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That darned honeysuckle
A couple weeks ago our neighbors knocked on the door and the dogs went bonkers, of course. I didn’t hear the knock but did see one of them walking back down the driveway. The Scientist went to investigate and returned to say our orange honeysuckle plant was weighing down the shade cloth they had between the fence and their house. This is the plant that I have cut back to nothing several times and it always comes back. We hadn’t done anything with it in ages and it had grown up and over the fence again. It was bigger and stronger than ever. I immediately set about cutting it back with the Scientist joining me when he wasn’t working. Between us we got almost all of it off the shade cloth. I continued on a couple days later and removed lots more of it. I also managed to clear a huge space on the ground where it had been. There are still some strong roots that will need more tools to remove though.
Meanwhile, two large piles of cuttings appeared near the fence and sat there for a couple weeks. We’ve had several days without rain and the forecast is for rain from Tuesday onwards. I decided to work on shredding some of the green waste before it got wet again. This didn’t work as well as I’d like but I did manage to get through the better part of one of the piles. There have been other cutting from shrubs and trees, dried along the periphery of the yard so I used some of those branches. After a few hours of work, I found I had one box filled with shredded plant waste. Those piles took up considerable space but the shredded material fit quite neatly into the big box our food processor came in.
One of our goals is to clear the honeysuckle completely, along with other weeds and yard trash, enough so that we can have a patio installed outside. We’ve only lived here nineteen years but still have no covered area outside. I’m hoping we can complete this before the end of our winter. With so much cleared away, it actually looks like there is quite a bit of space there. Here’s hoping we stick to our goals this time.
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Mowing
I got a blister on my hand today. It was warm today and dry and I was motivated. So I went outside in the latter part of the afternoon and mowed…and mowed…and mowed. All the weedy grass that had been pulled a few weeks ago was still there but now it dry and crispy, leaving its seeds everywhere. It looked about as horrible as the tall grass did. I didn’t finish the mowing job but I managed to clear large sections of the back yard and the side of the house before moving to mow the front yard. It all looks so much better now. The Scientist came out and helped by pulling out more weeds/grass even though he should rightfully have been taking it easy as he’d done a blood donation in the morning. Between the two of us, the garden is looking far more respectable now.
We have a few ideas of changes to the garden. We’ve got some large pots that have nothing growing in them so I plant to buy some herbs to add to the garden. The chilli plants are coming back to life so I might buy one or two more of those. I don’t know if I will bother with jalapeño or not as they just don’t seem to survive here. I also moved a pot that previously held a thai chilli along with a fig tree growing wild. The chilli plant is long gone but the fig looks like it’s growing a bit. I moved the pot to the back of the house to see if it will be okay with a bit more direct sun.
A less immediate plan for the backyard is to have a patio installed. We may or may not get that done this year but it’s one of our planned major projects. Our idea is to try to mostly enclose the patio so we can move exercise equipment there but also to have one end open to allow for eating outside under cover. This will be good for the dogs as there will be a decent covered area to stay in outside. We are still considering possibilities at the moment and clearing up some of the mess in that area so that we can get a proper quote on it.
In the front yard we have a few lavender plants that have been there for years but most of them look a bit scraggly.  The old plants are most likely to be removed. One of the plants is almost all deadwood so it’s not exactly pretty there. We are considering adding lavender or something simillar on the side of the driveway. We’ve had terrible luck with most plants there so I am not very optimistic of our chances. Meanwhile new lavender plants have grown wild under our drain pipes next to the carport. We also want to till all the ground in the front and try to do over that area properly and make it mostly natural,
One thing I noticed while mowing the front yard was there were so many seedlings growing from one of our shrubs. We bought one of the plants years ago and it uprooted during a storm. But in the years since, several plants have grown and it’s actually turned out to be an invasive plant so I really don’t want it any more. The main plant is now stretching out towards the street and one day I will cut it all out. But there is also an old bottlebrush tree that is now dead in the midst of all the living plants and that will most likely be the first to go from that area. It had pink flowers on it but never really grew much even though it lived for probably fifteen years.
