Fugly Farm

[igorsMistress]

Well change of plans. Asian star jasmine and star jasmine do NOT take the full sun here in hell during the summer. So, I got a Carolina Jessamine instead. It has darker yellow flowers but grows long, 20 feet, and should do well on the slight slope of the xeriscape garden. It’ll be a nice natural mulch round the shrubs in there. That being said, I dug out the red Mexican bird of paradise roots and holy cow! That was some labor and that thing hadn’t been in the ground for more that a year or so. The soil below the surface had been much improved, I could actually dig down pretty far, so all the work is paying off.

My dad had to have a feeding tube put in yesterday. For some reason the muscles that control shutting off the airway when he swallows won’t work properly. I guess the hope is that he’ll gain strength from getting food and maybe that will help. He was basically starving to death and got sick on top of it. But the docs shouldn’t just brush him off, that is one tough dude. Army Ranger, stunt man, and stubborn…he’ll make it home I’m sure.

 

[N F C]

Hope that feeding tube helps your dad gain some strength soon. He needs to get home and give those nurses a break. How's your mom doing?

 

[igorsMistress]

Hope that feeding tube helps your dad gain some strength soon. He needs to get home and give those nurses a break. How's your mom doing?

Thanks Debby. Mom is holding up ok. She’s knitting like crazy to keep herself busy. Making Christmas gifts already apparently. She was really worried and called me crying before he went to the hospital but seems to feel better now that he’s getting care. It’s unclear whether or not he fully understands a DNR but he has one so I’m hoping we can get that clarified.

 

[igorsMistress]

Snaps from the garden today. You can see in this first pic how much removing one shrub and cutting back the other two has really opened this area up. You can’t see it but there’s a rosemary bush growing near the wind spinner

Carolina jessamine

On the right is the last red Mexican bird of paradise now trimmed to a small tree

In the forefront here is yellow bells, also trimmed to a small tree. This can get up ten feet tall

The pile of dirt is for the beach party lilac, currently on backorder per the website. The carrots and garlic are happy though

These are the roots I had to dig out

Eventually the small trees inside and outside this west wall will prevent google maps from looking into my backyard

 

[N F C]

Lots of hard work getting done IM

Love the yellow bells especially!

 

[Grammy60]

Well change of plans. Asian star jasmine and star jasmine do NOT take the full sun here in hell during the summer. So, I got a Carolina Jessamine instead. It has darker yellow flowers but grows long, 20 feet, and should do well on the slight slope of the xeriscape garden. It’ll be a nice natural mulch round the shrubs in there. That being said, I dug out the red Mexican bird of paradise roots and holy cow! That was some labor and that thing hadn’t been in the ground for more that a year or so. The soil below the surface had been much improved, I could actually dig down pretty far, so all the work is paying off.

My dad had to have a feeding tube put in yesterday. For some reason the muscles that control shutting off the airway when he swallows won’t work properly. I guess the hope is that he’ll gain strength from getting food and maybe that will help. He was basically starving to death and got sick on top of it. But the docs shouldn’t just brush him off, that is one tough dude. Army Ranger, stunt man, and stubborn…he’ll make it home I’m sure.

Will keep you dad in my prayers, hope this help

 

[igorsMistress]

Will keep you dad in my prayers, hope this help

Thank you Sue

 

[igorsMistress]

Abby snuggling with me

After the park

 

[igorsMistress]

My compost pile has become rather bulky with all the trimming happening here. I’m hoping this will help

I got it with points for performance at work so it didn’t cost me out of pocket if it’s crappy. I’m hoping it’ll be a good tool addition. The shrubs are looking rather ugly right now, hopefully by this time next year they’ll look better.

I have some electric clippers in the garage that I think I might open this year and try on a bush in the yard. We’ll see, I need to take a better look at it first to see if the lower branches have any new growth first.

I was looking at the trees out front and need to get hubs out there to look at them. One of them fell over in a windstorm several years ago but it didn’t become fully uprooted so we left it to see how it would grow. The small trims it has had over the years have helped, but this year we’re going to have to buy a chain saw and do some major trimming before we have issues. I’ll tell him he can use the bigger chunks on his BBQ and that should make him happy.

I found out yesterday that the plants in the northeast corner of the yard are emu bushes, native to Australia. I’d forgotten what they are, but saw them when I was at Home Depot yesterday buying soil. I also replaced the Texas sage with a firecracker plant. It has coral colored flowers but grown kind of like a clump grass. If I find another Texas sage I’ll pick it up because I do love the wild look it gets when it’s blooming.

 

[N F C]

My compost pile has become rather bulky with all the trimming happening here. I’m hoping this will help
View attachment 2994122

I got it with points for performance at work so it didn’t cost me out of pocket if it’s crappy. I’m hoping it’ll be a good tool addition. The shrubs are looking rather ugly right now, hopefully by this time next year they’ll look better.

I have some electric clippers in the garage that I think I might open this year and try on a bush in the yard. We’ll see, I need to take a better look at it first to see if the lower branches have any new growth first.

I was looking at the trees out front and need to get hubs out there to look at them. One of them fell over in a windstorm several years ago but it didn’t become fully uprooted so we left it to see how it would grow. The small trims it has had over the years have helped, but this year we’re going to have to buy a chain saw and do some major trimming before we have issues. I’ll tell him he can use the bigger chunks on his BBQ and that should make him happy.

I found out yesterday that the plants in the northeast corner of the yard are emu bushes, native to Australia. I’d forgotten what they are, but saw them when I was at Home Depot yesterday buying soil. I also replaced the Texas sage with a firecracker plant. It has coral colored flowers but grown kind of like a clump grass. If I find another Texas sage I’ll pick it up because I do love the wild look it gets when it’s blooming.

The chipper/shredder should come in very handy, and even better that it didn't cost you out of pocket. Firecracker plants are such fun looking plants, I had a few of them in KS and enjoyed them!