Redoing the Grass in the Back Yard

Redoing the grass in the back yard between the patio and the rock garden beds. Turned all the soil manually with with a shovel to dig out the weeds and loosen the soil.

Seeding with Scotts Turf Builder Bermudagrass (Highlander) WaterSmart Plus:

Seeded the back yard in two parts.

• First planting on 5/12/2021 - first signs of growth on 5/21/ 2021 (9 days)
  
• Second planting on 5/22/2021 - first signs of growth on 5/30/2021 (8 days)

4/23/2021 - partly dug

5/21/2021 - first signs on sprouting on the right, left side still needs to be dug

5/26/2021 - first seeding

6/2/2021 - 3 weeks out from first seeding (NW quadrant is second seeding, 11 days out)

Doing My Rock Garden

This used to be my old fish pond. I filled it in many years ago after a snake ate my fish and the liner cracked. Since then it's been nothing in particular, but it still has the old rock border around it which was concreted in. I've grown tomatoes, watermelons, and weeds in it. It is highly visible from inside the house, and I was tired of it looking like crap, so last year I started a concentrated effort to make it look nice.

It gets full sun ALL day long. The soil holds water well, but "normal" plantings still have a tendency to wilt every afternoon in the summertime because of the intensity of the high-summer radiant heat, so I am doing it all in desert rock garden type materials.

Back when it was a fish pond:

2000

2004

 

2016 (home to a tomato plant): 

Black Cherry herloom tomatoes - prolific and delicious!

 2020 (even the cosmos fried last year):

2021 (so far, and granted it's been raining like crazy):

'Moonshine' yarrow

 

Purple Ice Plant

Redo of Backyard Flower Bed

 Ripped out the ratty, old nandinas and replaced with agave pots, Petite Knockout roses, and lantana.

Before...

After!

Before...

After!

The Century Plants (agave) in the pots are pups from an overgrown plant that originally came from my grandmother's garden.

I filled the pots with crushed cans before planting to reduce the weight and keep the roots from staying too wet.

The Garden Workout

Today I traded in my regular workout for yard work and burned 275 calories - not bad!  Here's the workout and a tour around the yard.

1. Prune the honeysuckle

'Gold Flame' honeysuckle before...

...and after!  My mom and dad gave me this iron topiary for my birthday a few years back.

It has a finial on top that will be hidden soon.  Here is what it will look like in a few months!

2. Mulch the landscape

If you're a cheapskate like me, use the free mulch from the city!

3. Cut back the Pampas Grass

What a chore, but it's worth it!  Here are the three clumps with the big pile of mess in the back.  Last year I chopped up the leftover grass and used it in the compost bin.

4. Play with the dogs!!

Sam-dog does his part.  He busted his ACL about six weeks back, so he mostly lays around and watches now.  He's getting around okay as long as he takes it easy, poor sweet guy!

Hudman has adjusted to the city life after moving out here from the farm about a year ago.  She has this big tractor tire to lie next to, so it's like she still has part of the farm with her.

Bullet - The Top Dog will be 12 on April 29th!

Get with it, it's that time of year!!

Debbi, I'll see you tomorrow for the Perfect Mellow Thursday!!

Love, Em

Spring is... (Charlie Sheen voice) SPRINGING!

Last year this tree produced the world's best peach like a freakin' rock star from Mars!

The spirea are starting to leaf out as well.  In a few weeks they're going to bloom like high priest Vatican assassin warlocks with flowers shooting from their fingertips - EPIC!

Vanhoutte spirea

Bridal Wreath spirea is a little further behind.

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...