Pretty Things To Look At

I'll be the first to admit:  I'm not a flower guy.  We overwhelmingly plant things that we can eat.  I take that back - I primarily plant edible things.  Tricia plants flowering plants.  As I walk around in the yard on a nice spring day before it gets too hot, I begin to take in the pretty view.  First thing I notice is one of our many azalea bushes.  Most of the others' blooms have long since faded.  Azaleas are short lived.  They explode in awesome blooms and then just like that, they are gone.  There is one bush that has some nice azalea blooms on it:

I call this one our "watermelon" azalea.  The black anther of the flower and the reddish color of the bloom remind me of what it looks like to cut open a cold Charleston Gray on a hot summer's day.  I think of cutting pieces off of the wedge of watermelon with a butter knife, sprinkling salt on the melon with a salt shaker, and then popping the cold, sweet watermelon in my mouth.  

As i continue to walk, there is a blanket of white Dutch clover covering most of the backyard.  It's nearing the end now, as the days warm to the upper 80's already, but the honeybees are still doing their job on the clover as you can see by the busy bee in the direct center of the photo below.

Speaking of clover, I planted a couple of pounds of Crimson clover in the backyard for the bees.  It's starting to bloom all over.  I'll try to get some photos of all of the crimson blooms.  It's really a sight to see.  I certainly hope the crimson clover seeds and comes up again next year and the years following.

Finally, the first of the Louisiana iris bloomed this morning.  What a regal flower!  As with the crimson clover, I'll share more photos when all the Louisiana iris is in bloom.

Again, I'm not a flower guy, but those flowers I noticed inspired me to stop and take notice of the truly beautiful things around me that I might otherwise ignore.  I hope you have an enjoyable day, taking in and savoring the things of beauty that surround you in your life!

Up By the Road Ditch

Up by the road ditch in the front yard is a huge azalea bush.  In recent years, we've planted a baby's breath bush beside it for the white color to contrast against the hot pink.  It's in full bloom right now.  Actually, it's a good thing I got a photo of it when I did because we had a 2 inch downpour of rain today and most of the flowers are faded and torn up.  Glad I got a photo of the azalea in all its glory.  This azalea is one that we moved from my grandmother's house in Kinder.  I like planting things that have a story or some history.  That way when we walk around the yard, the sights spur fond memories.  The azalea is happy and is flourishing.  We planted in to anchor the western side of our yard.  It's doing a nice job.

Something that is not doing a nice job is the parish crew that is in charge of the ditches.  They pass by in a truck and spray Round-up in the ditch.  This variety of roundup kills everything buy Bermuda grass.  I can see why they do it.  It keeps the ditches clean so that water flows easily through it.  It also reduces the amount of time that they have to pass by with a tractor and cut the grass.

There's one problem, however.  They consistently over-shoot the ditch and spray Round-up 3 feet onto my property.  I'll show why that's a problem in a minute.  To combat this, I ordered some plastic corrugated signs and made some homemade placards to kindly and diplomatically request no spray on the ditch in front of our yard/pasture.  I have the similar message on the back side in the event they spray coming from the other direction.

Here's the issue and my grievance with the herbicide.  Roundup kills the grass down to the dirt.  This makes their job easier, BUT barren soil with no grass and no root structure holding it together creates an erosion problem.  You can see below how my topsoil on my property is eroding into the ditch.  Topsoil that should be growing grass now is slowly filling the ditch.  At some point the ditch will have so much of my soil in it that it won't properly drain.  Then they'll come with a track-hoe and a dump truck and scoop up my top soil and carry it away.

Erosion!

The downside of "No Spray" is that I'll have to take responsibility for keeping the ditch clean.  You can see in the photo below that I used a string trimmer to weed-eat the entire ditch.  It is not a terrible job to do this, but it's not a job I prefer doing.  The thing I thought about is the job will become a terrible job in August when the temperature approaches 100 and the humidity level approaches 100% as well!

I don't know.  We'll discuss this again in August.  It may make me re-think my position on "No Spray."

