Cop Car's Beat

Yard work is forever

Although it has been a couple of weeks since I've gotten out into the yard and done a lot of work, little-by-little a modicum of yard work is getting done in preparation for the winter season. Yesterday, I got around to pulling up the last of our massive cantaloupe vines and our taking-over-the-world sweet potato vines that had resulted from my discovery of a too-late-to-eat sweet potato in our vegetable bin a few months ago. I had stuck it into the ground at one of the corners made by the front foundation of our house. I had never before planted a sweet potato and was moderately surprised to find a fine harvest of the tubers when I pulled up the vines.

From articles found online, I understand that I am to let the tubers cure (under warm, humid conditions) for a week or two. We don't have ideal temperature/humidity conditions under which to do this but will try to consume them before the tubers develop mold. Neither of us has discerning enough taste buds to recognize the difference in taste between a properly cured sweet potato and one that is straight out of the ground. ADDITION: That night we had the next-smallest sweet potato (microwaved, cut into chunks, and lightly buttered) for dinner and it was wonderful. [Although my normal practice is to serve Irish potatoes with skins on, I excavate the flesh from within a sweet potato skin.]

Butterfly bush is living up to its name

There is a flurry of activity around our one, remaining, butterfly bush this morning.

The first photo shows a cluster of blossoms on the bush, at its finest. The second photo shows one of the butterflies that I call a Hackberry Butterfly since we have an abundance of Hackberry trees in our woods. That identification is subject to anyone's correction, thank you. The third photo shows a Fiery Skipper Butterfly, the identification of which is also open to correction. Most of the butterflies were Hackberries with just a couple of the skippers and one Monarch that flitted off before I could come inside to grab my phone, and return.

The milkweed in our mini meadow has shed its leaves, so there is nowhere for a Monarch to lay eggs in our yard. I noticed in pulling up the remainder of our dillweed plants the other day that there was one swallowtail caterpillar on one of the desiccated stalks. Sorry, little guy, but the deli is closed for the year.

Speaking of bushes (as in Butterfly Bush), I'll include a recent photo of the little Crepe Myrtle that Tom transplanted from the edge of the drive into the hole left by one of the daylily clumps that he had just dug up for Bev to plant in their yard. The Crepe Myrtle had dropped all of its leaves and blossoms and I had feared the worst. Fortunately, I continued to water it and it sent out new leaves. I hope it gets a good enough start to make it through the winter. Mental note to self: water the poor little thing throughout the winter and spring.

 

Blogging weakly

It has been extremely hot around here, and it's expected to remain so for at least another week; and Hunky Husband has kept me busy. Those are my excuses for the blogging hiatus. Heat is a good excuse for my not doing anything that I don't wish to do and I only married so as to have someone to blame for everything (or so I tell HH).

Photos taken on July 17, 2023:

Mixed Crepe Myrtles

There aren't too many things that HH gets to do these days - that he enjoys. He still enjoys driving - a car, when he can, and a mower at other times. Because of the heat, this was the last mowing that our yards have seen. Maybe, tomorrow if it stays cool enough long enough for the grass to dry. (I need to turn off the irrigation system, tonight, and run it manually after any mowing, tomorrow.) High, tomorrow, is to be triple digits - again! I should not complain after hearing of Phoenix's string of days above 110 degrees F. I think they are at day 22 or 23. I do, however, suffer from heat. The other morning, HH helped me pour refrigerated water over my head when I stayed outside working too late in the morning and overheated. 

Please note that, once HH had mowed most of the back yard, I sought refuge from the sun by sitting in the shade on our back porch. When he's mowing, I must be out there signaling him where to turn - at least during the early stages of the activity. Otherwise, HH is apt to end up in the neighbor's yard (beyond the fence) or continue to mow over the same area, repeatedly. At the end, the yard has strange patterns of cut/uncut areas. His enjoyment of the activity is much more important than the tidiness of the product!!

Many of us have resting faces that make us look unhappy/mad/unpleasant. All Hat No Cattle had the following image in her posting, today. Thanks, Lisa. I like it.

