and Spanish Lavender.  So the gardening began today!
I don't have pictures for you, but after a quick cleanup of the front bed, a few plants tucked into the ground, and a bagful of new mulch thrown on top of it all, the population of the front garden is now as follows:

Big

• cream/yellow (single, wild-type) rose
• magenta (single, wild-type) rose
• magenta Chinese Witch Hazel (Loropetalum)

Flowers

• magenta/purple African Daisies (Osteospermum)
• pale lavender African Daisies
• red Cyclamen
• black "Before the Storm" (german bearded) Irises
• lavender/blue Irises
• purple Spiderwort (Tradescantia)
• green/lavender Spiderwort (Tradescantia)
• pink Autumn Lilies (Amaryllis)

Herbs

• Spanish Lavender (Lavandula stoechas)
• Spearmint (Mentha spicata)
• Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum)
• Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilicum)
• Garlic Chives (Allium tuberosum)
• white Yarrow (Achillea millefolium

While I have been trying to keep the color scheme kind of uniform (blacks, purples, magenta-pinks, and white), I have been sort of throwing things into the front bed willy-nilly the past few months, when I've bothered to work in the garden at all.  In a month or so, it should be a riot of flowers and herbs, which is how I like it.  

When I get back from my trip, I'm planning to make a huge trip to my favorite local organic nursery to stock up on vegetables, more herbs, some ornamental grasses, and some perennial flowers, all for the back yard.  

After the Martian Death Fungus of aught-eleven (ha) and the subsequent Drought To End All Droughts, I kind of let the whole thing go.  Last autumn the whole thing was knee-high with scary weeds (mostly ragweed and hemlock), which I plucked up by hand in December - all 864 square feet of it.  My trees are all doing quite well, as are the few remaining Garlic Chives plants, and my black "Romantika" Clematis that survived the last few years' hardship. The hateful Bermuda grass that my lawn was sodded with when I bought my house in 2004 has finally been totally replaced by whatever local grasses have decided to take root, and I have a nice, fluffy, cool, soft, green carpet back there again.  HA!  Take that, Bermuda Ass.  

So there'll be lots happening in the garden this Spring.  I'll be back soon. :) 

. 

An Update On the Front Garden

Yes! The weather is finally cool enough at night and in the mornings that I can really start working in the yard again. Let's hear it for an early fall, folks!

☆。★。☆。★ 。☆ 。☆。☆ ★。＼｜／。★ CHEERS ★。／｜＼。★ 。☆。。☆ ☆。 ★。 ☆ ★


In case anyone thought I was dead or for some other reason wasn't interested in gardening anymore (if anyone is, in fact, actually reading this blog and also giving a crap), here are a couple of pics

Before:

SEPTEMBER 2013

APRIL 2014

Last September, I cleared out most of the Yarrow that persists in taking over the entire front garden.  As you can see, only seven months later, it was already filling in - and four months after that (i.e. yesterday) it had grown into what looked like the corner of an abandoned lot. 

I'm sick of doing that every year. 

Seriously, you guys, from here on out, as far as Texas goes,* I'm all about little-to-no maintenance. 

And so:  

Yesterday evening, just before sunset (when the temperature was a balmy and cool...um...92º), I ripped out ALL OF THE YARROW.  Things to know: 

• I'm planning to put another rose bush on the east (left, in the picture) side of the garden to balance out the big white/yellow one on the west (right) side
• This time I'm going to keep after the damned garden with the hoe and make sure the effing Yarrow doesn't get a foothold again.  
• The statue belongs to my recent roomate, who has moved out of state, and left it here until such time as she can figure out how to ship it to herself without it costing an arm and a leg.  Meanwhile, many thanks to my neighbor's boyfriend, who saw me struggling to get the thing onto a dolly last night and very kindly wheeled it to the garden and propped it up in place for me with his man muscles. 
• Bermuda grass actually goes semi-dormant in the summers here, because of the heat.  It'll green up again when fall truly hits. 
• Did you know Irises could talk? They say OH MY GOD WOMAN DIVIDE US ALREADY!!

* Um...nothing.  

.

Legal Weed

Look who's still alive!  Lots of LIFE happening lately, and also lots of SUMMER, so, not much going on in the yard/gardens. A quick recap of the last couple of months goes:

• learned to tune up/repair my lawnmower via YouTube videos
• Something (not one of my dogs) dug up my Sweet Autumn Clematis vine and the whole thing died
• Discovered that the weed in the back yard that I knew was bothering my dogs' skin is none other than Ragweed.  *HORROR MOVIE MUSIC PLAYS IN BACKGROUND* 
• The grass, weeds, and intentional plants that I tend are doing really well this year, since we've had a decent amount of consistent rainfall this year, and my "lawns" are doing great.  The front is...alive!  The back is 6" high at all times, fluffy, soft, and 90% weeds.  I don't care, as long as it's green. Except for the ragweed. 

