Last night, we had the first burn of the season. And, then, I did more yard work. <great big grin>
The butterfly bush that has been swallowing everything at that end of the patio was crowding one of the chairs. It only had a handful of flower clusters left and those had very few open blossoms. So, I got the loppers out and freed the area where Chuck intended to sit.
We had a grand time burning 3 boxes of wood we’d accumulated from deadfall and yard waste.
When he went in ahead of me (the fire wasn’t quite done yet but it had died back enough that he was getting cold), I finished taking out the bush.
Now, we can see the beds over there more easily and, in a month, we’ll burn that bush.
There is a gardenia at the bottom left, a hyrangea above that, the edge of a compost bin to the left of my herb bed that’s growing oregano and parsley, an empty shepherd’s crook, a pot of autumn fern, a bed of collards and a bed of kale, both draped with green netting to stymie the deer. The butterfly bush is behind it all. And there’s the log that my nephew gave us to grow chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms. You remember, the one that had already been contaminated with turkey tails. The tag on the upper left is that bottom of a wind chime.
This is the junky patch between the patio and the driveway.
The bit between the walkway and the fence is where I had cannas trying to attack us all summer.
To my left as I took the picture is the yellow fig bush and the patch of green by the bucket is a gardenia. The big bush behind the fence is the brown turkey fig. The pot has thyme drooping over the side. The table to the left sometimes holds bonsai and sometimes holds pitcher plants.
The white thing hanging on the fence is a gate I had Riley Foster make for me when we had a deck. It was to keep Sophie contained. When we demolished the deck, I didn’t want to just dispose of it, so it became decorative rather than functional art. It kind of hides the trash cans, too. I guess that means it is still functional.
I’m thinking that I will let the cannas continue growing on the back side/yard side of the fence. If I do that, I need to move the trash cans out of that spot and move the white gate to the other side of the fence. That just takes pliers though. So, NBD.
That strip can continue to grow the yarrow that has crept over and I have some echinacea seeds from a friend to plant there next to the echinacea I had already put in. Those should be low enough not to be annoying to walk by next summer. She sent me some foxglove seeds I may try there, too. My chives and saffron crocuses are up by the patio. But, they don’t spread quickly and there’s room for all that, I think.
That area doesn’t seem to be eaten up with centipede grass. The other side, the gardenia side, is full of it. It’s also full of yarrow, mint and milkweed. So, full that the gardenia is NOT getting a fair shake. But that bush is established enough that I don’t want to try to move it because I’m afraid I’ll kill it if I do. And I don’t have a better place for the nice smelling shrub. At least not if I want to enjoy the scent when it blooms. I tried gardenias out by the front stoop and that was a disaster. FAR too much sun. And when I moved them, one did die. This one has been more determined.
The bucket is full of centipede grass I’ve been pulling up. But, it is so deep and so determined, I’m not sure it’s worth the labor.
I feel like I can either move the edgers and give up or dig out as much of the soil as much I can and fill it back in with topsoil, intending to fight the centipede as it tries to creep back in. Third choice is to just keep pulling it forever.
I feel like all my choices end up with centipede growing there because it’s such a sunny spot. Digging will just give me a little respite before it’s all back.
If I dig it out, the gardenia will need to be mown around. But, it will look less junky than that it has this summer. And the yarrow has already spread to the other side of the path. So, it’s not like that will be lost if the gardenia side is whacked.
See? I knew that if I’d write about it, I’d figure what I really want to do instead of looking at it and dithering.
Yesterday, rather than work on the roadside flowerbed, which isn’t even half finished, I did the bed off the patio.
And, of course, I didn’t get a good Before picture.
We had a kind of weird path arrangement leading off the patio through the blooming part, between a couple of raised vegetable beds and out to the lawn. That had some to do with how many stepping stones I had to work with and some to do with delineating where I had planted stuff.
This summer, the butterfly bush at the end of the patio absolutely swallowed that path.
In addition, the dayflower (that I thought would be a nice ground cover) ate the end of that bed. Fortunately, dayflower is easy to pull up. It’s a Tradescantia and it’s related to spiderwort and wandering dude. But, you have to actually pull it up and I hadn’t done that as I loafed around waiting to be retired.
If you want something that will completely overgrow a sunny area, I highly recommend it. And can give you a piece. I expect to be managing this for a while. Pro tip: if it’s growing up between the cracks of a sidewalk, it is really hard to control.