Anyway, with all the mowing I did, a blister developed right under my right pinkie finger. I don’t think that’s ever happened before so I guess I did a lot more mowing than usual today. Â Next weekend we plant to do the side of the yard and to finish up the other areas with whippersnippler and other fixing up.
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The family that gardens together?
Last month we had rain for something like 20-21 day of the month, which is far exceeds our normal September rainfall. Our grass in the backyard grew higher and higher and I despaired as I wasn’t able to go out and mow. Eventually it grew tall enough that mowing was going to have to wait until it had been trimmed down a bit.
We had some dry and sunny days last week but I found myself down and out with more allergies/cold and tonsillitis until early this week. Â Fortunately vertigo wasn’t involved this time but I was pretty knocked out again. Twice in a month…
Anyway, I finally came out of the haze and felt well enough on Monday. The weather was also in agreement so I bought some new grass clippers and a set of hedge shears and pruners. The grass clippers were the expensive type but worked a lot better for my left handed use than the last set I bought. Just for that alone I think they were worth. The Scientist and I went out into the back yard and tried out the tools. The grass clippers were really a bit too slow for the amount we needed. The Scientist pulled out the line trimmer and managed to cut a lot of the tall grass down. Then it came down to mostly pulling the grass out by hand that was most effective. I was still using the clipper for some place but most of it was weedy winter grass.
We were making a bit of progress but time was short and rain was expected again on Tuesday. I joked that I should get the boys out to help us and then did just that. Normally I would get some fairly negative responses to such a request but both Game Fanatic and Lego Lover came out without argument and started helping. After about an hour of work, we had managed to clear out a huge area, leaving mostly outer areas of the garden to be dealt with later.
It was rather nice having all of us out there working towards a goal and getting a bit of enjoyment from it too. I really appreciated the help the boys gave and mostly appreciated how willingly they joined in.
I’m under no illusion this will become a regular thing but I do hope we can join together in this way again when the need arises.
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Every little bit helps
That’s what I tell myself about anything I do in the garden. Since my knee surgery over a year ago, my garden activity has been pretty limited. This was understandable for the first several months after surgery since it was hard to get up and down. Now that my knee is so much better, that is less the issue and it’s more  a matter of being out of the habit of doing anything.
Yesterday I went outside and realised there was need to clean up dog messes so I got my little spade and an old plant container to get around the yard quickly. That took a while but then I found myself pulling out weedy grass from around bushes. All the shrubs along the back side of the house have been overgrown with couch grass so it required a bit of work. I abandoned my original task (which was mostly done anyway) and devoted most of the remaining time to clearing out that mess in the shrubs. The worst place is right up against the house as the grass’ roots run rather deep and I have to really rip the stuff out. On a positive note that grass has often died so it isn’t always resistant to my efforts. I managed to get most of that cleared out and also pulled up quite a few weeds that have sprung up in the back yard. It’s always the nastiest ones that seem to grow so quickly too. Of course I was doing all this without gloves and my hands are now feeling a bit battered from the abuse. Â The good part is there is a small area that looks a lot better. I’m hoping to go off to a nursery in a local shop today to search for one more plant to replace one that died well over a year ago. The stake holding it up was still there but evidence of the plant is long gone.
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Catching up
I keep procrastinating about writing posts and never get around to them. Maybe I need to make a list of things I want to write and tick them off as I do it.