So the other day while mowing (with the weed eater, since although my lawnmower is now functional, it's out of gas, derp), I came across a weed I have never seen before in my ten years of living in this house, and my thirty-three years of living in Austin.  I took to the internet today to try and identify it, and ended up drawing you a picture: 

1. Ground Ivy (Glechoma)     

    

Low, creeping, prolific, and covered in small whorled burrs that blanket your dog like little angry traps that spring when you snuggle him later.  I've found them to be easily controlled by scalping the crap out of them with the weedeater on a regular basis. (As per this whole post: your mileage may vary). 

...the plant, not the dogs. Weed eaters don't control dogs at  all. 

2. Dichondra

Teensy and beautiful, to my eye. They spring up and proliferate in shady areas with moist soil, and I let them do that all they want, because they fill in areas where I can never grow anything else. Plus they're cute as hell. 

3. Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus)

   

The first time I saw this I thought it was some new horrible form of Ground Ivy.  I don't have much; the healthier and more diverse my lawn is, the less I see Creeping Buttercup.  It's itchy.

4. Wood Sorrel (Oxalis)

   

NOT CLOVER.  Clover is this.  There are many species of Oxalis, but this one is mine.  This shit is the reason the HOA hates me. It's ubiquitous, fast-growing, covered in @$!%&!~@! stickers, and too low to hit with the lawnmower.  Regular scalping with the weed eater keeps it in check, but the second the grass withers in extreme heat this stuff takes off like crazy.  WE HATES IT, PRECIOUS.

5. Henbit (Lamium)

   

Henbit is a type of Dead Nettle - "dead" indicating that it has no noxious chemical sting like Stinging Nettle or Bull Nettle.  It's safe to touch.  And I think it's pretty, when it's not stringy and overgrown.  This is one of the weeds I let grow in shady areas if it wants to, though it usually doesn't, for long.

   

 6. Lamb's Quarters (Chenopodium)

   

Big, strong, and easy to pull up when it's about a foot high.  Earlier than that and the stem just snaps at the ground.  Later than that and you need farm equipment to get it up. Fortunately it doesn't seem to spread much, at least not in my yard. It's also got big, strong roots that are perfect for breaking up hard, dry soil - which is why you tend to see it more in barren areas.  It's got a job to do. 

    

7. Western Ragweed (Ambrosia)

   

Holy shitsnacks, y'all.  I first became aware that my dogs seemed to be allergic to this stuff last year, when I had maybe one or two of them in the yard.  I pulled them up. This year, I got dozens, so I mowed them over - regular mowing will disrupt and eventually wear out and kill 99% of the weeds I've encountered. Not this crap. It replicates exponentially the more I cut it down, and now I have a fucking CARPET of this shit.  More extreme measure to be taken over the coming weekend.  Daisy's reacting to it (and the fleas, which have gone INSANE this year) so badly I'm afraid the Animal Services people are going to confiscate her any day now, the poor love. :'(

8. Japanese Stiltgrass, or Annual Jewgrass (Microstegium)

  

I was highly dismayed to discover that this was a particularly noxious invasive plant, high on watch lists around my area.  I love this stuff!  I have it all over the east side of my property where nothing else will grow, and it's beginning to take over my backyard, too.  And I was GLAD it was, because it's SO pretty and green and soft.  I learned today that it'll get up to 3' high if I let it - I've always mown it into a soft, plush carpet, and it stays that way.  I want to keep it, but...? 

9.   ?????

SO WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING???

Anybody?

It was about a foot and a half high at time of death (by weed eater). Each little star-shaped cluster of leaves had a little cluster of tiny, tiny yellow flowers in the center.  There was a pale area near the center of each cluster, kinda like in the picture.  It was really pretty, and also really scary-looking, because, is it a Magical Winning Lottery Ticket Bush, or is it SATAN???

[Edit:  it's wild Amaranth!] 




And Now A Word From My Lawn's Sponsor 
(that would be me)...

By and large, I let weeds be weeds.  As long as they're not hurting anybody, not toxic to my dogs, and not taking over and growing out of control.  Like I said, regular mowing keeps the ones I don't want to have around down, and it does actually proliferate things I do want more of - like the Japanese Stiltgrass (mournful sigh) and the variety of small, native grass-like things that are together finally replacing my nasty-ass Bermuda Grass (planted by the builders in 2004, ugly as hell, terrible at this climate, and yet another plant my dogs and I are allergic to).

