A Little This...A Little That....

It's been a while since I posted here.

We've been here and there, and busy.

Today is overcast...more rain forecast...so I got out and took some photos.

Everything has been really loving our recent rains.

And, we've enjoyed not having to water.

Last time, I showed you our latest project and pointed out this was next.

Well...it's coming along nicely.

Not finished...but coming along.

We'll be putting in some stepping stones on the right side.

Water from the street always ran through here, whenever it rained.

It was washing away soil from tree roots.

So, we put in this cut limestone edging and a trench, to redirect the rain water.

And, it works!

It got it's first test the day we finished it, when we had three inches of rain.

Some 'Color Guard' yucca and cacti will be the basis of the plantings here.

I'm thinking this one will have to be replanted...maybe a bit more mounding for it's roots.

It's pretty flat right now.

It all ties in, with the new side project.

A bridge helps to further protect exposed trees roots.

More work needs to be done.

When is there not?

But, it's all coming along.

The deer have chomped to tops out of the Spanish Bayonet yuccas.

Not to be vindictive....but, I hope it HURT!

This nut sedge is coming up THROUGH thick cardboard and about three inches of mulch.

Nothing stops this stuff.

And, I can clean out the new fenced area again.

The golf course over-seeded with rye grass for winter, and it washed down to here.

I need to build this bed up more.  Maybe that would help.

But, most things are looking pretty good.

Looking over the Drive Bed, toward the Fenced Yard,

you can see things are pretty green.

The opposite view is nice, too.

Going through the gate, you can see how things are filling in.

A lot of this will die back for winter.  But, I hope I've added enough evergreen things

for some winter interest.

We'll have that same scenario, on the other side.

And, along the front fence bed.

The Turk's Cap, at the back of the Fenced Yard, is really putting on a show.

Love those bright red blooms.

On the front porch, I changed out a Holly Fern, for a Foxtail Fern.

The Holly Fern seemed to just need more water 

than I was remembering to give it.

So far, so good with this change.

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

On a more personal note...

we have good news, and bad news.

The good news is...

Our daughter has moved back, to be closer to us.

Right around the corner, in fact.

We'll get to see more of them.

The bad news is...

She moved back so we can help, 

while she's going through yet another

medical set back.

Our son-in-law, is headed back to Wyoming to work.

We're hoping he'll find a job down here, VERY soon.

God willing, we'll win these battles.

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

So...there's a little of this and that from around here.

Hope all is good in your neck of the woods.

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

The Never Ending Story...

A while back, I told you there was a 

New Project

in the works.

This area, on the side of the house, has been progressing since we got here.

Our first view was this...

The fenced Veggie Bed was there when we got here.

That black thing in the middle?  That's the septic tank.

We're hooked up to the sewer system, so that tank just is a pass through kind of thing.

I couldn't stand that.

So, one of the first projects here, was making a bed around it.

There was some grass over there then. St. Augustine, some Bermuda,

and a lot of weeds....

and ROCKS.

So, as the digging progressed, and the heat started setting in,

the bed became smaller than the plan.

I named it The Rock Bed.

Not for the rocks in it, but for the rocks I took out.

The next year, I expanded it.  I planted lantana, some autumn sage that came with the house,

moved some prickly pear from the Deer Grove, and added things here and there.

I think you've heard this story before.

It looked pretty good, for a while.

But, the deer ate the blooms off the lantana.

They shredded some of the agave.

I borrowed the prickly pear for the Drive Bed, after the evil

Snout-nosed Beetle killed that pretty yucca.

And, it all got neglected.

Weeds took over.

Horseherb and feather grass everywhere.

That wouldn't do...

So, we put up some wire on most of the bed.  If I'm going to have lantana

...or any other blooming plant...

there has to be a barrier against the deer.

But, I have bigger plans.

This new mulched area is for grasses...and other things deer don't eat.

I moved the feathergrass out of the new fenced area.

And, some autumn sage and agaves got moved.

Planted some Gulf Muhly, and moved the 

Spanish Bayonet from the front bed, where it was in the wrong place.

I dug out the weeds and the horseherb and planted a new lantana I was lucky enough 

to get at an Austin Bloggers meeting.

We made a mulch path along the side of the house.

Red mulch...I wanted brown, but ended up with red.

It does add color.

There's a bridge across a low place, where we're trying to protect some tree roots.

Is it done?

Hahaha...

Of course not!

There are plants I need to move around, blooming things need to be planted in 

the new fenced area, more grasses and some cactus in the grass bed....

And then, there's this...

It's a Never Ending Story.

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~