Backyard Flower Progress

I'm delighted to say that the flowers and flowering bushes in the backyard are doing all right.  Better than all right, I guess, in that things actually seem to be growing.  I have plenty of color in front what with the rose bushes, lilies, purple things (Iris??) and other stuff but the backyard was a bit too green.  As I was having my morning coffee on the deck I was really most happily surprised yesterday morning to see a real blossom on one of the little hibiscus bushes and then this morning, another one.  Oh... rapture!  I planted 4 different varieties so I'm hoping for a bit of color for the summer.

This little thing started opening this morning.  Kind of a pretty color.

 

This one opened yesterday and was much fuller this morning.  I really had no idea what a hibiscus flower looked like... kind of nice.  This one kind of cracks me up because the flower is about a quarter the size of the entire plant right now.

 

 

The two remaining daisies are doing well.  No flowers yet but lots of buds.  The hostas are fine but the other flowers I had planted here seem to have died off completely.

 

I had a lot of trouble with the hydrangea last year.  Some kind of fungus or something got to it and very early this spring I just cut the thing down to almost ground level.  It seems to be doing nicely now and like the daisies, no flowers yet but lots of blooms and good healthy-looking leaves this time.

 

The hostas running along the back of the house are doing very well as they always seem to do.  They're actually getting a bit too big again and I will likely split them again next spring.

 

This clematis is the pleasant surprise of the year.  I've been trying to grow this thing for 2 years and it never got beyond the sickly-looking stage and I don't think it ever blossomed.  One day back in February or March I opened the garage door to see that it had been blown off the bench it was on during a storm and was laying on it's side, most of the dirt having fallen out and the plastic planter pretty much split totally open... still is.  Not wanting to mess with it at the time I just picked it up and darn near threw it to this location.  Lo and behold... the sucker is growing like never before and has been flowering profusely.  Go figure.

 

Different Garden Attempt - Guests

After trying, and failing, to establish some wildflower gardens areas in the back of the backyard I've decided to try something else.  I dug up the garden areas, tilled in some compost/manure, and planted 8 hibiscus bushes.  Reading just a bit about them I will be pruning them as bushes, not trees, but I guess I'll just be glad to have something growing.  Wildflowers... how can wildflowers NOT grow?!?!?

My 4 little flower garden areas each with its own 2 new plants :)

 

Now the 'guests' part of this blog.  The last couple of weeks there have been a number of times when I've seen 2 deer meandering around the property.  They seem quite accustomed to seeing people and they don't just take off running if you are seen by them.  This is good and bad, I guess.  Last week they were standing just outside of the open big garage door just looking in as I was going to go out.  Scared the crap out of me!  I'm thinking bear or lion or something.  The last few mornings I've noticed them as I sit at the kitchen table and this morning I grabbed the camera.

 

You're going to have to click on this photo to see them.  One is sitting down just behind the flower bed, just to the right of the tall grass.  Her friend is standing to the left, back in the woods a bit, right above the left end of the flower bed.  Kind of cool :)  Not cool will be if they make breakfast out of the plants I put in this afternoon!

 



Stinkin' Moss

Maybe because of the wet summer followed by a wet winter... don't know... but whatever the reason my back lawn became covered in moss.  The dirt... what they call dirt down here in Georgia... is really crap and is more clay than dirt so maybe that contributed to the situation as well.  Regardless, the stuff had to go.  I did learn that to kill it you can spray it with dish soap so I did that a couple of weeks ago and it did work somewhat.  Now I have to get it torn out so today I started.  I got through maybe a third of the yard this afternoon and that wore my arms out enough to let me know that I am not going to like going after the other two thirds.  Stinkin' moss!!

I wasn't kidding when I said it was covered in this crap.  That pile is what I pulled in a section as long as the dethatching rake.

 

Looks like sod, doesn't it?  My son David suggested that I just let it become my lawn.  If it happens again, I just may take his suggestion!