Wow, that’s some great pricing. bookmarked! thx
peace
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Cool pic. Plus twenty!
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Wow, I’m amazed at how well you did transforming that piece of desert ground. It looks ver similar to the yards in a town in west Texas I was for a while. I didn’t make that level… too much sun and heat…
A really good ground conditioner and mulch is fresh grass clippings. They feed the soil nitrogen, and block weeds. They don’t look as cool but they work really well in garden areas. It’ll help keep the soil moisture in tact longer, too.
Garden on!
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Tried to get a few different angles of the backyard. My sweet peas are started to fade out. I’m gonna miss them until next year, but boy did I get months and months of heavenly scented flowers for the house. I’ve already harvested all of the green onions. Gave lots away to family, friends and neighbors and made a bunch of quiche with the rest. I could have left them to multiply year round, but I need that space for one more mj plant. Just not looking forward to digging it out cuz… bermuda grass. Ugh! The artichoke plant is 4 times the size since I planted it in the ground. Still no sign of flower. It probably has a diameter of 3 to 4 feet now. I’ve had this plant since the fall, if I don’t see something soon it’s getting torn out and composted as it’s taking up some prime real estate out there. lol Other than that, I have watered and have another tea started, but I really haven’t done a damn thing out there in a few weeks besides plant the comfrey.
Life has been complicated since my friend Scotty died. My man has just been a depressed wreck. Another long time friend we had to do an intervention on when he came in town for the funeral. And the next night, he had seizures from alcohol withdrawal and ended up in the hospital. He’s okay now and will be admitted to a 6 month rehab at Salvation Army. On top of that, my man had a medical procedure for his prostate that required a catheter for 5 days. He got that removed yesterday and is recovering. It’s been a month! Whew! Things are starting to go back to routine now, I believe. Hallelujah, as I’m running out of money from not having time to work with everyone needing my attention. Ready to crack down tomorrow, at least fertilizing plants tomorrow and getting some work done. Shit, I haven’t even done laundry. I’m a mess. I feel sorry for my housekeeper who came this morning, she was sick last week when she was scheduled so it was an extra week of cleaning that needed to be done and the house was about as messy as I felt on the inside. It was a relief coming home to a clean house today after so much chaos. Just feels better.
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I actually have straw in there as mulch. Quite a bit got blown off awhile back when we had really high winds and I just haven’t replaced it yet. Most of the grass clippings keep going in the compost tumbler lately. It has two barrels, one is almost done and the other is still being filled up. I had ordered more straw but screwed up and got a smaller size which wasn’t worth the money as I got like 10x more for I think only like 10 bucks extra. Another 35lb box is on my list.
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Is it in the air or what? Ms 
Betty had a foxtail in her ear over memorial day & got it pulled yesterday… 
Glad to hang out in your yard. 
Really hope things improve for yall.
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Thanks for the well wishes! Things just feel better today, so I think the worst is over for now.
Poor Betty! I hate those things! This year it’s burrs all over the front yard. Ms. Jezebel likes to roll in the grass (weeds) and I’m picking them off her collar like crazy. Hoping none end up in her ears. Hope your baby is on the mend!
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Ooh first gourd flower…
Heard cantaloupe gets both male and female flowers. Not sure what sex these are
Masses of the Italian white sunflowers preparing
State of the double tiger lilies
Yellow already fading… feel kinda ripped off lol
Side planter with all the dahlias… They live!
Some of the new shade plants progress
White Bleeding heart
White filigree hosta
White Gold Bleeding heart
Volunteer fern. Neighbor use to have this and it vined over my back wall. Hadn’t seen it in years. Super stoked! Popped up in the perfectly placed spot too!
Pink bleeding heart (yeah, I love these damn things)
What’s left of the new ghost fern. Hang in there baby
Jezebel cuz she is the prettiest thing in my garden
The last of what I thought were Chinese ground orchids actually pink fairy lilies. Sorry y’all.
One of many rows of gladiolas around the yard, waiting on flowers
The gargantuan artichokey that I’m starting to hate
First of the raspberry lemonade zinnias
Pinwheel zinnias
Last but not least my pain in the ass petunias starting to make the magic happen
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How many artichokes does one plant produce?
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Apparently…NONE! 
Seriously though, I don’t have the foggiest idea. This is my first rodeo with them.
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the 
tiger lillies are so showy…maybe next season move them around/apart & disperse them?.. 
