Nearly November

Finally a new update for the Hoes blog, hurray! It's still warm here, highs around 90, but the lows are in the low 60s and high 50s. It hasn't rained a drop since the first week in the month, and there isn't anything on the horizon.

Here is a look at the planter I built a while ago and moved off the back porch to this spot in the yard. The bush river willow tree that I've transplanted numerous times, and bounced back from my last attempt to kill it, and is flourishing in partial shade. Also in this planter you'll find some rain lilies, widelia (yellow dot/groundcover), and I already have some narcissus bulbs that are coming up. Odd time of the year for them, but it happens every year when it cools off slightly. I also have some cardinal vines that I just started from seed, and a few chocolate plants. The white pot in the foreground has yarrow seeds, but none of those have come up yet.

The columbine that I started from seed via my mom last October has survived a year. These have gone from filing the pot with new growth through last spring, to losing all but a few of them during the summer, and now they're making another come back. A few inches tall are as tall as they've gotten before the elements have beaten them back, but hopefully they'll take off through the winter, and I'll get a few blooms in the spring.

Our chinese pistache tree has lost a good number of its leaves for some reason, but is replacing them with new growth, pictured here. Very pretty leaf color, and it's a beautiful burnt orange in the fall, but I've never seen the tree do this before. Again, because of the elements, this is a very difficult tree (for me, anyway) to keep happy, especially in the summer.

One of my favorites in the yard is blooming, the Indian Mallow. Like the Turk's Cap, it's blooms never fully open. It's a pretty color, in contrast with the soft fuzzy leaves.

Here is Brenna helping me survey the land.

And here she is pushing me in the hammock.

And finally, enjoying the rain lily that recently bloomed.