Life carries on as usual at the lorikeet household. Last week, the Scientist and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. We’d been together a few years before that but this was the official date. It was a very good day, starting with a gym visit and shower before going out to a mid-afternoon meal at Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant here in Perth. This is one of his Italian restaurants and it was absolutely lovely there. The complimentary bread was some of the best I’ve had. The olive oil and balsamic vinegar served with it were just wonderful. I had a pasta dish with prawns and linguine which was quite nice. I only ordered an entree plus a salad on the side…plenty of food for me. We did have a starter of baked mushrooms and the music bread with that was also rather addictive. For dessert I was brave and tried the pannacotta. I’ve tried it many times before and was always disappointed. But I had hope that Jamie’s recipe would work and I was right. Strong vanilla flavors and fresh fruit and sweet and creamy. It’s not part of the usual menu but I hope to have it again. The best part of the meal is that it didn’t cost a small fortune to eat there and was reasonably priced. Not bad for a celebrity chef restaurant in the city. Add to that the great dinner companion and I couldn’t ask for more. The Scientist and I enjoyed a stroll through King’s Park afterwards and probably worked off a few calories from the meal. We climbed the DNA tower, which is two spiral staircases designed to look like DNA. It has a good view at the top and it was sunset so we were both snapping away with our cameras. I made it up and down the stairs without much problem, which was a nice change…funnily enough I had more trouble on some other stairs and steep paths along the way…strange. It’s weird to think it’s been 20 years since our wedding day…sometimes it seems so recent and other times it’s a lifetime ago…
I’ve been out in the garden this week, cutting branches off a tree I want to get rid of. I don’t know how we will get the trunk removed ourselves as it’s very big but I plan to cut as much off as I can. It’s a shame since the tree has been there since we planted our first shrubs…but it was taking up a massive part of the garden and was too big for the yard. We have another one in the front yard but will leave that as it is for now. Aside from many piles of branches, there is a lot more space in the side/backyard than there’s been in years. Little Maromi won’t be able to hide as easily when this is cut down like he does now. I also noticed today it gets so much more sun in that area now. I’m thinking of trying to plant a hibiscus and see what happens…but we may think about a few other plants too.
We’d truly gotten into the chilliness of late autumn/winter this month but the last few days have been a bit warmer and even the nights haven’t been quite so cold. Last week I went outside to hang wet clothes and even with a warm robe and bed socks with shoes I was feeling chilled. A couple nights ago, it felt more like a summer night and the clothes didn’t even draw damp. We’re supposed to get some rain but I haven’t seen much evidence of it so far. I did, however, see a beautiful moonrise on the way back from tai chi. It was hidden behind clouds at first but came into full view by the time we were home. I noticed a little while ago it’s still quite bright although much higher in the sky…no clouds blocking it at the moment so I wonder when this rain is due to happen…
I had more games news to add but it turned out to be so long I will make it into a separate post.
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Late garden
I seemed to lack much motivation to get out into the garden this spring and summer. In the spring I was still finding many of the gardening tasks a bit awkward with my knee so I procrastinated a bit. The Scientist has kept things alive out there by making sure it’s all watered on our appointed watering days. We have a large bottlebrush tree/shrub that has grown up and out and finally about half the tree started tipping away from the main part of the tree. One large branch hovered over our garden table and it was difficult to get to the table for the overgrown tree. The Scientist and I were trying to cut off some of these branches when the last grass seed made itself apparent in Maromi’s ear. The Scientist managed to get almost all of that main branch of the tree cut off but there’s still a couple more parts to remove. It all looks rather bare out there now and the sun is shining on areas that have been in shade for much of the last year. As the other main branch of this tree has split slightly, we are aware that the entire tree may eventually have to go. We’ll just have to keep an eye on it to see if the roots will be strong enough. It would be really sad if the tree has to be removed.
I am suddenly reminded of returning to Perth after our year in Canada to find one of our two protea shrubs had died for no apparent reason. It had been quite healthy when we left and dead on our return. I remember feeling a great sadness at that loss as it was one of the first shrubs we planted in the yard of our brand new house. We’ve had other plants planted and die since but that one was in such great shape when we left that to find it gone was quite a shock.
We have a tea tree on the side of the house that we do plan to cut down. It’s another of the original shrubs but it hasn’t served much useful purpose in recent years as it’s just sprawled out over a large corner of the yard and it’s hidden usable space behind it. Even though there may be twinges of sadness to see it go, I think it will be better for that part of our yard in the end. We also plan to get rid of pretty much all the grass in the backyard as our plan is to turn it into a natural area instead. Finally there’s a grape vine that we planted a few years ago that has never gone anywhere but not died either. It may be a fatal move but we plan to transplant it to a hopefully better location once it goes dormant again. There are many vineyards near us so I think we are in a good climate for growing grapes…if we can just work out the specifics on getting them to grow.
