Cop Car's Beat

Crape Myrtle Time

Starting in 1943, at which time our family moved into a tiny little (but brand new) house in Tulsa, Oklahoma, crape myrtle bushes held my mother's interests and caused her work. She loved the bushes that we had observed in our travels through Texas during the previous years (please see Livin' the American Dream and Livin' the American Dream - Part 2 to see photos of the home-built mobile home in which we lived during our travels), and immediately planted a bush or two next to the foundation on the east side of the house. They thrived.

In 1946, we moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and Mom promptly planted a crape myrtle bush next to the foundation on the east side of the house. Kansas City is not/was not Tulsa. That miserable little shrub died and was replaced. The new one didn't die, but it didn't thrive, either. It struggled through the years and in about 20 or 30 years got to a size where it was respectable and it bloomed beautifully. (Of course, it's possible that the bush was replaced more than once without my being aware of it since I left Kansas City in 1955.)

Fast forward. While living in the panhandle of Florida in the early 1980s, I noticed a small tree that grew next to a building on Tyndall AFB (I worked in a different building on the base.) When I first noticed the tree, it was bare of leaves for the winter; but, it had such an interesting shape and such lovely bark that I made a mental note to check it out when summer came. Came summer and the "tree" bloomed. You guessed it! It was a crape myrtle.

A couple or three years after we moved into this house (moved in December 1999), I was replacing some shrubs in the front foundation plantings that had not done well. In memory of Mom, I planted a small crape myrtle (please see Crepe Myrtle Time for a photo of it - note that I can never remember whether it is "crepe" or "crape") bush. It grew a bit and bloomed and endured for a couple of years. It was so pretty that when I saw crape myrtle bushes on sale at Wal-Mart, I bought two more and put them into the ground next to the original  The cheapie bushes quickly outgrew the original bush and the three bushes look lovely each July when they bloom (please see Pretty Posies for a photo of the three bushes.).

Several days ago, I snapped a few more photos of the crape myrtles in bloom. If you are bored with such photos, I'll ask that you move on NOW! Otherwise, please see below the "fold".

Thank you, Bogie!

As Bogie wrote on Bogieblog, she sent me two large containers of her creeping phlox. Unfortunately, it took me seven days from her notification that she had sent the starts for me to get them into the ground (more accurately, on the ground). Little did she know that 1) there were/are many other outdoor tasks (that I could not put off) and 2) that the weather is so horribly hot and muggy, here in Kansas - unlike the too cool weather she's been having in New Hampshire! Mornings, it has been in the high 70s to mid 80s with 85%-90% humidity. I overheat even in the shade.  When the sun strikes my work area, which for the planting area is at about 7:25 a.m. these days, I am through working!

Be that as it may, I did get a narrow strip of land (next to the driveway) stripped of the sedum that had been growing there for the last 6-8 years, a shallow trench dug in the clay, a small amount of potting soil into the trench, the plants spread out along the trench, a small amount of potting soil over the plants, a thin layer of cypress mulch spread over the whole, and light watering accomplished. Now, to keep the planting damp but not soggy - not easily gaged in dealing with clay!

                

P.S. A line of 8"x16"x2" concrete blocks can be seen on the left side of the photo. It is there to give the neighbor a convenient place to run his mower wheels when mowing his adjacent yard (our planting area extends at least 3" into his yard, so it's the least I could do - if somewhat belatedly). That line comprises precisely 40 of the approximately 200 blocks that I've laid within the edges of our planting areas - mostly for the convenience of Hunky Husband when he's mowing - during the last month. A similar line of blocks is on the other side of our front yard for the convenience of the neighbor on the northeast side. (I'm not sure why I'm being good to him, a real jerk who allows all sorts of noxious weeds (per Sedgwick County Kansas) to grow on his part of the land between our houses. Part of my "must do", yesterday, was to clip the nearly ripe seed heads off of the Johnson grass on his land that I could reach while standing on ours. I don't want the seeds to drop on our land. It has been a hard-fought battle to rid our land of the grass.)

Caterpillars galore (and Toadie, too)

When I went to pick some dill for use in fixing dinner, I discovered a couple of caterpillars on the dill weed. In fact, when I counted, I got 24 (and may not have seen all of them)! Here are a couple of photos - 1) one of the dill weed patch (a few caterpillars show up as yellow-green shapes) and 2) one of a caterpillar. I believe that these caterpillars will morph into black swallowtail butterflies. BTW: the plants in the background of the larger photo are the strawberries that I planted this spring. Next year, I plan to expand this strawberry patch into the area where the dill weed now resides. (The "old" strawberry patch is at the far end of the house from this one)

 

Now, a couple of photos of the toad that lives in our window well. I  believe that Cutie (see Toad in a Hole ) moved out so this toad is dubbed Toadie. While living in the basement (see June is hot....), I left the escape window open for a few hours overnight, and discovered Toadie in the basement bathroom at about Noon.