The main reason I let most of them alone is that MONOCULTURE IS UNHEALTHY.   A typical "ideal" suburban lawn, a smooth, green, swath of a single type of grass, is a monoculture.  Maintained year by year lawns deplete the soil beneath them of all the nutrients they need to survive, leaving behind the rest to build up and slowly deaden the soil underneath, requiring massive amounts of chemical intervention to keep them going (hint: this is why they rotate crops).  For healthy soil, and healthy plants and grasses, you need a diverse range of plants in any garden scape, be it a lawn or a garden bed.  I'd much rather have a sea of Whatever Will Grow in which every plant is healthy, green, and plush.  A diverse lawn, with its varying water and nutrient needs and its varying root depth, promotes healthy, nutrient-rich, well-aerated soil chock full of beneficial bacteria and insects.   It also holds moisture better, retains soil and prevents erosion, and breakdown of used plant material feeds neighboring plants and trees.

.

Here We Go Again, V 2.1 - A Radical New @#%& Idea

Okay, so, maybe it's not so radical to YOU, Dear Reader, but it's new to me.  Not the concept itself, but the idea of embracing and implementing it myself.

The Thing Is: 

• my @#%& [back] lawn dies every year about midsummer, if not before. 
• my @#%& lawn is like 95% weeds and grassy weeds.  I'm fine with that, but one of my dogs is *horribly* allergic to grass, as it turns out. 
• over half of my @#%& lawn is also covered with plants that make stickers, this year. WTF. 
• She's also *horribly* allergic to fleas, which flourish in my @#%& lawn, between the humidity, the weeds, and the neighbor's dog and @#%& lawn, neither of which are taken care of.
• By some twist of Fate, I am not ever allowed to have a lawnmower that works.  If I have one, it breaks after only a month or two.  For the most part, for the past ten years, I've "mown" my @#%& lawn with a frikking weedeater.  Which is great for upper body strength, but it's a @#%& pain in the ass. 
• I once saw my friend, musician Alyse Black, perform at a house concert in a woman's backyard, which was enormous and beautifully landscaped to accommodate audiences at the house concerts she hosted regularly.  And it's had me thinking, ever since that day. 

I'm thinking I might just say to hell with my @#%& lawn and implement a lawn-free landscape in my backyard.  What little grass I have left, between the moisture-sucking and carrotlike surface roots of my mulberry tree (which are actually pretty neat)  and the shade it casts over most of the yard (hallelujah, finally some shade!), as well as the fact that the rest of the yard is literally in FULL sun from sunup to sundown 365 days a year...well, it's basically crabgrass and whatever native weedy grasses are willing to grow in those conditions.  On one hand, that's great, because what I was given when my house was built was Bermuda Grass, to which I am allergic; but OTOH, as I said, my dogs are allergic to the "grass" I have now and to the bugses it harbours.  

So I'm Thinking...

Maxipark Piet Oudolf (via Pinterest) 

Pinterest

GardenCollection.com, via Pinterest
I *adore* circular paved areas like this. 

My old patio garden, before the grass grew in between the
stones.  I've been dismantling it for the past year, because
it was settling so badly that it was a trip hazard. 

Large, sweeping areas of mulched beds. 

And, aside from the plants themselves (would it be wrong of me to host a party and charge an admission price of one garden plant per guest?  Heehee), I could re-landscape my entire backyard for absolutely free, if I wanted to.

Things That Are Free: 

• pallets
• rocks
• mulch 
• manual labor
• newspapers
• compost (I make my own)
• compost food (from neighbors, who may even pay me to rake their lawns and cart off the detritus?)
• my Quickrete Walkmaker, which I used to make my old patio, and still have hanging on the wall in my garage. 
• a pair of 6' black metal trellises, which used to live on the open end of my porch 
• a black iron trellis (used to be a headboard), that has recently become available, because one of my asshole dogs dug up the Sweet Autumn Clematis that was on it, completely killing the plant.  >:[ 

Even Some of the Plants: 

• wildflowers (hand-collected seed, where allowed by law)
• transplants and divisions from other parts of my property (I'm up to HERE with Yarrow, garlic chives, Irises, and Amarcrinums) 

Things To Consider: 

If I decide to develop this, implementation will be a long ways off.  Unless I get really excited about it and start collecting free things on a regular basis.  I've been bringing home a short stack of pallets every week lately, for a patio/deck project I'm going to start working on soon (aaaany minute now, I swear).  

A Few of the Things I Want To Keep In Mind: 

• Dogs eat wood. 
• Gravel and/or rocks/rock chips are sharp on dog toes, and potentially REALLY hot in the summer sun.  From my own past experience, I also know that rocks migrate when you're not looking, no matter how hard you try to contain them. 
• Weed supression is the first step, no matter what I end up doing. 
• Erosion control is essential to the plan, in my sloping yard. 
• I want vegetables integrated into the entire landscape, not just in a devoted plot (although there would be a dedicated vegetable section). 
• More privacy options, plz? 
• Dog-safe plants

I'll let you know how the @#%& plan develops. 

.