Yesterday the Scientist and I ventured into the garden center at our local major hardware store for the first time in months. We do have nurseries around us but none as close as this store and it sometimes gets our business just for the convenience. That said, it’s also fairly well kept compared to the same centers in other branches of this chain. In fact, it’s also better than the closest nursery which just makes me cringe when I go into it. We had a couple of missions when we arrived. One was to find a replacement water sprinkler for one that is broken. The one we found is far more expensive than any other we’ve purchased before so I hope it is very, very good. Our other main goal was to buy chilli plants to replace our old ones. We have five large pots in the backyard and each has held a chilli plant in the past. A couple grew quite well and produced heaps of fruit. Another one has never been terribly successful and borne only a small number of fruit. One was quite good for a year but died during the winter. One of the more successful plants had a fig tree start growing in it unexpectedly more than a year ago. We didn’t know what it was for a long time until I recognised the shape of the leaves on another plant in the garden center. The fig is still alive in that pot although it’s not really much bigger than it was. The chillies are gone and the plant is either dead or nearly dead.
In the past, it was always easy to find all the different varieties of chillies but this time we must have just missed them all the first time around. It took a bit of mixing and matching but we finally decided on half a dozen different plants. These will all go into the planter where I’d put the tomatoes and basil last summer. I also bought some mint plants to put into one of the empty pots in hopes of having a good crop. The Scientist found some really nice succulents to add to our front garden. The one thing we didn’t buy was more potting soil which I will need to fill up some of the planters now.
One other thing we looked at yesterday was cushions for our garden chairs as the dogs have destroyed the old ones. Unfortunately we didn’t find anything that suited our chairs and none at a very good price either. It would be cheaper to buy a new set at this point but we hope to find something suitable elsewhere.
Hopefully now that we’ve got going with this idea, we will carry through with some of our plans and make the yard/garden a much nicer place again.
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Mystery plant
Months ago, or maybe even last year, a mystery plant started growing in the same big pot as a bunch of Thai chillies. I guessed it might be a weed of some sort but left it anyway as I was curious what was growing. Usually I will pull it out once it’s identified as an unwanted weed. As this grew, it developed leaves that seemed rather familiar although I couldn’t identify them. I figured it might die out as some point but it’s still growing and has now started upward growth. It’s not yet a meter tall but I believe it won’t be long until it reaches that point. And still I couldn’t work out what it was.
But while I was at the hardware store’s garden department, I happened to see a plant that looked very similar and I think I have worked out the mystery. It seems we have a fig tree or something related growing out back. I can’t imagine we got any sort of seed into our backyard as we don’t eat figs. My best guess it has been dropped by a bird passing through.
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Plugging away here
It’s now over a week and I still haven’t shaken this bug totally. I have now moved on to the blocked ears and coughing stage,. And I still have some tonsillitis although it seems to have improved a bit today. The problem with the blocked ears is the my hearing become quite poor and I can’t understand people. Last night I went off to the tai chi class and the assistant instructor was working with our group as he had none of the beginner to teach. I like him but he speaks very softly at the best of times and I was struggling to understand him.
Meanwhile my germs have infected the rest of the family, The Scientist hasn’t been hit too hard as yet but he may suffer as much if it drags on. Both boys are in the middle of nasty sore throat and Game Fanatic is coughing even worse than usual. You’d think it was still winter with all of us getting sick. And the weather has been close to winter-like too, with relatively low temperatures for November. Of course, before we know it we will be sweltering again.
I reinstalled Windows 7 on my computer the night before last after having issues for months since my last installation (when the motherboard or cpu died). The good news is everything looks all shiny and new and I have cleared out heaps from the computer. The down side is this hasn’t exactly fixed the problem. I suspect my fairly old hard drives may be part of the problem and it might be worth a change in the near future.
