Today, the sun has been elusive. One minute we've experienced overcast skies and five minutes later, not a cloud in the sky. Thus, some of the photos that I thought would be sunny, were cloudy, and when the sun reappeared, some of the flora that I wished to photograph were in the deep shade of Fred's house. Oh, well.
The first photo shows the entirety of the rose garden that I had planted for Hunky Husband in March 2019, and re-configured in 2020. Obvious in the photo are the Midas Touch bush in the front and one blossom on the Oklahoma! bush that appears just below the garage window. Other blossoms don't show up in the photo.
In front of the house are three bushes of Mini Lavendar Lace that were planted in April 2009. Those little bushes have been overgrown by the sedum groundcover and overshadowed, in most years, by the Leather Leaf Viburnum that towers over them.
Although some people are sensitive to the sap of any sumac, I have never been; thus, I plant them. When we landscaped our yard, after building this house, I had a Staghorn Sumac planted at the far back of the "good grass" of the back lawn. Eventually, the redbud tree that was in that corner of the yard overshadowed the sumac. It withered and all but died, after which I removed it with my trusty axe. Three years ago, I bought four plants of Staghorn Sumac, planting one just outside our dining room windows and the other three in the planting strip between our driveway and Fred's yard. Each location should help me defeat the sumac bushes/trees in their efforts to populate the world. They were planted for their fall color and, this year, are proving their mettle.
The first two sumac photos show the "tree" outside the dining room windows.
Below are the three sumacs, and their offspring, between our driveway and Fred's yard. The nearest sumac, with the flower cones stuck out to nearly the driveway, is the only female in the bunch.
On November 15, the JoJac tree team (minus the guy who has always led the team when they've come to my house, because he now works in their landscaping department) are to come. Sadly, one of the things I'll be discussing is possible removal of the grand Cottonwood Tree that graced this property for many years before we bought the land. Below is a (possibly) farewell photo of the cottonwood. I love that tree; but, I don't love the fire hazard it now presents to our house, nor do I love the extra work engendered by its bad habit of shedding branches and twigs most months of the year, shedding cotton to blow in the wind like heavy snowfall during a couple of weeks each year, and the growth habit of its roots that brings roots to the surface causing large bumps over which to mow. I spend a lot of time cleaning up after my love.
The Low Boy Pyracantha bush that was gifted to me by co-workers upon my retirement in 2004 required a lot of cleanup trimming & pulling of vines & other plants that had grown up through it, this year; but, it rewards me with its pretty berries. Just in front of the bush are several sprigs of redbud seedlings that I've allowed to grow in the spot from which the clump of redbuds were removed last year.
Lest I forget, here (below) is a photo of an ill-placed mum that was planted in about 2012 as one of several that I planted to give fall color. Unfortunately, the crepe myrtle bushes, while lovely (and of nearly the same pinkish-purple hue), have overgrown this survivor mum.
Below is a photo of a bare spot left by the army worm attack of several weeks ago. If you strain your eyeballs, you may be able to discern the pattern of vertical, green, hair-like sprouts of new grass - planted on 10/16/2021. Except for yesterday, when we were blessed with 0.36" of rain, we have run the sprinkler system for a few minutes, thrice daily. These are the first sprouts I've seen; although, the sprouts were not confined to this one bare spot.
Lastly, is a beauty shot of the way in which I prepared our sprinkler system's backflow prevention valve assembly to withstand moderately freezing weather. As I wrote, recently, two or three times, we've had to have the valve assembly repaired or replaced when the outside air temperatures dipped into the high teens or low twenties for too many hours. I had purchased (and used) electrically-heated tapes in past years; but, the newest installation is a configuration that makes use of such tapes impossible. Over the assembly I arranged: a slight bit of fiberglass insulation strip, a flannel bedsheet, heavy plastic sheet, inverted plastic wastebasket, rubber-backed window drapery (from circa 1968), plastic sheeting, and 8 bags of cedar bark mulch. (Oh! And I had brought the ground level, to mate with the inverted wastebasket, with two bags of top soil.) If, in spite of my efforts, the assembly freezes, I shall probably drown trying to get down to the valve in order to turn off the water, manually, instead of merely freezing in the spraying water.
The meter that is visible to the left of the piled bags of mulch is our smart natural gas meter. The valve assembly is too close to that meter (and to the house and to the downspout for the roof guttering) for it to be easy to work with.
Sumacs are very pretty in the fall with their red leaves.
Your cottonwood tree sounds like my departed willow tree; shedding branches year round and being a general mess at all times. Better to take it down before it causes any damage to the house.
Posted by: bogie | October 31, 2021 at 03:53 AM
Bogie--I hadn't correlated our situations with the two trees, but agree with you. Your dad worries about mechanical damage to the house from that tree (and has, for years) while I have begun to worry about a woods wildfire coming up the creek.
Having been a part of the American Red Cross's disaster response team on a huge wildfire near San Diego in the Fall of 2007 (training people who were coordinating between Red Cross and governmental agencies), I've become a fan of Cal Fire. For many years Cal Fire has put out guidelines (and, for Californians, legal requirements) for hardening ones home and providing defensible space around it. Our wildfire danger pales in comparison to much of California's; but, even here in Kansas we are experiencing more wildfires than ever.
Posted by: Cop Car | October 31, 2021 at 10:31 AM