My, how my garden grows (or backyard bliss)

[fearless]

I was going over some pictures I'd take a little while back and am amazed at how much my garden has grown over the summer months.


May 09


Aug 09


Dec 09


Damn it, didn't work. If you want to see them check them out at my facebook profile here: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=169535&id=641490263

[Boo Radley]

Beautiful, fearless!   Don't let Matty see the kitties, though...

My backyard was a slab of concrete when I moved in and within a year had 2 trees, numerous shrubs and plants, and vines to cover the hideous hurricane fence.  Katrina knocked down 2 trees and a crappy old shed I wanted to tear down anyway (but the city wouldn't let me).  The cypress tree now stands higher than the second story.   Unfortunately this winter killed almost everything but I'll wait a few more weeks to be sure there ain't life in some of them yet.  My staghorn fern was the biggest loss since the cutting was from my late mother's plant.

My neighbors think I'm weird because I'm often dragging fallen tree limbs from the park (especially when they're covered with arboreal fern on old oak limbs) for my cats & there are about 5 A frame ladders for the cats to play on (they don't add much aesthetically but the kitties love 'em).  Itchy loves to sit on a certain one and paw at the wind chimes.   Are some of your plants herbs?  I can't grow any because the cats eat them, even rosemary.

[leatherman]

Wow! Your garden has come a long way since that hot empty cement slab.  It looks very inviting and comfortable now.

It's just Spring here in the states, and since I moved (to my mom's) I've got a couple acres worth of land to play with. The vegetable garden has gotten off to a good start, and all the flowers I seeded in pots have sprung up out of the soil.

[aztecan]

Oh wow Steve!

I remember seeing the first few photos when you bought the house, then when you first planted.

It has just gone wild! It looks great.

I loved the photo with the cat admiring the bird bath.

HUGS,

Mark

[Cliff]

Very nice!

[GSOgymrat]

What a transformation! Your cats obviously enjoy it.

[Matty the Damned]

Beautiful, fearless!   Don't let Matty see the kitties, though...

Matty has met the fuckers. It was a case of mutual indifference.



MtD

[fearless]

My neighbors think I'm weird because I'm often dragging fallen tree limbs from the park (especially when they're covered with arboreal fern on old oak limbs) for my cats & there are about 5 A frame ladders for the cats to play on (they don't add much aesthetically but the kitties love 'em).  Itchy loves to sit on a certain one and paw at the wind chimes.   Are some of your plants herbs?  I can't grow any because the cats eat them, even rosemary.

hey Boo, my cats no longer scratch my sofa which is good. They practically live in the garden these days and only come in for a feed or a cuddle. Now that the nights are getting cooler they come in to sleep with me. Ah, I feel loved again. lol.

No herbs. All the plants are Australian natives - 57 or something like that at last count. There are a few ground covers and several differnt grasses. I have an elkhorn rather than a staghorn. I rescued it from certain death but it is starting to come good. I can't wait for winter and spring as that is when most of the plants will flower. I also have several quite aromatic plants which give of the most beautiful fragrance, a native mint bush which is delightfull in the mornings and a couple of boronias which tend to give off their fragrance in the afternoon and evenings.

There was a six legged St Andrews Cross spider that had taken up residence in the mint bush but I've not seen it lately. Given his/her handicapp I'd been looking after it and had watched it grow a fari bit over the summer months. I don't know much about spiders so maybe it had lived its life, or found a partner. I hope so.

I deliberately went for what should be a low maintanence garden. I never have to water it - in fact I lost a couple of West Australian plants as Sydney is too wet and humid for them over the summer months. The ground covers should spread and join and will be a joy to lie/sit on in the summer motnths without the need to mow.

My only real concern is that it doesn't become too overgrown ais it is only a small space of about 20 sq metres. With natives they say to tip purne them when young to keep them nice and bushy and in shape - it's meant to simulate their natural environment when roos and wallabies and wombats eat the new growth.