Battle of the Butterfly-attracting Plants

Bogie posted Red-headed Step-child*, yesterday, which demonstrates variances among the progeny of a Butterfly Weed that she had planted about five years ago. Butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, is a milkweed native to North America, with non-invasive tendency, that is very attractive to Monarch butterflies. Bogie chooses her plants well - much better than does her mother, habitually. I am too lazy/scatter-brained to do and benefit from the research required to make wise choices. I do just enough research to plant "good" but not "better" or "best" plants for my intentions. Thus, for my butterflies, I have planted Butterfly bushes and common milkweed to please our butterflies - Monarchs, in particular.

The first photo shows what remains of the three Butterfly bushes that I planted in 2010. I had planted one each Pink Delight, Nanho Purple, and Navajo Purple, but the Navajo Purple had died in 2019. (I may have one of the names wrong as my memory is that one bush had blue flowers. I also thought that I had planted a bi-color at one time, but who knows?) I'll go out on a limb, here, and say that the surviving plant is the Nanho Purple.

What's wrong with my having planted the Butterfly bushes? Well...they aren't native to North America and may tend to be invasive. Appropriately enough, the bush is surrounded by invasive sedum species. That bed is well isolated, making it easy to control attempted invasions. (I know, I know. I had thought that about the sumac, another sprout of which I pulled this morning.)

My other choice was the milkweed. I had purchased and planted three common milkweed plants from a non-profit that sells them to encourage people to plant for Monarchs. The next photo shows the patch of milkweeds resulting from those three plants.

Prior postings with photos of the original plants may be found here. Because milkweeds can be invasive - especially when grown in semi-wild areas - I pluck the seed pods each year. This year's crop (so far, at least) filled a bucket that had originally contained 35 pounds of cat litter by a scant half. (The above photo had been taken after removal of the seed pods.)

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* As a (former, according to Hunky Husband) redhead, I object to Bogie's terminology. Mom always said that my red hair came from the ice man. Yes, in those days we had delivery of ice for our ice boxes, not yet having an electrical refrigerator in our family.

Mostly plant photos

I don't normally think of hostas in terms of their blossoms. However, while taking photos of the butterfly bush this morning, I noticed that our hostas are in full bloom and snapped a photo of ones that are across from the bush.

While out and about I also noticed that the original dwarf crepe myrtle is approaching full bloom.

I'm hoping that we will, again, be gifted with free cantaloups from the volunteer plants that come up from places in which I have "planted" our green garbage. We have two hills of vines that are looking promising.

 

 

 

 

I had a chuckle, yesterday - a couple of weeks in coming. A couple of weeks ago, sitting in my reading chair in my den, I heard (quite loudly) the crinkling of paper. The sound seemed to be coming from the drawers of my built-in desk and sounded like a mouse tearing up papers to make a nest. Immediately, I set out three baited traps.

 

Yesterday, I heard the sound, again. This time, I was sitting here at my computer and was able to identify the sound as coming from outside my den. (The hearing aid is in my right ear which is turned toward the door of my den when I am at my computer.) Hunky Husband was standing at his candy dish, unwrapping a caramel. My hearing aid allows me to hear high frequency noises really well, relaying sounds to me that I may not have heard for several years - at least, not very well. Hunky Husband has been complaining about the noises I make, particularly in the kitchen, ever since he got his hearing aids a couple of years ago. I now understand. I can't believe how loud the simple noise of cellophane crinkling can be!

Photos that I forgot to post

I tried to make a panoramic shot, but it was obvious that I hadn't paid attention when taking panoramic shots was being taught. This is what a full garage looks like when Elder Brother comes to visit. I had rearranged the garage to accommodate EB's car because hail was expected during the night after he arrived.

Hunky Husband does better if I can think of things to keep him busy. After EB left, I suggested that HH mow. It made his day! Unfortunately, too many of the things he used to do are now beyond his capabilities or on his black listing of things he doesn't wish to do.

