Why Mow?

Why Mow?

I really enjoyed this article, and I had forgotten that Nick in the Great Gatsby was one of the first anti-lawn protagonists.

There were a lot of things that stood out. One was this:

Lawns are nature purged of sex and death. No wonder Americans like them so much.

And this:

With our open-faced front lawns we declare our like-mindedness to our neighbors”“and our distance from the English, who surround their yards with “inhospitable brick wall, topped with broken bottles,” to thwart the envious gaze of the lower orders. The American lawn is an egalitarian conceit, implying that there is no reason to hide behind fence or hedge since we all occupy the same middle class.

Which cuts a little close to home, since my remaining lovely lawn is now hidden behind a fence where my children play. Feeling a little anti-American.

Finally moved the cone flowers out of the front bed. I have no idea what species theywere, but they’re like 5 feet tall and were out-competing everything else in the bed. I put them where I lost some boxwoods last year. Hopefully they’ll transplant and look nice hovering behind the hedgerow.

cone flowers looking sad

I also moved an ice plant and some bulbine sprouts from out front into the hellscape area in the back. This gets run over by Rhett the dog, and gets very little water or sunlight. We’ll see how they fare.

bulbine in cactus looking sad in sad flowerbed

bulbine in cactus looking sad in sad flowerbed

Oh and I got a wasp sting to the temple while I was testing out my soaker hoses. HULK SMASH!!!

Here are two weeds. Well they’re weeds in that I don’t know what they are. I’m letting them grow.

rock rose

Will I live to regret that decision?

???

More cactus blooms. I’ve been fighting a battle with spider grass right now, so nice blooms like these keep me weeding.

Also apparently a lot of squirrels took those nice unplanted mulched beds as a fantastic place for hiding pecans, if the number of seedlings is any indication.

hook cactus with yellow bloom, you should not plant these in the ground in Austin

On Saturday we went to the Austin Succulent Societies plant sale at the botanical garden. It was mostly to get some awesome house plants for Julie, but I did pick up two sedums. I have not had much luck with these in the past, but I’m hopeful this time.

sedum in granite

Yesterday was a lovely day for gardening. At lunch I pruned back the prickly pear that was threatening to eat visitors to our house and did a lot of weeding.

The rose pictures are just because. They’re doing fantastically this year.

red roses next to a twist-leaf yucca

red and white roses in front of a white brick wall

I can’t get enough of the blooms this year. And I love having cactus blooms. They have always been some of my favorites, and I’ve had cactus for nearly a decade and this is my first plant that bloomed.

yellow cactus blooms with fiery red centers

red lantana with green lantana leaves

pink, red, and white roses

Trimming the boxwood hedges is on of my least favorite tasks. But these paths bordered by hedges was one of the things that drew me to this house. I can still remember how much I would have loved to have these hedges to hide behind (and in) as a kid, and am preserving them for my kiddos.

boxwood hedges that lead to a seeming deadend

Two of these died last year and I’m having to bring the rest of them back. It’s always such a delicate dance. If you let them grow unfettered they’re nearly impossible to get back into shape, but if you trim too much they die.

boxwood hedges framing a diagonal path

Beautiful flowers on the prickly pear. 3 more opened this morning. Julie took this picture which explains the higher quality and better composition.

yellow prickly pear flowers