October 30 2010 The Back Yard Projects
We have been changing a bit in the back yard, getting ready for winter such as it is.
I spent days pulling as many weeds as I could. In some beds, I got absolutely nowhere.
Last fall we had a bad frost. We've never had one that bad while I've lived here. It killed a lot of stuff around town besides killing our Hibiscus hedge in front of the patio. It also killed my Hawaiian wood rose. I got so ticked I pulled every bit up. It may have still had some life in it but it had taken two years to even bloom. It had then bloomed for two years and each year the frost came or the snow came that one day and killed all the blossoms. It had taken up most of the bin space and I was just ready to give up on it. I planted other stuff in the spring. I cannot make vegetables grow. I get lovely vines with lots of blooms but no veggies. This year I got a few tiny tomatoes and maybe 5 or 6 twisted up cukes. Its just not worth the bother. Either we get get too much heat and dry spells or too much wet or too many bugs. I now have a few herbs and a few flowers.
Where the Hibiscus was after we hacked it all down and carted it to the curb, we dug up all the roots that we could. I think we hired help for that but I honestly don't remember.
Al searched for something called "Red Tips", found them on sale somewhere but when we got there it was the old bait and switch deal with a twist. Instead of the large plants at the cheap price they wanted us to pay lots more for smaller plants. This was the first day of the supposed sale so he asked if the other stores had any and was informed that no one had them. Well, that just sucked so we went to some other nurseries and found some Indian Hawthorn which is the same stuff we have in the front in low hedge. We got those. The sales people said they will grow as tall as we let them so we will see how that goes. We had a tough time planting them. The soil was so rooty. The guys we hired to clear it out left all the old roots there. I can't imagine what they were thinking but then we can't really communicate well because English is not their first language if you know what I mean.
Tiny came over from next door and helped Al dig the holes and plant them. That lady is a sweetheart and she never stops moving.