Jenni Found a Gun.

A dinosaur leg.........

And a broken metal star.......

in this years Big Dig. (for the vege garden)

Here is a reminder from last year.

Pecan Tree

April 28, 2009.

I know, I am slow.

I have been busy.

Newspapers Recycled in the Garden.

For the past 5 years or so, we have been recycling our old newspapers in the Vege Garden. I saw this once on a TV show and have been using this method for weed prevention in the rows successfully ever since.

The photo above shows where I placed the newspapers down in the garden late last fall. I raked backed the leaves to reveal only a tiny bit of newspaper that remains. (The grey blobs in the middle of the pic.) This spring, I had no weeds to remove in the area of the garden where I used the newspapers under the leaf mulch.

After removing any weeds and turning the soil in the garden, with my trusty, red with pink polka dotted pitch fork. ( Which is missing a prong.)

I begin to place the newspaper down in the rows of the garden. I have since read where they news paper should be at least 5 layers deep to work well. I never count, I just start placing newspaper down, overlapping the layers as I go down the row.

If it is windy, you could take the time to wet down the newspaper before placing in the garden to keep it from blowing away to your neighbors yard.

I sometime get distracted and read things I have missed in the newspaper.

Like the names of who is winning the March madness bracket contest in the local paper.

( FYI- My pics came in 5th overall in points. Not that I like watching basketball on TV, the squeaking of the shoes gets on my nerves.)

I continue down the row, and realize it is a little crooked. That will not matter once all the veges begin to grow.

Oh....The red with pink polka dotted pitch fork? I bet you are wondering......

You see sometimes my husband uses our garden tools at his work sites. In the past, these tools have been lost, forever gone. This made me very angry, until I was painting and had left over paint and thought our garden tool handles needed painting, then thought that if I painted the garden tool handles, girly like... A man would not bring them to his work site and if he did, no other man would even think of "borrowing" such girly looking tools. So far, so good. It has worked.

I then start placing the mulch on top of the newspapers. In the past I have used pinestraw and leaves as mulch. We did not have enough leaves this year to use as mulch and we do not have a big pine trees at this house, so we had to buy (shudder) mulch. (gulp) Chris suggested wheat straw. We will see how that goes. I hate having to buy what so many people place out by the curb. I want to be the weird lady who goes around collecting other peoples leaves. The piles of leaves they place out by the street for the city to pick up and place in a land fill. People use your leaves as mulch.

Anyway...
I place the straw, haw, leaves, pinestraw, mulch on top of the newspapers.

Then I remember, I found a magnifying glass in the garden and placed it on top of the straw.
Probably not a good idea. Fires start that way. oops. Luckily, I do not know about that first hand, I just saw where that happened once on Little House on the Prairie. I was 7.

I keep going until I finish the entire garden. Or at least a good stopping point.



Then I plant my little plants.

Eggplant.



Squash.

( I also have planted okra and tomatoes.)

The newspapers will allow water to seep through while aiding in keeping weeds out of the garden making our life easier in a few months.

These newspapers are also being recycled in our yard. Not being transported to a recycling center or being placed in a landfill.

Life is good.

Now... to figure out how to pick up the neighbors leaves by the curb next fall with out being the crazy leaf collecting lady.

hummm.

Wishing our planet a
HAPPY EARTH DAY!

I did not find the Prize Egg.

Or the golden egg.

I did find these eggs.

Or pieces of eggs.

I kept finding these in the Kudzu Jungle when we were trying to clean all the brush away.

As kids, we had to find all the eggs. There was no stopping the hunt until each and every egg was found.

I hope each of you had a wonderful Easter.

Taming of the Kudzu Jungle

Yard Work: Oh........ my aching arms.

For the past few weekends, when it was not raining, we have been hacking away at the privet that supports mounds of Kudzu in the back yard.

April 2008. The dead Opossum Tree is to the right.

April 2009. The Opossum Tree is to the left. Since this pic, I cleared that bit of privet to the right.

A view from the opposite direction.

April 2008.

April 2008. ( You can see where the privet is kinda dead from spraying)

April 2009. Look there is a fence. Cleared by hacking away at the privet with loppers and pulling leafless Kudzu vines.

We have gained a lot of ground in the Kudzu Jungle over the past couple of years. When we first moved in Kudzu covered at least 1/3 of the back yard.

Taken: Day 1@ ThirteenEleven. ( PO's stuff on dangerous deck.)


Each year we gain a little ground. Each year the Kudzu gains a little back. The best fighting time is now, before the Kudzu sprouts and begins the summer sprint. Then it grows a foot a day. If you only have weekends to fight the Kudzu, that gives the enemy 6 days to grow 6 feet. YIKES.

