What's going on around our yard!

We have been busy lately and our yard has been neglected. Here is a look around at what has popped up despite us.

Here are the flowers Chris planted in memory of his Aunt. They just keep putting out one flower after another.



A friend gave me this plant and I said "That wont ever live. It looks delicate and like it needs lots of care," and look at it now.

This just popped up I don't know what it is. I think we planted it. (Head scratch.) It looks like it will be something pretty.

Blue berries! They are still green but we should have a handful, if the birds don't get to them first.



Here's the armadillo trap. It's latest location is sure to capture that pest. He He! The armadillo is alive and happy and still going in and out from under our porch.



The compost pile. Sad isn't it. It started off as a huge pile of grass clippings and now it it a small pile of hay with grass growing in it. I think the good stuff from the pile has seeped into the sand. Just like when we put 6 giant bags of compost in our garden and the next year it's back to being sand.  The armadillo enjoys digging it up every once in a while.  

This is a weed that is growing next to the compost pile. I love this weed it grows every where in my yard and has pretty little flowers. I've seen a plant similar sold in the store only with bigger flowers

The bald cypress is alive and well. Every year when the leaves die off I worry that it has actually died. But happily it keeps coming back.

This is another weed that grows in my yard. People buy these too. They are called Lantana and come in all different colors. I don't like the way it smells.

Here is another weed. It's a tiny little daisy. People don't buy these. I don't think they have enough pretty flowers on them to count.

Not sure what kind of flower this is. My aunt gave it to me along with a bunch of other plants. This is one that survived and looks pretty good I don't think it has ever been with out a flower even in the dead of winter.



Aloe Vera plant. It has a pretty flower. Ours has several flowers this year. They say it is good to put the goo from a broken leaf on your sun burn. It will sooth it. 

My mom has these growing like crazy in her yard she is either potting them up as gifts or digging them up to get rid of them. She has several variety's of aloe but this one likes my yard and hopefully it doesn't multiply like hers. 

Plumbago! I would have preferred hydrangea better but Chris liked this wild looking plant better. I think it's messy looking and needs a trim. This is the color we are thinking of painting our house. With brown and white trim. Cause the eves are brown and we can't easily change that. So blue and brown house. What do you think?

We have a lot of work to do around the house and garden this summer so check back often to see what we're doing.

A nice warm weekend

We finally got a nice weekend. Weather wise. The high was about 78. So we headed over to Mom's to do some much needed clean up in her yard. She wanted part of her peach tree dug up but we convinced her to keep it and just let us trim it a little. It has the most beautiful flowers every year and some nice peaches too. It sits on the edge of her yard, right on the property line and gets its fair share of neglect. It looks more like a bush than a tree. We saved some of the clippings and made a beautiful oriental looking decoration.

We also took a whack at her orange tree. Which was still loaded with oranges even though she did her best to pick them all before the cold weather. Despite the cold the oranges were yummy. Not frozen at all.

We picked them all except for four or five green ones. Then Chris trimmed the bush down so she can reach the oranges.

Now she just has to get to squeezing and shipping them to relatives that don't have access to fresh oranges.

We trimmed some of her azalea bushes even though it is a bad time (spring buds were lost) because they were in the way of her path to the back yard. We also trimmed down a major oak tree branch for the same reason. And squared up her grapefruit tree, which by the way had two inch long thorns. I feel sorry for her garbage man who has to pick that up (hopefully he has good gloves). After digging up two oak trees and replanting two gardenias that got dug by mistake and trimming bushes and trees and dead limbs Chris sat down for a break. All in all, it was a beautiful day and came with a free meal made by Mom. What could be better.