WEED WARS!!!

Down here in The South, Mother Nature brews up the perfect mix of heat, sunshine, humidity, and rainfall. Add to this the overheated and exhausted GARDENER, and you have the recipe

for 

WEED WARS!

Currently the troops are fighting an all out battle against this tough-rooted bunch grass. I haven't the faintest idea what it's called. We'd like to call it DEAD!

I've sent other troops to fight this tricky leaf flower weed.

It grows in even the smallest cracks. It can reseed by the hundreds if you don't pull it in time.

It will take an entire battalion to combat this hairy crabgrass.

It wins the prize for toughest root system to deal with. You can pull all you want, but most of the time it takes a digging tool to get all of it. 

This is a short version of leaf flower. It looks so pretty and ornamental...until you find hundreds of them in every nook and cranny. The leaf flower genus hails from South America and finds the Texas Gulf Coast a perfect place to live.

In the shady backyard the troops are taking on mulberry weed. This weed has not been in America very long, so many gardeners are just now seeing it for the first time. It moves around via the nursery trade.

Do NOT just snap off the top of mulberry weed. Here's why; as you can see by the above image, you will generate a whole Medusa's head of new growth each time you trim it.

Also, NEVER throw mulberry weed into your compost pile. Each seed head contains hundreds of viable seeds as tiny as this dot "."  (Actually they are tinier, but I know you would find that hard to believe)  I think it is actually closer in size to this dot "."  

Leaf flower has these cute little green seed pods dangling beneath the foliage. Each contains a powerhouse of seeds. Unless you have some weird 'cycle of life' thing going,  DO NOT throw leaf flower in your compost or leave them on the ground as mulch. You can enjoy the cycle of life in other ways. 

As we enjoy another Texas sunset, I'll leave you with some hopeful news.

Each of these bothersome weeds are annuals, not perennials. They don't like the cold and they must have open ground to show up each year. Mulching your garden will give you a distinct advantage.

Unfortunately, I love my gravel and rocky beds too much to cover them with mulch. I count pulling weeds as my stretching and yoga workout each morning.

That's it for now. Find some excuse to get outside today and garden!

YOU WILL FEEL BETTER for it!

David/:0)

PREVENTING YARD WARS! BOUNDARY IDEAS WHEN PHILOSOPHIES DIFFER

For the most part, neighbors plant & mow the same types of grass. They don't often care where their yard stops and the other begins.

But what if you don't have the same ideas about gardening?

Here are some neighborhood yards and gardens that conjure up some interesting solutions.

This gardener used black star gravel and a metal border. To prevent gravel from becoming a problem for the neighbor's lawnmower, they then cleverly transitioned to a black mulch!

I'm not sure I like the stark all-gravel look with a bungalow, but never mind.

These two neighbors have a dramatically different philosophy!

To solve the problem and keep the gravel in its place, they've used landscape bricks and a metal runner.

Note: The nut sedge has already decided to live in the gravel. (Mother Nature hates a void.)

It pains me to admit that one of my neighbors in the next block has a fake yard. 

You are looking at St. Augustine grass on the left and the fake yard on the right. 

The concrete divider comes standard with the fake grass. By the way, studies have found that the fake grass heats up about the same as concrete sidewalks. I've not tested the theory, so let's move on.

The family on the left wanted to plant natives and do away with part of their lawn. 

Landscape bricks separate their planting from the St. Augustine lawn next door.

I liked this idea so much that I borrowed it for my own border problems (which I'll show you at the end of the post).

A small ditch separates these two different mowing philosophies; longer grass on the left and shorter grass on the right.

Both are St. Augustine grass.

Three of the newest homes have Bermuda grass lawns.

I personally do NOT like this type of grass since it is much more difficult to maintain.

As you can see on the left, weeds are a constant battle. If you are next to a standard St. Augustine lawn, you'll need to install a metal strip to prevent the lawns from battling for supremacy. 

Another example. St. Augustine grass on the left and low cut Bermuda grass on the right.

Nothing divides these two types of grasses and this could lead to problems.

Bermuda grass is on the left and something new is on the right. I'll check back in a couple of months to see what happens.

If both houses have no lawn and lots of shade, homeowners like this one plant under story shrubs in a shared bed (left side). The right side of the property has a fence, then gravel next to the sidewalk. I like when neighbors work together. It looks like one endless garden.

***

I hope you NEVER have to face a boundary problem between you and your neighbor.

But if you do, hopefully this post will offer some solutions to keep the peace.

Thanks for stopping by!

David/:0)

I'VE ALLOWED A BEAUTIFUL TEMPTRESS INTO MY GARDEN...AND NOW I'M AFRAID

I don't like roses. 

But with the added hours of sunshine, my final excuse for not growing them has vanished.

