We Have a Real Survivor

Nature seems to be able to recover from anything.

This is a picture of my first ox blood lily (Rhodophiala bifida).

A few weeks ago, our neighbors had an old alleyway between our homes cleaned out. It had to be done. I allowed them to start halfway down my fence line beyond my passion vine. There were dead hack berry trees, one of which had fallen on the next door neighbors' fence. There are wild figs, which were saved. The entire length of the alleyway was covered in junk saplings and poison ivy.

The landscape crew cleaned it all out and then sprayed everything with Roundup. What is left is scorched earth. It will take a long time for this area to recover, yet the little oxblood lilies are coming right up as if nothing happened. Nature is amazing.

The Saddest Thing I've Ever Seen

I am a bad gardener, very very bad. I dug up this plant from a fellow gardeners plot and planted it up in a container. I thought it was a coleus. It seemed to hate the sun so I moved it to the shade.

It turned yellow and became infested with mealy bugs.

Today, I was at the Xeric Garden in Forney and there was my plant, three and a half feet tall and a beautiful purple. It is a Parilla. It needs to be in full sun and is absolutely too big to be grown in the container I put it in. Why in the world didn't I just ask what the heck it was and learn how to take care of it. My friend had gotten her plant when it reseeded itself at the Xeric Garden. Right now my poor little plant is sitting in the sink. I had to give it a shower to get rid of the mealy bugs. It is going in the ground in the front flowerbed this evening. It will get full on sun until about 2:oo pm and then afternoon shade.

Murphy's Law for Gardeners

Over the last year I have had a few encounters with Murphy's law. Here are just a few.

1. No matter how much stuff you put in the compost pile, there will never be enough compost.

2. Spring weather will be warm and sunny and then temperature will drop into the 40's the week you put out your tomato seedlings

3. As soon as you make the perfect, nice, fluffy garden plot, the dog will decide it is a perfect doggie bed.

4. It will rain on the days you take off work to get the garden started in the spring.

5. Your puppy will think your veggie garden is a perfect place to jump up and down.

6. Your cat will believe the garden is a litter box and butterflies are toys.

7. The minute you set up your new rain barrel, the rain will stop.

8. Your non-gardening spouse will give erroneous gardening advice to the neighbors

9. You will try to grow a plant that has died on you year after year because 'This will be the year." Then you will be surprised when it dies yet again.

10. You will have a surprise encounter with a slug, toad, or some other critter that makes you run and scream.

Do y'all have any Murphy's law observations?

Here is a flower bed I had to fix after the clients dog decided to use it for a bed. I really like the little black fence.

This is a pretty bed, but all the roses are sick because of yo-yo rain and drought.

Another Way to Cook Zucchini

I know a lot of vegetable gardeners end up with too much zucchini or have family members who won't eat it. My boys will eat it stir fried with carrots and sprinkled with season salt. The whole family will eat coated in spicy cornmeal and fried. That is about the extent of their zucchini love.

Tonight I baked some pork chops with mushrooms, onions, olive oil, a little beef broth, and pepper. I had one good sized rhonde de nice zucchini. I sliced it really thin and added it to the pork chop bake for the last ten minutes in the oven. It was wonderful. I could make a meal of just the mushrooms and zucchini.

Monkey Haircut

They won't let him go to school looking like this. I cannot imagine why.

He looks a little worried.

Awww...look at that face.

Rainy Day Projects

It is raining and the forecast says we will have rain for several more days. We need this rain bad so I am happy, but housebound. Rain makes me sleepy and I want to take a nap. I don't want to waste the whole day though.

I should work on the quilt for Christann. The wedding is a month from today. Yikes!!! I better get moving. There is only one row finished. Maybe Mamala will help me when the boys go back to school next week.

Updates

I thought it might be time for a few updates

The carpenter finished the bridge over the bog garden. Isn't it pretty? Ignore the Monkey.

The pink containers are recycled cattle feed buckets. Some of the plants I want to use on this project can be invasive and we are hoping the containers will provide a barrier as well as holding more water around the plants roots.

I found a way to increase my rainwater harvesting capacity. It looks pretty redneck, but it works. This is another way to recycle those cattle feed buckets.

Remember our cute little pumpkin. Well, look at her now. There are a few spots that are beginning to turn orange. I don't think it will get really big, but I don't care. This is my first pumpkin success. I did not have to cull any of the other baby pumpkins. They shriveled up and turned yellow without any help from me.