Parts of today’s blog post were written to help us remember what and when we did some things. Many times we’ve come back to search through our blog posts to find out what and when we did something, went somewhere, etc. Please read it with that in mind.
Southern Louisiana’s summers are long and painfully hot. We’ve worked outside on our property during the summer but mostly for just an hour or two at a time.
Last week we had two days with lows in the 50s and highs in the 60s! We worked hard outside all day both days. This week every day has been nice and cool as well. Our windows have been open all day the last few days! Open windows weather is my favorite time of the year! Fall has finally arrived here in Southern Louisiana!
My projects this past week were all about pulling weeds! First I pulled them out of our gravel driveway and our renter driveway. On my butt I scooted up and down the driveways to pull all the weeds out by their roots. Many large piles of pulled weeds were thrown away!
Roy regularly sprays weeds with weed killer but there is always a dead weed left there. I don’t like how that looks so when I can I pull those dead ones and pull the fresh living weeds up!
These are some of the weeds growing in the gravel. These type weeds are also scattered throughout the grass and I’ve hand pulled a lot of those as well! Each of these groups of weeds is around 30 individual weed plants with individual roots. Lots of picking and digging around in the rocks and dirt!
Other than the weeds project in the driveways I crawled around on the grass at the new picnic area and pulled several hundred weeds. Getting rid of those weeds will help the St. Augustine back there spread better.
The weeds below are the same as the ones above but since they were in the grass they have gotten cut each time the grass was cut and their roots and stalk got tougher and tougher.
I bet you didn’t think you’d be seeing two pictures of weeds in today’s blog! Well maybe, knowing me, you are not surprised!
I also raked gravel from the middle of the driveway where it tends to pile up, to along the edge which had been missing rocks for a while. That was a massive project and while doing it I found a couple hundred great rocks for painting!!! The rocks were bleached and are now being painted!
We started out with two spider-like plants when we first moved here. Over time I’ve been able to divide those into sixteen separate spider-like plants. On these two workdays, I used four of them to pretty up more places around our property. I raked pine straw from the driveway and several places around the property. They were used around several bushes and plants. Our vegetable garden desperately needed some work so lots of weeds were pulled and several plants were pruned back and cleaned up!
Other than spending two full days pulling weeds there has been a continuation of our “Creating a Picnic Area” project!
Only one out of the five dying azaleas, that we talked Chip into not throwing away but giving to us, is still living. They must have been truly dead when we planted them but I had to try! Roy dug up the dead four and last Tuesday we purchased eight Azalea Encore Autum Empress from Bracy’s Nursery, the company I use to work for in Amite. Encore azaleas are the ones that bloom spring and fall instead of just spring like regular azaleas do. We also purchased one Desirable pecan tree and one Santa Rosa purple plum tree. Bracy’s Nursery is a wholesale only nursery so I am very happy that they still allow me to purchase from them! Thanks Bracy’s Nursery!
Roy’s new garden cart, that he pulls behind our lawnmower, filled with our new plants.
He dug 10 holes and planted the 8 azalea bushes along the fence leading back to the picnic area. After he planted them I fixed them up with pine straw all around the bottom.
The first photo shows two of the dead azaleas that were pulled up and some of the new azaleas.
The plum tree is in this photo and the azaleas are along the fence on the right-hand side of the photo.
The plum tree is a Santa Rosa Plum. It’s about 6-7 feet tall. Roy planted it near the satsuma tree that we believe will not produce so it will be removed in the next year.
The pecan tree is perfect and is planted in a perfect location. Every now and then something makes Roy and I really happy and this little pecan tree does it! It’s behind our house a little bit down and to the left of our vegetable garden. It is a Desirable type Pecan which is a paper shelled long pecan. The type Roy and I grew up eating and loving!
When digging the hole for the pecan tree Roy hit rock hard ground halfway down to the depth the hole needed to be. He filled the hole up with water to help soften that hard ground.
He filled the hole with three bags of tree planting material around the plant roots.
Ya’ll know how hard my husband works around here. He went to the orthopedic doctor last week because his left knee hurt. They did x-rays and gave him a cortisone shot in his left knee. The good news was that the x-ray shows his left knee is not in the same condition his right one was when he needed knee replacement surgery. He got a shot in his left knee where he thought the pain was originating from.
The next day was when he dug the ten holes for the plants. He had to go back to the doctor Tuesday because the pain was worse from his back, hip and down his leg, so they did Xrays of those areas and he got a shot in his hip and back. He was given pain medicine and a muscle relaxer. If he’s not better when the medicine is all gone they will do an MRI so we’re praying for him to be better before anything else needs to be done.
He is now required by his wife to stop all that work and get rest. He’s right in the middle of repairing our back door but that project is stopping also until Roy’s back, hip and leg are better.
So on a lighter side, the weather here is magnificent right now and every day is an invitation to work outside all day. We’ve been too busy lately to do a lot outside but today I got back to pulling weeds and Roy cut the grass. That’s about as strenuous as I’ll let him get for now!
Next blog post will be about Bo and Peep! Come back to find out who they are!
Ya’ll have a Blessed weekend!
BECAUSE HE LIVES 