Autumn Garden: A Season of Review

I just finished watering my front and back yards. The front looks fine, lawn is still green and my various bushes and plants are thriving. That’s the good news.
The bad news? My back yard had a combination of hits and misses.
The hits:  Most of my roses (primarily hybrid tea) are standing strong (a few perished), [...]

Lantana Replaced with Wildflowers

That’s what I hope will be the result! Sadly, my lantana plants looked like they were stricken by some type of disease. To prevent potential risk for spread to surrounding plants, I removed the lantana. It’s a necessary part of routine garden maintenance.
In their place, I sprinkled wildflower seeds. I purchased a plastic bucket of seeds [...]

Trees as Weeds

I’m guessing this is a baby palm tree, but it was not planted by me. Likely, a seed was dropped by a bird and landed in the soil and began to germinate. In any case, these particular trees sometimes appear in various parts of my garden and even between cracks in my cement patio. Right now, [...]

Weeds: Update After Roundup Super Concentrate

I am happy to report that weeks after treating my weeds with Roundup Super Concentrate, the weeds are dead or dying.  As you can see in the photo below, this is the “field of gold” that I want to see after weed treatment! Click on the photo to see the detailed result.
My backyard is large, [...]

Backyard Cleanup and Design

Today was a beautiful afternoon for continuing with my backyard cleanup. Stubborn weeds were further treated with Roundup Super Concentrate. Overhanging tree branches from the neighbors behind me were trimmed. Leaves and other debris were raked and placed into the green waste bin.
With much of the garden maintenance stuff behind me, I now have a [...]

Weeds: Treatment with Roundup Super Concentrate

I bought Roundup Super Concentrate a few weekends ago and tried to use it last week. The instructions indicate to combine a small amount of the concentrated weed killer with one gallon of water. What could go wrong with that?
Well, I thought, Hey, I have an empty 1-gallon water container. Why not load that up [...]

Tree Saplings: Fit to Be Tied!

I just came in after tying green plastic ties around my four new fruit tree saplings, just as the winds started picking up! I had already placed wooden stakes up against each sapling last weekend but had not secured them with the gardening tape. I did not know that it was going to be gusty just one week later!
From my [...]

Rose Garden: Winter Maintenance

Tomorrow, I’ll be removing dead plant materials from my rose garden, as well as removing weeds. This may sound like a lot of work, but over time, it’s very routine and manageable. I completed the heavier work of hard pruning last month and new leaves, and even a few flowers, have emerged, thanks in part to [...]

Weeding, with Less Effort

Weeds, the bane of many gardeners’ existence (including mine). Yet I take pleasure in time-saving garden maintenance activities. Last week, we had several days of rain. The soil remained moist for several days after, making the soil quite loose, an ideal situation to easily remove weeds with my bare hands. I’ll be doing more of [...]

Dragon Tree: Branch Regeneration

I have one very mature dragon tree and a less mature one. Both have shown, expectedly, branch regeneration. Since my Spring tree trimming of the mature tree, I’ve been keeping an eye on the cut branches for any sign of new life. Well, there’s new life! Click on the far right photo to have a [...]