Pain In The Grass

First, i really apologise ~ the last few entries in this blog seem to have been complaints and/or rants, and oops, here's another one! Don't get me wrong...this is Spring, and for the most part, it is definitely the happiest time of the year for me! We've even had cold temps and way too much rain, but the flowers are coming up, the trees are blossoming, and the grass is that "brand new" shade of green, so it's still awesome.

BUT, let me say right now, i will NEVER plant another large ornamental grass on my property FOREVER!

They are pretty from midsummer to late Fall, but then they're nothing but problems. i see a lot of landscapes incorporating grasses, and even though they are not tended to, they grow tall and straight through rain, sun or wind, but mine always have to be tied or staked or trimmed or SOMETHING. i do know that if they are fertilized they can become soft and floppy ~ they like "poor" soil ~ so i never fertilize them, and they still flop all over.

 

THEN it is always mentioned to leave them as is over the cold season for "Winter Interest". AND for awhile they do add to the landscape ~ that is, until the first ice or freezing rainstorm that we get! Of course, i live in a smaller lot in Middle Suburbia ~ if the grasses were out in the back 40 it wouldn't be so bad. But here i am outside in the cold beating the poor things with a shovel to break the ice off them so they don't fall into the driveway. They can only take so many ice or snow storms, then they're down for the count and look sloppy till the weather gets nice enough to cut them back.
 

                                                  But wait, there's more!

We don't get "nice enough" weather until at least April, so the dead straw colored grass is breaking apart in our very windy Spring weather and is scattered all over the yard, in the pond, and in all the flower beds. i have dug out a few of my grasses, but after just a few years, they develop a rock hard root mass the size of Maine! Then after all that work cutting them down, there's a problem with what to do with all the huge piles of dead grass! Hey, i'm all for the ecology ~ the perfect answer would be to chop it up and compost it, and i would tell you to do that, but it's a huge mess, and most grasses have tiny hairs that act like cactus thorns ~ you know, the ones that are too tiny to find in your finger (or hand, or back, or feet!) but are large enough to drive you crazy until they work their way out (and/or become infected)!

So, basically, for smaller yards, i recommend you save the stress and do without unless you have lots of time on your hands!

The Last Heuchera

My last brave little bouquet i took into work from my Fall garden is long gone. Except for.........i had one little purple Heuchera (Coral Bell) leaf in the vase for contrast, and, after everything else had died, this leaf still looked good and so i kept it. The months went by, and i started to think maybe this leaf was dead, dried up, and is crispy in the vase - but it still looked alive!

My Jewel Orchid bloomed, as it does in January/February, and i stuck a couple of the stems of flowers in with it so it wouldn't look so lonely. Now they are on their last flowers, too. Today i decided to change the water (which i keep forgetting and it's kinda er, cloudy - but it's a tiny vase). To my amazement, the Heuchera leaf's stem had sprouted roots!

Had no idea they could BE propagated like that; not that i had researched it, but i have always just had a good feel for how various plants can be multiplied and which cannot, and i would have bet money that single LEAF wouldn't produce roots ~ but, hey, that's what's fun about gardening!                           

One Day Closer (Pt 2!)

All right ~ it's still winter, i get it ~ and yessss, the snow is pretty. Great. Now it can go away!

 Last evening...

A few shots of the yard this morning ~ gotta try out the new camera! 

So, all right, Mother Nature, it's the month of my birth, the month of Spring ~ time to ACT like it!

Mid WInter Musings

Speaking of Tillandsias, I must be doing SOMETHING right - one of them is blooming, which is really unusual for January! Maybe it's an extremely early sign of Spring (yeah...., that must be it!)

i have to turn the small gas heater in the Florida room on for a while every morning and evening in this weather, too, since the only South facing window is in there, and so that is where i keep all my tropical plants that live outside in the Summer.

 This pot of succulents summer over in my front porch box (the one facing West against the brick). In that box i have a mix of tropical and hardy succulents - the hardies are still out there -, since it gets so god awful hot that poor little annuals just won't make it. i have a thermometer out there that regularly reads 120-130 F when the air temperatures are in the 80's! These look so nice that i'm going to hate to break them up - i may have to leave as is and buy new ones for the box!

The pond has been frozen over for well over a month now, which is the longest period of time i can remember since we had the pond. Let's see, for December, there were 24 days in which the high temperatures were freezing or below! For January, there were 19 days so far, and really no change predicted for the rest of the month. And almost all the rest were in the 30's. So it has been at least TWO months that the pond has been frozen over. There were a couple of crises when the brand new (last winter) deicer decided to die just as it got real cold! Tractor Supply will be hearing about that! For a couple of days, all i had was a length of 2" PVC pipe stuck thru the ice for a tiny bit of oxygen! Finally found my back up, and have since seen some fish in there, plus my youngest Koi, so hopefully the older, i.e., hardier ones should be OK. Even saw some fry,(i really think calling baby fish "fry" is pretty funny - usually when i hear "Fish Fry" i'm thinking about making some tartar sauce)!