A Springtime Stroll

This post will be short on commentary.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves for the most part.  Spring is very, very short in South Louisiana.  It changes from cold (cold for us, anyway), too cool (for a brief time), to hitting 80 degrees by 8 a.m. in just a few weeks.  We enjoy it while we can.  The April showers do indeed, bring May flowers.

Here you can see a bloom that is about to unfurl...

Here is that flower in all it's glory - the Louisiana Iris.  I love the colors!

They bloom like crazy for a while, but the greenery remains.  About 19 years ago, I spotted a clump of these growing in a ditch at the farm across from the big irrigation well.  I got my shovel and dug a sampling of the irises and planted them in a low spot in our yard where the rainwater generally keeps the soil moist.  The Louisiana Iris has thrived in this spot and has multiplied.

This amaryllis is happy and sports four large, red flowers.  We have these planted in some beds around the house, but this one always looks so nice in the terra cotta pot.

A close-up:

This bright pink azalea is one that came from my grandmother's house in Kinder, where Tricia and I lived.  We have it planted up by the road in front.  It is so happy in this location.  It blooms and blooms and blooms.  We've taken many pictures in front of it over the years and it reminds me of my grandmother.

A close-up:

Pretty in Pink

As I always say, flowers are nice to look at, but I like growing things to eat, so I'll leave you with this.  I mentioned to Tricia that I was concerned that our sweet potato harvest was too thorough this year.  I was worried we weren't going to have any sweet potatoes this year.

You see, many years ago, we composted a sweet potato in the garden after a meal, and a sweet potato vine grew and produced.  The same thing the next year.  And the next.  We have never planted any sweet potatoes in the garden since that initial, accidental planting, and each each we harvest a bunch of nice sweet potatoes.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that over the past ten years, we've probably harvested almost 1,000 pounds of sweet potatoes.

The original variety was the Beauregard, but since then, we've added some experimental varieties being grown by LSU as well as an Heirloom variety from Tennessee called the "Golden Wonder."  The harvest of sweet potatoes the following year is contingent upon not harvesting them all.  If you leave a piece of a sweet potato root in the ground, it will inevitably grow the next spring.  Well, I've not seen any sweet potato vines growing.  Until the other day!  Here is a healthy "slip" right here:

Since I saw this one, at least 7 others have popped up.  By mid summer, a quarter of the garden will be covered in these vines.  We will once again have a nice sweet potato harvest this fall if the Good Lord's willing.

Flowers Of Mid-March

So, we're always encouraged to slow down and take notice of the simple things in life.  This weekend I did just that.  While letting the cows eat the grass in the yard, I strolled around and took in the sights of spring.  For starters the pear tree was loaded with blooms:

Pretty?  Maybe.  But these flowers are as useful as teats on a boar hog.  These flowers are from a Bradford Pear and they make no fruit.  I got this tree free from an Arbor Day promotion.  It was just a little stick of a plant.  It has thrived and grown tall.  It is pretty in the spring when it blooms and it the fall when the leaves turn colors.  I am told, however, it only has a 25 year lifespan and that it is structurally unsound and will split and fall in high winds.  Uh oh!

The next photo is of a fruit tree that bears fruit and lots of it.  The blooms below are from one of our navel orange trees.  It produced so much fruit this year!  We began picking oranges in November and we just ate the last one!

These flowers fill the morning breeze with the sweetest smell south of heaven.  We REALLY enjoy the fragrance.  We're not the only ones.  A beneficial insect, the lady bug, also enjoys the flowers.  Even though the flowers are white, they are still pretty to me.

From a white flower to a flower that really "pops!"  Our azalea in the front yard.

This azalea was at my grandmother's house and I rescued it and replanted it in our front yard.  It rewards us each year with beautiful blooms that cover the shrub and light up the yard.  They bring back fond memories of my grandma too!

Beautiful!

The next flowers aren't really flowers that you think of, but they are pretty nonetheless.  The yellow flowers you see below nestled by the cabbage patch are broccoli flowers that have flowered and will be going to seed. 

Here's an up-close and personal shot.  You can see the transformation from a broccoli floret into a flower.

