May Showers Bring....

 Weeds!

I love the garden that the previous owners of the house installed and maintained. Between the weather and our removing some trees that changed the amount of light that the garden receives, it is not faring well. And yes, it could be that I don't give it the right amount of TLC, or perhaps don't spend enough time out there telling the plants how lovely they look! Oh, and yes, it could also be that it is only the beginning of May, and with the freeze we had, some plants have to come back to their glory from the roots. And, they are working on that! 

Our rain yesterday was lovely. And, no, the rain didn't mean that the weeds grew overnight. They have been there. However, the lovely rain means damp soil, which translates to it being a tad easier to get weeds out of the garden, along with their roots! 

I spent my morning kneeling and sitting amongst the emerging ferns, digging out, and pulling out baby palms, smilax, Virginia creeper and all manner of nasty, ugly, stubborn, prickly, deep rooted, obnoxious weeds. Look at my haul....and I only covered about 20 feet of the garden bank. 

Of course, I had help (???) from the dogs. One or the other would come over to see me periodically, when I had my face closest to the ground with my hands buried in the dirt, and thus in a vulnerable position, to give me a kiss. I'm sure you can tell from the picture that Vickie is rooting me on....yeah, go mom! You got this! ...whatever!

California Here I Come

We originally planed to leave our Florida home in May so we could enjoy spring in the Bay Area at our new home in Point Richmond. That didn't happen, as we were delayed by the wait for the truck windshield. Then, the Mister needed his annual blood-letting to determine if the Doctor could safely renew his prescriptions. One of his numbers came back outside of the normal range. His Doc wanted him to see a specialist... another few weeks of waiting... then the specialist wanted an MRI... another week of waiting... then the follow-up appointment... more waiting!
I decided that despite windshield woes and medical stuff going on... I was going to CA - without my guy. I hopped on a plane and enjoyed just over a week with grand kids, kids, friends and family, before returning to Florida... where all the medical results are good and we are finally ready to pack up and head back to CA!

Here's just a bit of what I did on my "vacation"...

• I visited two different ukelele meet-up jam sessions with the "other grandmother"
• I played with the kids
• I went to the zoo with the kids and the other grandmother
• I played Mahjong with my CA friends
• I pulled weeds
• I watched the Richmond fireworks on July 3 from the Red Oak Victory ship
• I played ping-pong with a group at "Rigger's Loft" - a local winery
• I enjoyed a few family dinners
• I completed a quilt on the long arm
• I watched ships go in and out of the harbor...

Here are a few pictures of my days in CA...

Nonna Holly joins in the Ukelele sing-along with a little help from Kellan

Alexis in imaginative play

Alexis in a contemplative mood

Kellan's first carousel ride at the Oakland Zoo

What a fantastic view of Oakland, SF Bay and San Francisco from the Oakland Zoo  gondola

Alexis chose the eagle on the carousel

Richmond fireworks celebrations from the Red Oak Victory Ship

Fun play in the back yard

Back yard looking east - BEFORE

Back Yard  looking West - BEFORE

Back yard looking East - AFTER weeding

Back yard looking West - AFTER Weeding

Ship coming into Richmond Harbor as viewed from the kitchen

Now it's time to pack up and put away... and get on the road for adventures as we head west.

Who Knows Best?

I separate Malachi (the bony pony) from the herd to feed him. He is such a sweet, gentle horse that he lets anyone steal his food. I've gotten to the point where I don't tie Malachi any more. Once he has finished his meal, he has the opportunity to wander around in my back yard (which is fenced) until I have the inclination to put him back with the herd.

We Dreamers noticed that Malachi likes eating the weeds growing on the gravel driveway.  Knowing that there are many poisonous plants (to horses) in he world, I checked up on what he was finding so tasty. He was eating the Redstem Fillaree. 

After a little research I discovered that Redstem Fillaree has the highest percentage of non-structural carbohydrates of all weeds generally found in the Rocky Mountain area. It has higher levels of sugar than grasses. So, does Malachi instinctively know that the Fillaree will give him the biggest bang for the bite? 

Further reading yielded information linking Fillaree with laminitis. I had little concern for that, given Malachi's slim build. But, a suggestion that Fillaree might cause issues in digestion in the "hind gut", causing colic, and that nitrates found in Fillaree at some points during the growing season, can be toxic to equines, had me stepping out to put Malachi back with his buddies in a hurry!

April Showers Bring...

Saturday afternoon was just beautiful. I went out to weed, and transplant a few perennials, and was hijacked by a dwarf iris. My only purple iris (at least for now... stay tuned for an iris post later this spring!) was blooming. 