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Or I could just plant MORE! Muahahaha! By next year, some of the perennials will be grown in and I will have a better bulb placement assessment me thinks.
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So, I got an exciting “badge” today from OG… Says this thread has been shared over 25 times outside of the site. Wow! I knew one member shared it with his wife, but holy crap, that is so cool! Of all threads to share. I hope anyone outside of OG has gotten something useful while learning along with me. Even better would be if I’ve inspired someone to tackle their barren open space and turn it into a thriving garden. I always say that not everyone is born with a green thumb, some of us have to learn it. Well, the latter would be me. I’m still learning and feel like a novice here. If nothing else, I hope you out there in the world have at least been entertained by some flower pics. Who knew?
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Perusing my local neighborhood website for free stuff and someone is selling Mallow for 5 bucks a plant. I spit out my drink in laughter and disbelief. Guess there has to be that one guy trying to capitalize on his garden weeds and pure stupidity. 
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Random thoughts and things I need to do…
I think I’m gonna hack one side of the new petunias off and encourage it to spread out more, in a week or so I’ll do the other half. In my mind I picture this ridiculous mass of overflowing flowers. So, I’m gonna try and make it happen. Quickly realizing that pruning is new to me aside from roses. I’m constantly looking up every flower I get to see if I need to or if they are best deadheaded. Shoot, with the amount of flowers I like to try out, I’m gonna be a flower encyclopedia.
Right before dark I was training the gourds. The flowers last like one day then shrivel up and look like the outside of a cantaloupe with those weird veiny looking things. Found what I believe to be a birdhouse gourd starting on one vine. Right now it looks like a seaweed pod. I’m excited that it’s starting to “fruit”, but I’m not holding my breath on the first few growing out. I’m sure it’s gonna spit out some higher ones as this one is pretty low to the ground. Either way, this is a really fun plant.
Dug out a few feet of bermuda grass that was encroaching on the dahlias and the perennials that I started from seed this winter. 2 painted daisy plants and an echinacea. They are still pretty small and slow growing. They looked like they were almost getting choked out. It’s been a minute since I have gotten back to where I was in my round of weeding. I have one more stretch of planter to go until I start at the beginning again. I pulled all of the weeds out of the shade planters in like half and hour the other day and they are really big. Grass doesn’t grow in there in the shade. Thank dog! and the shade beds are always soft from… well, shade. lol Speaking of shade, the ghost fern is getting worse than even the pic the other day. Bummed. Def gonna have to get another one. It’s against a north wall, but every time I go to look at it it seems like it’s in the sun. Which is weird cuz, it’s the damn north wall. I think it may be more indirect sun, but still. Guess I’m gonna really need to track the sunshine instead of guessing, maybe it needs to go in another shady spot.
Been really perplexed by my vinca, so I googled it and realized it’s a summer/fall bloomer and I started the seeds way too early. So, since they are still small, I’m gonna hack them down 2 nodes and see if they will bush out before summer flowering. I moved them to partial shade a few days ago thinking maybe that was the problem, but I guess I had them in the full sun originally for a reason. They like full sun.
Found my first baby slug tonight. Great! I better DE the yard again after the next watering. Especially the shade planters or the new hosta will be toast. Dug around in the artichoke today. Man that fucker is hardy, keep finding masses of new leaf shoots but no damn flower. So frustrated and while digging around I found some small black beetles and their eggs in the very core new leaves. I just showered it with the hose to drown them, Maybe if I just leave them there the beetles will just eat that and stay off my other garden plants. Dunno? Sacrificial artichokey?
One of the 60 year old roses bushes in the front has rust. There are only a few left now of Gramps roses. I pulled out a white hybrid tea last year that up and croaked that was his. If I can’t fix this one, I’ll be left with one old grandiflora and one tiny floribunda in the back that I brought back from the dead. Kind of bums me out. In a last ditch attempt, I think I’m gonna cut it back almost to the cane and spray a 3 in 1. My gardener seems to think it will work, I do not. Pretty certain it’s rust and certain death and disease. If it’s still there when it grows back, I’m gonna have to dig it up. The front planter is gonna look really empty until the freesia blooms again. I won’t buy another rose bush until late winter here when they are fresh and plentiful and in season. I just missed it.
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I find that when petunias get that late summertime legginess to them cut them back about 1/3 seems to rejuvenate them imo.
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Try burying a bottle of cheap beer to collect slugs… 
just let them crawl in & go bye bye.
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