I finally yanked it all out and moved the stepping stones. Doing that exposed the mole tunnels that are all over the place and I think explains why the rosemary is in such rough shape. I destroyed the tunnels I found, resituated a couple of mole spikes, moved some lilies and the cilantro pot and I left the little heather where it was. I need to mulch it all.
Now, I have 2 extra stepping stones. Chuck suggested putting one more in the gap next to the patio by the firepit to hold wood when we burn. I think that’ll work. The other one may just get shoved up under the stoop until I find an actual need for it.
It rained this morning and I have dinner plans tonight. So, I’m not really up for moving soggy, heavy mulch today. I’m feeling kind of triflin’.
They have a wood chipper (called Chewbacca) that they tow behind their dump truck and we got a pile of wood chips from that trees that was as hefty as the one we bought from Mebane Shrubbery last week.
I neglected to take a picture before we started spreading it. But, you can see how it’s filling in the space between the (former) end of the bed and the triangle of trees. It will probably take a year before the fresh chips are a safe place for planting. But, that means it’s killing the grass that’s under it, too.
Chuck did most of the spreading as I hurried to get the edgers in place to contain the spread. I’m going to need more edgers. But, not this week. Or even this month.
After a water break, I started pulling the weeds along the house side of that bed. I intend to get hardwood mulch moved over there tomorrow.
After another water break, I cut and poisoned a grounsel tree that had decided that it wanted to crowd my ‘Blush’ crepe myrtle, some calla lilies and and a couple of irises. While I had my mini chainsaw out, I cut some deadwood out of the rice paper bush.
You can’t tell from this, but the buds are shaping up nicely for February.
I think it’s going to take 6 or 7 more hard work days or some variation of a lot and a little to get this bed where I want it.
This is the worst part. There are trees coming up where I don’t want them and grass and weeds all over the place. But, because we’ve mulched well in the past, a lot of it is coming out fairly easily. It just takes squatting and pulling for a while.
We have 2 wheelbarrows. Once is wood and it great for shifting the mulch. The other is canvas and is great for hauling off my debris.
I have gloves, a hat, sunscreen and all the clothes I use to used for work to keep me protected.
I’m feeling pretty productive today.
PS: Chuck mowed the front yard after moving the mulch while I was pulling grass and weeds.
We had 6 yards of mulch delivered on Tuesday. I had them dump it at the end of the roadside bed closest to the road and hustled to get the edgers for that end of that bed out of the way before it arrived.
6 yards of mulch is smaller than I expected
My intention is to let the mulch kill the grass between the bed and the silver maple at the end of the driveway, expanding the bed. I’m also hoping it will cut out some of Chuck’s annoyance with mowing around jutting branches.
But, before that, it’s going in the beds I’m finally shaping up.
This is yesterday’s accomplishment. (You can see where I moved the large pot that kept the unused garden hose out of sight.)
BeforeAfter
I moved an abused “circus” canna down to the end next to another purple-leaved-red-flowered canna I planted there in May. (A share from my brother-in-law.) There are yellow irises down there, too. I’m hoping those 3 will fill that end up with spring and summer color. The bushes are camellias, one ornamental and one tea.
This is what I did, today.
BeforeAfter
The whole end was being swallowed by dayflowers. More cannas are at this end, same colors, and the iris is purple. There’s a patch of ice plant that was being swallowed up and has now been freed.
Both sides have flame callas, blackberry lilies (which are really irises), and tigridia planted in front and between the bushes. And I’ve tried to get some ice plant going on the other/north side. There may be too much shade over there though.
And the stoop is being swallowed by cypress vines.
Swallowed!!
We have a bit of a battle with it because it is happy to cover everything it can reach. I’m getting better at managing it and the camellias aren’t covered with it this year. And the hummingbirds really do love it.
Hummingbird smorgasbord
I planted a mixed package of red, white, and pink seeds several years ago and it reseeds itself very effectively. Now, it mostly blooms red, but we do get occasional pops of the other 2.
I believe that once I get it cleaned up, this time around, again, it will be easier to maintain. It really does feel like trying to save energy for work was my inhibitor. Going out to pull weeds and move mulch, knowing that I don’t have to go do 8 hours of fluorescent lighted labor in a little while just makes it easier.
Oh! The circus canna is a Phasion I got from Plant Delights when I first moved into this house. I have moved it, shared it, killed it and asked for a piece back for over 2 decades. It has dark purple leaves with red and yellow veins and bright orange flowers. I can’t wait for it to get lush again. And I really hope it doesn’t crowd out the gorgeous purple and red canna Mark gave me. I want them to fill up that end with color.
I am the Audience 