A couple weeks ago (or more) we bought some tomato plants at our local supermarket to plant in our large above ground planter thing. They have been sitting on our outdoor table for all this time and one of them was nearly dead due to the stem partially breaking and also lack of consistent moisture. I had the planter partially ready to use but needed some more compost and some chicken manure to finish it up. I went off to our local mega hardware shop down the road and got the items I needed plus another regular tomato plant and a grape tomato. I bought some basil seedling to plant with them, came home and got it all planted out within half an hour. And I didn’t really get too dirty either, which was surprising.
Obviously something was wrong if I wasn’t dirty after gardening for a while. We had a fair bit of rain earlier in the week but the past couple days have been dry and mostly sunny. And all that tall grass has been right in my face, waiting to be cut…so I pulled out the lawnmower and finally got most of that cut down. It only took a few hours with all the breaks I had to take. We seem to have far more space out there now than we did before. At the end of all that, I was quite dirty and had to wash my hair for the second day in a row as it couldn’t be avoided. Now I’m quite tired and sore but it feels good to have all that work accomplished. And now I actually want to be in the back yard. Except for the area just outside the door where we still have a mess and there is still a bit of wildness. I didn’t have the energy to clear that out today so might tackle it next week some time.
Now if I can just get certain sick young guys to just go to sleep, I can toddle off to bed and rest the weary body. And hope I haven’t set back my recovery.
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The Moths
We have been invaded by moths over the past few weeks. Initially we thought it was widespread but it appears to be limited to our garden or a very local area. Suddenly there were hundreds of medium sized brown-black moths flying around our backyard and also finding their way into the house. It is impossible to remove all of the ones inside but we have tried. On several nights, we walked out and it was truly like a scene from the film, The Birds. They were literally swarming all around us.
We had something similar happening last year and it was hard to open a door without some moths getting inside. But this year it seems like a different variety of moths. The Scientist found some information suggesting they are a pest affecting certain bushes in our back yard. Also, the tall grass that came up during late winter has also been harboring many of the moths.
At the moment, the population seems to be decreasing so we should be mostly moth-free fairly soon. Meanwhile I seem to have developed a fairly strong aversion to the moths that I’m sure wasn’t there before. In fact, it may be as bad as my aversion to roaches.
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Too hot
The only food plants currently growing in our garden are chillies (chilli peppers), oregano and a small bit of rainbow chard that survived the long hot summer. I had a habañero plant that survived last winter but didn’t start fruiting until late autumn. There are now plenty of fruit available for picking. I hadn’t harvested any fruit until today when I was gathering chillies to add to a black bean soup I was preparing. I only picked four and the rest were mostly jalapeños and a couple of the small Thai chillies.
The habañeros went in whole so we could pick them out instead of biting into them. Last year, this worked quite well and it provided a moderate amount of heat for the dish. But I don’t think they were particularly potent last year. It would seem they have gained a lot of heat since then because they were incredibly hot this time. I had one bowl of soup with some corn chips and Greek yoghurt (instead of sour cream) and I was fine even though it was rather hot. Then I went to get a bit more and added more chips and yoghurt. The second or third bite, I got a bit of the habañero and it slowly built up to a very painful experience. I grabbed a big chunk of crusty bread to try to cool my tongue but it only seemed to irritate for the first several minutes  and then settled down a bit. I tried to eat more and it seems it had spread throughout the soup. The Scientist brought some butter to add to the bread this time and that seemed to be a bit more soothing. When i had partially recovered, I simply couldn’t eat any more and abandoned my food.
This is the first time this has ever happened to me. I have made stews and soups that were really hot. One other black bean soup was probably just a bit too hot to enjoy it properly but I carried on eating until I finished. This time was much beyond enjoyment and my body is still feeling a bit traumatized. If I use more habañeros, I think I’ll have to use just one or two in the future, if I am brave enough to risk it next time.