[Boo Radley]

hey Boo, my cats no longer scratch my sofa which is good. They practically live in the garden these days and only come in for a feed or a cuddle. Now that the nights are getting cooler they come in to sleep with me. Ah, I feel loved again. lol.

Several stay in the yard most of the day and day and night in warm weather.  Recently 2 of my four 6/6/6 cat brothers (any random 2) have taken to loud screeching late at night battling over who-knows-what.  No one has complained yet.  I'm hoping they can't determine the source (even though I'm the only cat house on my small block).

On cold nights there's often no room on the bed for me, and damn me if I need to move or get up to pee.  3 - 4 dogs and 2 to 6 cats strategically placed eliminate the need for a heater. 

There was a six legged St Andrews Cross spider that had taken up residence in the mint bush but I've not seen it lately. Given his/her handicapp I'd been looking after it and had watched it grow a fari bit over the summer months. I don't know much about spiders so maybe it had lived its life, or found a partner. I hope so.

Sigh.  The spider, lizard, and occasional bird corpses I find still make me sad although after 25 years I've stopped scolding the little bastards.  Roaches are no problem and I encourage them to play hockey with the eventually legless buggers.

I deliberately went for what should be a low maintanence garden...

The only kind to grow.  I used to waste money on spring pansies and other annuals but having to place them in pots inaccessible to the cats became too challenging.  I have a few small fences around items like the Louisiana walking iris since the fattest kitties always love to lie on them and flatten them completely.  Everything else is on its own.

Your yard looks beautiful and must smell great too.  The foliage on the wisteria vine froze so the flowers are still in great sweet clumps on the 2nd floor front balcony.   I'll have to try more mint but it will probably have to be caged in since someone has always decided it's catnip and it's ripped up, unsuitable for mint juleps or tabouli.

Cooler weather now?  I shiver at the thought.

[PeteNYNJ]

Nice pussy

Steve, where do you live?  The palm and blue sky is making me very jealous.

[Boo Radley]

...
Steve, where do you live?  The palm and blue sky is making me very jealous.

He lives on some island called Australia.  If I remember correctly from my U.S. geography lessons it's off the coast of Florida or something, near Haiti and New Zealand.   

[PeteNYNJ]

I thought it was near Russia

[GSOgymrat]

He lives on some island called Australia.  If I remember correctly from my U.S. geography lessons it's off the coast of Florida or something, near Haiti and New Zealand.   

No Child Left Behind indeed.

[Boo Radley]

No Child Left Behind indeed.

Honey, I was in 2nd grade when Kennedy was assassinated (John, not Ted...). 

Back then it was "No white Christian commie-hating heterosexual child left behind."  All the rest of us were flotsam and jetsam.    Well, in publicly funded schools in Louisiana we were all screwed.

Isn't Russia somewhere near Alaska?  I think I read about President Palin 2012 (the end of time on the Mayan calendar, isn't it?) waving to Michael Barishnikoff from her patio or to whoever the governor of that state is.   People magazine is peer-reviewed I believe.

[Hellraiser]

No Child Left Behind indeed.

How can you expect poor Boo to remember that far back in his schooling?  I'm sure Socrates would have instructed him on where Australia was if it had even been discovered yet!

[GSOgymrat]

One of my coworkers asked me the difference between Mexico and New Mexico and then wanted to know which one Cancun was in.

[Hellraiser]

Just....wow.  See I would take something like that and run with it.  Oh yeah Cancun is in New Mexico, right next to the lost city of Atlantis and if you go there you should definitely visit Purgatory and all nine levels of Hell.

[Boo Radley]

How can you expect poor Boo to remember that far back in his schooling?  I'm sure Socrates would have instructed him on where Australia was if it had even been discovered yet!

That old bastard was constantly buggering me.  I had no time to learn...

... visit Purgatory and all nine levels of Hell.

When employed I had to take at least 9 work trips to Birmingham, Alabama.  I've served my time in hell.

