5/24/13
The wisteria is blooming. It always surprises me; somehow I think of it as being a summer blossom, not late May/early June, and so I'm always startled to walk out onto the patio and see the flower heads falling from the stems. I haven't looked yet to see if we have a decent number of bees attending it this year. I hope so.
The iris is about a week behind expectations. There are only a few stems, and those are small; it'll take a year or two for them to recover from last fall's breakup and replanting. I hope I managed to keep some of the grapefruit-colored ones as well as the dark purple (I know those recovered - the bud tips are unmistakeably dark.) The tulips and hyacinths that share the bed with the iris are basically done blooming, and the whole bed needs weeding soon before the scraggly creeping invasive vine (whatever it is; its leaves look rather like a weak morning glory, but I haven't seen any flowers) strangles everything.
The driveway guardian rose has leafed out nicely and is showing the first few small buds. It seems to appreciate its biennial cutting back. The little "volunteer" that had sprouted up about a foot away is no longer in evidence and may have been an accidental victim of the remodeling. Too bad, I was looking forward to seeing what it could do.
I need to cut the grass, and as much as I hate using chemicals, I HAVE to treat the front yard for ants again. A good third of it is one giant anthill - I almost can't walk across it to cut it. I'd intended to put down a pre-emergence weed treatment early this spring (because it's less likely to affect the local wildlife, and I do love the little critters), but time and weather intervened. So I'll have to spot-treat the giant thistles and live with everything else for another year. I'm okay with that.
I haven't even looked outside the back gate to see how the sage, the lilac, and the extra iris are doing. No rush - it'll all still be there whenever I get to it. The clematis looks weaker every year - I doubt it'll survive the fence replacement that has to happen in the next year or two; on the other hand, the doggone trumpet vines refuse to die despite my best efforts. The herb bed doesn't bear thinking about right now. But just as with the English ivy, I'm resigned to spending the summer removing the old efforts, and waiting until next year to put in something new. There's only so much I can do.
Life goes on.
The iris is about a week behind expectations. There are only a few stems, and those are small; it'll take a year or two for them to recover from last fall's breakup and replanting. I hope I managed to keep some of the grapefruit-colored ones as well as the dark purple (I know those recovered - the bud tips are unmistakeably dark.) The tulips and hyacinths that share the bed with the iris are basically done blooming, and the whole bed needs weeding soon before the scraggly creeping invasive vine (whatever it is; its leaves look rather like a weak morning glory, but I haven't seen any flowers) strangles everything.
The driveway guardian rose has leafed out nicely and is showing the first few small buds. It seems to appreciate its biennial cutting back. The little "volunteer" that had sprouted up about a foot away is no longer in evidence and may have been an accidental victim of the remodeling. Too bad, I was looking forward to seeing what it could do.
I need to cut the grass, and as much as I hate using chemicals, I HAVE to treat the front yard for ants again. A good third of it is one giant anthill - I almost can't walk across it to cut it. I'd intended to put down a pre-emergence weed treatment early this spring (because it's less likely to affect the local wildlife, and I do love the little critters), but time and weather intervened. So I'll have to spot-treat the giant thistles and live with everything else for another year. I'm okay with that.
I haven't even looked outside the back gate to see how the sage, the lilac, and the extra iris are doing. No rush - it'll all still be there whenever I get to it. The clematis looks weaker every year - I doubt it'll survive the fence replacement that has to happen in the next year or two; on the other hand, the doggone trumpet vines refuse to die despite my best efforts. The herb bed doesn't bear thinking about right now. But just as with the English ivy, I'm resigned to spending the summer removing the old efforts, and waiting until next year to put in something new. There's only so much I can do.
Life goes on.