From something in the garden that is used to feed, to something in the yard that is a weed!  That's how I'd describe the odd but beautiful thing below.  It is a thistle.  These prickly things grow in the yard this time a year.  I have read that they have great health benefits and thistle is taken as a supplement to detoxify the liver and to manage the symptoms of diabetes, among many others.  Who knew that such benefits could be found from a 'weed' that I typically kick over in the yard or ditch when I see it?

I also learned from researching the milk thistle that the hollow stem can be eaten.  Its taste has been described as similar to celery.  I'm going to try preparing one and giving it a taste test,  I'll report back my findings later...

Observances from a Spring Walk

Mrs. Bennet, with great civility, begged her ladyship to take some refreshment; but Lady Catherine very resolutely, and not very politely, declined eating any thing; and then, rising up, said to Elizabeth,
"Miss Bennet, there seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn. I should be glad to take a turn in it, if you will favour me with your company."
"Go, my dear," cried her mother, "and shew her ladyship about the different walks. I think she will be pleased with the hermitage."  - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Tricia loves books by Jane Austen and got introduced to the phrase, "take a turn" in the yard from the dialogue from Pride and Prejudice quoted above.  Taking a turn simply means to go out and take a leisurely stroll, enjoying the weather and scenery. We like to do that now.  Sometimes she'll ask, in her best English accent, if I'd like to go take a turn in the yard.  I'll always oblige the Lady.

So let's take a virtual 'turn' to see what's going on in our garden and yard.  First, many old timers will tell you that it is not Spring until the pecan trees have begun to put on leaves.  They're typically the last trees in our area to put out leaves. Well, it is officially Spring!  The pecan trees in the yard are putting out their leaves, signalling the arrival of Spring.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Spring has arrived!

Thanks to a load of composted chicken manure mixed with old wood shavings that was given to me and subsequently incorporated into the raised bed where I planted our potatoes almost a month ago, we have the most healthy potato crop we have ever had.  Just look at them grow!  Now, we don't want to count our chickens before they hatch.  With potatoes, it's what's under the ground that counts, not what's on top. But it certainly looks like a great start.

Here's an up close photo of a potato plant about to bloom.  When the potato plant blooms, it is a signal that tubers are forming.

Potatoes about to flower

The sugar snap peas are extending their tendrils and attaching themselves to the cattle panel that I have for them to grow on.  I did see one flower already which is good news.  Sugar snap peas do best in cooler weather, so they need to produce quickly as South Louisiana is not known for having a lengthy Spring.

Sugar Snap pea tendrils

This photo highlights the tendril, reaching out looking for the next thing on which to grab as it climbs upward.

Reaching out for something to hold onto

This is a weed that grows in the garden right next to our garlic chives.  I looked it up on the Internet and learned that it is called the Oxalis or Pink Flowering Shamrock or wood sorrel.  Although a "weed," it is pretty in the garden and this weed won't get pulled up.

Something pretty that came up on its own

As we move out of the garden and around the yard on the east side, you can see that the little peaches are already forming and have peach fuzz on them.  I hope this fella ends up in a warm cobbler with homemade ice cream on top!

Peach fuzz

Moving along, we come to the azaleas whose fuschia blooms light up the neighborhood.  This particular bush was at my grandmother's house.  We transplanted it in our yard and it seems to be very happy in its new location 30 miles south of Kinder.  If you look closely, you can see the barn and one of the cows in the background.

Azalea

How can one be depressed when standing next to this bush?  It is so bright and happy and cheerful that you'd have to really try hard to be melancholy in front of this plant.

Pretty in Pink

This is probably a good place to end our walk as the sun goes down and the setting sun sends out its last rays of light through the red leaves that the Japanese Maple is putting out.

Filtered light through the Japanese Maple

You don't have to be a Romantic or a fan of Jane Austen to enjoy "taking a turn" about the yard.  Anyone who appreciates just slowing down the pace and relishing the Great Outdoors and appreciating the sights, sounds, and smells of nature that we all overlook from time to time can do it.  Take hold of the opportunity that awaits you right outside your back door.