One of my coworkers asked me the difference between Mexico and New Mexico and then wanted to know which one Cancun was in.

That's easy.  I use the same memory trick as for North and South Carolina.   New Mexico is below and North Mexico is above.  No idea about Cancun, though.  I thought it's some kind of endangered tuna.

fearless's garden and kitties are still fabulous, though, (ir)regardless of what state he lives in...  

[fearless]

One of my coworkers asked me the difference between Mexico and New Mexico and then wanted to know which one Cancun was in.

Funny coincidence - one of my friends gave me a travel guide to New Mexico when I was going to Cancun back in 04!!!

[fearless]

He lives on some island called Australia.  If I remember correctly from my U.S. geography lessons it's off the coast of Florida or something, near Haiti and New Zealand.   

Think south - Australia is derived from the Latin australis, meaning "southern". Yes, near New Zealand - also knows as the east islands. Jan can confirm this!

[Boo Radley]

Think south - Australia is derived from the Latin australis, meaning "southern". Yes, near New Zealand - also knows as the east islands. Jan can confirm this!

Yes, but what part of the USA are you in? 

You're addressing someone who believed he lived in South America until 5 or 6 because everyone always referred to us living in the South.   I don't remember when or how that little bubble burst but, then again, my 1st through 3rd grade teachers thought I was so imaginative because I colored dogs green, tree leaves brown, and used mostly silver, gold, yellow, bright blue, bright red, purple, etc. crayons.  A creative color blind child indeed.  Burnt Sienna still means nothing to me.   

[fearless]

Back in the late 80's in California, early 89 to be precise, when I mentioned I was from Australia I was asked how long it took me to drive from there. I was also told by a hotel receptionist that I spoke good English, but I had a hell of a time trying to spell out my surname - that's 'A', reply 'I', No, the letter A, reply 'E'. Here, give me a pen and I'll write it for you.

So, Boo it is about a 200 hour drive from California. I guess you would call that the deep South.

[Boo Radley]

... when I mentioned I was from Australia I was asked how long it took me to drive from there...
So, Boo it is about a 200 hour drive from California. I guess you would call that the deep South.

So it took you 200 hours to drive?  We US Americans are well known for our keen grasp of geography as well as tact.  Do you use real money in Australia or will I have to exchange my roles of quarters for some odd bits of confusing paper?   

I'm going to hop in my '67 VW beetle (they float, you know) and start from the Gulf of Mexico.  My GPS will show me the rest of the route, no doubt.   

[fearless]

So it took you 200 hours to drive?  We US Americans are well known for our keen grasp of geography as well as tact.  Do you use real money in Australia or will I have to exchange my roles of quarters for some odd bits of confusing paper?    

No. we don't use real money. Paper money was taken out of circulation in 1996. It was literally replaced with plastic money. Harder to counterfeit and lasts much longer.

[fearless]

So it took you 200 hours to drive?  We US Americans are well known for our keen grasp of geography as well as tact.  Do you use real money in Australia or will I have to exchange my roles of quarters for some odd bits of confusing paper?   

No. I walk everywhere.

[Boo Radley]

No. I walk everywhere.

There's only one other person who can do that and that's Barbra Streisand... oops, I mean Jesus (wrong movie...).    I never thought the 2nd coming would be in Australia.  No wonder your garden is so fantastic.  

God or not, I hate to break the news but that money is counterfeit -- that looks nothing like Abe Lincoln on the fiver.

P.S.  The USA is decades ahead of Australia in use of plastic money.  It's all most people have been using for at least 50 years.

[Jeff G]

 I once dated a guy from New Mexico . We were on a road trip once and stopped in Mississippi for gas but the attendant wouldn't accept his foreign New Mexico credit card as payment . While waiting for the sheriff to come straighten the guy out on his geography we showed him the road atlas to prove our point but he wasn't buying it and kept shaking his head and saying umm I don't know guys you seem American but it says Mexico .