Ricocheting Around the Back Yard

I have a new rule, which is that all fall-planted bulbs must be bought in person at the nursery, in order to avoid what appears to be persistent over-ordering on my part. Somehow, the fact that I ordered about 1,000 bulbs from various sources over the summer didn't really sink in until I was standing there with a third of them, wondering what the heck I was supposed to do with 50 ranunculus corms.

Well, the ones that have arrived so far are all planted, though I think I planted the freesias too closely. It will be like a freesia conference.

Also going in the ground this week is a new brugmansia (double white). I now have four of these: two in the ground (this double white and the pink one) and two in pots (both 'Charles Grimaldi'), which might be a bit of overload. I may give one of the 'Charles Grimaldi' to a friend.

Noel has been working on the electrical wiring going out to the shed/greenhouse foundation. We decided to run a few circuits out there to take care of lights in the shed, some garden lighting (the little solar lights are just barely good enough for basic navigation and not much else), and operating the chipper or other outside tools.

To that end, we've been trying to get this roll of non-metallic conduit to relax and straighten out for the last few days. It's doing much better, but it's still really curly.

As the first stage of this wiring work, Noel ran an outlet to the back of the house and then we had a joyful hour of shredding trumpet vine trimmings from the brush pile. We managed to jam the thing a couple of times, mostly because yours truly is a bit impatient with the feeding of stuff. But this tiny pile of chippings was taking up half the brush pile, so I am quite satisfied. Later this week I will try shredding magnolia leaves from the front.

In other fall-like activity, I've been trying another method for killing Bermuda grass in back (where the dogs make Roundup inadvisable). Cardboard weighted down with chunks of concrete (of which we have plenty). I don't know how well it will work; I put plywood on Bermuda grass for three months back in Berkeley, and it kept growing underneath. One thing I've been thinking lately is that maybe I could spray it with Roundup, then cover it with cardboard to keep the dogs out, and see how well that works.

The neighbors on the East side and I have been cackling and chortling over our plans to take this wisteria to the ground this winter. At the same time, my Cecile Brunner rose is ready for its first big pruning. I think I may leave three large branches on it and take everything else off.

And speaking of pruning, I think the quince is large enough now. One of those leaders is coming off this winter.

Finally, I think the garden is ready for Halloween. The best part is that in order to take this picture I had to rip my Passiflora edulis 'Frederick' off this poor potted willow bush.

Technorati Tags: bermuda grass, gardening, pruning

posted by ayse on 10/10/06