It took two days of work to clean out the plants before they threw their seed. I gathered them all up and took them to areas where I would be much happier to see them bloom and it will be much less work for me.
Then I had to use the blower to blow out all the leaves from the overhanging live oak tree and collect them up. I am happy to see the rocks and pebbles again. There are a few plants still remaining; others that have seeded themselves like Mexican feather grass, zexmenia and lantana.
Maybe just the odd bluebonnet here and there next year. Maybe time to add a few more agaves and succulents.
Yes, more agaves, more succulents, would look good there and much less work.
ReplyDeleteThe clean up is a mess and I've planned it for tomorrow. Even though the bluebonnets will be in the same spot next year, I'm tired of the weeds.
Getting too old for all this work! I still have another big area which is yet to be cleaned up.
DeleteForget-me-nots are my bluebonnets. I planted a couple my second year gardening and they threatened to take over everything a couple years later. Even though I thought I eradicated them, I just saw one new plant this year in another part of the yard. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteLove the dry streambed -- didn't realize the bluebonnets were hiding this!
I could do with a few forget-me-nots in my English garden. Tried one time but they didn't do well. Pretty little flowers though. I have decided the dry creek is better without plants
DeleteI like both the pre-bluebonnet and the post-bluebonnet scenes, each for their own effect. But definitely time to do the cleaning up, for this new season.
ReplyDeleteToo bad you remind me of the weeding yet to be done on my own rocky plot of land...
Altogether too much of that David!
DeleteLooks like river rocks from Colorado. One year I had the bright ideas to go to an meadow in San Antonio with my two young boys to collect bluebonnet seeds. There where many seed pods and collection bags were full. However, the biggest surprise is when we got home. We were loaded with chiggers. We all looked like we had a case of the chicken pox the next week. They still talk about to this day. (that and the endless mulch additions).
ReplyDeleteThey are Greggo. And I am covered in chigger bites. It doesn't matter where I go out there. need to get out the sulphur bag and dust my socks.
DeleteIt looks great in the before and after photos.
ReplyDeleteAnd, this is the area that is mostly on its own? Sigh....I hope my garden can look half this good, when it grows up.
I like when I remove plants and still like what is left. It makes the work worthwhile.
DeleteI learned my lesson - this year I'm cutting the seed pods off the milkweed BEFORE they let loose! I've got millions of them in every bed and even in the lawn.
ReplyDeleteI have done the same thing with poppies and bluebonnets. An attempt to limit their numbers next year.
DeleteI love the bluebonnets and the boulders - reminds me of the Ocoee River back in Tennessee... I miss those rapids. :(
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do like the stylized-natural garden after the bluebonnet removal. Looks like a lot of area to clean!
I'm understand how you feel. When we are hiking I love the way nature arranges her rocks and the wildflowers growing int he cracks and crannies.
DeleteI spent the day hacking out plumbago, Mexican petunias, and other miscellaneous misbehavers. Filled 3 wheel barrows. When it's dry, the misbehavers don't seem as a aggressive, but give them a little rain and watch out.
ReplyDeleteIt seems this year they are particularly messy. I think the rain then the dry. It is hard keeping up.
DeleteI struggle with the decision on what to do about my wildflowers every year. I love them when they are blooming, but they do crowd the summer perennials so much that they are tall and lanky by the time I yank the wildflowers (poppies and larkspur and blubonnets). So every year I say, I am not going to have so many wildflowers next year, but then when they germinate in the winter, I change my mind and think, oh...maybe just one more year. This year my garden is on a tour on May 6, so I am having to pull some of the poppies before their seed heads are dry because I don't want dry browned stalks of poppies making my perennial beds look ugly. So maybe NEXT year I will not have so many poppies...maybe. Let's check in with each other next year and see how we do on our resolve???
ReplyDeleteToni- I know just what you mean. We were on tour three times in May and every time I needed to pull to tidy up before the tour. The annuals do just as you say- look beautiful bit then crowd everything else out. I say the same thing to myself but have that same problem when they germinate. The California poppies became huge mounds of foliage crowding out anything below. I really will have to change my style some day soon because it just becomes too much work. Good luck with your tour. We always had so much fun on the big day.
DeleteI love your gardens, and your dry creek certainly looks amazing with the rest of your rocky gardens...so much better you can see it again. JUST LOVELY!
ReplyDelete