We have got to hurry.

I see little sprouts.

Pretty & Ugly

The Pretty.




Finally there is a hint of spring in the air. Yay!




The UGLY.




Yep. That area on the side of the house that I have been watching, the paint has totally chipped away from the house.

I don't want to think about the paint so lets look at the flower a little more.

Let's think about sunshine and spring.

NOT paint. Nasty white paint flaking away from the side of our bungalow.

Paint chipping away where it needs to stay, for at least a little longer.

It is really strange the way it is separating from the house. Almost like it is getting wet. However, there is no moisture here. I checked and double checked. No leaky roofs. I even checked out this area one day when it was raining, and made Chris check, too.

Ideas, thoughts, suggestions. ???

Our should we all just look at flowers?

A Ray of Sunshine.

I smelled it first.



From across the Kudzu Jungle, the light breeze carried the sweet parfume my way.



I needed a break from the hacking and loping away I had to find what plant the fragrance was coming from.

" It is the second week in January," I thought.

"What in the world could be blooming?"



I wandered about looking for color.

There it was like a ray of sunshine.






The bees found the Leatherleaf Mohonia blooming, too.





Later that night, I opened Southern Living to find this... CLICK.


But.....
Since it is sub-artic-ish for way down South today. I guess they are frozen.

Full Moons and Black Cats....

The full Harvest Moon from a couple of weeks ago lit up the Kudzu Jungle.

Which was about the same time our little house guest appeared for the first time on the front porch.

He/She now visits often.

Those amber eyes are about the same color as that Harvest Moon.......hummmmmm.....

Sweet Autumn

Sitting at the kitchen table, sipping my morning latte, I glance out the large un-craftsman style picture window that views across the back yard and beyond to the kudzu jungle.

While I prepare my morning coffee, Puppy is already busy with his daily work, patrolling the grounds. Each morning, he sniffs along the chain linked borders of the back yard. Making sure the grounds are safe from unwelcome guests. He did this at our old house. Patrolled the grounds. There, in the country, I assume he was keeping the grounds free from deer, fox, raccoons, beavers, and rabbits. Here in town, I guess, he is keeping the grounds free from cats.

I always keep one eye on Puppy while drinking my coffee. Usually he is good about coming straight to the back door when he finishes his rounds, but on occasion, since the back gate post broke in half, he follows his nose to the front of ThirteenEleven.

I see him sniffing around a mound of pea green kudzu. Then I notice the white dappled glow to the right of our mutt. Was it the sun beaming brightly through the pecan tree canopy above? I look up. No. The sun is not high enough in the sky. Hum…….I wonder if something is blooming.

I finish up my coffee, slip into my flip flops, grab the camera, remember to install the battery fresh from the charger and venture out to the kudzu jungle. (The back yard)

A dainty white flower is blooming on a vine. (Another vine, for this vine engulfed yard.) It is pretty, and I seem to recognize the type of flower, but I just can’t place it or pull up the name from the memory bank in my mind. I take a picture and go about my daily business.

Chris brings home the AJC every evening when he arrives home. Typically I go straight for the living and food sections. There in the paper I see it, the same plant in my back yard.

Clematis Terniflora, Sweet Autumn or Virgin’s Bower.

Along with Kudzu, Ivy, and Wisteria (all residences of ThirteenEleven) , it is an invasive plant.

Great !! Oh Joy!!

Quoting Martha Tate, “It depends on your perspective, but Clematis terniflora, which produces clusters of white starburst flowers on twining stems, can be either good or evil. The vine is on a list of invasive plants for the Southeast, and on several global lists as well. On the other hand, it is a favorite of many gardeners, who prize the charming mass of white flowers it produces each August.”

Chris mowed it down.

Two years and counting....

Two years ago this we closed on the house and began working Labor Day weekend.

Take a look at Day One Pics... Nasty!!!

Last year, Labor Day weekend we moved into the house.

This weekend marks our first year living in this ol' bungalow.

Here is a view of the original Kudzu Jungle.

I sold the furniture at a yard sale and the deck was torn down before it fell down.

The kudzu is covering half the crape myrtle and over half of the back yard.

In that pot on the table was something very gross. I am not sure what it was....

Kudzu Jungle in pics...

I know I have typed of the Kudzu Jungle many times. But...... I couldn't find where I showed it to you.

This picture is from last year. After one year of treatments. Pulling, chopping, and poisioning the vine.

The following pictures are from earlier this summer.

In the center of the trees is Chris's spring burn pile.

To the left is the Possum Tree.




So folks..........there it is.......The Kudzu Jungle.