Thursday, July 7, 2011

The Yard is DONE once again!!


And in 101 degree HEAT!! We divided it up by edging and mowing in the morning.
Weed eating and blowing, pulling weeds and watering in the evening.
Our grass still has some 'needy' spots in it but Louis Dean has rigged up a red neck sprinkler hose that is working pretty well. I pulled it to the side before taking this pic!
He used one of those squirrely hoses that loop around in a coil. This one developed a hole so he added MORE and made a coiled sprinkler. It has done the trick!
Hopefully the good grass next door (to the WEST of us) will continue to spread eastwards to OUR yard!


Summer in Texas is not for the faint hearted!



Some plants bloom in SPITE of the heat!
This is my Texas Sage. I have two but only one is blooming!


When I married Louis Dean we had over a dozen crape myrtle trees in all colors.
White ones lined the driveway and pink ones along the back fence as well as a large red one in front of our stone privacy fence and a beautiful one at the driveway curb and one in front of the south den window.
He dug them all up. He hates them. We were newly married and he got away with more than he does now!
Did I mention the time I asked him to edge the yard while I was at work? He poured Round Up all around the 'edges'.......I had STRAW!!!!! around the perimeter of the yard the rest of the season.
Not to forget when he asked to 'TRIM' the Nandina bushes behind his parked trailer. He used a CHAIN SAW and leveled them! They were huge QUALITY bushes!!
The good news is.....three of the five came back.....but that area is a little lopsided now!
All the above was to say.....
I get a kick out of seeing a stray sprig of crape myrtle BLOOM!!!


Lantana does well in hot dry conditions....and I love the smell!!
Kind of a pungent spice!


We have a huge bed of them in the front planter underneath the bedroom windows.
Honeysuckle, too, but it must be too hot for it to bloom much!


I planted several batches of this flower but only three of them made it. One is in the ground and the other two are in pots. This one is in the BACK of a pot in the front and I think it is shielded a BIT from the sun.



Mexican Heather is another plant that survives the heat of Texas.
It will bloom more once it cools down in September and bloom right up through the fall.


Louis Dean loves his roses!


We have marigolds ever year in unexpected places since they re seed themselves.
Next year I will plant some on purpose!


Then there is the MINT!!!
I have a section I MOW!
Makes the whole neighborhood smell like a fresh package of chewing gum!


This is the bed of mint I use for my tea. I always have lots of leaves in every pitcher I make.

SO today I am staying inside with the A/C on HIGH!
The yard is DONE and I won't be doing it again for another 10 days or so.
Housework and fluffing the nest of home is so much easier.
Whatever YOU are doing on this fine Thursday.......I hope you are staying COOL!




11 comments:

Blondie's Journal said...

Yard work is hard work, but the end result is so worth it. I really enjoyed seeing all of your blooming plants, they are so different from what we have in the upper Midwest. Just beautiful.

Stay cool!

XO,
Jane

Deb said...

wow everything looks so great ...especially in this HOT weather...

Nita said...

Your yard looks great and your flowers are beautiul. Keep up the good work!

Amber said...

It's hard work indeed! I only mowed our front yard and planted some new flowers in pots on the front porch and some basil in the backyard... by then I was really, really hot and had to give in.

Did my zumba (dance workout) class this morning - have stayed cool the rest of the day!! Miss y'all!

Bev said...

Sounds like Louis Dean was quite the gardener!!! :)
I don't know how you do it 101!!! Once it gets in the 80's I start melting....

Pondside said...

That's an accomplishment! Up here it was downright chilly today. The sun was out but the winds off the water were high and I needed to wear a light jacket. No putting the top down on the car today!

Auntie sezzzzzz... said...

My *hat's off* to you both!

We do our yard work too, but... Son and grandson next door, cut our lawn. :-)

~♥~

Carla said...

Looking good. David took the push mower out to the new place and mowed about 3/4 of the acre. When he ran out of gas the 4th time he physically rain out of gas too. We've go to get a riding lawn mower for out there. Love LD's earlier trimming and edging methods. Gotta love'em.

Diana Ferguson said...

It is brutally hot, isn't it?! Things look great.

Vee said...

Yardwork is such a challenge on the best of days that I can not imagine it at those temps. Ai yi yi.

Your hubby sounds like my dad who is terrible with mowing things down, chopping things up or just plain destroying landscaping. My mother would work so hard on her gardens and he'd come roaring along right behind her and mess it all up. The thing that most upset her was the destruction of her small orchard and raspberry bushes.

Vee said...

Oh I know you love your hubby and he's mellowed. Ha!