Plant Postmortem

I got out in the backyard again today. Mostly, I cut vines off my golden lead-ball tree and big desert willow so the pepper-vine doesn't strangle it like it did my butterfly bush. I cut down a few dead plants. Started thinking about putting veggies into our 4x8 bed, since it is time for seed planting. I dug out some of the ollas in it so I can eventually turn the soil over. The oregano went nutty and is taking over half the bed. I also have to pull up all the weeds growing the bed to plant it. I'm thinking it will be mostly salad greens since I can't have brassicas since they give my baby gas. I'm not planning on watering even the ollas, so whatever grows, grows. I have lots of leftover seeds so I'm not too concerned.

I also dealt with our trash can of compost which I hadn't been taking care of it had almost years worth of decomposed bits which if I had a chemistry set would probably tell me all the nutrients are in the wrong proportion to actually be good on any plants. I've dumped the smelly stuff onto one of the tree composting piles. I've lost a few more plants that I planted the first year in the house, but the plants that are thriving are really thriving.  I pleased that quite a few of these perennials that are now dead at least lasted for 2 seasons of blooming before biting the dust.

My pineapple guava died, as did my butterfly bush, daleas,  hops bush, yellow-bells, non-native golden thryallis, wax myrtle, duranta erecta, flame acanthus, barbadoes cherry, pigeon berry, piquin pepper, american beauty berry, all the vines I bought except for the dragonsnap vines. It seemed like the coral honeysuckle was doing well for a long time but it also died recently. I won't be replacing any of these and I'm putting them down on my scorecard as not good in my yard are requiring too much care.

One the other hand, the rock roses (planted 4, 2 different kinds), climbing rose, alligator juniper, mountain laurel, dessert willows, golden lead-ball tree, common bluebeard, purple skullcap, mexican marigold and almost all of the sages are doing well. My monterrey oak in the front yard is also really thriving.

The gregg's mist flower is barely hanging in there as are the calylophus (which had been one of the most prolific bloomer up 'till recently), golden skeltoneye, damianita,  hymenoxys, native golden thryallis (the non-native died), spice bush.

For the most part more plants that I bought survived than died. I can't really afford to spend much on gardening this year and am realizing I spent way too much on plants last-year. I'm really glad I eventual moved to only buying the cheap 2in plants from the Barton Spring's nursery.  If I do get anymore plants I'm only buying ones that have already thrived in the backyard like the sages and rock rose, but I want to continue to monitor what worked and what didn't before purchasing any other plants. Especially since I'm thinking I may transplant quite a few in order to make room for creating a playground for Kiddo. I'm leaning toward a natural playground which incorporates play areas using natural elements like a sand box surrounded by rocks, boulders, tree stumps,  pathways made with wood or other natural elements...

I had planned on fruit trees, but now I'm thinking they require too much care...

After I get the backyard in a manageable cleaned up state, I will figure what needs to be moved and start making playground plans. I just need to remember that pea gravel and some other elements can be had free on craigslist.

Thoughts on my Garden

I've been taking my kiddo on walks around the backyard in the morning. Looking around I'm reevaluating my garden plans that I implemented last year. It could be that being a mom is really changing how I think about things or just that I have a really finite amount of time available or it could be that all the ligustrum and other trash trees as well as the poison oak have grown back after all I did to eradicate them. I also have a bumper crop of weeds, grassy ones that have grown over everything even my raised beds. Part of me really wants a nice garden with beautiful plants that is really planned out and part of me wonders if we were meant to struggle with nature this way? Do I really want to play tug-of-war with these plants or can I find a way to live comfortably with them? I have a really limited amount of time in the backyard, so I have to maximize the time I do spend and really evaluate my family's needs. As much as I wanted a place and space for myself in the backyard and just to have something beautiful to admire at one time, now I look at it and wonder where is space for my kiddo to play back here?

I'm thinking now what do I want to save and what is not worth saving? What died after only a year? Granted it was a nice year, but still I was planning for long-term. Can I say that my garden experiment failed or should I say it succeeded beyond my expectations, but my wants/needs have changed.

Part of me wishes, now that I am out of time that I could just tell someone else what I want and say go at it, but then again the best part of gardening is losing myself in the work.