Gardening Update - I Declare War!
(X-Posted to Gardening)
What with daily life interfering (killer semesters in school, new job end of last year), I'm embarrassed to say that while we watched our landscaping for a year before making too many huge changes, we then watched it for another 7 months... and let it get horribly overgrown.
While the most pressing is probably the mulberry trees overhanging the house, I'm far shorter than the boyfriend (can't really reach much even with our long trimmer-on-a-stick..thing), and it's too scorching hot to get up on the roof. (If I had a ladder.) My boss went up on his roof last weekend to flip his system over to evap cooler, and he actually burned his hands a little bit.
So I tackled the beds along the back fence, with a combination of hand pruners, these double-handled pruners, and the weedwhacker. I went Hulk on it. Well, in half hour increments. Did I mention that it's hot?
We have this vine along most of the block fence which is loving the lack of pruning - and taking over. I'm certain it's not kudzu, but you know those pictures of kudzu taking over houses? Yeah, I found half a bicycle (the other half wasn't lost), several balls (wtf, to my knowledge nobody's ever PLAYED with these in our backyard), and parts from an IKEA table we leaned up against the fence last summer. I love this vine, and I love what it adds to the backyard, but I really need to take down its mass by like 50%.
The other plants I really took down were the lantanas. Apparently, the previous owners thought lantanas were awesome - they planted a variety with flowers with yellow centers and pink edges all around the beds. I like the color, and the hummers really dig 'em.
However, if you don't keep an eye on them, they get really leggy and take over. The city has them planted along my walk to work and trims them down to nearly nothing every week, and they seem to thrive in well controlled bush-like growth patterns. Also, after they go to seed, they have little berries that the birds love... and I CAN'T KILL the ones that grow from the seeds the birds *ahem* deposit in my lawn. Even mowing them down. There is one leggy sucker near my porch that had the audacity to bloom, despite being weed-whacked to nothing every few weeks.
So, I'm fairly sure I can't kill the lantanas. They are now woody-growth stumps, and I have reclaimed about three feet of my lawn. Let's see if I can stay on top of them so I, too, can have the well-controlled lantana bushes. Because I must resign myself to them - they, like the sewer roaches, will be here long after the apocalypse, I am sure.
Also, by murder- I mean, trimming the lantanas, I have deprived the fence vine of framework, which means I will no longer have the mysterious 9' tower of greenery next to my fence. Although, now that I've cleared to that part, I have pretty well run out of steam for the day.
As a curiosity, at one end of the bed to the side of the yard, I have uncovered what appear to be forgotten aloe plants hiding underneath the lantana and vines. While they haven't exactly been thriving, they have been spreading - the larger plants aren't any bigger than the last time I saw them, but there are several smaller plants now next to the big ones.
So, with scratched up arms and an alley full of hacked greenery, I resign from the arena of war for the day.
What with daily life interfering (killer semesters in school, new job end of last year), I'm embarrassed to say that while we watched our landscaping for a year before making too many huge changes, we then watched it for another 7 months... and let it get horribly overgrown.
While the most pressing is probably the mulberry trees overhanging the house, I'm far shorter than the boyfriend (can't really reach much even with our long trimmer-on-a-stick..thing), and it's too scorching hot to get up on the roof. (If I had a ladder.) My boss went up on his roof last weekend to flip his system over to evap cooler, and he actually burned his hands a little bit.
So I tackled the beds along the back fence, with a combination of hand pruners, these double-handled pruners, and the weedwhacker. I went Hulk on it. Well, in half hour increments. Did I mention that it's hot?
We have this vine along most of the block fence which is loving the lack of pruning - and taking over. I'm certain it's not kudzu, but you know those pictures of kudzu taking over houses? Yeah, I found half a bicycle (the other half wasn't lost), several balls (wtf, to my knowledge nobody's ever PLAYED with these in our backyard), and parts from an IKEA table we leaned up against the fence last summer. I love this vine, and I love what it adds to the backyard, but I really need to take down its mass by like 50%.
The other plants I really took down were the lantanas. Apparently, the previous owners thought lantanas were awesome - they planted a variety with flowers with yellow centers and pink edges all around the beds. I like the color, and the hummers really dig 'em.
However, if you don't keep an eye on them, they get really leggy and take over. The city has them planted along my walk to work and trims them down to nearly nothing every week, and they seem to thrive in well controlled bush-like growth patterns. Also, after they go to seed, they have little berries that the birds love... and I CAN'T KILL the ones that grow from the seeds the birds *ahem* deposit in my lawn. Even mowing them down. There is one leggy sucker near my porch that had the audacity to bloom, despite being weed-whacked to nothing every few weeks.
So, I'm fairly sure I can't kill the lantanas. They are now woody-growth stumps, and I have reclaimed about three feet of my lawn. Let's see if I can stay on top of them so I, too, can have the well-controlled lantana bushes. Because I must resign myself to them - they, like the sewer roaches, will be here long after the apocalypse, I am sure.
Also, by murder- I mean, trimming the lantanas, I have deprived the fence vine of framework, which means I will no longer have the mysterious 9' tower of greenery next to my fence. Although, now that I've cleared to that part, I have pretty well run out of steam for the day.
As a curiosity, at one end of the bed to the side of the yard, I have uncovered what appear to be forgotten aloe plants hiding underneath the lantana and vines. While they haven't exactly been thriving, they have been spreading - the larger plants aren't any bigger than the last time I saw them, but there are several smaller plants now next to the big ones.
So, with scratched up arms and an alley full of hacked greenery, I resign from the arena of war for the day.