Our nature strip has a street tree. I am not sure what type it is, but it attracts birds and has funny small seeds which drop everywhere. Fortunately they don't seem to yield new trees or I would have a forest!
As it isn't grassed it has been covered with a very fine tiny clay pebble. This seems to leave a blank space for every type of weed going. Oxalis, stone clover, grasses and of course dropped leaves as well. We are doing a couple of things to control the weeds. I hand weed and we also burn as well. We have cleared quite a lot of it but this time of year requires quite a bit of focus. When I was at the cool country natives nursery the other week, I saw some native violets and I think I might save up to do a bulk purchase so I can buy several of those to start introducing some competition to the weeds and which will look pretty.
We tend not to poison as we have lots of bird life around and I don't want to do anything to cause harm to them, so sore wrists are the order of the day at present!!
I am starting to question how long we can continue to live here and keep things up to scratch, but I think we have a few years in us yet and if in time we have to pay a gardener we'll either accept it, or we'll make the decision to sell up and downsize. However, I do want to enjoy the garden for as long as possible.
Tomorrow, they are due to arrive to remove my sick Palm tree and replace it with a new young one. I so enjoy watching it move in the wind. I am sorry to see the old one go. I look forward to a young, healthy replacement. The old one started to die last spring, but the arborist thought it best to plant a new one once the summer heat was over in the fall. We are predicted to have rain this weekend. Perfect timing.
I hope all has gone well with the planting of your new Palm tree @Graven Image .
We had a lovely drop of rain overnight and as our green bin had been emptied, I did a spot of weeding before the ground dries out again and because the bin was nice and close to where I wanted to work. Cheery husband noticed that there was another weed free spot, so I must have achieved something today!
I noticed the bull ants going mad in our back garden this morning, so I was hoping for a bit more rain. However, the sky was lovely and blue this afternoon, so that was that, no more rain and yucky wind predicted for tomorrow. At least the plants had a good drink overnight.
Spent a couple of chilly hours in the garden putting in bulbs yesterday. Still a good few to go, though when that will happen dear knows, as it is now really cold.
Definitely need to call on the tree guys as the pyracantha is going for world domination.
The new Palm tree is in. A number of neighbors have stopped me to say how nice it looks. I agree, just surprised they noticed. I so enjoy looking out my window and seeing the wind moving through the branches of the two trees in front of the house.
Yesterday I put a small pond in my wildflower area and surrounded it with iris bulbs - yellow and purple. Hoping for frogs in the spring! Of course there's a hedgehog ramp in case one of the hogs gets in the water. They don't like swimming, but you never know.
I have lots of bulbs ready to plant in the back and front gardens and in the pots. But I'm awaiting an order of little tete-a-tete daffodil bulbs so I'll do that job at the weekend.
That sounds really interesting @Lamb Chopped will you have a ton of frogs in a few weeks?
Glad to hear the planting of the palm went well @Graven Image.
Last week I discovered a whole heap of my sweet pea plants had died. That was disappointing, but on the upside gave me a very good trough planter for my new Johnny jump ups (once cleared). I got out early this morning and planted them, after nursing them along for 2 weeks and putting off the job. I still have a nice lot of sweet peas coming in a different pot and they look to be an interesting bicolour of dark and light pink. I am hoping to cut some soon.
We are having a few warmish days so I went out early this morning and watered all the pots and swept up a whole heap of wisteria blossoms that came away when we had a couple of dreadfully windy days last week.
We are continuing the weed battle, but unfortunately I need to do both front and back gardens at present, which is almost impossible. I am alternating weeding days and when I walk the cats pulling as many weeds as I can even on a non weeding day. I think I can see progress (just).
I wish it were so, but a couple weeks later my husband came home unexpectedly with eight koi, given to him by someone. They are all the tadpoles.
Depending on how you feel about that, it's maybe poetic justice to note that the local hawks and eagles have eaten the koi. So the frogs get another chance this year.
Go the frogs!! I hope they survive, not hundreds of them, but some.
We have an experiment going on near our house run by the local university. It's to do with reducing disease in frogs, I hope it's going well as we need them in our local wetland.
