I was looking at the statistics for this blog today. It was interesting to see that someone had chosen to read my post from April 10, 2010 titled "I am the Scourge of Crabgrass, the Defender of the Iris". I reported there how I worked hard for months to remove all the crabgrass from a rectangular flower bed on the east side of my backyard: pulling weeds, spraying with crabgrass killer, pulling weeds again, spraying with Round-Up, and finishing with a pre-emergent crabgrass killer. It's been a year since I reported last, and that garden plot has no crabgrass in it now.
Two years ago, my husband and I began to work on the "no mans land" in our backyard. It was just a section in the southeast corner with nothing attractive planted there. Richard wanted to help make my dream about our backyard come true. It, literally, had been a dream of bowers of azaleas circling the yard. However, azaleas can't survive in the hot sun in Ontario, California. So we planted a camellia and five azaleas in the shade of a large bush, and four Our Lady of Guadeloupe roses beneath the palm trees. I added more paperwhite narcissus and daffodils in the original crabgrass-laden section, threw in some deep red geraniums and blue lobelia, and we finished up with alyssum and California poppies from seed.
It has been lovely to look at the yard this year. I'm just dealing with powdery mildew on the roses because of the recurring rains and shade from the blasted palm trees. However, temperatures over 90 degrees F will soon take care of mildew. My niece came over on Memorial Day and exclaimed, "Everything's blooming!"
Yes, everything that is supposed to bloom in May and June is blooming! There is no crabgrass in the flower bed on the east side of the backyard. The new plants we added are doing well. The three camellias (our first) have gone through their first summer and winter in good health, and the additional azaleas have all bloomed.Therefore, it is true that I can change some things.
So I have tried to derive some principles from this experience:
1. I have to keep working at things I want to change and be consistent in my work. Only attacking the crabgrass once or twice a year had no lasting effect. The weeds would come right back from their roots the next spring. I had to start working in November when the crabgrass was waining, and keep on top of it right through spring when the weeds would have come back again.
2. I have to know what I am dealing with. (Know your enemy.) What I plant has to be appropriate to the environment. Within my yard I have several little micro climates, and I need to know where they are. Our camellias are larger and greener than our neighbor's camellias because we made sure they are shaded by a fence, the house or a tall bush. Our new neighbors had planted two camellias in the middle of their front yard, which faces west. Their bushes are now covered with crunchy brown leaves. Actually, I'll need to look and see if they have any leaves left.
3. God can heal relationships. When my husband heard about my dream of a yard with bowers of blooming azaleas, he said, "We can make your dreams come true." I was moved that he would work on a project just to make me happy. It softened my heart toward my husband.
4. One success can inspire us to try a new one. Now I know I'll have few problems filling in the patch of land that is 18 inches by 5 feet outside the dining room window. My big new project is to put a planter in the front yard where there is none. I want to take the over-abundant plants from the side yard and add two of the roses from the backyard to create a curving planter in front of the house. The planter will have drought tolerant plants in it that will look better than the thinning grass. I estimate this will take two years! I will have to let you know how it goes.
Love,
Sharon
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