Finally it's become Spring around here. Late this year. We had an ice/snow storm the last few days of February-first few days of March, and since then it's been pretty much non-stop raining up until last Sunday, but it's been fairly nice since then. So I've spent the last couple of weekends puttering around the house and yard. Things are beginning to grow and bloom finally. This is my neighbor's bradfpord pear, blooming like crazy.
Last weekend I bought a couple red-tipped photinia and planted then out by the fence. Last Fall I had my two big live oaks trimmed up, and I lost a bunch of privacy from my neighbors behind me. You can see that in the first picture. Nothing between me and my neighbors but a 6 foot fence. I didn't realize how much privacy the low hanging limbs on those trees were creating until they were gone. So these photinia should grow relatively tall, and maybe I'll get some of that privacy back.
I also planted some hollyhocks last weekend so I hope they come up. And I cleaned out shrubbery a bit and cut back some crepe myrtle. I was head to toe mud by the time I finished that planting and gardening last weekend, but the rain had finally stopped, and I was determined to get some yard work in.
I also bought a little african violet for my office and on a whim, a little venus flytrap. The little venus flytrap is so small and cute, and really seems to like my kitchen windowsill. It's directions said I don't have to feed it flies - which I don't know if that means it will catch them itself, or that it can survive on photosynthesis just fine. Either way we'll see how it does. The African violet I took to work since those little plants are pretty, but poisonous to cats.
This weekend I re-potted things that needed it. I re-potted the peace lily into a bigger pot since it had so over-grown the pot it came in. I also found a nice plant stand for it. It likes that location in the sun room, but it had really gotten too big to sit on that coffee table. I also re-potted the little venus flytrap into a pot from it's little square plastic container.
I put out my hummingbird feeders two weeks ago, but haven't seen hide nor hair of a hummingbird yet. They're late coming through this year, but that could be because things are just barely starting to bloom here. My flowering quince and the bradford pears were the only things that had bloomed until this week. This week the redbuds are blooming, and my azalea and indian hawthorne are showing lots of buds. So once things start blooming I'm hoping the hummers arrive.
I just love Spring when everything starts growing again, and it's green and flowers are blooming. The peaches are leafing out nicely now and the russian sage and the roses are all putting on new growth. The buds on the little pine are bursting into a tree-full of new pine needles. All the trees are seeming to leaf out basically overnight. My live oaks have been dropping their old leaves like snowfall with the growth of the new ones. My lawn service guys left three large sacks of leaves for the trash people to pick up this week.
Yesterday I checked out and programmed my sprinkler system. About time to turn it on for the year, so I needed to make sure it was working as it's supposed to. I'm glad to see green grass coming up also, rather than brown dead grass. Although I grow grass for Addy during the Winter, I won't need to grow Addy any more grass now this year. She can find it outside.
And that's pretty much the yardwork report for March. I won't have as much time to do garden/yard stuff in April since I'll be traveling some. I'll leave today with a picture of that last snowstorm, since I'm so happy that stuff is gone now for the year.
