This is year 3 for my new lawn in the back yard. Had a few weeds in the early spring, but I've taken care of those and decided to extend the lawn in the back yard over to the dogs' footpath.
Section 1: Dug and seeded on 5/21/2023
Section 2: Dug and seeded on 6/4/2023; started seeing sprouts in just under one week.
Planted these bare-root roses of 4/1/2023
Left to right: Oklahoma, Angel Face (center), Tiffany. I barricaded them with some temporary fencing to keep the dogs from digging them up until they are established!
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| 'Oklahoma' Rose |
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| 'Angel Face' Rose |
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| 'Tiffany' Rose |
5/15/2023: Oklahoma rose (my only bloom so far!)
Napping next to Mom:
On her bed surrounded by her toys:
Napping after Mom and Dad left and she got done chewing on her Nylabone (Dexter commandeered her bed, ha ha! But it's okay, there are enough dog beds here that everyone always has one available):
New dog tag:
First are pictures of my fence. Then are pictures of how neighbors have reinforced their fences (and this is how I'm envisioning fixing mine). Last is a spot of drywall that needs fixing if this is something else that you want to do. :)
MY FENCE
This is on the inside of the yard. You can see where the picket has split and the bolts are pulling out from the weight of the fence sagging.
Back side of the fence:
In the next 4 pictures, you can see these little short pieces that are bolted onto the left side of the metal post. These little short pieces are what the hinge-side of the gate are bolted onto. This is a major reason why the fence is sagging so much, because it's putting too much leverage on a small piece of wood.
Top hinge for the gate:
Middle hinge for the gate:
Bottom hinge for the gate:
This is the latch side of the gate from the alley. The frame of the gate itself could use some reinforcing as you can see the gap in the framing joint. This would be a good candidate for some of those metal reinforcement plates that we talked about.
There are some other spots along the fence line where the cross-pieces are cracked. I've angles screws into some of these spots, but they could use better reinforcement as will be shown below.
NEIGHBORING FENCE REINFORCEMENTS
The next two shots are how some other fences around here are reinforced with 2x4's bolted up against the cross-pieces. I would think we could use those metal reinforcement plates to help secure additional 2x4's instead of just angled screws which have a tendency to split the wood.
DRYWALL
The crack on this corner section of drywall has been slowly moving up the wall for years. The orange peel texture on it is very brittle and pops off if you push on the metal corner reinforcement that is under the spackle. Presumably it's because the house has shifted and settled. I'm not sure of the best way to patch it since the metal part itself seems to be a bit buckled. Maybe it can be better nailed into the drywall to flatten it out and then texture over it...? This is adjacent to the pantry door, and you can see the step-stool you made for me on the left so you'll know where in the house this is.
I don't know what type of moths these are, but they're teeny-tiny (the size of my fingernail), and they LOVE my pink yarrow!
This is the first time I've started desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) from seed. I've had terrific success germinating them in 4" pots by spritzing them daily with water from a mister bottle and then keeping the pots covered with a clear, upside-down drip tray (to keep the soil moist but still allow sunlight in). The seeds should be planted shallow (just barely covered with soil) as they need sunlight to germinate.
The internet tells me to overwinter them indoors in pots the first year and then plant in the ground next spring. Supposedly the seeds lose viability rather quickly. I plucked these off of the tree (select brown pods that are dry and starting to split open) and seeded them the same day.
The seedlings below are from the tree in my back yard ('Bubba') which I got 20 years ago from Garden World in Abilene. They are still displaying their cotyledons and are just starting to grow their first true leaves. I've started four pots of these, and all germinated successfully in about one week.
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| Desert Willow seedlings |
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| Desert Willow 'Bubba' |
These are the first seeds I started back in the summer, and these came from the tree over at the park which has more white in it than the tree in my back yard. August 10, 2022; pictured with two chocolate ghost pepper plants:
Transplanted into 1-gallon pot today:
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| Desert Willow transplanted into 1-gallon pot |