In posting flower/plant photos, I failed to include one showing the blossoming of our second-generation dwarf crepe myrtle. It's the first crepe myrtle to bloom this season, not only within our yard, but within our little city - as far as I've seen. That's the mama plant that the second-generation is snuggled up against.

Time to Divide Irises

Irises have gorgeous blossoms, but the plants multiply and need to be dug up and divided every few years. It has been a while since I did that. It is plain to me that I'm not as strong or as peppy as was I the last time I took on the chore. It seemed like a good idea to get the irises dug while the ground was still damp from rain we've been happy to have received over the past couple of weeks.

The first photo shows the largest planting of irises - just after a rain storm on May 10, 2023. What isn't obvious is that the iris plants continue around the bushes at the left edge of the photo, to the edge of our yard. The grass in the background is Fred's grass.

On Wednesday, I started digging up the irises. This year, instead of going to all of the work of digging them up, rinsing the dirt from the rhizomes, and trimming the leaves into fans, I set the clumps of irises on the concrete driveway and posted an invitation for people to come pick up what they wanted.

The next photo is the first batch of irises offered.

At about that point, some neighbors (Tom and Bev) came by, walking their dogs, and I happened to think to ask if they wanted irises. About 20 minutes later, they brought their pickup truck and a couple of large, plastic bins to carry off the irises that they wanted. Then, although he was barefoot, Tom insisted upon digging up an equal batch of irises to offer others. (I didn't think to take his photo!)

Yesterday, I worked on digging more irises, but didn't last very long. It was too hot and humid, already, at 7am.

This morning, at 6am, it was just as hot, but not as humid, and there was a slight breeze. I was able to finish digging up the irises in that area. I wasn't very gentle in getting this batch out because I fear that I may not have additional days that are cool enough for me to work and I have several other stands of irises to divide. Most of what I dug up got carted back to the edge of the woods where they can decompose or grow, as they like. A couple of clumps, I put in the garden cart. Those, I plan to give the full wash/divide/cut-leaves-into-fans treatment to replant in the area from which they were removed. I have promised Krista (next door) a goodly assortment of starts from several stands of irises on which I've not yet started.

While Tom and Bev were here the first time, I offered Bev as much dill and cilantro as she would like to pick. When they returned with their pickup truck, Bev had a plastic bag with her into which she put the cilantro that she wanted. The yellow blossoms are of the interspersed rose moss that was in the area in which I had strewn the cilantro seeds.

Bev also eyed my bed of daylilies while here. When the blooming season is over, she wants to come pick up some of the red day lilies. (I'm hoping that she takes them all, as I don't really groove on the red or the salmon-colored ones.)

The bed of daylilies was planted several years ago when TenderCare re-did some of my plantings, transplanting some of three colors of day lilies into that bed.

While I'm at it, I'll show the transplanted Shasta daisies, now that they are in bloom, and a mass of the rose moss that has proliferated over the years. My grandmothers had rose moss and I've always been partial to it. It is an annual succulent that grows well in the Midwest although it is native to South America.

 

 

Update on Daisies

In a comment on the previous posting, Liz lamented, "Lovely to chat to neighbours. WE very rarely see any of ours." She reminded me of an exchange between our next-door neighbor, Krista, and me that took place yesterday. To start it off, Krista texted me:

"My daisies look beautiful! Thank you!!"

The daisies are those that she transplanted from the area in which I was about to have some re-landscaping done. As shown in the posting at the link, I had previously transplanted three of the daisies into another of our own planting beds. Below is a photo of those two daisies, after one failed to thrive.

Yes, Krista's daisies have made greater headway than have ours. She explained that she had fertilized hers. Of course, I do not fertilize. 

While showing you photos in that area where our two yards abut, I'll post a photo of Krista's container garden that she has put out this year.

For once I happened to think of something that I had intended to ask Krista for some time. 

"Thanks for the photo. I've been meaning to ask you if you (or family) could use a lasagna pan and a casserole. My family turned them down & they just take up cabinet space, here."

Yay! Krista accepted the hand-off. Looking at the cabinet space, one would never guess that those two, large cooking dishes had been removed. Good neighbors come in handy.

