Serious patio clean up today

[sunshine]

I dug out tired and ugly annuals from my plant  pots, transplanted some, tossed some and just lessened the number of pots.  I went to Lowe's hiping to just put in some new ones and all they have is lantana type. Not crazy about those.

[takncarabizniz]

All I will manage this morning is to do the watering.  Takes about 2 hours toting the hoses around and getting to all the new plantings.  I need to move one entire garden as there is an old hawthorn tree that keeps sprouting and I can't get it dug out with all the plants in the way.  I mistakenly thought cutting all the way around it, painting it with stain would prevent sprouting...those suckers are relentless...so, time to move the good plants and let that corner be stump ground...oh well, live and learn.

[sunshine]

Have you tried spraying the sprouts with Round Up for Poison Ivy and Brush? Works for me on little trees.

[takncarabizniz]

Yes, but with all the other good plants around, I try to keep the chemicals from killing them off as well.
We just had a young man (local guy with a young family just trying to earn extra cash) come out and remove all the blackberry and salmonberry from one corner that was in rough shape.  The water company had to come out in January to rescue 3 water meter vaults that were under water.  They rocked and raised the vaults but left a huge mess.  We didn't even know about since that was when hubby was not doing well, and it wasn't until March or April that we even ventured out and chatted with the neighbors who told us what happened.  Talked to the water company and let them know I wasn't happy about the mess, but there was nothing we could do, since technically the vaults are in the right of way.  So, clean up was on us. 

It looks so much better now and I plan to use some coir mat to hold back the weeds and stop erosion...another project to add to the list, LOL.

I just sprayed ground control out there yesterday to kill off all the stuff growing through the rocks...ugh, went through 3 gallons and still need more.

[emilyB]

I dead headed all the rose bushes and fed all my plants with Miracle Gro.  Also pulled all the dead annuals out of the pots and cleared out more day lilies that had multiplied and taken over other plants.  About 11.30 am I felt like I was getting heat stroke, so I quit and went in the house.  It was already 90 degrees out there and it seems like this heat wave is never going to stop.