My wife is all smiles.

As I take these pictures, my irritation over their thorny character starts to subside.

Reblooms bedazzle me. The things seem to NEVER stop blooming.

Their bright red sprinkles the sea of green with shouts of 'Look at me!'

I try to stay strong and force myself to remember that I don't like roses.

Last winter, this little temptress was covered by a fine layer of ice. As a photographer, I was enraptured.  My dislike for roses was melting away.

It doesn't help matters that one of the largest rose vendors in the country is just a short drive out to Washington County, Texas.

My wife LOVES the place. So every Spring we pick out exactly ONE rose to add to the garden.

These antique roses are tough little characters that seem to survive with a minimum of care.

Now we are picking fragrant roses to bring inside.

There's nothing like the smell of a great rose.

So there you have it....I have to admit I've been beguiled 

by these lovely creatures....just don't tell my wife!

                                             

That's it for today. If you have a favorite rose please share the name with me.

It just might end up here in my garden someday!

David/:0)

***********************

NOTES ON WHAT I GROW:

The Antique Rose Emporium website:

https://www.antiqueroseemporium.com/

WOW! HORTICULTURAL HORROR MOVIE SET AT OUR POST OFFICE...NIGHTMARE ON CRAPE MYRTLE STREET

I don't want to show this to anyone in McKinney Texas. McKinney bills itself as the Crape Myrtle City.

http://crapemyrtletrails.org/

And Paris, Texas has an annual Crape Myrtle Queen. I shall not be sending a link to that fair city as well.

http://inparistexas.com/articles/crape-myrtle-queen-coronation-at-bywaters-park/

It's the middle of the summer and these magnificent, tree-size Lagerstroemia fauriei were just starting to bloom. Then the U.S. Postal Service groundskeepers came and cut off the tops!

Why? Because it was part of the maintenance checklist.

Here's what our Crape Myrtles normally look like this time of year.

And here are the ones in front of the post office. I watched 20 people walk by and nobody noticed.

That means that if nobody cares, then why not leave them alone and let them provide shade and blooms all summer.

Here's one of the white-flowering Japanese Crape Myrtles in bloom. 

And here we are back at the Post Office. Maybe I should hang the stop sign in the trees!

I normally don't notice Crape Myrtles. But the ones at the post office are the species with the beautiful cinnamon colored bark....Lagerstroemia fauriei. Most of our trees here in Houston have the pale brown bark of L. indica.

Here's the beautiful bark of one of their trees.

I'll leave you with some nice blooms to think about.

Hope your Post Office is smarter than mine!

All for now.

David/:0)

I'M SINGING THIS SONG TO MY GARDEN: THE BEATLES...HERE COMES THE SUN!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6j4TGqVl5g

If you can figure out how to listen to the music while you read this, then more power to ya!

Last Autumn, THE HOME BUILDER next door decided that the forest canopy was a BAD thing and commenced cutting down all the beautiful trees. Since that time, I've had to do an about face to keep up with the new SUNNY side of gardening.

As you may recall, I've gardened in the SHADE here at Tropical Texana for almost 30 years (except for a narrow strip in the very front of the yard).

Lucky for me I was raised in the middle of a  Texas prairie where we had endless sun from one horizon to the other.
So...let's take a tour and see what's happening. 

Here's THE NEXT DOOR MILLION DOLLAR MANSION shining in the sun. I feel like I've moved to a different neighborhood without actually moving! Wow!

In  front of my new mansion (ha ha) is the start of the newest addition to our garden. 

My boyhood home on the Texas prairie had sunshine all the day long.

The front garden has had two extra hours of sunshine this year. I have admit the plants are actually happy for the extra sunlight.

The front herb garden and cottage garden have also fared well with lots of blooms (but extra watering).

This biggest changes are here in the shade garden. I'm basically taking it apart and moving it one piece at a time. The ferns will go to their new home when it is cooler. Moving them now would be instant death.

The only 'shade' garden I have left from the original area is this small piece underneath a redbud tree.

I've added cannas since they love half a day of sun.

I just finished this planting yesterday. It will get about 5 hours of morning sun  followed by a shady afternoon. Below are the plants I'm growing:

Blue plumbago and violet gomphrenas

Ruellia humilis 'Blue Shade'

Angelonia 'Serena Purple'

Convolvulus 'Blue Daze'...

...and in the background I've planted this Texas native called Little Bluestem. We grew this in our hay meadow so it feels like an old friend is coming home.

I could be really sad about the destruction of the garden next door.

But I know someday I'll see something a little better than this!

Maybe a gardener will move in and we can share plants.

In the meantime, I'm going to go drink some iced tea and get out of the sun for awhile.

Happy Gardening and thanks for stopping by!

David/:0)