And the cats appreciate the sunny weekend days when i warm up the room and let them pretend they're actually outside!

Fish Favorites

Pet shop people don't like me. At least if they've seen me before. i'm the one who goes into the fish department, stops at the "10 cent Feeder Fish" tank (the 30 gallon tank filled with 500 1/2 inch goldfish), and wants to pick out ten "pretty" ones! Yes, they always warn you that those fish may be inbred and/or diseased, and there's a chance they could affect the health of your current fish population - which is very true! - if you just toss them in immediately. So i definitely recommend putting the new purchases (even if they were NOT feeders) in a quarantine tank for a week or two first. i don't always do that, but that's my risk to take! Most of the time, the store employees are very polite about it and actually chase down and net the fish i pick out. NOTE: don't come in on a Saturday or at a busy time and expect them to take that time - be considerate :o)

Some of the cheapie fish in the pond - the little ones in the photo above are Rosy Red minnows

Seriously, though, my feeders have done very well. Oh a few do die right away, but that's why they cost practically nothing! But i try to pick out color mixes, longer fins/tails (Comets), things like that, and they breed with the others and really create a colorful bunch of fish. In fact, around here, that's the only way i can find Comets anymore.

These two (the bigger ones) are Koi - they cost a little more than the feeders! This is the first time this year that they made an appearance. i had a third, but haven't seen him yet - he may have not made it thru the winter...

Another Winter Walk In The Garden

Soon to be turning into Spring walks, I hope! About 7 more inches a few days ago, but i (WE- Crickit had to go out, too!) had to get out in the sunshine for awhile.

Crickit hanging out in the garden by the coldframe

The elephant is nearly invisible (more about him later).

We've had a decent winter - this was the biggest amount of snow all winter, it's been consistantly cold, but not bitterly cold - still, we need a short thaw, at least - this has been the longest the pond's been frozen over for years! Hope the fish are surviving!

Crickit doesn't seem to want to come inside yet!

Animal Abuse (With Love...)

Our two pet cats, Crickit and Skeeter, are indoor/outdoor cats, but they only are allowed out when one of us are also out. AND they have been trained to stay in the yard (Seriously!). We do have a 6 ft privacy fence around 80% of our backyard, so it wasn't as difficult as it sounds, but still, they are very good and don't try to climb the fence or get out. They DO chase bunnies, but stop when i yell at them, amazingly. So they don't wander, but they cannot be described as strictly housecats, either. Crickit's my garden buddy, she wants to be out as much as i do, but Skeeter- not so much! If it's cold or windy or wet, she's happy to sit in her window and look out at the weather. Of course, they do not go out at all in the winter months, but they(especially Crickit) don't understand why they can't go out, if it's sunny and they're warm INside, and commence to sit by the door, crying.So i remind them why they can't. Once a year, generally during one of our biggest snows, they get tossed into a snowdrift!

Crickit negotiating her way out

 It's also a reminder about how good they've got it, in case they've forgotten why these mean humans are holding them hostage in the house. It works - i don't hear any complaints from them for weeks! It's not total abuse - Crickit just sits there for a minute, gives me an "Are you nuts?!" look, then slowly (like it didn't bother her all that much) walks to the back door, shaking the snow off her paws.

All that's left of her ordeal

Another Snowfall...

                                  So we had a snowfall. 3- 4 inches, tops. Can i complain? Not hardly,considering this same weather system dumped about three FEET in the Washington DC area yesterday!                                     

 It was pretty windy, too, so the snow cover was very smooth and pristine. i took these pics of the garden this morning, before any of our snow shoveling, footprints, or the animals spoiled the surface.

It's hard to imagine this all leafed out and green......but here's a reminder!

Winter Beauty?

The light is different. There's always"the" day around this time of year that suddenly looks a little brighter, even if it's cold with a thick cloud cover - the sun is a little higher, the shadows (when you can see any) are a little more defined - it's hard to describe, but the FEEL is different! And yes, our days are already 50 minutes longer than they were a month ago, too - and while it's not real noticeable yet, if we do have an rare evening without clouds, it makes quite an impact on us!

i'm trying...i really am. The sun was out yesterday, and the Porcupine grass was catching some of the late afternoon rays, so i was moved enough to take a few photos. Looks nice enough, you can't tell it's only 15 degreesF, can you?

Even a little blue sky can help this time of year, it brings out what little colors there are in the dead of winter.

Looking out into the Florida room (the name of which makes me laugh THIS time of year - it's not usually heated, so it sure doesn't FEEL like Florida!). i can almost fool myself into thinking it's a warmer time of the year, but i can't keep out of the back of my mind that any of these pictures would look 100% better if they were taken in June! 

All in all, it's my favorite day of January - The LAST one!