Showing Bogie My Progress

For the past 10 days, except those days that got rained out, I've been spending an hour or two doing yard work - mostly pulling/digging out weeds, including grass that has no business growing in my planting areas. The nine photos, below, show the results. Note the lack of fresh mulching materials. As Bogie and I lamented in comments to her latest posting, it's "impossible" to find good mulch these days (ground pine bark, with no additives).

The first photo, below, left, is the streetward end of the planting area (extended from along our driveway) that is nearest to the woods. I've not included the whole area in the photo as I've not yet de-weeded the whole area: only the creeping phlox that Bogie can tell you really needed some work when she was here. See, Bogie? I didn't get all of the dead leaves out of the patch, but the weeds are gone!

The second photo, below, right shows the planting area that is next toward the street. Except for the stuff next to Freds "wonderful" fence, I've never planted anything there because it is my "dumping" area. That is where a load of imported dirt may be dumped, or (when it was available), 20 each 3-cubic-foot bags of mulch was stacked.

 

 

 

 

The third and fourth photos, below, show the planting area next toward the street. The photo on the right concentrates on the small patch of fern (or it may be wild yarrow?) that I kept, having pulled a gazillion plants of it that had been interspersed with the sedums next to the fence in the left photo.

The fifth photo, below, left, shows the planting area next nearer to the street. That's where I fought the sumacs so valiantly last year. There were about a dozen sprouts of sumac in that area and within the clumps of daylilies in the right hand photo, below - and in the area shown in the above, right photo. Nothing serious.

Note in the sixth photo, below, right, there is a small, volunteer crepe myrtle bush that came up at the edge of the driveway last year. I had thought it would surely be winter-killed, but it lived. 

The seventh photo, below, left shows the above-mentioned crepe myrtle bush after I transplanted it to a spot near the bush that I had transplanted last year (farther from the camera and to the right of a daylily clump in this photo). The bushes that are not crepe myrtles are dwarf burning bushes.

The eighth photo, below, right shows the planting area next closer to the street. That area is mostly planted in irises (mostly to the left of the photo, unfortunately) with a scattering of bachelor's buttons and sedum. Already, several seedling touch-me-nots have sprouted, the original source of which was a mystery a few years ago. The next, and last, planting area that is bordered by the street and our driveway, will not be shown. I did pull Fred's Bermuda grass out of it, but the Blue Chip junipers took a beating this winter and are not very showy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning, I had intended to work on the planting area nearest the woods; but, when I got out there, I decided to do the area from which the North Star Cherry had been removed when it experienced extreme winterkill a year ago. To the left of it is the rose garden, but I've still to dead-head the roses.

Although I came inside to rest for a bit after my first hour of work, this morning, I must get back outside to work on edging the lawn at the street curbing. Woman's work is never done!

Updating Front Landscaping - Completed

It's been a busy week, so I am a bit late getting the final installment of this series posted - not that my blog doesn't take precedence over everything else on our schedule.

Mid-Morning on May 8, 2023

The guys are finishing up preparation for adding dirt to level out the area followed by sodding.

End of Workday on May 8, 2023

The photo was taken this morning, my having forgotten to close out the series. All* work was done by the end of the workday, Monday. I received an email with the invoice for the work on Tuesday, and the check was in the mail in time to be picked up from the Derby USPS station with the final pickup of the day at 5pm.

BTW: We received 2.15" of rain after Midnight this morning.

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• All done with what can be seen. What cannot be seen is that the hookup to the irrigation system does not work. As JoJac's irrigation system specialist had left the company, I told them to leave the system as it is and I will get Edward, of TenderCare, to troubleshoot the installation. It seems to be a wiring problem since, manually, Ryan was able to get a geyser of water from the valve onto which they attached the new tubing. The wiring runs through a pipe around the foundation of the house to the diametrically opposite corner of the house. It was installed by TenderCare in 2000. This year's replacement of the controller (inside the garage) was the second replacement. Splicing of the wiring leaves a mess of spaghetti (below photo).