Monday, August 4, 2014

A small dose of garden therapy

Since Ian was born on July 13, I haven't set foot in the garden to do anything more than minor watering, until yesterday.

What started out as "Hey, honey, do you mind if I do a little trimming in the back yard?" turned into my tackling the little butterfly garden area along the back fence, shearing to the ground the weeds I could reach with the trimmer, hand-pulling or cutting the rest, and smothering them with newspaper, cardboard, and the mulch we happened to have on hand--a little Texas Native Mulch, pine straw mulch and decomposed granite.  Of course, now I'll have to buy more mulch to finish the project, but it's a start.


Elsewhere, I cleaned some overgrown perennials--Pavonia and Lantana had sprawled aggressively over their neighbors. Blanc Du Bois was happily extending its tendrils over everything.

Here's the cleaned up version.






Earlier this week, I spotted some orange rain lilies at the neighborhood park. They are smaller than the white Zephyranthes grandiflora we see in masses in the park, but quite pretty.





8 comments:

  1. Ahh life, once so wonderfully interrupted for the miraculous now moved through the all consuming phase and back again to a little more towards "normal". Congratulations on all of it. The garden sure looks great (your idea of what is a "little" work is way more ambitious than mine) and the little yellow lilies are sweet as can be.

    Good to have you back in the garden and on the web both!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a note, Deb! It felt so good to have my hands back in the dirt that I got a little carried away. My husband must have seen it coming, because he packed up all three kids and took them to the park--a brave adventure, to be sure. It was a real gift--free time to garden.

    Thanks for the warm welcome back! Hope your summer is going well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm amazed you're doing anything outside of sleeping, eating and tending wee ones. You're impressive! Gardening is good therapy--even if there's nothing wrong. Enjoy all of it and to echo Deb--welcome back!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Tina! I'm hoping to get outside at some point today--probably near sunset--to capture some critter pictures for Wildlife Wednesday. We keep parking baby Ian's bouncy seat next to the low window in the kitchen, where he can keep an eye on the Turk's Cap jungle, and maybe one day he'll spot a hummingbird there like his sisters and I do.

      Delete
  4. My excuse for staying out of the garden is not nearly as good as yours (it has just been HOT this summer), but we had some cool weather last week, and I did a little weeding of my own. I tackled 4 beds, and cleaned up all of the brush in the yard from the summer storm responsible for the cooler weather. Like you, I still have some mulching to do, but I ended the evening with a bonfire and was thoroughly happy with what I was able to accomplish. I'm so impressed you found time to work in the yard, and I hope it gives you an extra reason to smile when you look outside!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! Well, honestly I probably wouldn't be doing much out there in August of any year. At least this year I have a good excuse. ;-)

      Wow, 4 beds! That's quite a lot of weeding, and brush clearing is a big chore on its own. I bet you're enjoying your newly cleaned up garden views, too.

      Cheers to a cool season to come...

      Delete
  5. Amazed here as well - and glad to know you're feeling so well and felt like working in the garden. It's really hard to sit and relax outdoors when it's a mess - maybe it will now be easier to sit with Ian on your lap & just enjoy the pretty garden.

    The sweet little yellow rainlilies with orange flush look like the native Copper Lilies/Habranthus tubispathus to me. There was a small clump in my yard when we first moved to this house but they've dwindled as a nearby oak grew and the area became shadier.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Annie! There are still some messes, but right now they're mostly in the form of my daughters' sand toys strewn all over the back patio. Somehow picking those up is less rewarding than cleaning up a garden bed, and they'd all be scattered again the next day. I know the weeds will come back, too, but that will take longer. :-)

      Thanks for the insight on the Copper Lilies! They sure are pretty, and they were in a sunny, almost death-strip spot in the park.

      Delete