That sounds great. We're maybe a 1/4 or an 1/8 of a mile from the Meramec River--we sit just under the crest of its topmost river bluff--and so that means we get a LOT of wildlife and wetlands stuff (the Meramec is a decent sized river that empties into the Mississippi, not far from its confluence with the Missouri River). So frogs, yeah, and eagles, and the pest control man told me he saw beavers once. We get everything through our yard because our lot fronts to a tiny street with a wilderness area below it, and backs to a larger road with a golf course behind it, and we have a racist city bureacracy, so (unlike our neighbors) can't get approval to put in fencing that would prevent everybody and his elephant from using the land as a straight-of-way to tromp from one to the other. So we are a wildlife highway. It's rather fun to look out the bathroom windows and see what's come to eat the garden today.
I came home from the Zero Waste stall with a mystery plant today. I think it might be a purple calla lily, so I'm going to treat it accordingly and see how it does.
We've just finished our grapes, so a long and fruitful season we had of it. Tomatoes still going, but now all eyes are on the November inspection, weeds, straight edges, clear paths.
We've had a warm weekend to be followed with hot days until Thursday. I was surprised by the number of people at the garden centre yesterday, we had to queue up to pay!! I got some small pots of native violets to try under our street tree and some lovely snapdragons. I won't plant them out until the hot spell finishes.
Cheery husband bought a motorised lawn aerator and dethatcher. He couldn't wait to start using it and I am hoping and crossing our fingers that our lawn won't die. I'd have preferred him to wait until next weekend, but the lure of the gadget could not be resisted.
Comments
As it isn't grassed it has been covered with a very fine tiny clay pebble. This seems to leave a blank space for every type of weed going. Oxalis, stone clover, grasses and of course dropped leaves as well. We are doing a couple of things to control the weeds. I hand weed and we also burn as well. We have cleared quite a lot of it but this time of year requires quite a bit of focus. When I was at the cool country natives nursery the other week, I saw some native violets and I think I might save up to do a bulk purchase so I can buy several of those to start introducing some competition to the weeds and which will look pretty.
We tend not to poison as we have lots of bird life around and I don't want to do anything to cause harm to them, so sore wrists are the order of the day at present!!
I am starting to question how long we can continue to live here and keep things up to scratch, but I think we have a few years in us yet and if in time we have to pay a gardener we'll either accept it, or we'll make the decision to sell up and downsize. However, I do want to enjoy the garden for as long as possible.
We had a lovely drop of rain overnight and as our green bin had been emptied, I did a spot of weeding before the ground dries out again and because the bin was nice and close to where I wanted to work. Cheery husband noticed that there was another weed free spot, so I must have achieved something today!
I noticed the bull ants going mad in our back garden this morning, so I was hoping for a bit more rain. However, the sky was lovely and blue this afternoon, so that was that, no more rain and yucky wind predicted for tomorrow. At least the plants had a good drink overnight.
Definitely need to call on the tree guys as the pyracantha is going for world domination.
I have lots of bulbs ready to plant in the back and front gardens and in the pots. But I'm awaiting an order of little tete-a-tete daffodil bulbs so I'll do that job at the weekend.
Glad to hear the planting of the palm went well @Graven Image.
Last week I discovered a whole heap of my sweet pea plants had died. That was disappointing, but on the upside gave me a very good trough planter for my new Johnny jump ups (once cleared). I got out early this morning and planted them, after nursing them along for 2 weeks and putting off the job. I still have a nice lot of sweet peas coming in a different pot and they look to be an interesting bicolour of dark and light pink. I am hoping to cut some soon.
We are having a few warmish days so I went out early this morning and watered all the pots and swept up a whole heap of wisteria blossoms that came away when we had a couple of dreadfully windy days last week.
We are continuing the weed battle, but unfortunately I need to do both front and back gardens at present, which is almost impossible. I am alternating weeding days and when I walk the cats pulling as many weeds as I can even on a non weeding day. I think I can see progress (just).
Depending on how you feel about that, it's maybe poetic justice to note that the local hawks and eagles have eaten the koi. So the frogs get another chance this year.
We have an experiment going on near our house run by the local university. It's to do with reducing disease in frogs, I hope it's going well as we need them in our local wetland.
Cheery husband bought a motorised lawn aerator and dethatcher. He couldn't wait to start using it and I am hoping and crossing our fingers that our lawn won't die. I'd have preferred him to wait until next weekend, but the lure of the gadget could not be resisted.