A Weed by Any Other Name

My bird seed has gone to the weeds.

The birds in my yard always shoot bird seed all over the place when they are eating, and some of it always goes to seed.  At least this year I got something sort of nice out of it!

I don't care if it's a weed - I like it.

(The not-so-glamorous view.  Yes, I've been mowing around it.  Busted.)

Alternative view:  Points of interest can be found in the most unexpected places!

'Sungold' Cherry Tomatoes

Tomatoes are in full production mode right now!

Here are some of the 'Sungold' cherry tomatoes I grew this year from seed I ordered from the Burpee catalogue.

They're supposed to be yellow tomatoes, but they look red to me.  Either way, they're very tasty - I love 'em, and so does Samson!

Yes, Sam loves all manner of produce from the garden but is especially fond of tomatoes, zucchini, and cantaloupe.  How weird is that?!

The Praying Mantis: One Cool Bug!

They praying mantis is a cool bug!  I've seen several around my yard lately, so I did a little research and found some interesting facts. 

There are over 2,000 species of praying matis worldwide.

Praying mantis on my back door.

Strictly carnivorous, they are the only insects that can swivel their head a full 180 degrees.  What's more, they have very keen compound eyes capable of spotting their prey a full 50 feet away!

Most random fun fact?  Most mantids have a single ear in the form of a slit near their legs.  The ear has two eardrums tuned to 26-60 kHz which allows them to hear ultrasonic sounds such as bats which are natural predators.

Cool, hu?

Here's a little baby praying mantis I spotted on my grill one afternoon.

Click here to find out more about the praying mantis.

Crape Myrtles

Crape myrtles come in a variety of colors and sizes to add punch to your summer landscape.  Below is a standard 'Natchez' crape myrtle from my landscape that was planted about three years ago from a five gallon from Sparkman's Nursery.

White bloom on the 'Natchez' crape myrtle

Hot pink bloom of the 'Carolina Beauty' standard pink crape myrtle.

Standard crape myrtles will typically grow 12' to 15' in our area.  Also available are the Indian series crape myrtles (8' to 10' tall), dwarf crapes (4' to 6' tall), and weeping crape myrtles (15" to 18").  All are available in shades of pink, lavender, and white.  The taller varieties can be pruned up into a tree form or can be allowed to grow unpruned as a large bush.

Crape myrtle in the background with 'Cabaret' miscanthus grass, rosemary, and marigolds in the landscape.

  

Crape myrtles exhibit an interesting characteristic called exfoliating bark which can be seen below.  This is healthy and natural for the plant and will add layers of texture and interest as your crape myrtles mature.

Exfoliating bark on a crape myrtle trunk.

Crape myrtles are deciduous which means they lose their leaves in winter, and they will typically give you some yellow, orange, and purple fall color in autumn.

 

Shade Trees: Shumard Red Oak

Nice, big shade trees are fundamental to an enjoyable back yard.  My yard is big.  My lot is about a third of an acre with most of it being the back yard.  When it's well manicured, it feels like a city park to me.

When I bought my house twelve years ago, there was not a single tree.  There were horny toads, which was cool, but not what I was ultimately going for.  It was like someone had implemented a scorched earth policy.

Awesome!

Since I was in the nursery business at the time, I had all the good contacts for getting nice trees, and I promptly planted a balled-and-burlaped Shumard red oak. 

There it is on the left.

Incidentally, I planted this tree on  December 19, 1998 which is the day Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives and also happened to be my dad's birthday, so it's a commemorative tree of sorts.

Balled-and-burlapped trees are field-grown trees that are dug in the winter when they're dormant, and the root ball is wrapped in burlap (just like the name says!)  This allows you to move a larger tree while minimizing transplant shock.

Because the tree loses much of its root system during this process, they should only be planted during the winter months when the canapy is dormant.  The benefit to doing this is that it allows you to plant a larger tree than you can typically buy in a container.  Balled-and-burlapped trees are sold by the caliper inch which is the diameter of the trunk at around chest height while container-grown trees are sold according to the pot size.

My Shumard red oak is now about five caliper inches.

I don't remember the exact caliper size of my red oak when I bought it, but you can see that it is growing into a nice shade tree - one that my dogs can enjoy!

The Shumard red oak is a nice, hardwood shade tree.  As such, it is somewhat slow-growing, but a long lasting, quality tree that will give you generations of shade and and good fall color.

Close up of Shumard red oak foliage.

A few years later, I planted several more balled-and-burlapped trees as well.  More to follow on that later...

The Melt-In-Your-Mouth Peach

OKAY...  Debbi totally ragged on me tonight for not updating my blog lately, so...

My wonderful Elberta peach produced the most magnificent melt-in-your-mouth peach this year.  Yes, peach.  As in one.

In all fairness to the tree, it was only its second year.  They don't typically produce until they've been in the ground for a couple of years, and the first year was a pruning year.

Here it is!

The one peach was as big as my fist, it smelled like heaven, and it almost literally melted in my mouth.  Wonderful!  I can't wait to have have a big bunch of peaches next year - a homegrown peach really is fantastic.  Please, plant one today.  You'll be glad you did!

There, Deb...