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Joyce and Li’l r planted flowers in the containers underneath the black pine next to the front porch. That tree, which we bought in Garland after moving to Amarillo 13 years ago and brought home in the back floor board of our car, is now taller than the chimney. Some lower branches had taken over the rock bed underneath and needed trimming to open the bed up again for the flowers, both planting and growing. For some time I had entertained the notion of trimming some limbs but was hesitant to do so since once removed, limbs can’t be put back on. Now that I have finally done so, we are happy with the way the tree looks and have reclaimed the chimney liners and other planters underneath to plant annuals for a little color.
Speaking of color, many of the perennials in the front are yearlings or older and big enough to make a splash. Snapdragons next to the driveway have proliferated and come back as a colorful mass planting. We recently added a couple of columbines and geraniums among them because we just can’t help ourselves. The columbines we bought at our favorite drought-hardy specializing nursery in Canyon. We were there to get other things when Joyce saw them and figured she needed them. It was the Friday before Mother’s Day so who was I to deny her. And then there is the current practice of selling geraniums as school fundraisers so Joyce wound up with several she needed a place for and we stuck two among the snapdragons, salvia (two new specimens), columbine and Grady flowers, not to mention a number of bulbs planted a couple of years ago. The more the merrier, I guess. At least with them all in one place it makes it easier to water them.
Speaking of Grady flowers, we have a couple that are just about spectacular. One gave us a nice green bush about the size of a bushel basket over the winter and gone nuts with blooms with the warm weather. The Gradys do reseed themselves just as the snapdragons do, but they are not obnoxious about it. The one I just mentioned and another in another bed are both volunteers, saving the time, effort and shekels of purchasing and planting something. The species has wandered all over the front yard from the four or so Grady gave years ago from some he had started in his green house but so far they haven’t ventured beyond. Another indigenous wildflower called greenthread which hitchhiked on a little shrub I collected out on the Canadian maybe ten years ago and reseeded itself with several outside the fence along the street. They have pretty little yellow flowers and are lined up and spaced as though they had been intentionally planted.
When at the xeriscape nursery we bought four different specimens of milkweed and planted them where there had been gayfeather. There are still two nice gayfeathers in the landscape, both of which were volunteer offspring from one I transplanted from the pasture. You may recall last year my crying and moaning over having to plant and tend milkweed we started from seed Chris purchased. We must have planted over a dozen seedlings only to have them perish one by one. And last year was a very benign year for such, what with the rain and all. It doesn’t get much better. So far, though, the ones we bought seem to be hanging in. The hope is that they provide nourishment for butterflies and other winged creatures while adding variety to the xeriscape.
As all adults know, or should, sometimes what seems like a good idea just doesn’t work out. Several weeks ago I planted a post in the front yard and mounted our hummingbird feeder on it. I had read that hummers preferred open sky above them so they can see predators coming. A hummingbird did visit it some but so did the ants, the latter discouraging the former to some degree. Or there may be just to many flowers around for a hummer to be very interested in feeders. Whether that was the case or not, we decided we didn’t like the post or the ants so I removed the post and restored the feeder to its hanger in front of the kitchen window where it had been for several years. I saw a hummer visit and was gratified.