Addicted To Hoes

All things outdoors

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Zinnia's !?!?!?!

Below are an assortment of plants that sprouted up in the yard, and later transplanted in pots. I think these are all zinnias, but who knows, I threw hands full of seeds all over the yard back in February and these are the results. Next year I'll a) not throw seeds everywhere like a fool, b) do most of my annual plantings in pots, where I can keep them in the shade during the helacious months of May, June, and part of July. I won't repeat erecting tent city all over the yard creating shade where shade just doesn't exist. It's waaay too white trash.

Are some of these Mexican Daisy's? Whatever they are, enjoy the colors!




























































Friday, September 15, 2006

Monsoon's Over!

Welp, this is the end, that front there cut off our moisture from Mexico, today was very nice, about 90 and breezy. It was 68 this morning, I'm hoping we hang onto these nice temps until, oh, say, next May.

A couple of pictures from the yard...

Here is a Heart Lies Bleeding (or Love, I forget), I started this plant from a very tiny seed back in March, the plant is about three feet tall now with a thick stalk. I think this is an annual, so I expect this thing will die back when it turns cool in December.

This is one of the more bizarre blooms I've seen in a while. I suspect this is some sort of zinnia, at least this came up among a number of other ones, but minature blooms around the rim is very odd.

The back yard is officially done, at least as far as covering all of the dirt with rocks, flagstone, something. I still have one vacant hole for a tree to plant by our hammock, but I may leave that alone, since our Eucalyptus is intent on taking over the entire yard (which is fine with me, as long as it doesn't get into the power lines).

Monday, September 04, 2006
















More Rain?

We had a nice rain two nights ago, about a half inch. Like the last few storms, we've caught a glancing blow, which is better than catching the bront of the wind.

Above is a picture of tonight's sunset, another storm passed by, this one just to our north and west. This has been a good monsoon this year, better than normal, and temps have been below average as well, which is definitely nice.

Considering Brenna's imminent arrival and other financial considerations, I've opted to not attempt building a gazebo on the last part of the backyard that isn't landscaped. You can get away with not knowing what you're doing when you build a square shaped deck and lay flagstone for a walkway, but a gazebo is WAY out of my league. The other option was asking Emily's dad to build some concrete benches around our firepit, but he simply doesn't have the time to work on something like that and has his own yard to work on. At any rate, I've decided to wrap my landscape gravel around to cover that last bare area and have planted two baja fairy dusters and a palo verde tree to border that side of the walk. Below is a picture of a fair duster bloom... the two I planted sprouted from seeds shed by the mother plant we have in the front yard.

The hummingbirds absolutely love this plant, so I'm hoping having a few of these in the back will attract even more. This plant grows to about 5 feet tall by 5 feet wide and is extremely drought tolerant.

I don't have a good picture of a palo verde, but they're named for their striking green trunks, and are covered in yellow blooms in the spring. The one I planted is barely six inches tall, so it will be many a year before it's large enough to throw any considerable shade. Hopefully we'll be here long enough to see that day.


When I get back from my trip to Bakersfield, I'll post more pictures of how the back yard is shaping up. We've had about four inches of rain in the past two months, which is good by our standards, and the monsoon humidity is still upon us, so the yard is very green right now.