Feb 02, 2013 20:12
I'm in a murderous mood with the landscaping these days. It started with the 2 trees on the side of the house. I don't know what they are, but they look like pecans. However, instead of pecans, they drop red crunchy berries that nothing will eat. When the leaves dropped, they dropped so thick that when raking it up, I found earthworms wallowing in the mulch. These leaves dropped on the sidewalk so I had to clear the way or else some litigious CA asshole would slip and sue us. Plus, the neighborhood we live in is quite nice and there are some STANDARDS to live up to around here. I would hate for us to become "that house" full of rednecks who don't give a shit about their rented house and have crazy kids who scream all day long.
Anyways, the fruit trees have frost damage on them so we had to pull down all the oranges and pummelos we could get to. The lemon tree has soldiered on and currently in surplus of lemons. Right now I'm waiting to see if the plum and peach saplings bloom this year. I doubt, of course, that they'll fruit, but sometimes a young tree will make flowers. Who knows what became of the fig after this winter.
As for everything else, the strategy is: cut it down and let spring sort it out. I'm talking about you bird-of-paradise, you alliums, you rosebushes, you geraniums, you weird coneflowers, and you ivy. My vorpal hedge clippers are gonna snicker snack everything down to nub. If it flowers: great, if it grows back: great, if it dies: even better! I just wish I could rip up the rose bushes. GAWD I HATE ROSE BUSHES! Love the flowers, hate the high-maintainence.
Lastly, I am also starting some annual seeds. Bruce has been helping me. We have foxgloves, cosmos, and russian mammoth sunflowers starting to sprout. The sunflowers should reach heights up to 12 feet high. Perfect for the front yard!