I am the Audience

My yard is proof I have ADD

September 17, 2025

a day in this life, dirt under my nails, home

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’.
Critters!

September 15, 2025

a day in this life, dirt under my nails

In addition to the deer that want to eat our garden, we have a groundhog living uner the shed and … moles.

The groundhog isn’t a problem. It hasn’t bothered the flowerbeds and the vegetables are in raised beds it can’t get in to. So, we haven’t really cared about sharing space with it. It looks like a thick weasel that wanders across the yard every once in a while.

The moles are another story.

We’ve had voles in the past and ran them off with some solar powered noisy stakes that we got from Amazon. They were effective then. These pests seem to be more stubborn. There was some dirt turned up around the yin/yang stepping stone this morning.

We stomp their tunnels and generally try to make things unpleasant for them. I think they are why there has been some dead wood on the rice paper bush. I think they’ve been eating its roots.

If they would eat the trees-of-heaven, we would be happy for them to live here. But, they don’t appear to think those are tasty. So, we prefer them to leave.
I know it’s a rose

September 12, 2025

dirt under my nails, roses

But, that’s all I know.

I found it when I was getting some irises I promised a friend. I kind of expect it to be root stock. But, it could be a noisette that a bird planted from one of the bushes I planted when I moved in here.

I don’t expect it to be the lavender rose I planted near there. I think that must have been grafted. That’s why I expect root stock. Likely Dr. Huey.
The Great Pawpaw Experiment

September 12, 2025

dirt under my nails, pawpaw, plants

There were only 3 seeds in the bag, not the 5 that I expected. Still free. Still more than one.

3 seeds and a little dirt

I have put one in a pot about thumb deep.

Starting point

The other 2 are back in the bag and in the refrigerator.

So elaborate

Since they have to get and stay cold to germinate and I don’t trust NC winter to actually do either long enough to be useful, I’m hedging my bets.

Last winter would probably have been effective. I suspect that the 2 previous years were not.
Today’s efforts

September 8, 2025

a day in this life, dirt under my nails, home

Remember that I showed you the woodpecker Pawlonia that needed attention in July? Jesse and his wife come this morning to manage it.

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.