Saturday, April 25, 2009

Run Through the Jungle





Just a little tale of some Saturday morning gardening. Despite the fact that I whacked back everything in my backyard just a few days before I started the job, I looked out Friday evening and thought -- this cannot wait another weekend. Everything had gone absolutely wild! This song came to mind and I couldn't get it out of my head!

We spent at least three hours chopping and our entire trash bin is full! I didn't take any before pics because it was just too gruesome, but here's the after photos!

A lot of the plants had actually grown together! The shrubs were huge!

The pink oleander trees are blooming like crazy right now!

The woodrose vine has taken over the extra trellis we added.

The torchglow bougainvillea back against the wall has gone nuts, and flowers have filled in the area around the ash tree.



The little birds love this area! I might add, the weather today was perfection with a high in the low 80's.

I took charge of grooming all the palms. They have the worst thorns on the fronds. OUCH!

I had to whack back this radiation lantana. It was wild!

I'm not sure if you can see this, but the yucca in the foreground presented a little surprise this week. You can literally slice off a finger on the sharp edge of a yucca, so it's amazing that they shoot up these plumes of soft bell-like white flowers.

It's a relief to have the backyard trimmed again. It's nice having the tropical type plants, but I never realized the amount of labor I'd have to donate to the cause!

7 comments:

Isla Deb said...

Oh, my gosh, your yard is absolutely beautiful. I'm so embarassed that I just did a post on my yard from hell. You put me to shame! Hmmm...how much would you charge to come out here and work on my yard?! lol Great post, Beck...you should be proud.

Life's a Beach! said...

Thanks Deb! I like your yard too! We (I) do all the labor. When we lived in Bellevue, Washington, the Jewish kid next door could NOT understand how a woman could mow a lawn. He used to quiz me about it all the time. His father called me and my friend across the street female gorillas because we could also manhandle picks to dig holes for shrubs! HA! One time when we were having our roof redone, I caught one of the Mexican roofers bringing all his friends around to the backyard and they were all laughing at me mowing the lawn. Pretty funny.

Ann said...

Beautiful! Certainly puts my yard to shame! I'm happy that I have daffodils blooming..... I know i should put a little more time in the yard! We actually might have had warmer weather than you yesterday--it went from 60's on Fri. to 85-90 yesterday!

Bennie said...

What a beautiful yard. Enjoy it.

Vee said...

Beck, your yard is gorgeous! I know exactly what you mean about a jungle. I call our back yard Little Shop of Horrors. After 15 years of trying to tame the weeds, new varieties show up every year. You have inspired me!

jeanie said...

Absolutely gorgeous!!! Lots of work though. We don't have a backyard anymore, it's all deck and the front was professionally done before we got here. Good for you Beck! BTW I have never mowed a lawn LOL

Life's a Beach! said...

Jeanie, I'd love to be sitting on that deck of yours come June or July! Wish I had a summer lake house up north!