the fruits of little labor

my poor, neglected garden, i vow to make it better next summer.
as i was hacking through the 3 foot weeds and starts of trees this past weekend, this is what i found:

the majority of my sweet peas (which have taken it upon themselves to grow all over my garden) are going to seed.

some sort of morning glory or other vine is crawling up my fence.

and crawling around the only bush that grows well in my clay side beds.


and yet another mystery plant (or tree) that is growing and crowding the only bush that grows well in my side beds.

i have volunteer tomatoes growing in 3 different places. they are about 6 inches tall, and while most of the tomato growers are harvesting fruit, mine are just starting to bear any fruit at all (actually, just this one. the others look like their flowers are just starting to die off).

ivy is fun.
but it's a love hate relationship.

i love the look of ivy. i hate how it's so invasive. i love the evergreenness. i hate its creepy suction feet.
i tend to cut it back to a manageable growth every year. this year, not so much. it, not unlike the rest of my garden, i have neglected, and it's pissed and taking its revenge by growning rampant.

and it's growing in my gutters, windows, and starting to grow on my roof. so, of course, i freaked out. i don't want it infiltrating my trim and under my roof shingles. so i cut it and ripped it down. but it did not all come down, leaving a little on my chimney and a long, free swinging bushy tendril to sway in the breeze.

but then a pending severe thunderstorm starts to move in with the POSSIBILITY of gusty winds up that MIGHT get up to 65 mph, and i start to freak out again and irrational thought takes over and i start to ACTUALLY BELIEVE that if the wind gets my "free swinging in the breeze" tendril it will rip off all the brick from the side of my house and cause my chimney to come smashing down and through the roof causing irrepairable damage until i can get a ladder and chop it down. but the ladder is in the garage, and honestly, i'm a little afraid of ladders, so i nix the ladder idea and hope. all the while trying to balance out of my window with a extendable hedge shears in the middle of diagonal shooting rain and wind, swiping at my extremely long awkward gardening tool trying to cut off at least the bulk of the free swinging vine.

and after 5 minutes, the wind died down, the sun (or sunset) came out, and i'm sitting soaked looking at my still intact chimney and brick house.

now, for all of you ivy lovers out there aghast while reading my story, i did not rip out the root, because i do like a little ivy, and feel as though i will have fun watch it grow again next year (if i haven't killed it...but i haven't killed it in 4 years).

amazing that MOUNDS and mounds and yards and yards of ivy (and heaps and heaps of irrational thought) have come from just these 2 vines.

update

the snake (i named him pookie) in the post below, i believe has died. my husband said he saw pookie in the middle of our neighbors lawn in full sun, and it hadn't moved in a half of a day. i cannot understand how it might have died, other than a lack of food (which means we have no vermin in our yards, can't say that i'm sad about that). we are hoping that he was taking a sun nap, for a really really long time. or molting. which would be really cool. but, we are very sad if he did pass, especially my dog, who thought she found a new friend.

in other news, we are having a stretch of near 90 degree weather, with the nights still very warm. i haven't had much time, energy, or enthusiasm for gardneing still, and i've never been a fan of hot weather, sweating, or working under the blazing sun. i guess having a 3 month old sucks the life out of you. not that i'm complaining, i'd take playing with my son over gardening any day.

but i did manage, between naps and in 10 minute intervals so i could duck back into the air conditioning, to finally mulch part of our garden beds to stop the sun from burning the plants and their roots, and plant the near dead violas we'd purchased almost a month ago. unfortunately, the red salvias we bought did not make it into the ground before the sun burnt them up. all the other plants we bought (snow in summer, bellflowers, veronica) are still living although are just short of being baked due to the summer heat. when i checked them after spreading the mulch though, they are growing, and growing through the burnt parts.

and the bellflowers are still blooming, the veronica is doing okay in the clay-like soil, the near dead violas are reviving, and the dog ran over my peony plant.

i think i might try to transplant the peony. any suggestions of how and when?

weekend gardening 5/6/07

my little guy helping me assess my garden.
although he did find it quite boring and just went to sleep right quickly.

not started on my garden just yet. i have walked the trodden path and this is what i've found so far...tulips are very lovely again this year

the dianthus annuals i planted last year and let overwinter have apparently self seeded and are coming in as lush as ever. in the dreaded hot zone of my yard (between the sidewalk and the road) just waiting for some dog to pee on it again this year.

and it's even started to flower. i will see if the flowers are as big and plentiful this year as they were as annuals last year before i start to hack away at them.

the war waging mint that is ALMOST being run over by pricker weeds...

stupid weird pinetree like ground cover taking over my myrtle ground cover. i am into self torture and yes i HAND PICK THIS STUFF OUT EVERY YEAR.

the small, pitiful start of my poor poor hydrangea plant
yes, it's there, amidst the myrtle and weeds....

don't really know what this is, but it's in the exact spot of my poor poor peony plant i planted last year.. i THINK it's my peony plant, but since i'm new to peony plants i will wait and see.

my poor poor young sand cherry bush which is sadly half dead, and half blooming. which is a weird phenomenon that occurs in that particular area. wondering if there is some weird tree root black plague death plotting below the surface...

this weird gross bush i cut down every year (i tried to dig it up but to no avail) which keeps on growing (but is half dead) amongst *gasp* creeping charlie....

an everbearing strawberry plant runner that ran away from it's potted home from last year and is now thriving in the weird dead spots in my garden. go figure. i'm actually thinking about letting it run wild and grow runners over the particular dead spots this year because i cannot get anything to grow there so far but this.

volunteer cilantro growing in my empty plot. i'm just waiting for it to over take my yard....

and last but not least... a random CONTAINER OF DIRT i found in my garage cabinet.
yeah i know. i was just thinking.... ????

oh wait, they might be composting coffee grounds. i cannot tell.