Artillery Weed

Stunning amounts of rain fell today. There was a couple of rumbling thunderheads too.
I am so glad we cut down 18 fir trees last year.

Limbs will keep falling from the remaining fir trees but, happily, we will not be buying the neighbor a new roof.
We left the trees down by the runway - if they ever started to fall, they would do so into open space.
And since, they were planted as Christmas trees, they will eventually fall.
Meanwhile, in spite of the torrential rains, look at my flowers persevering.

 

My Favorite Christmas Cheer Rhodies sill going strong.

Some Rock Tulips springing early.
The thin stems are from some dwarf iris's which are already mostly gone.

Some tiny Narcissus - heads down low with the weight of the rain.

ARTILLERY WEED!!!      ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!
Yes, the population explosion of artillery weed is stunning. You need to weed them before the flowers turn to seed. IF YOU WAIT! the seedheads explode into your eyes and everywhere else.
What kills me every year is the fact that these artillery weeds are easy to pull. Yet, I procrastinate and allow them to become OUT-OF-CONTROL and then I hate them with a vengeance as they POP into your eyeballs and other crevices. 

Redesigning 200 feet of a Flower Bed

I think I have my head wrapped around redesigning my long planting bed.

I have two of my garden-mindful neighbors plotting a list of trees. We are going to start with which trees to put in place and then move to the taller shrubs and then the perennials and annuals, ground-covers and et ceteras.

Above photo Before 

and to the right - the aftermath.
I think the loggers did a bang-up job.
They managed to keep what they could.
Even though the star magnolia is decimated - it was a white star magnolia SOLD as a pink star magnolia. This time around - I am making sure it is pink.
The small tree near center (by red tulips) is a Kousa (chinese) Dogwood. Just coming on to bloom.

Wood piled where the swing set used to hang out.

Plants near the front of the border are kinda okay. Hopefully we'll get some April showers to help with the stress of serious pruning AND seeing sunlight.

If I keep the viewfinder away from the left - I seem to be doing okay.

It's rather nice to contemplate a serious restructuring of this planting bed. No hurries - except for choosing the tall trees.

Leaning Fir Trees

We had a little leaning problem this winter.

We wanted to take these fir trees out 20 yrs. ago when we built here. The neighbors on this side begged us to keep them as a windbreak. Fast forward 15 yrs. Now these neighbors want some SUN.

Meanwhile,  while we would love to force those neighbors to remodel, we could never get a straight answer out of our insurance guy.

These trees were planted as part of a Christmas tree hobby farm and are too closely planted, so we decided - with the help of the leaner - to take most of them out.

While I dislike losing the hummingbird and owl habitat, we did keep some and we will replant some big trees.

View away from house - towards runway. We are keeping these trees. 

One minute later. Different light settings. Aren't those varigated iris's stunning? Saved.

Back towards the house. See the neighbors garage?

Really, nothing good to say here.

El Leano lopped off - ready to go (all the way down) for tomorrow. 

View from my kitchen window.

The tree on the left was nearly uprooted.

It's too early to say which plants got decapitated  and will regrow.  And, which plants just need to be tamped back down.

The hynoki cypress (9') to the right of the twin towers got totally annihilated.

Definite plan to plant something tall to hide that view.

* Reestablish the owl and hummingbird habitat. 

*Get some shade going on some of this long established shady bed.