It was lovely. 

I took a few pictures of it, and Mr. Dreamy came out to take a few more pictures. I took pictures of a few tulips and daffodils. 

They were all lovely. 

I decided that I wanted to draw the iris, since that is one of the flowers that we drew in a recent online art class I've been taking. I've drawn iris from pictures, but never "in person". So, I gathered my paper and pencil and plopped myself down on the edge of the garden and began to sketch. Mr. Dreamy came out with my bag of colored pencils. I colored. 

It was a lovely afternoon.

Yup, the weeds will just have to wait!

Wonderful Weeds

Why, I wonder, as I pull the grass

Sitting in the rocks on my big, broad a$$,

Do flowers grow in the turf, so green

While grass grows everywhere in-between?

Our house is surrounded by rock beds. 

They make a good fire break… but only if they are free of dried plants. 

They haven't been totally weed-free since we bought the house.

This year I'm going to try to get them back to what they once were.

East view of garage… after weeding.

(Top picture shows the 'before' view)

I removed 2 garbage bags of weeds

and took another 2 wheelbarrow loads to the compost heap.

Another view…

Oh, look! 

We have beautiful iris that were hidden in the grass!

They will be blooming soon.

Weeds Gone Wild

While we were gone my garden ran amok. You know that saying, while the cat's away.....

I have my own version: 

When the gardener goes away the weeds have their day!

One advantage of letting weeds grow for weeks is that they are very easy to see, and each weed takes up so much space, a bit of pulling opens the garden up amazingly fast.

Some many of my flowers are a bit leggy from competing with the weeds for sunlight.  I also have sunflowers that volunteered to grace the garden from a few I planted last year. For now, I have let them be. They bring a smile to my face. Even though it is rather late in the growing season, I bought a few of the remaining annuals at the garden shop to add a bit more color.

And then there are the Hollyhocks. I had three clumps that produced beautiful flowers last year. As they are biannual, they are gone. But they left their children - and oh, they were prolific! If I leave them be, next year I will have a garden that is a single mass of hollyhocks. Hmmm.... it might be interesting.

Little Field of Horrors

NO! 

Don't eat the Geranium!

Be careful little Geranium.

Run!

The Geranium flowers leaned as far from the 

threatening mouths of the plant as they could,

given the confines of their pot.

Today I was out in the pasture by 8:30.... before breakfast... before it got too hot. I was equipped with clippers (which I lost in the pasture at one point), a big black pot and a sprayer of Round-Up. I was snipping flower heads off the thistles and spraying the plants. We are slowly making headway against the thistle problem in our yard and pasture.

I came across a thistle-like plant, but the flower buds (in picture above) were very different. They had a spiny covering and four or five pointed spines. The buds, all by themselves, looked sinister. They looked like they had gaping jaws.

When I cut the tops of the stem, removing the flower buds, the plant 'bled' tempera paint yellow! The yellow in the picture below is not a flower, it's the sap of the plant! It welled up, just like blood would behave if you were cut. It even ran down the stems. "Little Shop of Horrors" immediately came to mind!

I love the Internet. A search for "thistle plant yellow sap" yielded my answer. I discovered that this is Mexican Prickly Poppy (Argemone mexicans). It is also known as goatweed, Mexican thistle and yellow thistle. The flowers are quite pretty. But, I don't think Ill be cutting a bouquet of them anytime soon!

Moving Day

I subscribe to the 'purchase, plunk and plant' method of gardening. 

Sometimes the results are less than what I dreamed of!

Last year I started seeds indoors, 

but when it came time to plant the little seedlings

I had lost many of the name markers. 

That added a bit more of a gamble to my garden.

One plant, in particular, was making me go crazy.

I think it is a 'Butterfly Blue Delphinium"

or maybe it is a wild blue Flax. 

Either way, it grows too big and bushy.

It was planted in the wrong place,

and it has been taking over.

Time for a change!

See the blue fluff taking over the upper part of this garden?

 It's going to move here.... as soon as I can get rid of the weeds!

I've been working on it:
Look, look. See the weeds.
See the pile of weeds on the sidewalk.
See the weeds in the black pot.
Dreaming has been pulling weeds!

 Out with the old!

It's moving day!

 Planted in their new homes.
From a distance (and in the photo)
this area doesn't look much different than it did with the weeds,
but, trust me, it is much nicer looking now.

Hmmm....

There are holes in my garden, 

dear reader, 

dear reader...

With what shall I fill them?

This is only the tip of the ice berg!

Time to go plunk and plant!